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The Scottish nation; or, The
surnames, famihes, hterature,
William Anderson
Qj^
f
Iny^emory of
STEPHEN SPAULDING
wmm
fQO/ - ntS
IAS- ^ -
H^
CLASS ^ iy»'7
UNIVERSITY orMICHiGAN j
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R OBKH T B IM^ N S
{PxDoU^'H
M'TUI
■ ri \ ■ [■■•'' n •. K
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THE
SCOTTISH NATION;
OR THE
SURNAMES, FAMILIES, LITERATURE, HONOURS,
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
PEOPLE OF SCOTLAND.
BY
WILLIAM ANDERSON,
ACTBOK 07 Un. AMD BDITOK Of WOBK8, OF LOKD fiTlU>H, StC, &Q.
VOL. L
ABE-CUB.
A. FULLARTON & CO.,
44 BOUTH BRIDGE, EDINBURGH; AND
116 NEWGATE STREET, LONDON.
1867.
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■ir
V.I
EDINBURGH:
PULLAIITON AND MACKAB, l■ul^TluU8, UflTQ WALK.
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-&^.
PREFACE.
The work which is now presented to the world assumes, by its compre-
hensively national title, that the various and diversified information it
contains is so illustrative of the Scottish nation, and of the origin and
constitution of modem Scottish society, as to justify the adoption for it
of a designation so conspicuous. Of any other country, it is true, an ac-
count of its surnames, families, and honours, would cast little or no light
over the constitution of the society existing therein. Such an account
would probably tell next to nothing of the earlier races out of which
society was formed, because, in the case of any other nation, whatever
might elsewhere be found to illustrate that part of its history, few indica-
tions in the names now borne by individuals or families, or in its titles of
honour, will be found to mark the tribes or institutions whence they
sprung, or to be otherwise identified with the commencement of its
national unity. This is a result to be found in Scotland alone ; not
uniformly, indeed, nor always without admixture of doubt, but certainly
in a greater degree than in any other kingdom or state.
Modem Scottish society, and Scottish nationality in its proper sense,
may be said to have come into existence together. Hereditary monarchy,
hereditary surnames, families, and honours, hithei-to imknown among its
peoples, were their commoil instruments for consolidation, for conserva-
tion, and for progress. To the Cumbrian, the Pict, the Scot, Norwegian,
Dane, or Saxon, who, at various times and in various degrees, were spread
over its soil, these distinctions were exceptional and comparatively un-
known.
In the early part of the twelfth century, the greater part of the country
now constituting Scotland was in a state little better than that of chaos,
and worse than that of anarchy. A contemporary document of a solemn
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IV
PREFACE.
character describes the southern portion (and it may be held as equally
true of the northern) as having till then been occupied rather than in-
liabited " by diverse tribes of diverse nations coming from diverse parts;
of dissimilar language, features, and modes of living, not easily able to
liold converse among themselves, practically Pagans rather than Christ-
ians, living more like iiTational animals than as worthy of the name of a
people,"** and even deducting from this picture for the exaggerations of
a Churchman, enough remains to confirm tlie foregoing remark. The
arrival of a new people of polished manners, military discipline, and
Christian zeal, by giving new institutions and, for a time, a new language
to this incongruous mass, created a nation and a nationality, yet without
a so-called revolution or even a change of dynasty. The new race,
whose presence was so beneficially felt in Scotland, came through Eng-
land, yet were not of it. They were the Normans, — a people of the
same original stock as many of the tribes above referred to, but refined
and instructed by familiarity with the institutions of the South.
This new order of things, however, might have attained to , no per-
manence, or even if permanent, to no historic significance — at least in
the sense which our title assumes — had not the silent but ceaseless immi-
gration of the new race continued vrithout interruption for nearly two
centuries, in the course of which they identified their fortunes with those
of a dynasty which, although sprung from an elder settlement of the
population, was led by sympathy, education, and the necessities of
their position, to cherish, enrich, and lean upon this new people for
tlie preservation of their crown and prerogatives, and to cement their
union by numerous family alliances. A revolution, which placed first
one and then another family of the new race upon the throne of Scot-
hmd, completed the solidarity of the social tlnion of races in Scotland,
while it prevented fresh admixtures of foreign blood ; and lastly and
chiefly the practice of bestowing hereditary surnames and honours, and
of holding all lands from the Crown, which obtained generally throughout
♦ Diversae tribus, diverwinim nacionuni, ex diversis partibus affluentes, regionem prefatum habita-
verunt. Sed dispari gente et dissimidi lingu4, et varia more viventes, haut facile (inter) sese consen-
cientes, gentilitatem potiuB quam iidei cnltum tenuerunt. Quos infeliccs et damoate habitacionis,
habitatores, more pecudum irrationabiliter degentes, digiiatus est Dorniims, . . . vii<itare. —
TnquisiU&n by David Prince of Cumbria (circa 1116).
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1 I
I !■
i 'I
I
I I
PREFACE.
this peiiod, and found a permanent and faithful record in charters and
other public deeds, many of which are still in existence, insured to Scot-
land the integrity and continuity of its social annals.
The surnames traceable to immigrant Norman chiefs, or to the lands
bestowed upon their retainers, constitute by far the greater portion of those
peculiar and pertaining to vast numbers of individuals forming modem
Scottish society. Under those derived from lands, not a few Danish and
Norwegian names are to be foimd, which, in like manner as those of Celtic
and Norman origin referring to personal or local distinctives, are to be re-
cognised by their composition ; yet, while of this latter class, even in the
remote North we find in the names Fraser, Grant, Cameron, and others,
undeniable proofs, notwithstanding their present use of the Celtic tongue,
I !! of a Norman or French immigration, the composition of the southern
j !l population is singularly manifested when the distinctive of an individual
j I ; of the more ancient lineage is there^as in the case of a Fleming or an Inglis,
i 1 1 expressed by the simple name of Scott. An account of the origin or of the
original holdei-s of these surnames of the forefathers of tlie present Scot-
tish people, cannot fail to be highly interesting to all classes at the
present day.
But, a mere explanation of the origin o{ surnames alone would lack com-
pleteness unless accompanied with some account of the families by which
they were borne,— of the distribution of those families over the country, —
of their subdivision into new families, — and of the distinguished individ-
uals who sustained their reputation and promoted their influence: and such
an account it is one of the objects of this Work to supply. * The Scottish
Nation' professes to present the succession, the affiliations and alliances,
and the leading incidents in the history of the families whose sur-
names have obtained distinction and influence throughout Scotland since
the reign of Malcolm Canmore.
The ancient baronies of Scotland, associated as they were with heredi-
tary jurisdictions only short of regal, had all a significancy in that country
unequalled in any others where the feudal regime obtained. The holders
of these honours were regarded as heads of its name as well as of their
vassals ; and to promote the honour of the one as well as the welfare of
j i
I I
ii
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VI PREFACE.
the other was their business and their strength. An account of these
hxmours is an account of the territorial supremacy of a name and of a
family, among the members of which the lands under the jurisdiction
of their heads were in course of time parcelled out.
A history of Scottish titles is a necessary supplement to that of families,
and a key to many of the social and political incidents in that kingdom
as well as in the history and fortunes of its families. Such a history forms,
therefore, another and it is hoped a valuable topic of the present Work.
Immeasurably beyond all these social facts in importance, although
greatly illustrated by the lights they furnish, the biographies of its dis-
tinguished natives become, when properly treated, the topic which illus-
trates and shows foii-h in its strength and peculiarities * The Scottish
Nation.' The poorest country in Europe, occupied by a hardy race trained
to military exercises, struggling for centuries to maintain their national in-
dependence, and ever contending for mastery amongst themselves, Scotland
has belield her sons loving and honouring the country that gave them birth
with a high and pure patriotism ; and clinging to each other with a pro-
verbial partiality, yet not alone on account of their common relationship,
but also for those qualities of endurance, energy, and intelligence which
their common struggles and even social feuds drew forth and incorporated
as it were with the national character. At a comparatively ciirly period
she sent forth many of her sons to obtain distinction and honours in other
lands; and when more peaceful times had arrived and milder institu-
tions obtained, she saw them launch into the arts of civil life, for which
their hereditary qualities, animated by the lessons of a simple but sin-
cere piety, had well prepared them, and assert for themselves a fi-ont
rank among the leaders of mind and intellect in Europe, in numbers alto-
gether unexampled in the social development of other nations. Of such
men is Scotland's pride and glory, and their lives and deeds constitute
the truest account of the Scottish nation.
In its general biography the present work embraces a wider range
than is contemplated in any of those specially devoted to that subject,
comprising many names not to be met with in history, yet of men whose
skill, genius, or labours have added to the comfort, the knowledge, or
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PREFACE. VU
the happiness of mankind. Not a few names, moreover, that have long
been borne down by undeserved obloquy have been restored to their
proper position ; while others, upheld by misstatement or exaggeration
at an undue elevation, have been placed on a lower pedestal. In all cases
the truth has been stated, without reference to party feelings or sectarian
misrepresentations.
In the department of literature great attention has been bestowed upon
the articles relatmg to men distinguished by their writings. By append-
ing the titles and dates of their works, and sometimes when these were | j
numerous, classifying the subjects treated of, easy reference is combined
with great economy of space. In a word, as respects the productions of its
literary characters, ' The Scottish Nation' becomes as it were a Btbli-
otheca Scottica corrected and brought down to the present day.
For a work of this character it is evident that an Alphabetical arrange-
mentj or what is generally although incorrectly known as the Dictionary
form, is the only one compatible with clearness, order, and facility of ref-
erence, and accordingly such a form has been adopted, with some peculi-
arities which it is hoped will be found to improve it in these respects.
In all other works of this kind, when several articles or parties of
the same name came to be described, the suh-alphahetical order, or that
of the initial letters has obtained. In the case of biographies, however,
on this principle, the ancestor is placed often at a distance from and not
unfrequently long after his descendants. Throughout long lists of similar
surnames the strictly alphabetical arrangement mixes up epochs, and
mars all attempts to present the connection which distinguished indi-
viduals bearing them had to one another. This inconvenience, except
in a few unimportant eases, has been obviated by a double arrange-
ment. In narrating isolated biographies of individuals of the same sur-
name the order in time is followed; they succeed each other accord-
ing to the epochs in which the parties lived. Where, however, a lineal
descent is traceable, the biographies are introduced and continued in a
direct succession. The order of the series is here chronological, but in
the order of families, and not by individuals.
To the student of Scottish history the value of the assistance furnished
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Vlll
PREFACE.
by a work of the character of ^ The Scottish Nation' need not be dwelt
upon. In the accounts given of every family or title of antiquity and note,
numerous indirect and incidental lights are thrown upon its pages. The
direct additional matter it supplies, is, however, perhaps of still more
importance. In this, as well as in many other points, it will be found a more
accurate and complete exhibition of the Earlier History of Scotland than
any that has yet been presented to the public.
In the course of his labours the author was necessarily obliged to enter
into an extensive correspondence with noblemen and gentlemen in all
parts of the kingdom, and with some families out of it, and he now returns
his acknowledgments to all for the kindness and promptitude with which
they answered his applications, furnished valuable information, and, in
many cAses, placed their family records, for the time, at his perusal.
It may give some idea of the care and research bestowed upon this
work when it is stated that the author was altogether nearly twelve years
occupied in its composition and coiTCction.
The Autographs, Seals, Genealogical and Titular tables, and other
illustrative objects, as well as the Portraits on wood and steel with which
the work is so profusely embellished, have all been taken from original
or other authentic sources.
! t
A National Gallery of Scottish Portraits has long been pointed out as
a desideratum, and learned societies have recently brought the matter
strongly before the public. In the care taken to make the Porti-ait illus-
trations authentic and numerous in a degree far beyond those in any col-
lection heretofore presented to the world, the Publishers anticipate that
the first exhibition of a National Portrait Gallery worthy of the
name will be found in the pages of ' The Scottish Nation.'
The Biographies that were required to be added during the publica-
tion of the work by demise of distinguished individuals, are given in the
form of a Supplement.
W. A.
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
VOLUME I.
ENGEAVED PORTRAITS.
1. BxTBHS, Robert,
2. Absbobombt, Sir Ralph,
3. Allan, Sir WUliam,
4. BvTHUirB, (Beaton) Cardinal,
6. BucHAHAN, George,
6. Campbell, Thomas,
7 Chalmebs, Thomas, D.D.. LL.D.,
From a painting by Naismyth,
„ J. Hoppner, R.A,
Himself,
Roman Catholic )
College at Bhiir, j
Pourbus,
Sir Thomas Lawrence,
T. Duncan,
byF. :
Engraved by W. Holl,
J. B. Bird,
W. E. Sibbald,
W. Holl,
To face page
Frontispiece,
page 4
117
J. B. Bird,
E. Finden,
J. B. Bird,
288
462
578
623
ENGRAVED TABLES OF TITULAR GENEALOGIES.
I. Amcibnt Ea&looms.
As arranged by the anthor and others
1. Earldom of Angns,
2. „ Athol,
3. „ Bachan, „
4. „ Caithness, „
II. Anouimt Babohages.
1. Campbell, Lord Lochow, As arranged by the author and others,
137
161
453
620
543
WOODCUTS (IN LETTERPRESS).
1. Abbrorombt, John, M.D.,
2. Abbrqbombt, Sir Ralph, birth- >
place of, f
8. Abbborombt, Sir Ralph,
4. „ „ (on)
horseback), j
5. Adam, Alexander, LL.D.,
6. Albaht, Seal of Robert, )
1st duke of, j
7. Albany, Doane Castle, Resi- )
dence of 2ddake of, j
8. Albany, Earl of Buohan, )
son of 1st duke of j
9. Albany, John, 4th duke of,
10. „ „ Aatograph of,
U. Alexander L, Seal of David >
I., brother of, f
12. Alexander I., Monastery \ i
built by, (on Inchcolm,) f" <
13. Alexander I., Silver Pennies >!.
14. „ Seal of,
15. „ Coldingham )
Priory rebuilt by, }
16. Alexarder II., Seal of,
17. Alexander III., Seal of.
Fro
ED a Medallion on Monument,
3
}i
a drawing taken on the spot by J.
C. Brown,
5
»»
Kay's Portraits,
7
>»
ti
11
1}
a painting by Sir Henry Raebum,
23
t)
Anderson's Diplomata Scotis, Engraved b)
r J. Adam,
40
»»
Cardonnell's Scot Antiq.,
ft
G. Measom,
42
♦»
Pinkerton's Gallery,
M
ti
43
Sloane's MSS., "
"
11
11
61
51
»»
Anderson's Diplomata Scotite,
»>
J. Adam,
53
11
Swan's Views in Fifeshire, ^
by J. C. Brown,
Anderson's Numismata,
»i tt
19
»»
»i
58
60
60
It
Cardonnell's Scot. Antiq.,
II
•G. Measom,
65
ft
Anderson's DiplomaU Scoti«,
II If >>
ft
n
J. Adam,
79
79
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2 LIST OP n<T.USTRATIONS.
'®- '^S^eTof M^irft ^"'} ^^ • Contempomor print, Engraved by J. Adam.
96
19. ALRXA?n>ER III., Kinghoni,^ (
(the scene of the death of,) f \
))
a drawing taken on the spot >
by J. C, Brown, j
98
M
tf
20. Alexakdeb ni., Donferm- 1 '^
line Abbey, Interior (Archi- V •
tecture of tie period of), I ^
»»
BiUing»s Baronial and Ecclo- '
siastical Architecture, }
•t
G. Measom,
103
(to illustrate Scottish Art -
»»
Scottish Antiquarian Museum,
ft
W.Williams,
104
of the period of), i
22. Albxahdeb, Sir William, lst\ f
«»
Billing»s Baronial and Ecde- \
T kA
111
earlofStirling (mansion of), r 1
23. Albxandeb, Sir William, Ist T /
siastical Architecture, }
ft
ti. /Loam,
V
Walpole's Royal and Noble 1
Dalziel,
112
earl of Stirling (portrait of), r "5
24. Allak, Darid, Sketch— Chanty fi
Authors, i
ft
icene, by
ft
G. Measom,
115
25. Arbubthnot, John, M.D.,
11
a scarce print,
painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds,
Kay's Portraift,
ft
DalEieL
W. Williams,
150
26. Aemstbono, John, M.D.,
n
tf
157
27. Arkot, Hugo,
If
ft
G. Measom,
159
28. Athol, (Blair Castle, seat of >
the duke of,) j
n
Cardonnell's Scot. Antiq.,
ft
Linton,
165
29. Ayton, Sir Robert,
)«
a bust.
tf
W.Williams,
171
30. Baillie, Robert (of Jarriswood),
»i
an original miniature.
ft
t»
178
31. Baillib, Matthew, M.D.,
ii
a rare print,
ff
Linton,
181.
32. Baillib, Joanna,
33. Baibd, Sir David,
n
a painting by Sir W. Newton,
tf
ft
187
i»
„ Sir Henry Raebum,
ft
ft
196
34. Baibd, George Husband, D.D.
35. Baloarrbs OiAio, Fifeshire,
»i
Kay's Portraits,
ft
ft
198
Swan's Views in Fifeshire,
ff
J.Adam,
207
36. Balfour, Sir James,
n
an original print,
tf
Linton,
214
37. Balgonie Castle, Fifeshire,
ti
Scotia Depicta,
tf
J. Adam,
219
38. Baliol, John, Seal of.
»>
Anderson's Diplomata Scotie,
ft
ft
222
39. BAUO^ Edward, Seal of.
»>
ff ff
tf
ft
223
40. Balmbr, Robert, D.D.,
i»
a lithographic print,
Kay's Portraits,
ff
Linton,
228
41. Bannattxb, Lord,
t»
ft
It
236
42. Barbour, John, (Aberdeen!^
Cathedral, where served,) J '
i»
Caidonnell's Scot. Antiq.,
tf
J. Adam,
238
43. Barolat, John,
)i
an original print,
a paintmg by Sir Joshua Reynolds,
Pinkerton's Gallery,
ft
W. WiUiams,
247
44. Beaitib, James, LL.D.,
i»
ft
Linton,
266
45. Brlhaybn, 2d Lord,
»♦
tf
tt
271
46. Bell, Benjamin,
47. Bell, Sir Charies,
»♦
Kay's Portraits,
tt
tt
273
11
an original print.
ft
ft
280
48. Bisset, John, (Beauly priory i
founded by,) j '
49. Black, Josepn, M.D.,
60. Blair, Hugh, D.D.,
i»
Cardonnell's Scot Antiq.
ff
J. Adam,
304
i»
apainting by Sir Henry Raebum,
Kay's Portraits,
ft
W. Williams,
308
ft
ft
Linton,
326
61. Blaib, RobertJLord President),
52. Blanttrb, F. T. Stewart, Duch- )
If
ft ff
ff
ft
327
ess of Richmond, daughter of >
f»
a painting by Sir Peter Lely,
t?
ft
834
Walter, 3d son of the 1st Lord, )
53. BoBTHwiOK Castlb,
ft
Scotia Deplete,
Lodge's Portraits,
ff
J. Adam,
340
64. BoswELL, James,
ft
ft
Linton,
347
55. BoTD, Robert,
ff
Pinkerton's Gallery,
ff
W. WUliams,
367
56. BoTD, Zachary,
ft
ft ff
ff
ft
369
57. Bbbadalbanb, (Taymouth ^ ^
Castle, seat of the mar- V •
quis of,) Interior, ) ^
ff
a drawing taken on the spot >
by J. C. Brown, j
ft
Linton,
872
68. Ditto, ditto, Exterior,
ft
a drawing by Sargent,
tt
If
377
59. Brown, Thomas, M.D.,
ft
Watson,
tt
tt
397
60. Brus, Robert de. Seal of.
ff
Anderson's Diplomate Scotiee,
tf
J. Adam,
409
61. „ „ Tumbemr)
Castle (the birthplace of),/
1 62. Bruce, King Robert, Seal of.
If
Tytler's Scottish Worthies,
tt
ft
410
ft
Anderson's Diplomate Scotiie,
ff
ft
421
' 63. Bruob, Robert,
ft
an original miniature,
a drawing taken on the spot )
by J. C. Brown, j
ft
Linton,
486
64. Bruob, James, (mansion-) f
house of;) / \
ff
»»
G. Measom,
441
66. Brucb, James, portrait of,
ft
Kay's Portraito,
ff
Linton,
442
, 66. BuoHAK, 1 St earl of (of the i ,
1 house of Erskmel i
ff
loonographia Scotioa,
tt
ft
464
1 67. Buchanan, George,
f»
Pinkerton's Gallery,
9*
ft
471
, 68. Buchanan, Claudius, D.D.,
ft
a portrait prefixed to his life.
tf
»»
480
1 69. Burnet, Gilbert, D.D.
ff
Lodge's Portraito,
ft
If
492
70. BoBNKT, James, (Lord Monboddo,)
i 71. BuBHS, John, M.D.,
, 72. Campbell, 1st Lord, and his TAdy ,
ff
Kay's Portraito,
ft
ft
496
ff
ft
a painting by Graham Gilbert,
Pinkerton's Gallery,
tf
tt
ft
tf
513
646
' ' 73. Campbell Castle,
tf
a drawing taken on the spot >
by J. C. Brown, >
ft
ft
646
1
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
74. Cahfbbo, Comitou of Argyle, j*'««' ^aJSSI^?"'"''"^^*'"*} ^««'«^ ^^
Campbell, Archibald (Marquis "
Linton,
75.
76. Campbell, John (2d d«ke of 1
Argyle), j
77. Cabsoh, Aglionby Boss, M. A., 1
and LL.D.,
78. Cabstairs, Principal,
79. Cassillis, Countess of^
80. Clappbston, Captain Hagh,
81. Colquhouh, Ladjr,
82. Constablx, Arombald,
83. Craio, Sir Thomas,
84. Crai«, Lord,
85. Crawford, Archibald, Arms of,
86. Craufuirds of Ardmillah, 1
Arms of the j
87. Crawford, Darid, Ist earl > J
of. Seal of; f \
88. Crawford, David, 5th earl of, T
Seal and Autograph of. }
89. Crawford, David, 11th earl 1
of, Autograph of, j
90. Criohton, James (the Admirable),
91. Gromabtt, Ist earl of
a painting bj Aitkman,
„ Sir W. Gordon,
Chambers' Eminent Scotsmen,
a painting in Culxean Castle,
„ byGildon Manton,
a poi^rait prefixed to her Life,
a painting by Sir Henry Baebom,
an original print,
Kay's rortraito,
Wilson's Prehistoric Annals,
Lord Ardmimi^y
Lord Lindsay's Lives of the >
Lindsays, >
Jonm. of Antiq. Soo. of Scotland,
Walpole's Boyal and NoUe Authors,
J. Adam,
Linton,
Paf*
556
561
566
599
601
607
647
666
680
688
691
700
705
708
710
718
729
73?
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THE
SCOTTISH NATION.
ABERCORN.
ABERCROMBY.
Abbrcorx, Marquis of, is a peerage held bj the Hamilton
family in its eldest surviving male heir, as directlj descended
from Lord Chiud Hamilton (see vol. ii. p. 418). fourtli son
of James, second earl of Arrao, regent of Scotland in the
minority of Queen Maiy. He was created duke of Chatel-
herault in the kingdom of France. Lord Claud was distin-
guished for his zealous and steady attachment to Mary
Queen of Scots, and at an early age was appointed com-
mendator of the abbacy of Paisley. The extensive lands
of this abbiicy were afler tlie Refonnatiun erected into a
temporal lordship, and he w>is elevated to the peerage under
the title of Lord Paisley. He died in 1622, aged 78. He
married Margaret, only daughter of George, sixth Lord
Seton, and had by her four sons, of whom James, the eldest,
was created baron of Aberoom, 1603, and, in 1606, advanced
to the dignity of earl of Abercom, baron of Paisley, Hamil-
ton, Mountcastle, and Kilpatrick. The estate of Abercom,
from which this title is derived, is in Linlithgowshire. The
name is derived from Aber^ beyond, and Com, a corrup-
tion of Cum, which has generally been held as equivalent to
Carron. The earl of Abercom was appointed in 1601 one
of the commissioners on the part of Scotland to treat of a
union with England. As one of the promoters of the plan-
tation of Ulster, he had a very great estate granted out
of the escheated lands in that country, and was called
as a peer to the paHiament of Ireland in 1613. He died
in 1618, and was succeeded by his son James, who during his
father*s lifetime had been created a peer of Ireland in 1616, by
the title of baron of Strabane. James, the second earl, was
a loyal supporter of Charles I. On the death of the second
duke of Hamilton in 1651, without male issue, he became the
male representative of the house of Hamilton. He was suc-
ceeded by his son Geoi^, third earl, at whose death, without
issue, the title devolved upon Claud, grandson of Claud second
I^rd Strabane. CUud, fourth earl of Aberoom, adhered to
James VH. at tlie Revolution, and after the battle of the
Boyne embarked for France, but was killed on the voyage in
1690. His brother Charies, fifth eari, gave in his adhesion
to King William's govemmeiit, and died in 1701 without
surviving issue. The title then devolved on James, descended
from Sir George Hamilton, fourth son of the first eari, and
great-grandson of the first duke of Chatelherault On the
occasion of the clause in the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, stipu- j
iatipg for justice to the Hamilton family in regard to the I
I.
duchy of Chatelherault, Jamea, sixth earl of Abercom, pre«
ferred his oUim as nearest heir male of tlie first duke,
against tliat of Anne, duchess of Hamilton, the heir female.
The court of France, however, came to no decision. James,
eiglitli eari, was created a peer of Great Britain in 1786,
by the title of Viscount Hamilton. John James Hamilton,
9th eari, was advanced to the dignity of marquis of Aberpom
in 1790; and dying in 1818, was succeeded by his grandson,
James, 2d marquis. The latter, on Jan. IS, 1862, was served
heir male of the l»t dnke of Chatelherault The marquis of
Aberoom is the chief and heir mole of the house of Hamilton.
Abbrcrombib, or Abbrcbombt, a sumame derived from
a barony of that name in Fifeshire, erected in a district ori-
ginally named Abercrombie, aber meaning beyond, and crott^
bie, the crook, in allusion to the bend or crook of Fifeness. The
pariah, until recently called St Monance, and now Abercromby,
was known by the name of Abererombis so far back as 1174.
The Abercrombies of that ilk were esteemed the chiefs of the
name until the seventeenth century, when that line became
extinct, and Abereromby of Birkenbog, in Banfishire, became
the head of the clan of Abereromby. In 1637 Alexander
Abereromby of Birkenbog was created a baronet of Scotland
and Nova Scotia, and distinguished himself as a royalist dur-
ing the dvil wars. The baronetcy is still in the family.
Abbrcrombib, Baron, an extinct peerage, bestowed by
Charies I., in 1647, on Sir James Sandilands of St Monance,
or Abercrombie, in Fife, descended from James Sandilands
belonging to the noble house of Torphichen. I..ord Aber-
crombie married a daughter of the first earl of Sonthesk, and
by her he had a son, James, second I..ord Abercrombie, who
dying without issue in 1681, the title became extinct
Abercromby of Aboukir and Tullibody, Baron, a title in
the .peerage of the United Kingdom, conferred in 1801 on
Mary Anne, widow of the celebrated Sir Ralph Abercromby,
immediately after her husband*s death at the battle of Alex-
andria, with remainder to the heirs male of the deceased
general. Baroness Abercromby died in 1821, and was suc-
ceeded by her eldest son, George, a barrister at law, fintt
baron. On his death in 1843, Colonel George Ralph Aber-
cromby, his son, bom in 1800, became second baron. The
latter died in 1852, when his son, George Ralph Campbell
A
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ABKRCROMBIE.
ABERCROMBIE.
Abennrombjr, born in 1838, became third b;in>n. See Abek-
CROMBY, Sib Ralph.
ABERCROMBIE, John, M.D., an eminent
physician, and moral and religious writer, was
born in Aberdeen, 12tli October, 1780. His
fattier was miuLiter of the East church of that
city. After having completed his literary edu-
cation in liis native city, he was sent to the uni-
versity of Edinburgh, to prosecute liis studies for
the medical profession. The celebrated Dr. Alex-
ander Monro was at that time professor of anatomy
and surgeiy there, and the subject of this memoir
attended his lectures.
In 1803, being then twenty-three years of age.
Dr. Abercrombie began to practise as a physician
in Edinburgh. He soon acquired a high reputa-
tion, and became extensively known to his pro-
fessional brethren through the medium of his con-
tributions to the * Medical and Surgical Journal.'
On the death of the celebrated Dr. Gregory in
1821, Dr. Abercrombie at once took his place as a
consulting physician. He was also named physi-
cian to the king for Scotland, an appointment
which, though merely honorary and nominal, is
usually conferi'ed on the physician of greatest
eminence at the time of a vacancy. He subse-
quently held, till his death, the office of phy-
sician to George Heriot's Hospital. In 1828,
he published a treatise on the ' Diseases of the
Brain and NeiTOUs System,' and soon after an
essay on those of the ^ Abdominal Organs,' both
of which rank high among professional publica-
tions. In 1830 he appeared as an author in a
branch of literature entirely different, and one in-
volving the treatment of subjects in the highest
department of philosophy and metaphysical specu-
lation, havin<^ published in that year his able
work, in 8vo, on the 'Intellectual Powers.' In
1833 he produced a work of a similar kind, on
'The Philosophy of the Moral Feelings,' also in
8vo. In 1832, during the prevalence of the cho-
lera, he had published a medical tract entitled
* Suggestions on the Character and Treatment of
Malignant Cholera.' In 1834 he published a
pamphlet entitled 'Observations on the Moral
Condition of the Lower Orders in Edinburgh.'
The same year appeared an address delivered by
him at the Fiftieth Anniversar}' of the Destitute
Sick Society, Edinburgh. He was also the au-
thor of Essays on the ' Elemeiits of Sacred Truth,'
:md on the 'Harmony of Chi-istian Faith and
Character;' besides other wntings which have
been comprised in a small volume entitled 'Essays
and Tracts.' Of writings so well known, and so
very highly esteemed, as proved by a circulation
extending, as it did in some, even to an eighteenth
edition, it were useless to speak in praise cither of
their literary or far higher meiits. But, distin-
guished as he was, both professionally and as a
writer in the highest departments of philosophy,
it was not exclusively to his great fame in either
respect, or in both, that he owed his wide influ-
ence throughout the community in which he lived.
His name ever stood associated with the guidance
of every important enterprise, whether religious
or benevolent, — somehow he provided leisure to
bestow the patronage of his attendance and his ^
deliberative wisdom on many of the institutions
of Edinburgh, and, with a munificence which has
been rarely equalled, ministered of his substance
to the upholding of them all. He valued money
so little, that he often declined to receive it, even
when the offerer urged it, as most justly his own
His diligence and application were so gi*eat that
whoever entered his study found him intent at
work. Did they see him travelling in his carriage,
they could perceive he was busy there. [Obituary
notice in Witness newspaper.']
In 1834 the university of Oxford conferred upon
him the degi'ee of M.D., which he had long previ-
ously obtained from the univereity of Edinburgh.
In 1835 he was chosen by the students lord rector
of Marischal college, Aberdeen. Dr. Abercrom-
bie died suddenly at Edinburgh, from rupture of
an artery in the region of the heart, on the 14th
of November, 1844. Distinguished alike as a
physician, an author, a benefactor of the poor,
and a sincere Christian, his loss was univei*sally
lamented. He was buried in the West church-
yard, Edinburgh, where a monument with a me-
dallion has been erected to his memory, the for-
mer bearing the following inscription : — " In mem-
ory of John Abercrombie, M.D., E<lin. and Oxon.,
Fellow of the Royal colleges of Physicians and
Surgeons, Edinburgh, Vice-president of the Royal
Society of Edinburgh, and first Physician to the
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ABERCROMBIK.
ABERCROMBIE.
Qnceii in' Scotland, born xii. Oct. mdcclxxx.
From a life very early devoted to the service of
God, occupied in the most assidaoos labours, and
distinguished not more by professional eminence
than by personal worth and by successful author-
ship on the principles of Christian morals and
philosophy, it pleased God to translate him sud-
denly to the life everlasting xiv, Nov. mdcccxliv."
Annexed is a copy of the medallion, which embo-
dies as true a likeness of Dr. Abercrombie as stone
or wood can convey.
Tlie procession at his funeral was one of the
largest ever seen in Edinburgh. It was joined
by the membei-s both of the Royal College of Phy-
sicians, and the Royal College of Surgeons, as
well as by the Free Church presbytery of Edin-
burgh and the commission of the General Assem-
bly of the Free Church, and by many professional
brethren from a distance. Dr. Abercrombie mar-
ried in 1808 Agnes, only child of David Wardlaw,
Esq., of Nctherbeath in Fifeshire, and had eight
dnughtei-s, one of whom died at the age of four.
Seven daughters survived him, the eldest of whom
became the second wife of the Rev. John Bruce,
minister of Free St. Andrew's church, Edinburgh,
in whose congregation Dr. Abercrombie was an
elder, and who preached his funeral sermon, which
wae afterwards published. The estate of Ncther-
beath deflcended to Mi-s. Bruce.
The followittg is a list of Dr. Abercix)mbic's
publications :
Difleases of the Brain uid Norvoos System, 8vo, 1828.
Diseases of the Abdoniinal Organo, 8vo, 1829.
The Intellectual Powers, 8vo, 1830.
Sui^gesdons on the Character and Treatment of Malignaiit
Cholera, 8vo, 1832.
The Philosophy of the Moral Feelings, 8vo, 1833.
Observations on the Moral Condition of the Lowei Oitlors
in Edinburgh, 8vo, 1834.
Address delivered at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Desti-
tute Sick Society, Edinburgh, 1835.
Mental Culture, l8mo, being the AddiTss delivered to the
students of Marischal College when he was elected Lord Rec-
tor of that university, 1835.
The HarmonyofScripturc Faith and Character, l8mo, 1836
Thmk on these Things, 18mo, 1839.
Messiah our Example, 18mo, 1841.
The Contest and the Armour, 18mo, 1841.
The Elements of Sacred Truth, 18mo, 1844.
Et>t>ays and Tracts, including the two lust works und some
other writings on similar subjects, 8vo, 1844, 1847.
ABERCROMBIE, John, conjectured by Demp-
ster, in his Hist. Eccl Scot,^ to have been a Ben-
edictine monk, was the author of two energetic
treatises in defence of the Church of Ronre against
the principles of the Reformers, entitled * Veritatis
Dcfensio,* and * Hseresis Confusio.' He flourished
about the middle of the sixteenth centuiy;
ABERCROMBIE, Patrick, physician and his-
torian, third son of Alexander Abercrombie of
Fettemeir, Aberdeenshire, a branch of the Birk-
enbog family of that name, was bom at Forfar in
1656, and took his medical degrees at St. Andrews
in 1685. His elder brother, Francis Abercrombie
of Fettemeir, on his marriage with Anna, Baron-
ess Scmpill, was, in July 1685, created by James
VII. Lord Glassford, under the singular restriction
of being limited for his own life. After leaving
the univei-sity, Patrick travelled on the continent,
and on his return to England, embracing the Ro-
man Catholic religion, he was appointed physi-
cian to James VII. ; but at the Revolution was
deprived of his oflSce, and for some ycai-s lived
abroad. Returning to his native countiy, he af-
terwards devoted himself to the study of national
antiquities. In 1707 he gave to the world a trans-
lation of M. Beange's rare French work, *L'llis-
toire dc la Guerre d'Ecosse,* 1556, under the title
of ' The Campaigns in Scotland in 1548 and 1549,'
which was reprinted m the original by Mr. Smy the
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ABERCROMBTR.
ABERCROMBY.
of Methven for the Bannatyne Club, in 1829, with
a preface containing an account of Abcrcrombie^s
translation. His great work, however, is *The
Martial Achievements of the Scots nation, and of
buch Scotsmen as have signalized themselves by
the Sword,' in two volumes folio, the first pub-
lished in 1711, and the second in 1715. He also
wrote the 'Memoirs of the family of Abercrombie.'
Dr. Abercrombie died in poor circumstances in
1716 ; some authorities say 1720, and others 1726.
The following is a list of his works.
Tho Adyantages of the Act of Sepunty, compared with
tlioee of the intended Union; founded on the Revolation
Principles, published by Mr. Daniel De Foe. Edm. 1707, 4to.
A Vindication of the same, against Mr. De Foe. Edin.
1707, 4to.
The History of the Campaigns 1548 and 1549, between the
Scots and the French on the one side, and the English and
their foreign auxiliaries on the other. From the French of
Reauge, with a Preface, showing the Advantages which Soot-
I:ind received by the Ancient League with France, and the
mutual assistance given bv each kingdom to the other. Edin.
1707, 8vo.
Hie MarUal Achievements of the Scots nation, being an
Account of the Lives, Characters, and Memorable Actions of
such Scotsmen as have signalized themselves by the Sword,
at home and abroad. Edin. 1711-1715. 2 vols. fol.
ABERCROMBIE, John, an eminent horticul-
turist, and author of several horticultural works,
was the son of a respectable gardener near Edin-
burgh, where he was born about the year 1726.
In his eighteenth year he went to London, and
obtained employment in the royal gardens. His
first work, ' The Gardener's Calendar,* was pub-
lished as the production of Mr. Mawe, gardener to
the duke of Leeds, who received twenty guineas
for the use of his name, which was then well-
known. The success of that work was so com-
plete, that Abercrombie put his own name to all
his future publications; among which may be
mentioned, *The Universal Dictionary of Garden-
ing and Botany,' 4to, * The Gardener's Vade Me-
cum,' and other popular productions. lie died at
Somerstown, London, in 1806, aged 80. A list of
his works is subjoined.
Tlie Universal Gardener and Botanist, or a General Dio-
tionaty of Gardening and Botany,* exhibiting, in Botanical
Arrangement, according to the Lumamn system, every Tree,
Shrub, and Herbaceous Plant that merit Culture, &c Lond.
1778, 4to.
The Garden Mushroom, its Nature and Cultivation, exnib-
itiiig full and plain directions for producing this desirable
plant in p<»rfection and plenty. Lond. 1779. 8vo. New edi-
tion cnUrend, 1802. 12mo.
The British Fruit Garden, and Art of Pruning ; comprunng
the most approved Methods of Planting and raiidng every use-
ful Fruit Tree and Fruit-bearing Shrub. Lond. 1779, 8vo.
The Complete Forcing Gardener, for the thorough Practi-
cal Management of the Kitchen Garden, raising all early
crops in Hot-beds, and forcing early Fruit, &c. Lond. 1781,
12mo.
The Complete Wall-tree Prunor, &c Lond. 1783, 12mo.
Tlie Propagation and Botanical Arrangement of Plants
and Trees, useful and ornamental. Lond. 1785, 2 vols. 12mo.
The Gardener's Pocket Dictionary, or a Systematical Ar-
rangement of Trees, Herbs, Flowers, and Fruits, agreeable to
the Liniuean Method, with their Latin and English names,
their Uses, Propagation, Culture, &c. Lond. 178G, 8 vols.
12mo.
Doily Assistant in the Modem Practice of English Garden-
ing for every Month in the Year, on an entire new plan.
Lond. 1789, 12mo.
The Universal Gardener's Kalendar, and System of Practi-
cal Gardening. Lond. 1789, 12mo; 1808, 8vo.
The Complete lutchen Gardener and Hot-bed Forcer, with
tho thorough Practical Management of Hot -houses. Fire-
walls, &c Lond. 1789, 12mo.
The Gardeher*s Vade-mecum, or Companion of General
Gardening; a Descriptive Display of the Plants, Flowers,
Shrubs, Trees, Fruits, and general Culture. Lond. 1789, 8vo.
The Hot-house Gardener, or the general Culture of the
Pine Apple, and the Methods of forcing early Grapes, Peach-
es, Nectarines, and other choice Fruits in Hot-houses, Vin-
eries, Fruit -houses, Hot- walls, with Directions for raising
Melons and early Strawberries, &c Plates. Lond. 1789,
8Vo
The Gardener's Pocket Journal and Annual Register, in a
concise Monthly Display of all Practical Works of General
Gardening throughout the year. Lond. 1791, 12mo; 1814,
12mo.
It has been already stated, in giving the origin of the name,
(see page 1,) that in the 17th century, Abercromby of Bir*
kenbog in Banfishire, became the chief of the name of Aber-
cromby. Alexander Abercromby of Birkenbog was grand
falconer in Scotland to King Charies I. In 1636 bis eldest
son, Alexander, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, and
took an active part against King Charles in the dvil wars of
that period. From the pedigree of the family it appears thi^
Sir Alexander Abercromby of Birkenbog, the first baronet,
had two sons. The eldest, James, succeeded his father.
Alexander, tlie second son, succeeded his oousm George Aber-
cromby of Skeith, in the estate of Tullibody, in Clackman-
nanshire, formerly a possession of the earb of Stirling. This
Alexander was the grandfather of the celebrated military
commander, Sir Ralph Abercromby, and the second of th**
name of Abercromby who possessed Tullibody. The most
eminent of this family were General Sir Ralph Abercromby ;
and his two brothers, Alexander, Lord Abercromby, a judge
of the court of session ; and General Sir Robert Abercromby,
K.C.B.; of all three notices are hero given.
ABERCROMBY, Siu Ralph, K.B., a dis-
tinguished genei-al, was the eldest son of Gcorgo
Abercromby, of Tullibody, in Clackmannanshire,
by Mary, daughter of Ralph Dundas, Esq. of Ma-
nor. His father was born in 1705, passed advo-
cate in 1728, and died June 8, 1800, at the ad-
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SIR. RALPH A B F. R C R 0 M li y
n-tni, -v I liL'U y L--.lM.|i,..Ji
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112
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ABERCROMBY,
SIR RALPH.
vanced age of ninety-five, being the oldest mem-
ber of tiie college of justice. His son Ralph was
bom on the 7th of October, 1734, In the old man-
sion of Menstrie, then the ordinary residence of
his parents, near the village of that name which
lies at the southern base of the Ochil hills, on the
boundary between the parish of Alloa in Clack-
mannanshire, and the Perthshire part of the
parish of Logie. The day of his birth has not
been inserted in the session book of the pai'isli
of Logie, but the following is an extract
from the register of his baptism: "A. D. 1734,
October 26th, Bap. Ralph, lawful son to George
Abercromby, younger of Tullibody, and Mary
Dundas his lady.** Menstrie house, in which he
was bom, was, in the beginning of the seven-
teenth century, the property and residence of Sir
William Alexander, the poet, afterwards creati'd
earl of Stirling. Although not now inhabited by
any of the Abercromby family, it is still entire.
A woodcut representation of it is here given.
After the usual coarse ot study, young Aber-
cromby entered the army in 1756, as a comet in
the dd regiment of dragoon guards. His commis-
sion is dated 22d March of that year. In Febraary
1760 he obtained a lieutenancy in the same regi-
ment; in April 1762 he was promoted to a com-
pany in the 3d regiment of horse. In 1770 he
became major, and in 1773, lieutenant -colonel.
In 1780 he was included in the list of brevet colo-
nels, and in 1781 he was appointed colonel of the
103d, or King*8 Irish infantry. This newly raised
regiment was reduced at the peace in 1783, when
Colonel Abercromby was placed on half- pay. In
September 1787 he became major-general, la
1788, in which year he resided in George's Square,
Edinburgh, he obtained the command of the 69th
regiment of foot. He was afterwards removed to
the 6th regiment, from that to the 5th, and in
November 1797 to the 7th regiment of dragoons
He first served in the seven years* war, and
acquired great knowledge and military experience
in that service, before he had an opportunity of
distinguishing himself, which afterwards, when
the oppoi'tunity came, enabled him to be the fin^t
British general to give a check to the French in
the first revolutionary war. He has often been
confounded with (he General Abercrombie who
commanded the troops against the French at
Crown Point and llconderoga in America in
1758, but Sir Ralph at that period was only a
comet of dragoons, and
notwithstanding the mis-
take into which some of
his biographers have fal-
len, it is certain that he
never was in America.
In the year 1774, when
lieutenant-colonel, he had
been elected member of
parliament for Ciack-
mannanshire,which conn
ty he continued to repre-
sent till the next election
in 1780, but never made
any figure in parliament.
On the commencement
of the war with France
in 1792, he was employed
iu Flanders and Holland with the local rank
of lieutenant-general, and in the campaigns of
1793 and 1794 he served under the duke of
York, when he gave many proofs of his skill,
vigilance, and. intrepidity. He commanded the
advanced guard during the action on the heights
of Cateau, April 16, 1794. On this occasion
he captured 35 pieces of cannon, and took
prisoner Chapny the Fi*ench general. In
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ABERCROMBY,
6
SIR RALPH.
the despatches of the duke of York his ability and
courage were twice mentioned with special com-
aicndation. In the succeeding October he received
a wound at Nimeguen, and upon him and General
Dnndas devolved the arduous duty of conducting
the retreat through Holland in the severe winter
which followed. It has been remarked that the
talents, as well as the temper, of a commander are
put to as sevei*e a test in conducting a retreat as
in achieving a victory. This was well illustrated
in the case of General Aberci*omby. The guards
and the sick were committed to his care ; and in
the disastrous march from Deveuter to Oldensaal
the hardships sustained by those under his charge
were such as the most consummate skill and judg-
ment were almost inadequate to alleviate, while
the feelings experienced by the commander him-
self were painful in the extreme. Harassed in
the rear by a victorious enemy, upwards of fifty
thousand strong, obliged to conduct his troops
with a rapidity beyond their strength, through bad
roads, in the most inclement part of a winter more
than usually severe, — the sick being placed in
oi)cn waggons, as no othere could be procured, —
and finding it impossible to procure shelter for his
soldiei*s in the midst of the drifting snow and
heavy falls of sleet and rain, the anguish he felt
at seeing their numbers daily diminishing from the
effects of cold, fatigue, and hunger, can scarcely
be described. About the end of March 1796, the
British army, which during the retreat had some-
times to halt, face and fight the enemy, arrived at
Bremen in a very reduced state, and thence em-
barked for England. The judgment, patience,
humanity, and perseverance shown by General
Abercromby in this calamitous retreat were equal
to the occasion, and received due acknowledg-
ment.
In the autumn of 1795 General Abercromby was
appointed to succeed Sir Charles Grey, as com-
mander - in - chief of the troops employed against
the French in the West Indies. Previous to his
arrival, the French revolutionary army had made
considerable exertions to recover their losses in
that quarter. They retook the islands of Gnada-
loupe and St. Lucia, made good their landing on
Martinique, and hoisted the tricolour on several
forts in the islands of St. Vincent, Grenada, and
Marie Galante; besides seizing the property of
the rich emigrants who had fled thither from
France, to the amount of 1,800 millions of livres.
The expedition under General Abercromby was
unfortunately prevented from sailing until after
the equinox, and several transports were lost in
endeavouring to clear the Channel. The remain-
der of the fleet reached the West Indies in safety,
and by the month of March 1796 the troops were
in a condition for active duty. A detachment of
the anny under Sir John Moore, was sent against
the island of St. Lucia, which was speedily cap-
tured, though the attack on this island was at-
tended with peculiar difficulties from the intricate
nature of the countiy. A new road was made for
the heavy cannon, and on the 26th of May 1796,
the gaiTison surrendered. St. Vincent was next
subdued ; and thence the commander-in-chief pro-
ceeded to Grenada, where the fierce and enteipris-
ing Fedon was at the head of a body of insurgents
prepared to oppose the British. After the arrival
.of General Abercromby, however, hostilities were
speedily bix)ught to a termination; and on the
19th of June, full possession was obtained of every
post in the island, and the haughty chief Fedon,
with his troops, was reduced to unconditional sub-
mission. The British also became masters of the
Dutch colonies on the coast of Guiana, namely
Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice.
Early in the following year (1797) the general
sailed, with a considerable fleet of ships of war
and transports, against the Spanish island of Tri-
nidad, and on the 16th of February approached
the fortifications of Gaspar Grande, under cover
of which a Spanish squadron, consisting of four
sail of the line and a frigate, were found lying at
anchor. On perceiving the approach of the Bri-
tish, the Spanish fleet retired farther into the bay.
General Abercromby made arrangements for at-
tacking the town and ships of war early in the
following moniing. Dreading the impending con-
flict, the Spaniards set fire to their own ships, and
rctired to a different part of the island. On the
following day the British troops landed, and soon
after the whole colony submitted to General Aber-
cromby.
After an unsuccessftil attack on the Spanish
island of Puerto Rico, the general returned to
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ABERCROMBY,
SIR RALPH.
England the same year (1797) and waa received
with every demonstration of public respect and
honour. In his absence lie had been made a
kniglit of the Bath and presented to the colonelcy
of the Scots Greys. On his return he was ap-
pointed governor of the Isle of Wight, and was
afterwards invested with the lucrative govern-
ments of Forts Geoi*ge and Augustus. The same
year he was raised to the rank of lientenant-gen-
cral, which he had hitherto held only locally.
In 1798 Sir Ralph was appointed commander-
in-chief of the forces in Ireland, where the insur-
rectionary spirit, inflamed by promises of assist-
ance from France, was every day assuming a more
serious form and threatening to break out into
open rebellion. Soon after his arrival, finding
that the disorderly conduct of some of the British
troops had bnt too much tended to increase the
spirit of insubordination and discontent that pre-
vailed, he Issued a proclamation, in which he
lamented and reproved the excesses and irregu-
larities into which they had fallen, and which, to
use his own w^ords, "had rendered them more for-
midable to their friends than to their enemies,"
and declared his firm determination to punish,
with exemplary severity, any similar outrage of
which they might be guilty in future. He did not
long retain his command in Ireland. The incon-
veniences arising from the delegation of the high-
est civil and military authority to diflbrent persons,
had been felt to occasion much perplexity and
confusion in the management of public affairs, at
that season of agitation and alarm, and finding
the service, under such circumstances, disagree-
able. Sir Ralph resigned the command, and the
Marquis Coniwallis, on becoming lord -lieutenant
of Ireland, was appointed his successor.
Sir Ralph waa next nominated commander-in-
chief of the forces in Scotland ; and for a short
interval, the cares of his military duties were
agreeably blended with the endearments of his
kindi'ed and the society of his early friends.
During his residence in Edinburgh at this time,'
the military spirit that generally prevailed ren-
dered the occurrence of reviews extremely popular
among the inhabitants. The accompan3ing wood-
cut represents Sir Ralph in the act of giving the
word of command to the troops.
It was at this period that the I^chiel Highland-
ers were inspected at Falkirk by General Vyse,
one of the major-generals of the staff in Scotland,
under Sir Ralph Abercromby, who was present at
the inspection. Cameron, the chief of I^chicl,
man-ied Sir Ralph's eldest daughter Anne. The
regiment was ostensibly composed of Camerons,
but there were enrolled in its ranks, not only
lowlanders, but even Englishmen and Irishmen.
Some laughable attempts at fraud in endeavouring
to pass inspection are related, but unless actually
disabled, few objections were made, although
Scotsmen in general found a preference. ** Where
are yon from?" said General Vyse to a strange-
looking fellow, who was evidently an Irishman,
although he endeavoured to make believe that he
was Scotch. "From Falkirk, yir honour, this
morning," was the ready answer. His language
betraying him, the general demanded to know
how he came over. "Sure I didn't come in a
wheelbarrow ! " The rising choler of the inspect-
ing officer was speedily soothed by the milder tact
of Sir Ralph, who, seeing the man a fit recruit,
laughed heartily, and he was passed. On this
occasion Sir Ralph, during his stay in Falkirk,
took up his residence with the son of his late fa-
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ABERCROMBY,
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SIR RALPH.
tlier's gardener at Tullibody, Mr. James Walker,
a merchant in the town, and long known for his
agricultural skill, as *^ the Stirlingshire Fanner."
Sir Ralph delighted, after dinner, to recall the in-
cidents of their boyhood, when he and Mr. Walk-
er, with their brothers, were at school together.
He had previously shown the attachment of former
days to a younger brother of Mr. Walker, during
the struggle for liberty between America and the
mother country. These kindly and benevolent
traits, it has been well remarked, easily explain
why Sir Ralph Abercromby was personally so
dear to all who knew him. — [Kcn/^g Edinburgh
Portraits.'}
In the autumn of 1799 he was selected to take
the chief command of the expedition sent out to
Holland, for the purpose of restoring the prince of
Orange to the stadtholdership, from which he had
been driven by the French. In this expedition
the British were at the outset successful. On the
27th of August the British troops disembarked
near the Holder point, but were almost imme-
diately attacked by General Daendells; after a
contest, which lasted from day-dawn till about
Ave in the afternoon, the Dutch were defeated,
and retired, leaving the British in possession of a
ridge of sand hills which stretched along the coast
from south to north. Sir Ralph Abercromby re-
solved to attack the Helder next morning, but the
enemy withdrew during the night, in consequence
of which thirteen ships of war and three India-
men, together with the arsenal and naval maga-
zine, fell into the possession of the British. Ad-
miral Mitchell, who commanded the British fleet,
immediately offered battle to the fleet of the Ba-
tavian republic lying in the Texel, but the Dutch
sailors refusing to fight against those who were
combating for the rights of the prince or Orange,
the whole fleet, consisting of twelve sail of the
line, surrendered to the British admiral. This
encouraging event, however, did not put an end
to the struggle. The mass of the Dutch people
held sentiments very different from those of the
sailors, and they refused to receive the British as
their deliverers from the yoke of France. On the
morning of the 10th of September the Dutch and
French forces attacked the position of the British,
which extended from Petten on the German ocean
to Oude-Sluys on the Zuyder-Zee. The onset
was made with the utmost bravery, but the enemy
were repulsed with the loss of a thousand men.
From the want of numbers, however, Sir Ralph
Abercromby was unable to follow up this advan-
tage, until the duke of York arrived as command-
er-in-chief, with a reinforcement of Russians,
Batavians, and Dutch volunteers, which augment-
ed the allied army to nearly thirty-six thousand
men. Sir Ralph now served as second in com-
mand.
On the morning of the 19th September the army
under the duke of York commenced an attack on
the enemy's positions on the heights of Camper-
down, which was successful. Tlie Russian troops,
under General Hermann, made themselves mas-
ters of Bergen, but beginning to pillage too soon,
the enemy rallied, and attacked them with so
much impetuosity that they were driven from the
town in all directions. Tlie British were in con-
sequence compelled to abandon the positions they
had stormed, and to fall back upon their foimer
station. Another attack was made on the 2d of
October. Tlie conflict lasted the whole day, and
the enemy abandoned their positions during the
night. On this occasion Sir Ralph Abei*cromby
had two horses shot under him. Sir John Moore
was twice wounded severely, and reluctantly car-
ried off* the field, while the marquis of Huntly
(the last duke of Gordon) who, at the head of the
92d regiment, eminently distinguished himself,
received a wound from a ball in the shoulder.
The Dutch and French troops had taken up ano-
ther strong position between Benerwych and the
Zuyder-Zee, from which it was resolved te dis-
lodge them before they could obtain reinforce
ments. A day of sanguinary fighting ensued,
which continued without intermission till ten
o'clock at night amid deluges of rain. The French
republican general, Bmne, having been reinforced
with six thousand additional men, and the giound
which he occupied being found to be impregnable,
the duke of York resolved upon a retreat. A con-
vention was accordingly concluded with General
Bmne, by which the British troops were allowed
to embark for England.
In June 1800 Sir Ralph was appointed to the
command of the troops, then quartered in the
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ABERCROMBY,
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island of Minorca, which had been sent oat upon
a secret expedition to the Mediterranean. On
the 22d of that month he arrived at Minorca, and
on the 23d the troops wei-e embarked, and sailed
for I^gbom. They arrived there on the 9th of
Jnlj, bnt in consequence of an armistice having
been concluded between the French and the Ans-
trians, they did not land there ; but while part of
the troops proceeded to Malta, the remainder re-
\ turned to Minorca. On the 26th of July Sir
Ralph arrived again at that island, where he re*
roained till the SOth of August, when the troops
were again embarked ; and on the 14th September
the fleet, which consisted of upwards oY two hun-
dred sail, under the command of Admiral Lord
Keith, came to anchor off Europa point in the bay
of Gibraltar. After taking in water at Teutan,
the fleet, on the 3d of October, arrived off Cadiz,
where it was intended to disembark the troops,
and orders were accordingly issued for the purpose,
but a flag of truce was sent from the shore, and
some negotiations took place between the com-
manders, in consequence of which the orders for
landing were countermanded. After thus threat-
ening Cadiz, and sailing about apparently without
any distinct destination, orders were at last re-
eeivcd from England, for part of the troops to pro-
ceed to Portugal, and the remainder to Malta,
where they arrived about the middle of Novem-
ber. The latter portion afterwards formed part
of the forces employed in the expedition to Egypt,
with the view of driving the French out of that
country. The sailing backwards and forwards of
the fleet for so many months, seemingly without
any definite aim, so far from being indicative of
want of design or weakness in the councils of the
government at home, as was believed and said at
the time, was no doubt intended to deceive the
French as to the real object and destination of the
expedition.
From Malta the fleet, with Sir Ralph Aber-
cromby and the troops on board, sailed on the
20th December, taking with them 500 Maltese
recruits, designed to act as pioneers. On the 1st
of January 1801, it rendezvoused in the bay of
Marmorice, on the coast of Caramania, where it
remained till the 23d of February, on which day,
to the number of 175 sail, it weighed anchor
again ; and on the 1st of March, it came in sight
of the coast of Egypt. On the following morning
the fleet anchored in Aboukir bay, in the very
place where, a few years before, Admiral Nelson
had adde^ so signally to the naval triumphs of
Great Britain.
This was undoubtedly the most glorious period
of Sir Ralph Abercromby's career. " All minds,**
says a contemporary historian, '* were now anxi-
ously directed towards Egypt. It was a novel
and interesting spectacle to contemplate the two
most powerful nations of Europe contending in
Africa for the possession of Asia. Not only to
England and France, but the whole civilized
world, the issue of this contest was of the utmost
importance With respect to England, the difil-
culties to be surmounted were proportioned to the
magnitude of the object. Tlie vizier, with his
usual irresolution, yet debated on the propriety of
co-operation, while the captain bashaw, who was
at Constantinople, with part of his fleet, inclined
to treat with the enemy. The English taking the
unpopular side, that of the government, still less
was to be hoped from the countenance and support
of the people, whom the French had long flattered
with the idea of freedom and independence. It
remained, also, to justify the breach of faith so
speciously attributed to this nation in the treaty
of El Arish. These were serious obstacles to the
progress of the expedition in Egypt; but they
were not the only obstacles. The expedition had
to contend with an army habituated to the coun-
try, respected at least, if not beloved, by the in-
habitants, and flushed with reputation and suc-
cess; an army inured to danger; aware of the
importance of Egypt to their government ; deter-
mined to defend the possession of it ; and encour-
aged in this determination, no less by the assur-
ance of speedily receiving effectual succours, than
by the promise of reward, and the love of glory."
The violence of the wind, from the 1st to the
7th of March, rendered a landing impracticable ;
bnt the weather becoming calmer on the 7th, that
day was spent in reconnoitring the shore ; a ser-
vice in which Sir Sidney Smith displayed great
skill and activity.
In the meantime Bonaparte had sent naval
and military reinforcements from Europe, and the
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ABERCROMBY,
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SIR RALPH.
delay ill the disembarkation of the British troops
caused by the state of the weather, enabled the
French to make all necessary preparations to re •
ceive them. Two thousand five hundred of the
latter were strongly intrenched on the sand hills
near the shore, and formed, in a concave figure,
opposite the British ships. The main body of the
French army was stationed at and near Alexan-
dria, within a few miles. At two oVlock on the
morning of the 8th, the Bi-itish troops began to
assemble in the boats, their fire-locks between their
knees. A rocket from the admiral's ship gave the
signal ; and when all was ready, the boats, con
taining five thousand men, pulled in towards the
shore, a distance of about five miles. The silence
was broken only by the sullen dip of the oars. As
soon as the boats came within reach, a most tre-
mendous fire was opened upon them from fifteen
pieces of artillery placed on the ridge of sand hills
in front, besides the guns of Aboukir castle and
the musketry of 2,500 men. These completely
swept the sea, and the falling of the balls and shot
is compared, by a contemporary writer, to the
falling of a violent hail-storm on the water. Two
boats were sunk with all on board of them. Each
man had belts loaded with three days* provisions,
and a cartouch-box with sixty rounds of ball car-
tridge. It was nine oVlock when the rest reached
land ; and the French, who had poured down in
thousands to the beach, and even attacked the
Bi-itish in the boats, were ready to receive them
at the bayonet's point. It was now that their
commander reaped the advantage of his precau-
tionary discipline. While anchored in the bay
of Marmorice, he had caused the troops to prac-
tise all the manoeuvres of landing ; so that, disem-
barkation having become familiar to them, on
reaching the shore, they leaped fVom the boats,
formed into line, mounted the heights, in the fkce
of the enemy's Qre^ without returning a shot,
charged with the bayonet the enemy stationed on
the summit, put them to flight, and seized their
cannon. In this service the 28d and 40th regi-
ments, which first reached the shore, particularly
distinguished themselves ; while the seamen, har-
nessing themselves to the field artillery with ropes,
drew them on shore, and replied to the incessant
roar of the hostile cannon with repeated and tri-
umphant cheei-3. In vain did the enemy endea-
vour to rally his troops; in vain did a body ol
cavalry charge suddenly on the guards at the mo-
ment of their debarkation. The French gave way
at all points, maintaining, as they retreated, a
scattered and inefficient fire. The boats returned
to the ships for the remaining part of the army,
and before noon the landing was effected. It not
being deemed expedient, however, to bring on
shore the camp stores; the commander-in-chief
and the troops, after having advanced three miles
into the country, alike slept in huts made of the
date-tree branches.
The next day the troops were employed in
searching for water, in which they happily sue- '
ceeded ; and the castle of Aboukir refusing to sur-
render, two regiments were ordered to blockade it.
On the 13th, Sir Ralph, desirous of forcing the
heights near Alexandra, on which a body of
French, amounting to 0,000 men, was posted,
marched his aiiny to the attack.
After a severe contest, the French were com-
pelled to retire to the heights of Necopolis, which
formed the principal defence of Alexandria. Anx-
ious to follow up the victory, by driving the enemy
from his new position, Sir Ralph ordered forwai-d
the resei*ve under Sir John Moore, and the second
line under General Hutchinson, to attack the
heights, which were found to be commanded by
the guns of the fort. As they advanced into the
open plain, they were exposed to a most destruc-
tive fire, from which they had no shelter; and
having ascertained that the heights, if taken,
could not be retained, the attempt was aban-
doned, and the British army retired, with consider-
able loss, to the position which was soon to be
the theatre of Sir Ralph's last victory; — that,
namely, from which the enemy had been driven,
comprising a front of more than half-a-inile in ex-
tent, with their right to the sea, and their left, to
the canal of Alexandria and Lake Maadie, thus
cutting off all communication with the city, ex-
cept by way of the desert. The loss of the Brit-
ish, on that unfortunate day, in killed and wound-
ed, was upwards of 1,000, and Greneral Aber-
cromby himself, on this occasion, had a very
narrow escape. His horse being shot under him,
he became surrounded by the enemy's cavalry.
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ABERCRO^IBY,
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SIR RALPH.
and was rescued only by the devoted intrepiflity
of the 19th regiment. After the 13th, Abonkir
castle, which had hitherto been only blockaded,
was besieged, and on the 18th the garrison sur-
rendered. The annexed woodcut represents the
general viewing the anny encamped on the plains
of Egypt, a short time before his lamented death.
It is vei*}' characteristic of him, and though the
glass at his eye may indicate that age had begun
to affect his sight, the erectness of his figure shows
tliat, notwitlistanding his long and active career,
advancing years and the hard sen'iccs in which
he had been engaged, had left their traces but
lightly on his frame
The French commander-in-chief. General Me-
nou, having arrived from Cairo, with a reinforce-
ment of 9,000 men, early on the moniing of the
21st of March, was fought the decisive battle of
Alexandria, in which, after a sanguinaiy and pro-
tracted stniggle, the British were victorious. Gen-
eral Menon being obliged to retreat with a loss
of between three and four thousand men, including
many officers, and three generals killed. Tlio loss
of the British was also heavy, and this was the
last f^eld of the victor, for here Sir Ralph Abcr-
cromby received his death -wound.
Meaning to surprise the British, the French
commander attacked their position between three
and four o'clock in the morning, with his whole
foree, amounting to about twelve thousand men.
Tlie action was commenced by a feigned attack
on the left, while the main strength of the enemy
was directed against the right wing of the British
army. They advanced in columns, shouting " Vive
--J
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ABERCROMBY,
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Sm RALPH.
la France 1" "Vive la Hepubliqne!'' bnt they
were received with steady coolness by the British
troops, who, wai-ned the previous evening, by an
Arab chief, of the intentions of the French gen-
eral, were in battle array by three oVlock, and
prepared to receive the onset of the enemy. The
contest continued with varioos success nntil eight
o'clock, when General Menou, finding that all his
efforts were fruitless, ordered a retreat, and from
the want of cavalry on the part of the British, the
French effected their escape to Alexandria, in
good order.
On the first alarm. Sir Ralph Abercromby,
blending the coolness and experience of age with
the ardour and activity of youth, repaired on
horseback to the right, and exposed himself to all
the dangers of the field. During the battle he
rode about in all paiis, cheering and animating
his men, and while it was still dark he got among
the enemy, who had already broken the front line
and fallen into the rear. Unable to distinguish
the French soldiers fi*om his own, he was only ex-
tricated from his dangerous situation by the val-
our of his troops. To the first British soldier who
came up to him he said, " Soldier ! if 3'ou know
me, don't name me." Soon after, two French
dragoons rode furiously at him, and attempted to
lead him away prisoner. Sir Ralph, however,
would not yield; one of his assailants made a
thrust at his breast, and passed his sword with
great force under the general's arm. Although
severely bruised by a blow from the sword-guard.
Sir Ralph, with the vigour and strength of arm
for which he was distinguished, seized the French-
man's weapon, and after a short struggle, wrested
it from his hand, and turned to oppose his remain-
ing adversary, who, at that instant, was shot dead
by a corporal of the 42d, who had witnessed the
danger of his commander, and ran up to his as-
sistance; on which the other dragoon retired.
Although Sir Ralph, early in the action, had
been wounded in the thigh by a musket ball, he
treated the wound as a trifle, and continued to
move about, and give his orders with his charac-
teristic promptitude and clearness. On the re-
treat of the enemy he fainted fVom pain and the
loss of blood. His magnanimous conduct, both
during the battle and after it, is thus detailed by
the late General David Stewart, of Garth, who
was an eye-witness to it. After describing Sit
Ralph's rencontre with the French dragoons, he
continues : " Some time after the general attempt-
ed to alight from his lioi-se ; a soldier of the High-
landers, seeing that he had some difficulty in
dismounting, assisted him, and asked if he should
follow him with the hoi-se. He answered, that
he would not require him any more that day.
While all this was passing, no officer was near
him. The first officer he met was Sir Sidney
Smith ; and observing that his sword was broken,
the general presented him with the tro])hy he had
gained. He betrayed no symptom of personal
pain, nor relaxed a moment the intense interest
he took in the state of the field ; nor was it per-
ceived that he was wounded, till he was joined by
some of the staff, who observed the blood trick-
ling down his thigh. Even during the interval
from the time of his being wounded, and the last
charge of cavalry, he walked with a fii-m and
steady step along the line of the Highlanders and
General Stuart's brigade, to the position of the
guards in the centre of the line, where, from its
elevated situation, he had a full view of the wnole
field of battle. Here he remained, regardless of
the wound, giving his orders so much in his usual
manner, that the officers who came to receive
them perceived nothing that indicated either pain
or anxiety. These officers afterwards could not
sufficiently express their astonishment, when they
came to learn the state in which he was, and the
pain which he must have suffered from the nature
of his wound. A musket ball had entered his
groin, and lodged deep in the hip joint ; the ball
was even so firmly fixed in the hip joint that it
required considerable force to extract it after his
death. My respectable friend. Dr. Alexander
Robertson, the surgeon who attended him, assured
me that nothing could exceed his surprise and
admiration at the calmness of his heroic patient.
With a wound in such a part, connected with and
bearing on every part of his body, it is a matter
of surprise how he could move at all, and nothing
bnt the most intense interest in the fate of his
army, the issue of the battle, and the honour of
the British name, could have inspired and sus-
tained such resolution. As soon as the impulse
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ABERCROMBY,
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SIR RALPH.
ceased ill the assurance of victory, lie yielded to
exhausted nature, acknowledged that he required
some rest, and lay down on a little sand hill close
to the battery."
Fi-om the field of victory he was removed on a
litter, feeble and faint, on board the admiral's flag
ship, *the Foudroyant,' where every effort was
made by the medical gentlemen of the fleet and
the aimy to extract the ball, but without effect.
During a week that he lingered in great bodily
suffering, he continued to exercise the same vigi-
lance over the condition and prospects of his ar-
my as he had manifested while at its head. His
son. Lieutenant -colonel Abcrcromby, attended
him from day to day, and regularly received his
instructions, as if no serious accident had befallen
him. lliroughout the evening of the 27th, he
t)ccame more than usually restless, and complain-
ed of excessive languor, and an increased degree
of thirst ; next day mortification supervened, an J
in the evening he expired ; thus closing his glori-
ous career, on the 28th March 1801, in the 68th
yiiar of his age.
In the despatches sent home with an account of
his death by General (afterwards Lord) Hutchin-
son, who succeeded him in the command, the lat-
ter says : " We have sustained an irreparable loss
ill the person of our never-suflSciently- to-be-la-
mented commander-in-chief, Sir Ralph Abcr-
cromby, who was mortally wounded in the action,
and died on the 28th of March. I believe he was
wounded early, but he concealed his situation
from those about him, and continued in the field
giving his orders with that coolness and perspicu-
ity which had ever marked his character, till long
after the action was over, when he fainted through
weakness and loss of blood. Were it permitted
for a soldier to regret any one who has fallen in
the service of his country, I might be excused for
lamenting him more than any other person ; but
it is some consolation to those who tenderly loved
him, that, as his life was honourable, so was his
death glorious. His memory will be recorded in
the annals of his country, will be sacred to every
British soldier, and embalmed in the i*ccollection
of a grateful posterity." His remains were con-
veyed, (in compliance with his own request,) to
Malta, and inteiTed in the Commandery of the
Grand Master, beneath the castle of St. Elmo. A
monument was erected to his memory in St. Paul's
Cathedral, parliament having voted a sum of
money for the purpose. His widow was created
Bai-oness Abercromby of Aboukir and Tullibody,
with remainder to the hcire-male of the deceased
general ; and, in support of the dignity, a pension
of £2,000 a-year was granted to her, and to the
two next succeeding heirs-male.
Sir Ralph Abercromby possessed, in a high de-
gree, some of the l>est qualities of a general, and
his coolness, decision, and intrepidity, wei-e the
theme of general praise. As a country gentleman,
also, his character stood very high, being described
as ** the friend of the destitute poor, the patron of
useful knowledge, and the promoter of education
among the meanest of his cottagers." His studies
were of so general a nature that it is stated In
Stiriing's edition of Nimmo's History of Stirling-
shire, that when called to the continent in 1793,
he had been daily attending the lectures of the
late Dr. Hai*dy, regius professor of church history
in the university of Edinburgh.
To Sir Ralph's patronage many who would
otherwise have passed their lives in obscurity,
owed their being placed in situations where they
had opportunities of advancement and distinction ;
among the rest was the late Major-general Sir
William Morison, K.C.B., one of the many able
officers whom the East India Company's seiTice
has produced. His father, Mr. Morison of Green-
field, Clackmannanshire, was a land surveyor in
Alloa in the county of Stirling, who was well
known to most of the gentlemen in that neigh-
bourhood, and was in particular employed by Sir
Ralph Abercromby. When Sir Ralph was going
abroad on foreign service, he had occasion to con-
sult Mr. Morison, the father, about one of his
farms, and was particularly pleased with the accu-
racy and clearness of the plan and its references,
which he submitted to him. On being asked who
drew them up, Mr. Moiison told Sir Ralph that it
was done by his son, and the general immediately
said that he should like to have the whole of his
estate mapped in the same manner, so that, when
away from home, he might be able, by i*efercnco,
to correspond about any point that occurred. Ttic
maps were made by young Morison, who waited on
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ABERCROMBY.
14
ABERNETHY.
Sir Ralph to explain them, and tlic veteran gen-
eral, who was a gi*eat judge of character, instantly
perceived the value of the self-taught youth. He
made inquiries as to his views and pros|XJcts, and
finding that he was anxious to go to India, he
procured for him a cadetship, in the year 1800.
From the outset the young man justified Sir
Ralph's estimate of his abilities, and he so applied
his faculties to military science, that his attain-
ments raised him to a high i-ank in the Indian
army, and he died 15th May 1851, a major-general
in the East India Company's service, a knight
commander of the Bath, and member of pailia-
ment for Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire.
Sir Ralph married Mary Anne, daughter of
John Menzies, Esq. of Fcnitower, Perthshire, and
left four sons, viz. George, passed advocate in 179-1,
wiio succeeded his mother on her death in 1821,
as Loi*d Abercromhy, and died in 1843 ; Sir John,
a major-general, and G.C.B., who died unmar-
ried in 1817 ; James, a barrister at law, returned,
with Francis Jeffrey, Esq., (subsequently a lord
of session,) as one of the membei's of parliament
for the city of Edinburgh at the first election under
the Reform act, aftei*wards Speaker of the House
of Commons, created Lord Dunfermline in 1839 ;
and Alexander, a colonel in the army ; with three
daughters; Anne, married to Donald Cameron,
Esq. of Lochicl; Maiy, died unmarried in 1825;
and Catherine, wife of Thomas Buchanan, Esq.,
in the East India Company's service. Lord Dun-
fermline, the third son, died in 1858, leaving a
son, Ralph, second Lord Dunfermline. (See Dun-
fermline, Lord, vol. ii. p. 105.)
ABERCROMBY, Alexander, an eminent
lawyer and occasional essayist, was born October
15, 1745. He was tlie second son of George
Abercromby of Tullibody, and the brother of Sir
Ralph. He received his education at the univer-
sity of Edinburgh, and was admitted a membei of
the faculty of advocates in 1766. He distin-
guished himself at the bar, and in 1780, after
being sheriff of Stirlingshire, he became one of
the depute-advocates. He was raised to the bench
m May 1792, when he assumed the title of Lord
Abercromby. In December of the same year, he
was made a lord of justiciary. He was one of the
originators of the * Mirror,' a periodical published
at Edinbui'gh in 1779 and following year, to which
he contributed eleven papers. He also furnished
nine papers to the ' Lounger,' a work of a similar
kind, published in 1785 and 1786. He caught a
cold, while attending his duty on the northern
circuit in the spring of 1795, from which he never
recovered, and died on the 17th of November of
that yeai*, at Exmouth, in Devonshire, where he
had gone on account of his health. A short tri-
bute to his memory was written by his friend,
Henry Mackenzie, for the Royal Society of Edin-
burgh.— Haig and Brunton's Senators of the Col-
lege of Justice.
ABERCROMBY, Sir Robert, the youngest
brother of Sir Ralph Abercromby, was a general
in the army, a knight of the Bath, and at one pe-
riod the governor of Bombay and commander-in-
chief of the forces in India. He was afterwards
for thirty yeara governor of the castle of Edin-
burgh. When the late Mr. Robert Haldane, the
brother of Mr. James Alexander Haldane, de-
tei-mined upon selling his estates, and devoting
himself to the diffusion of the gospel in India,
Sir Robert Abercromby, whose niece Mr. J. A.
Haldane had married, purchased from him his
beautiful and romantic estate of Airthrey, in Stir-
lingshire, and was succeeded by his nephew, Ixird
Abercromby, the son of his elder brother, Sir
Ralph. Sir Robert died in 1827.
Aberdeen, earldom of, a peerage possessed by a branch
of the ancient family of Gordon. In 1644, Sur John Gordon
of Haddo was beheaded at Edinburgh, for his adlierence to
the cause of Charles I. After the Restoration, Sir John
Gordon, his eldest son, was restored to the baronetage which
had been bestowed on his father m 1642, and to the estates of
the family. He was succeeded by his brother George, who
was lord high chancellor of Scotland in 1682, and the sjinie
year was created Earl of Aberdeen, Viscount Formartuic, Ba-
ron Haddo, Methlic, Tarves, and Kellie. In 1814 the fourth
earl of Aberdeen was created Viscount Gordon of Aberdeen,
m the peerage of the United Kingdom. See Gdrdon, p. S23.
Abkrnbthy— (beyond the Nethy)— a surname derived
from a barony of that name in Lower Strathcam, Perthshire,
which was possessed m the reign of William I. by Ormc, the
son of Hugh, who was styled Abbot of Abemethy, and whose
descendants assumed the name of Abemethy. In 1288 Sir
William de Abemethy, the first of the family styled of Sal-
toun, and Sir Patrick de Abemethy, lay in wait for Duncan
earl of Fife, one of the regents of the kingdom during the
minority of Margaret of Norway, at Fotpollock, and murdered
hun. William was seized by Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell
and condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and Patrick fled
into France and died there. [ForduH.'] His nephew, Alex
ander de Abemethy, in 1308, along with Robert de Keith.
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ABERNETHY.
16
ABERNETHY.
Adam de Gordon, and other leading barons, were sureties to
Edward for the good behaviour of William de Lanibjrton,
bishop of St Andrews. [^Rtfmer't Fadera, tome iiL p. 82.]
The same individual was appomted bj £dward warden of
the country between the Forth and the mountains of Scot-
land, 15th June, 1310. \^lbid. tome iii. p. 211.] His eldest
daughter Margaret was man-ied to John Stewart, earl of An-
^us, who got with her the baronj of Abemethy, the superior-
ity of which is still possessed by the family of Douglas, (now
Hamilton,) as representatives of the earl of Angus. To the
famous letter to the Pope, drawn up by the barons of Scot-
land at the parliament ik Aberbrothio 6th April, 1320, appears
the name of William de Abemethy, lord of Saltoun. He
was the son of the first Sir William de Abemethy of Saltoun.
His son, also named Sir William, appears in the list of noble
persons who fought at the battle of Halidon hill, 19th July,
1333, [Haiie$^ AtmalSy voL ii. p. 307,] from which disastrous
field he appears to have escaped. He had from David II. a
grant of the lands of Rothiemay in Aberdeenshire. George
Abemethy of Saltoun, his son, was taken prisoner at the fatal
fight of Durham, 17th Oct, 1846. At the battle of Harlaw
24th July 1411, William Abemethy, son and heir to the Lord
Saltoun, was one of the prmdpal leaders, and was slain. But
altiiongh he is called ** the worthy Lord Saltone ** and of his
death it is said in the popular ballad,
" And on the other side war lost
Into the field that dismal day,
Cliicf men of worth of micide cost.
To be lamented sair for aye,
Tlie lord Sallone of Rothiemay,
A man of micht and micklo wain.
Great dolour was for his decay
That sae unhappily was slain ;"
yet the peerage was not conferred upon the family till 28th
June, 1445, — 34 years later, — in the person of Laurence
Abemethy of Saltoun and Rothiemay, created Baron Saltoun
of Abemethy, and as the said William Abemethy predeceased
his father, he was called '' the Lord Saltone^ only by courtesy.
This Laurence Abemethy of Saltoun and Rothiemay, first
Lord Saltoun, was the twelfth in descent from Orm the
.bunder of the famOy. Margaret, the eldest daughter of the
seventh Lord Saltoun, married Sir Alexander Fraser of Phil-
orth in Aberdeenshire, and their son, Sir Alexander Fraser,
became the tenth Lord Saltoun, and his descendants suc-
ceeded to the title. The brother of his mother, John,'
eighth Lord Saltoun, sold the estate of Rothiemay. The
family of Abemethy is now represented by the Frasers of
rhilorth, lords Saltoun. — See Saltoun. — The parish and
village of Abemethy are of great antiquity. The latter
was at one period the capital of the Pictish kings. It is
named by various English writers and by Fordoun as the
pbce where Malcolm Canmore concluded a peace with Wil-
liam the Conqueror in 1072, delivered to bun hostages, and
did homage to him for the lands wliich he held in England.
But although now a mean village, ** it would appear,*' says Dr.
Jamieson, ** that it was a royal residence in the reign of one
of the Pictish princes who bore the name of Ncthan or Nectan.
I'he Pictish chronicle has ascribed the foundation of Abeme-
thy to Nethan I., in the tlurd year of his reign, corresponding
with A.D. 458. The Register of St Andrews, with greater
probability, gives it to Nethan 11. about the year 600." We
find that while the church of Abemethy was granted by
William I. in 1178, to his foundation of the abbey of Aber-
brothock, Orme, abbot of Abemethy, granted the half of tlie
tithes of the property of himself and his heirs to the same
mstitution. The other half belonged to the Culdees, as in
ancient times Abemethy was a prindiol seat of the Culdees,
who had a university at Abemethy, which in 1273 was tumcd
mto a priory of canons r^ular of St Augustine. It is a
burgh of barony, and has a charter from Archibald, earl of
Angus, lord of Abemethy, dated November 29, 1628. The
title of Lord Abemethy was conferred on the eari of Angus
when created marquis of Douglas in 1633, and is now one of
the inferior titles of the duke of Hamilton as representative
and chief of the illustrious house of Doughis. — See Hamiltok.
ABERNETHY, John, an eminent physician of
London, was born in 1763 or 1764, at Abenietliy
in Perth8hire,it is believed ; although Londondeiry
in Ireland is also mentioned as his birth-place.
When very young, his parents removed to Lon-
don, where he was apprenticed to the late Mr.
(afterwards Sir) Charles Blick, surgeon of St.
Bartholomew's Hospital. He was the pupil and
friend of the celebrated John Hunter. In 1780,
on being elected assistant-surgeon to St. Bartho-
lomew's, he began to give lectures in the hospital
on anatomy and surgery. On the death of Sir
Charles Blick he succeeded him as surgeon to
the Hospital. In 1793 he published * Surgical
and Physiological Essays.' In 1804 appeared
* Surgical ObsciTations,' volume first, relating t4
tumours, and two yeai-s aflerwai-ds, volume se-
cond, treating principally of the digestive organs.
Having been elected anatomical lecturer to the
Royal College of Surgeons, he published in 1814
the subject of his first two lectures, under the
title of * An Enquiry into Mr. Hunter's Theoiy of
Life,' elucidatory of his old master's opinions of
the vital processes. In 1809 appeared his * Sur-
gical Observations on the Constitutional Origin
and Treatment of Ix>cal Diseases, and on Aneu-
risms,' in which are detailed his memorable cases
of tying the iliac artery for aneurism ; a bold and
successful operation, which at once established his
reputation. He was the author of several other
popular medical works. In chemistry, we owe to
him in conjunction with Mr. Howard, brother of
the duke of Norfolk, the discovery of the " fulmi-
nating mercury," the force of which, as an explo-
sive power, is greater than that of gunpowder.
He died on the 20th of April, 1831, at his hou^e
at Enfield. Many amusing anecdotes ai'e related
of his eccentricities. He attributed most com-
I)laint8 to the disordered state of the stomach, and
his chief remedies were exercise and regulation of
the diet. Once he prescribed a skipping rope to a
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ABERNETIIY
16
ABTHANE.
female hypochondriac patieut of the upper ranks ;
and at another time, as a cure for gout, lie advised
an indolent and luxurious citizen to ^^ live upon
sixpence a-day, and earn it." In spite of the
bluntness of his manner, however, he was very
benevolent, and often not only gratuitously visited
pei-sons whose poverty prevented them from com-
ing to him, but even sometimes supplied their
wants from his own purse. The following is the
account given of the abrupt and unceremonious
but truly characteristic manner in which he ob-
tained his wife. The name of the lady is not
given. " While attending a lady for sevei*al weeks,
he observed those admirable qualifications in her
daughter, which he truly esteemed to be calculated
to make the marriage state happy. Accordingly,
on a Saturday, when taking leave of his patient,
he addressed her to the following purport : — * You
are now so well that I need not see you after
Monday next, when I shall come and pay you my
farewell visit. But, in the meantime, I wish you
and your daughter seriously to consider the pro-
posal I am now about to make. It is abrupt and
unceremonious, I am aware; but the excessive
occupation of my time by my professional duties
affords me no leisure to accomplish what I desire
by the more ordinary course of attention and soli-
citation. My annual receipts amount to £ ,
and I can settle £ on my wife (mentioning
the sums) : my character is generally known to the
public, 80 that you may readily ascertain what it
is. I have seen in your daughter a tender and
affectionate child, an assiduous and careful nurse,
and a gentle and ladylike member of a family;
such a person must be all that a husband could
covet, and I offer my hand and fortune for hei*
acceptance. On Monday, when I call, I shall
expect your determination ; for I really have not
time for the routine of courtship.' In this humour,
the lady was wooed and won; and the union
proved fortunate in every respect."— ilwitto/ Obi'
tuary, 1832.
The following is a list of his works:
Surgical and Physiological Essays. Lond. 1793-7, 8vo.
Surgical Observations, containing a Classification of Tu-
mours, with Casefi to illustrate the History of each Species.
I^nd. 1804, 8vo.
Surgical Observations, part second, containing an Account
of the Disorders of the Health in general, and of the Digestive
Organs m particnlar. Observations on the Diseases of the
Urethra, and Observations relative to the Treatment of one
Species of the Na;\i MatenuB. Lond. 1806, 8vo. Lond.
1816, 8vo.
Sui^cai Observations on the Constitutional Origin and
Treatment of Local Diseases; and on Aneurisms. Lond.
1809, 8vo. 8d edit. 1813, 8vo.
Surgical Observations, part second, containing Observations
on the Origin and Treatment of Pseudo-syphilitic Diseases,
and on Diseases of the Urethra. Lond. 1810, 8vo.
Surgical Observations on Injuries of the Head, and other
Miscellaneous Subjects. Lond. 1810, 8vo.
An Inquuy into the Probability and Rationality of Mr.
Hunter*s Thooiy of Life, bemg the Subject of the first two
Anatomical Lectures before the Royal College of Surgeons.
Und. 1814, 8vo.
The Introductory Lecture for the year 1815, exhibiting
some of Mr. Hunter^s Opinions respecting Diseases; delivered
before Rojral College of Surgeons, I>ondoD. I^nd. 1816, 8vo.
Surgical Works, a new edit 1815, 2 vols. 8vo.
Fhysiohigical I^tnres, 1817.
Abotne, Eari of, a title possessed by the Gordon family,
derived from the parish of Aboyne in Aberdeensljire. On the
death of tlie lust duke of Gordon in 1836, when that dukedom
became extinct, the title of earl of Aboyne merged in that of
marquis of Huntly. (See Huittlt, marquis of.)
Abthane, a title which occurs in Scottish history, ana
which appears peculiar to Scotland, as no trace of it has been
found in any other country. It is a Thanedom or proprietor-
ship of land held of the crown, and in the possession of an
abbot Like a Thanedom also, it is the title of a Saxon pro
prietor, that is, a proprietor under the Saxon laws, holding
direct of the crown, and is therefore exactly equivalent to
that of a Norman baron. Three Abthainri«s only have been
as yet traced in Scotland, viz. those of Dull, Kilmichael, and
Madderty; the two former in Athol, the latter in Stratheam.
Mr. Skene, whose investigations supply the foregoing infor-
mation, seems to have established that all these three were
created between the years 1098 and 1124, — that is, between
the accession of Edgar to the throne and that of David I. ,
that they were all held in connection with the CiUdee monks
of Dunkeld ; that they must have been in possession of an
abbot of that monastery ; and that the party who then held
that dignity, and in whose favour they were created, was
Ethelred, youngest son of Malcolm III., who consequently
had obtained them firom one of his brothers, Edgar or Alex-
ander, the then reigning monarchs of Scothind. The fact of
the possession of these and other lands in Athol by the then
reigning family of ScotUmd, is one of the many circumstances
adduced by this gentleman to demonstrate the descent of
Malcolm III., and after him a long line of Scottish kings,
firom the ancient Maormors of Athol, one of the many facts
illustrative of early Scottish history for which we are mdebted
to his careful investigations and ingenious inductions. Seo
Athol, Earlb of. On the death of Ethehred, these hinds
again reverted to the crown. In various charters so recent as
the reign of David II. they are described as the "abChancs of
Dull " of '' Kilmichael,** &c The second family whoso chief
obtained the earldom of Lennox appears by -an entiy m an
early history of the Drummonds to have been previously
the hereditary baillies of the abthainries of Dull, and on the
promotion of its head to that dignity, that baillierie passed to
a younger branch or cadet of it according to Celtic usage.—
Skene on the Origin <ifiht Highhmdert^ vol. ii. pp. 129 — 137
152, 153.
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ACHATUS.
17
ADAIR.
ACHAIUS, or Achayus, or Eochy, the son of
King Ethwin, or Ewen, succeeded to the crown of
Scotland in 788, npon the death of Solvatins, or
Selvach. Before his accession to the throne, he
lived famUiarly with the nobles, and was well ac-
quainted with the causes of their mutual feuds. It
was, therefore, the first act of his reign to recon-
cile the chiefs with one another, and check the
turbulent spirit which their animosities had en-
gendered. No sooner had he succeeded in thus
reconciling his subjects, than he was called upon
to take measures to repel an aggression of the
predatory Irish. A number of banditti from Ire-
land, who infested the district of Eantyre, in the
west of Scotland, having been completely routed
by the inhabitants, the Irish nation was highly
exasperated, and resolved to revenge the injury
done to them. Achaius despatched an ambassa-
dor to soften their rage, but before he had time to
return from his fruitless mission, an immense
number of Irish plundered and laid waste the
island of Isla. These depredators were all drown-
ed when returning home with their spoil, and such
was the terror which this calamity inspii*ed into
the Irish, that they immediately sued for peace,
which was generously granted them by the king
of Scotland. A short time afler the conclusion of
this treaty, the emperor Charlemagne sent an am-
bassador to Achaius, requesting the Scots king to
enter into a strict alliance with him against the
English, who, in the language of the envoy,
'^shamefully filled both sea and land with their
piracies, and bloody invasions." After much hesi-
tation and debate among the king^s counsellors,
the alliance was unanimously agreed to, and
Achaius sent his brother William, along with
Clement, John Scotus, Raban, and Alcuin, a na-
tive of the north of England, four of the most
learned men then in Scotland, together with an
army of four thousand men, to accompany the
French ambassador to Paris, where the alliance
was concluded, on terms very favourable to the
Scots. In order to perpetuate the remembrance
of this event, Achaius added to the arms of Scot-
land a double field sowed with lilies. After as-
sisting Hungus, king of the Picts, to repel an
aggression of Athelstane, king of the West Sax-
ons, Achaius spent the rest of his reign in com-
plete tranquillity, and died in 819, distinguished
for his piety and wisdom. — Bretcster^s Edinburgh
Enqfclopedia,
ADAIR, James Makittrick, physician and
medical writer, was bom at Inverness in 1728,
and for several years practised at Bath. He was
noted for extreme irritability of temper, and
among other persons with whom he had a dispute
was the eccentric Philip Thicknesse, in the dedi-
cation to whose memoirs is given an account of
one of his last quarrels. He afterwards went to
Antigua, and became physician to the command-
er-in-chief and the colonial troops, and one of
the judges of the court of king's bench and com-
mon pleas in that island. He was the author of
several medical tracts on regimen, the materia
medica, &c., as also of a pamphlet against the
abolition of the slave trade. He died 24th April
1801, at Ayr.
The following is a list of Dr. Adair^s works : —
Medical Cautions for the ConsideratioD of Invalids, more
especially of those who resort to Bath. Lond. 1786, 8to
Second edit greatly enlaiged, 1787, 8to.
a Philoeopbical and Medical Sketch of the Natural Histoiy
of the Human Body and Mind, with an Essay on the Diffi-
culties of attaining Medical Knowledge. Lond. 1787, 8vo.
Essays on Fashionable Diseases ; the Dangerous Effects of
Hot and Crowded Rooms; the Clothing of Invalids; Lady
and Gentlemen Doctors; and on Quacks and Quackery.
Lond. 1789, 8vo.
Essay on a Non-Descript, or Newly Invented Disease ; its
Nature, Causes, and Means of Relief, with some very impor-
tant Observations on the Powerfnl and most Surprising Effects
of Animal Magnetism, in the Cure of the sAid Disease. I^ond.
1790, 8vo.
Anecdotes of the Life, Adventures, and Vindication of a
Medical Character, metaphorically Defunct. By Benjamin
Goosequin. Lond. 1790, 8vo, with regard to his own Ufii
and Character.
A Candid Inquiry into the Truth of Certain Charges of the
Dangerous Consequences of the Suttonian or Cooling Regi-
men under inoculation for the Small Pox ; with some remarks
on a Successful Method used some years ago in Hungary, in
the case of Natural Small Pox. Lond. 1790, 8vo.
Two Sermons; the first addressed to Seamen, the second
to British West India Slaves, by a Physician, (Dr. A.) ; to
which are subjoined, Remarks on Female Infidelity, and a
Plan of Platonic Matrimony, by which that Evil may be Les-
sened or totally Prevented, by F. G. 1791, 8^•o.
An Essay on Regimen. Air, 1799, 8vo.
Unanswerable Arguments against the Abolition of the Slave
Trade, with a Defence of the Proprietors of the British Sugar
Colonies. Lond. 1790, 8vo. •
An Essay on Diet and Regimen, as indispensable to the
Recovery and Preservation of Fum Health, especially to In-
dolent, Studious, Delicate, and Invalid; with appropriate
Cases. Lond. 1804, 8vo.
B
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ADAM.
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ADAM.
ObservationB on Regimen and Preparation under Inocula-
tion, and on the Treatment of the Natural Small Pox in the
West Indies; with Strictures on tho Suttoniaii Practice.
Med. Com. viii. p. 211, 1782.
Hints respecting Stimulants, Astringents, Anodjnas, Cicuta,
VcrmifugSf Nausativa, Fixed Air, Arsenicum Album, &c.
lb. ix. p. 206.
Remarks on Alnmen Rupium, and several other Articles of
the Materia Medica. lb. x. p. 283.
Three Cases of Pthisis Pulmonalis, treated by Cuprum
Vitriolatum and Conium Maculatum, two of which termi-
nated favourably. Med. Com. xriL p. 473, 1792.
Case of Inflammatory Constipation of the Bowels, socoess-
^ully treated. Mem. Med. il p. 236, 1789.
Adam, a surname belonging to a family of some antiqui-
ty in Scotland. Duncan Adam, son of Alexander Adnm,
lived in the reign of Robert the Bruce, and had four sons,
Rubert, John, Reginald, and Duncan, from whom all the
Adams, Adamsons, and Adies in Scotland, are descended.
IBurJx^s Landed Gerttn/.'] From the youngest son, Duncan
Adam, who accompanied James, Lord Douglas, in his expe-
dition to Spain on his way to the Holy Land, with the heart
of King Robert, is stated to have descended, John Adau.
who was slain at Floddcn in 1513. His son Charles Adam
was seated at Fanno, in Forfarshire, and his descendant in
the fourth degree, Archibald Adam, of Fanno, sold his
patrimonial lands in the time of Charles I., and acquired
those of Queensmanour in the same county. His great-
grandson, John Adam, married Helen Cranstoun, of the
family of Lord Cranstoun, by whom he left one son, Wu/-
LiAM Adam, an eminent arehitect, who purchased several
estates, particularly that of Blair, in the county of Kinross,
where he built a house and village, which he named Mary-
burgh. He married Mary, daughter of William Robertson,
Esq. of Gladney, and, with other issue, had John Adam,
his heir (the father of the Right Hon. William Adam, Lord
Chief Commissioner of the Jury Court in Scotland, the sub-
ject of a subsequent biography), and Robert and James
Adam, the celebrated arehitects, of both of whom notices are
here given : —
ADAM, Robert, a celebrated architect, was
bom at Kirkaldy in 1728. He was the second son
of Mr. William Adam of Maryburgh, who, like his
father, was also an architect, and who designed
Ilopetoun house, the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary,
and other buildings. After studying at the uni-
versity of Edinburgh, Robeit, in 1754, proceeded
to the continent, and resided three years in Italy,
studying his art. From the splendid monuments
of antiquity which that country presents to the
traveller, he imbibed that scientific style of design
by which all his works are distinguished. But it
was only from fragments that he was enabled to
form his taste, the ravages of time and the hands
of barbarian^ having united for the destruction of
those noble specimens of ancient architecture, the
ruins of which only remain to attest their former
grandeur and magnificence. With the intention
of viewing a more complete monument of ancient
splendour than any he had seen, accompanied by
M. Clerisseau, a French artist, and two expert
draughtsmen, in July 1757 he sailed from Venice
to Spalatro in Dalmatia, to inspect the remains of
the palace to which the emperor Dioclesian re-
tii'ed from the cares of government. Tliey found
the palace much defaced ; but as its remains still
exhibited the nature of the structure, they pro-
ceeded to a minute examination of its various
parts. Their labours, however, were immediately
interrupted by the interference of the government
of Venice, from a suspicion that they wei-e mak-
ing plans of the fortifications. Fortunately, Gen-
eral Grsme, commander-in-chief of the Venetian
forces, interposed ; and, being seconded by Count
Antonio Marcovich, they were soon allowed to
prosecute their designs. In 1762, on his return
to England, ho was appointed architect to the
king, an ofiSce which he resigned six years after-
wards, on being elected M.P. for the county of
Kinross. In 1764 he published, in one volume
folio, a splendid work, containing seventy-one en-
gravings and descriptions of the ruins of the pal-
ace of Dioclesian at Spalatro, and of some othef
buildings. In 1778 he and his brother James,
also an eminent architect, brought out *The Works
of R. and J. Adam,' in numbers, consisting of
plans and elevations of buildings in England
and Scotland, erected or designed, among which
are the Register House and the University of Ed-
inburgh, and the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, in
Scotland, and Sion House, Caen -Wood, Luton
Park House, and some edifices at Whitehall, in
England.
Mr. Adam died 3d March, 1792, by the burst-
ing of a blood-vessel, and was buried in Westmin-
ster Abbey. The year before his death he de-
signed no less than eight public buildings and
twenty-five private ones. His genius extended
itself beyond the decorations of buildings, to vari-
ous branches of manufacture; and besides tho
improvements which he introduced into the archi-
tecture of the countiy, he displayed great skill
and taste in his numerous drawings in landscape.
— Annual Register, vol. xxxiv. — Scots Mag, 1803.
Of the Register House at Edinburgh it is re-
marked by Telford, in his contribution on CivU
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Arcbitectnre to the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, that
^* only a part of thia masterly plan has been exe-
cuted, but even this composes an apparently com-
plete bnildiug. The original design as given in
the works of R. and J. Adam, has in the centre a
magnificent circular saloon, covered and lighted
by a dome. This saloon is surrounded by small
apartments, and the whole of these are enclosed
by buildings in the shape of a parallelogram, by
which ingenious contrivance access to all the
apartments and an effective lighting of tlie whole
is perfectly accomplished. Even as it is, this
building, both internally and externally, reflects
great credit on the architect, and from the chaste-
ness of the details, it is evident that the external
features have been the result of much atten-
tion. A greater degree of magniflcence," he adds,
*' might have been obtained by keeping the base-
ment of the principal front lower, by adding to
the magnitude of the order," and by a few modi-
flcatlous of other details.
Among the private edifices pertaining to Scot-
land connected with the name of Robert Adam,
are, Hopetoun House, on the south bank of the es-
tuary of the Forth, to which magnificent edifice he
added the graceful wings ; Melville Castle, on the
banks of the Esk near Lasswade, which was by
his ingenuity rendered a magnificent and appro-
priate feature In that part of the kingdom ; Cul-
zean Castle, on a bold promontory on the coast
of Ayrshire, where, with his usual fertility of in-
vention, the same architect has rendered this seat
of the marquis of Ailsa a just resemblance of a
Uoman villa as described by Pliny ; and last, but
not least, Gosford House in East Lothian, per-
haps the most extensive and superb of modem
Scottish structures, built by the earl of Wemyss
from one of his designs. Of Sion House, the
mansion of the duke of Northumberland, in the
county of Middlesex, the chief features of novelty
are in the style of Spalatra and the Pantheon at
llome, but the interior arrangements are in every
respect as good as can well be imagined. Luton
park in Bedfordshire, the seat of the marquis of
Bute, is the most original of all his works, and
although not in all respects the happiest, may be
considered — the facade especially— as designed in
his best manner.
ADAM, James, the brother of the preceding,
held, at one period, the ofl!ce of architect to his
majesty George III. He was the designer ol
Portland Place, one of the noblest streets in Lon*
don, and died on the 17th October, 1794. From
the two brothers the Adelphi Buildings in the
Sti*and derive their name, being their joint work.
ADAM, William, Right Hon., nephew of the
two foregoing gentlemen, lord chief commissioner
of the jury court in Scotland, on its fii-st introduc-
tion there for the trial of civil causes, the son of
John Adam of Blair Adam, and his wife Jean, the
daughter of John Ramsay, Esq., was bom 21st
July 1751, O.S. He was educated at Edinburgh,
Glasgow, and Oxford, and in 1773 was admitted
a member of the faculty of Advocates, but never
practised at the Scottish bar. In 1774 he was
chosen M.P. for Gatton ; in 1780 for Stranraer,
<&c. ; in 1784 for the Elgin burghs; and in 1790
for Ross-shire. At the close of Lord North's ad-
ministration in 1782, in consequence of some family
losses he became a bamster-at-law. In 1794 he
retired from parOamcnt to devote himself to his
profession. In 1802 he was appointed counsel for
the East India Company, and in 1806 chancellor of
the duchy of Cornwall. In the same year he was
returned M.P. for Kincardineshire, and in 1807,
being elected both for that county and for Kinross-
shire, he preferred to sit for the former. In 1811
he again vacated his seat for his professional duties.
Being now generally esteemed a sound lawyer his
practice increased, and he was consulted by the
prince of Wales, the duke of York, and many of
the nobility. In the course of his parliamentary
career, in consequence of something that occurred
in a discussion during the fii*st American war, he
fought a duel with the late Mi*. Fox, which hap-
pily ended without bloodshed, when the lattei
jocularly remai'kcd, that had his antagonist not
loaded his pistol with government powder, he
would have been shot. Mr. Adam genei*ally op-
posed the politics of Mr. Pitt. In 1814 he sub-
mitted to govcmmcnt the plan for trying civil
causes by jury in Scotland. In 1815 he was made
a privy councillor, and was appoint^ one of the
barons of the Scottish exchequer, chiefly with
the view of enabling him to introduce and estab-
lish the new system of trial oy jury in civil cases.
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ADAM.
In 1816 an act of parliament was obtained, insti-
tating a separate jury court in Scotland, in which
he was appointed lord chief commissioner, with
two of the judges of the court of session as his
colleagnes. He accordingly relinquished his sitn-
ation in the exchequer, and continued to apply
his energies to the duties of the jury court, over-
coming, by his patience, zeal, and urbanity, the
many obstacles opposed to the success of such an
institution. In 1880, when sufficiently organized,
the jury court was, by another act, transferred
to the court of session, and on taking his seat on
the bench of the latter for the first time, addresses
were presented to him from the Faculty of Advo-
cates, the Society of Writers to the Signet, and
the Solicitors before the Supreme Courts, thank-
ing him for the important benefits which the intro-
duction of trial by jury in civil cases had conferred
on the country. In 1833 he retired from the
bench ; and died at his house in Charlotte Square,
Edinburgh, on the 17th February 1889, in tlie
89th year of his age.
After his appointment to the presidency of the
)ury court, he spent a great part of his time at
his paternal seat in Kinross-shire. " Here," says
Jjockhart, in his Life of Scott, *^ about Midsum-
mer 1816, he received a visit from his near rela-
tion William Clerk, Adam Fergusson, his heredi-
tary friend and especial favourite, and their life-
long intimate, Scott. They remained with him
for two or three days, in the course of which they
were all so much delighted with their host, and he
with them, that it was resolved to re-assemble the
party with a few additions, at the same season of
every following year. This was the origin of the
Blair-Adam club, the i-egular members of which
were in number nine; viz., the four ah-eady named,
— the chief commissioner's son, Admiral Sir
Charles Adam; his son-in-law, the late Mr. An-
struther Thomson of Charleton, in Fifeshire; Mr.
Thomas Thomson, the deputy register of Scot-
land ; his brother, the Rev. John Thomson, mini-
ster of Duddingstone, one of the first landscape
painters of bis time; and the Right Hon. Sir Sam-
uel Shepherd, who became chief baron of the
court of exchequer in Scotland, shortly after the
third anniversary of this brotherhood. They usu-
ally contrived to meet on a Friday; spent the
Saturday in a ride to some scene of historical in-
terest within an easy distance; enjoyed a quiet
Sunday at home, — * duly attending divine worehip
at the Kirk of Cleish (not CIcishbotham)' — ^gave
Monday moniing to another antiquarian excuraion,
and returned to Edinburgh in ♦ime for the courts
of Tuesday. From 1816 to 1881 inclusive, Sir
Walter was a constant attendant at these meet-
ings." It was during one of these visits to Blair-
Adam that the idea of * The Abbot* had first arisen
in Scott's mind, and it was at his suggestion that
the chief commissioner commenced a little book
on the improvements which had taken place on his
estate, which, under the title of * Blair-Adam,
from 1783 to 1834,' was privately printed for his
own family and intimate friends. " It was," says
the Judge, ** on a fine Sunday, lying on the gi-assy
summit of Bennarty, above its craggy brow, that
Sir Walter said, looking first at the fiat expanse of
Kinross-shire (on the south side of the Ochils),
and then at the space which Blair-Adam fills be-
tween the hill of Diiimglow (the highest of the
Cleish hills) and the valley of Lochore — ' What
an extraordinary thing it is, that here to the north
so little appears to have been done, when there are
so many proprietors to work upon it; and to the
south, here is a district of country entirely made
by the efibrts of one family, in three generations,
and one of them amongst us in the full enjoyment of
what has been done by his two predecessors and
himself! Blair-Adam, as I have always heard,
had a wild, uncomely, and unhospitable appear-
ance, before its improvements were begun. It
would be most curious to record in writing its ori-
ginal state, and trace its gradual progress to its
present condition.'" Lockhart adds, "upon this
suggestion, enforced by the approbation of the
other members present, the president of the Blair-
Adam club commenced an-anging the materials for
what constitutes a most instructive as well as en-
tertaining history of the agricultural and arbori-
cultural progress of his domains in the course of a
hundred years, under his grandfather, his father
(the celebrated ai*chitcct), and himself. And Sir
Walter had only suggested to his friend of Kin-
ross-shire what he was resolved to put into prac-
tice with regard to his own improvements on
Tweedside; for he began at precisely the same
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ADAM.
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ADAM.
period to keep a regular joarual of all his rural
transactions, under the title of ' Sylra Abbotsford-
lenais.' " (See Lockhco^i Life of Scott, chapter 60.)
Mr. Adam was a personal friend of Greorge IV.,
and at one period held a confidential office in the
royal household at Carlton House, when the latter
was prince regent. He married in 1777 a daugh-
ter of the tenth Lord Elphinstone, and had a
fomily of several sons: viz. John, long at the
head of the council in India, who died in 1825;
Admiral Sir Charies, M.P., one of the lords of
admiralty, and governor of Greenwich Hospital;
died in 1854 ; William George, an eminent king's
counsel, afterwards accountant-general in the
court of Chancery, who died 16th May 1839, tlu-ee
months after his father ; and the Right Hon. Gen-
eral Sir Frederick, who distinguished himself in
the Peninsular war, held a command at Waterloo,
where he was wounded, was afterwards high com-
missioner of the Ionian islands, and subsequently
governor of Madras ; died 17th August 1853. A
younger son died abroad.
ADAM, Alexander, an eminent scholar, and
author of a standard work on * Roman Antiqui-
ties,' was born at Coats of Bnrgie, in the parish of
Rafford, county of Elgin, on the 24th June, 1741.
(Coaie$ or Cots^ meaning a house or enclosure for
sheep.) His parents, who rented a small farm,
were in humble circumstances ; and, like many of
his eountrymen who have afterwards raised them-
selves to distinction, he received the first part of
his education at the parish school. His constant
application to his book induced his father to have
him taught Latin. Before he was sixteen, he
had borrowed, from a clergjrman in the neigh-
bourhood, a copy of Livy in the small Elzevir
edition, and we are told used to read it before
daybreak, during the mornings of winter, by the
light of splinters of bogwood dug out of an ad-
joining moss, not having an opportunity of doing
80 at any other period of the day. In 1757 he
endeavoured, but without success, to obtain a
bursary or exhibition at King's college, Aberdeen.
In 1758, a relative of his mother, the Rev. Mr.
Watson, one of the ministers of the Canongate,
Edinburgh, advised him to remove to that city,
" provided he was prepared to endure every hard-
Mp for a season ;" and hardships of a severe na-
ture he did endure, but nothing could deter him
from the pursuit of knowledge. Through Mr.
Watson's influence he obtained free admission to
the lectures of the dificrent professors, with, of
course, access to the college library; and while
attending the classes, it appears that all his income
was only the sum of one guinea per quarter, which
he received from Mr. Alan Maconochie, afterwards
Lord Meadowbank, for being his tutor. At this
time he lodged in a small room at Restalrig, for
which he paid fonrpence a-week. His breakfast
consisted of oatmeal ponidge with small beer, and
his dinner was often no more than a penny loaf
and a drink of water. After about eighteen
months of close study, at the early age of nineteen
he was fortunate in being elected, on a compara-
tive trial of candidates, head master of Watson's
Hospital, where he continued to improve himself
in classical knowledge, by a careful perusal of the
best authors. Three years afterwards he resigned
this office, on becoming private tutor to the son of
Mr. Kincaid, subsequently lord provost of Edin-
burgh. In April 1765 he was, by that gentleman's
influence, appointed assistant to Mr. Matheson,
rector of the high school, whose increasing infir-
mities compelled him to reth-e, on a small annuity,
paid principally from the class-fees; and on the
8th June 1768 he succeeded him as rector. He
now devoted himself assiduously to the duties of
his school, and to those literary and classical re-
searches for which he was so peculiarly qualified.
To him the high school of Edinburgh owes much
of its reputation, and is entirely indebted for the
introduction of Greek, which he eflfected in 1772,
in spite of the opposition of the Senatus Academi-
cus of the university, who, considering it an en-
croachment on the Greek chair, presented a peti-
tion and remonstrance against it to the town
council, but without success. Having introduced
into his class a new Latin grammar of his own
compiling, and recommended its adoption in the
other classes, instead of Ruddiman's which had
been heretofore in use, a dispute arose between
him and the under masters, and the matter was
referred by the magistrates of Edinburgh, the pa-
trons of the school, to Dr. Robertson, the historian,
principal of the university, who decided in favour
of Ruddiman's. The magistrates, in consequence,
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ADAM.
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ADAM.
issued an order in 1786 prohibiting the nse of any
other gi-ammar of the Latin language ; but tliis,
and a subsequent oi*der to the same effect, Dr.
Adam disregarded, and continued to use his own
niles, without being further inteifered with. In
1772 he had published the work in question, under
the title of * The Principles of Latin and English
Grammar ;' the chief object of which was to com-
bine the study of English and Latin grammar, so
that they might illustrate each other, in oi-der to
avoid the inconvenience to pupils of learning Latin
from a Latin grammar, before they understood
the language. One of the most active opponents
of the new grammar was Dr. Gilbert Stuart, who
was related to Rnddiman, and who inserted sev-
eral squibs in the papers of the day against Adam
and his work, to the au thorns great annoyance.
In 1780 the degree of LL.D. was confen*ed upon
Mr Adam by the college of Edinburgh, chiefly at
the suggestion of Principal Robertson ; and before
his death, he had the satisfaction of seeing his
grammar adopted in his own seminary. Among
the more celebrated of his pupils was Sir Walter
Scott, who joined the rector^s class at the high
school in 1782. It was from Dr. Adam, he says,
that he fii-st learned the value of the knowledge
he had till then considered only as a burdensome
task. As he gained some distinction by his poetical
versions from Horace and Virgil, the rector took
much notice of Scott, and when he began afterwards
to be celebrated in the literary world. Dr. Adam
never failed to remind him of his obligations to
him. "The good old Doctor," says Sir Walter,
" plumed himself upon the success of his scholars
in life, all of which he never failed (and often
justly) to claim as the creation, or at least the
fmits, of his early instructions. He remembered
the fate of every boy at his school, during the fifty
years he had superintended it, and always traced
their success or misfortunes, entirely to their
attention or negligence when under his care.'*
One of the nnder-masters at the high school, a
person of the name of William Nicol, the hero of
Burns^ famous drinking song of " O Willie brew*d
a peck 0* mant,'* is said to have been encouraged
by the magistrates of Edinburgh to insult the
person and authority of Dr. Adam, at the time
4>f the famous dispute with him about his grammai*.
" This man," says Sir Walter Scott, " was an ex-
cellent classical scholar, and an admirable convivial
humorist (which latter quality recommended him
to the friendship of Bums); but woithless, drunken,
and inhumanly cruel to the boys under his charge
He can'ied his feud against the rector within an
inch of assassination, for he waylaid, and knocked
him down in the dark," one night in the High
School Wynd. The i-ector's scholars, at the in-
stigation of the future author of Waverley, took a
schoolboy's revenge. Exasperated at the outrage,
the next time that Nicol went to teach the rec-
tor's class, they resolved on humbling him. " The
task," says Mr. James Mitchell, Sir Walter's tutor
at this time, ^^ which the class had prescribed to
them was that passage in the ^neid of Virgil,
where the queen of Carthage intenx)gates the
couit as to the stranger that had come to her ha-
bitation—
* Qnis oovus hie bospes suocessit sedibus nostris?*
Master Walter having taken a piece of paper, in-
scribed upon it these words, substituting vanus for
novusy and pinned it to the tail of the master's
coat, and turned him into ridicule by raising the
laugh of the whole scliool against him." [LockharCs
Life of Scott,']
Dr. Adam's principal work was the * Roman
Antiquities,' or, an account of the manners and
customs of the Romans, published in 1791, which
was translated into various foreign languages, and
which is now used as a class-book in many of the
English schools. For this work he got £600. In
179-1 appeared his * Summary of Greography and
History,' in one thick volume of 900 pages, having
increased to this size from a small treatise on the
same subject, printed, for the use of his pupils, in
1784. The least popular of his works is the * Clas-
sical Biography,' published in 1800; and the last
of his laborious and useful compilations was an
abridged Latin Dictionary, entitled ^ Lexicon Lin-
guae Latinas Compendiamm,' 8vo., which was
published in 1805, and intended for the use of
schools. Dr. Adam's books are valuable auxilia
ries to the student, from the mass of useful and
classical information which they contain. He had
commenced a largei* dictionary than the one pub<
lished, but did not live to complete it.
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ADAM.
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ADAM.
Having been seized in the high school with an
apoplectic attack, he was conducted home, and put
to bed, where he langaished for five days, and, as
death was approaching, fancying himself, during
the. wanderings of his mind, with his pupils, he said,
" But it grows dark, boys, you may go!" and al-
most immediately expired, on the 18th of Decem-
ber, 1809, at the age of 68. Possessed of an
ardent and independent mind, and liberal in the
extreme in politics, he took a great interest in the
progress of the French Revolution, believing it to
be the cause of liberty, and even went so far as to
introduce political matters into his school, for
which he was much censured at the time, and that
by many of his friends; but after the first excite-
ment had passed away, he soon regained the re-
spect even of those who had been most embittered
against him. He was universally regretted, and
the magistrates of Edinbm'gh honoured his mem-
ory by a public funeral. His portiuit by Rae-
burn, taken shortly before his death at the desire
of some of his old pupils, was placed in the libra-
ry of the high school. Annexed is a woodcut of it.
** His features," says his biogi*apher, *^ were
regular and manly, and he was above the middle
Rize." He was twice manied, and left a widow,
two daughters, and a son. One of his daughters
married a Dr. Prout, and at one time i-esided in
SackviUe Street, London. His son. Dr. Adam, for
many years resided in Edinburgh. — Henderson'^
Life of Dr. Adam; Edin, Monthly Mag. 1810.
The following is a list of his works:
The PrindplM of Latin and English Onunmar. Edin.
1772, 8vo. 7th Edit improved, 1809, 12mo.
A Summary of Geograpby and History, both Ancient and
Modem, designed chieflj to unite the Study of Classical
Learning with that of General Knowledge. Edin. 1784, 8vo.
1794, 8vo. 1809, 8vo.
Roman Antiquities, or an Account of the Manners and
Customs of the Romans, their Government, Laws, Religion,
&c Edin. 1791, 8vo. 2d edit enlaiged. 1792, 8vo.
1807, 8vo.
Geographical Index, oontiuning the Latin Names of the
principal Countries, Cities, Rivers, and Mountains, mentioned
in the Greek and Roman Classics, with the Modem Names
subjoined; also, the Latin Names of the Inhabitants, being a
Summary of the Ancient and Modem Geography. Edin.
1796, 8vo.
Classical Biography; exhibiting alphabetically the proper
Names, with a short Account of the several Deities, Heroes,
&c mentioned in the ancient Classic Authors; and a more
particular Description of the most Distmguished Characters
among the Romans, the whole being interspersed with Occa-
sional Explanations of Words and Phrases, designed chiefljr
to contribute to the Illustration of the Latin Classics. Edin.
1800, 8vo.
Dictionary of the Latin Tongue. Edin. 1805, 8vo. 2d edit
greatiy improved and enlarged. Edin. 1815, 8vo.
ADAM, BoBERT, the Rev., B.A. anthor oi
* The Religious World Displayed,* was bora in the
parish of Udiiy, Aberdeenshire, of poor but re-
spectable parents, about the year 1770. He was
educated and took his degree of M. A. at Aber-
deen. He was afterwards sent, by some persons
interested in his welfare, to St. Edmund Hall,
Oxford, where he took the degree of bachelor of
arts. Subsequently he was ordained deacon and
priest by Dr. Beilby Portens, bishop of London.
About the year 1801 he was appointed assistant
to Dr. Aberaethy Drummond of Hawthornden,
titular bishop of Glasgow, whom he succeeded as
minister of Blackfriars* Wynd episcopal chapel,
Edinburgh. He was also chaplain to the eai*l of
Kellie. In 1809 he published an elaborate and
comprehensive work in three volumes, entitled
* The Religious World Displayed, or a View of the
Four Grand Systems of Religion, Judaism, Pagan-
ism, Christianity, and Mahomedanism, and of the
Various Denominations, Sects, and Paities in the
Christian World ; to which is subjoined, a View
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ADAMSON.
of Deism and Atheism ;' wliich he inscribed to the
memory of Bishop Drammond, formerly senior
minister of his congregation. He was subsequently
appointed to a church in the Danish island of St.
Croix, where he was much annoyed by the Dan-
ish authorities, and ultimately ordered to leave the
island. His conduct met with the full approbation
of our own government, and he proceeded to Den-
mark to procure redress, which it appears he never
obtained. After his return from Copenhagen to
London, he accompanied the newly appointed
bishop of Barbadoes to the West Indies in 1825,
and was appointed interim pastor of the island of
Tobago, where he died on the 2d July 1826.
ADAM, ScoTUs, one of the doctors of the Sor-
bonne, and a canon regular of the order of Pre-
monstratcnses, flourished in the twelfth century.
He was bom in Scotland, and* educated in the
monastery of Lindisfame, or Holy Island, in the
county of Durham. He afterwards went to Paris
and taught school divinity in the Sorbonne. In
his latter years he became one of " the monks of
Melrose." He afterwards retired to the Abbey
of Durham, where he wrote the Lives of St. Co-
lambanus, and of some other monks of the sixth
century, and also of David I. king of Scotland.
He died in 1195. His works were printed at
Antwerp in folio, in 1659 — Biog, Die,
ADAMSON, Henry, a poet of the seventeenth
centtyy, was the son of James Adamson, dean of
guild in Perth in 1600, the year of the Gowrie
conspiracy, and provost of that city in 1610 and
1611. He was educated for the churcli, and is
tttated to have been a good classical scholar. He
wrote some Latin poems which are described as
being far above mediocrity. In 1688 he published a
poem, in 4to, entitled ' Muses Threnodie, or Mirthful
Mournings on the Death of Mr.Gall, with a descrip-
tion of Perth, and an account of the Gowry conspi-
racy,' &c. He was honoured with the approbation
of Drummond of Hawthomden, and appears, from
the complimentary vei-ses prefixed to his poems,
to have been much respected for his talents and
worth. It was at the request of Drummond that
Adamson published his ' Muses Threnodie,' after
having resisted the solicitations of his friends to
print it. The letter which the poet of Hawthom-
den wrote to him on the occasion, is dated Edin-
burgh, 12th July 1637. It was inserted in the
introductory address to the reader, prefixed to the
first edition, and contains the following passage:
^^ Happie hath Perth been in such a citizen, not
so other townes of this klugdome, by want of so
diligent a searcher and preserver of their fame
fi-om oblivion. Some Muses, neither to them-
selves nor to others, do good, nor delighting nor
instructing. Tours inform both, and longer to
conceal them, will be, to wrong your Perth of her
due honours, who deserveth no less of you than
that she should be thus blazoned and registrate to
posterity, and to defraud yourself of a monument
which, after you have left this transitory world,
shall keep your name and memory to after times
This shall be preserved by the towne of Perth, fof
her own sake first, and after for yours; for to her
it hath been no little glory that she hath brought
forth such a citizen, so eminent in love to her, so
dear to the Muses." Adamson died unmarried in
1689. A new edition of his poem was published in
1774, with illustrative notes, by James Cant, in 2
vols. 12mo. The book is now scarce. — Campbelti
Introduction to the History of Poetry in Scotland,
ADAMSON, Patrick, an eminent prelate and
Latin poet, was bom at Perth, Mareh 15, 1537. His
parents are said to have been poor, but he received
a sufiSclcntly liberal education, first at the gram-
mar sdiool of his native town, and afterwards at
the unlvei-sity of St. Andrews, where he studied
philosophy, and took his degree of master of arts.
His name first appears in the diaries and church
records of the period, not as Adamson, but under
the varieties of Coustaine, Cousting, Constan, Con-
stant, and Constantino. [See Bannatyne^s Journal^
p. 823; James MehiUe's Diary, pp. 25 and 42;
Calderwood, vol. ii. p. 46; and The Booke oj
the UniversaU Kirk of Scotland, pp. 2 and 28.]
His biographers state that on quitting the univer-
sity he became a schoolmaster at a village in Fife^
but on the meeting of the first General Assembly,
in December 1560, he was, under the name of Pa-
trick Constan, among those who were appointed
in St. Andrews, ** for ministering and teaching."
[Calderwoody vol. ii. p. 46.] Under the same
name he was, in 1568, minister of Ceres, in Fife,
and was appointed a commissioner *^ to plant kirks
from Dee to Ethan." ^Ihid. p. 245.] In the sev
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ADAMSON,
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ARCHBISHOP.
enth Creneral Assembly, held at Edinburgh in
Jnne 1564, he preferred a reqaest to be allowed
to pass to France and other countries, ^' for aug
menting of his knowledge for a time;** but the
Assembly unanimously refused his application,
and ordained that he should not leave his congre-
gation, ^* without speciall licence of the haill kirk.*^
[Booke of the Umversaa Kirk of Scotland, p. 23.]
£arly in 1566, on the invitation of Sir James Mak •
gill of Rankeillor, clerk-register, he accompanied his
eldest son, as tutor, to France, where the latter was
going to study the civil law, on which occasion he
appears to have demitted himself of the office of the
ministry. On the 19th of June of that year, Mai*y
queen of Scots was delivered of a prince, after-
wards James the Sixth, on which occasion Con-
stant or Adaroson, then at Paris, wrote a Latin
poem, styling the ix>yal infant ** Prince of Scotland,
England, France, and Ireland,** which so offended
the French government that he was imprisoned for
six months. Queen Mary herself, and several of
the nobility, interceded for his liberation. On
regaining his freedom he proceeded with his pupil
to the universities of Poitiers and Padua, where
he applied himself to the study of the civil and
canon laws. On their return from Italy, they
visited Greneva; and here, from his intercourse
with Beza, he imbibed the Calvinistic doctrines
of theology. Some time before theur return to
Scotland they revisited Paris. As well-known
Protestants, however, they found it dangerous to
remain in the capital, and retii'ed to Bourges,
where Constant concealed himself for seven
months in an inn, the master of which, an old
man 70 years of age, was, for harbouring heretics,
thrown from the roof of his own house and killed
on the spot. In this sepulchre, as he called it, he
employed his time in composing a Latin poetical
version of the Book of Job, and in writing in the
same language a piece called the Tragedy of He-
rod— the latter of which has never been published.
Before leaving Fi-ance he was bold enough to pub-
lish a Latin translation of the Confession of Faith,
for which he obtained gi*eat credit.
At what period Constant returned to Scotland
does not appear, but it must have been previous
to 5th March 1571, for the Assembly which met
at Edinburgh at that time earnestly desired him, {
in consideration of the lack of ministers, to re
enter the ministry. He craved time till next As-
sembly, which met on 6th August thereafter, to
which he sent a written answer, complying with
their request. He had previously mamed the
daughter of a lawyer.
On the election of Mr. John Douglas, rector of
the university of St. Andrews, to the archbishop-
ric of that diocese, on the 8th of February 1572,
Constant is mentioned as having preached a ser-
mon, and John Knox the discourse before the
installation. [Barmatyne.'] On this occasion he
was not, as afterwai-ds alleged by his enemies, a
candidate for that see. Most of his biographers
represent him to have been in France at the period
of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, which occurred
on the 24th August of this year (1572), but he had
certainly retumod to Scotland mora than a year
befora that event, and no mention is made of a
second visit to that country. Constant appears at
this time to have enjoyed the friendship of Andrew
Melville and of many of the ministers of Edin-
burgh. He had been appointed minister of Pais-
ley, and through his influence with the regent
Morton the valuable living of Grovan, near Glas-
gow, was in the year 1575 annexed to the univer-
sity of that city, " the only good thing,** says the
spitefU James Melville, " he or Morton were ever
known to have done.** {Diary , p. 42.] In the same
year he was named one of the commissioners of
the General Assembly, for settling the polity and
jurisdiction of the church, which, at that period of
ecclesiastical transition, was episcopalian in its
spirit and form, although the supreme authority
in spiritual matters was placed in the General
Assembly. About this time he appears to have
dropped the name of Constant, as he is ever after-
wards called Adamson by contemporary writers.
In the course of 1576 Adamson was nominated,
with John Row and David Lindsay, to report
the proceedings of the commissioners to the re-
gent Morton, who appointed him one of his chap-
lains. In the same year, on the death of Douglas,
archbishop of St. Andrews, Adamson, on the pre-
sentation and recommendation of Morton, was
advanced to the vacant archbishopric. His eleva-
tion to the archiepiscopal see became the origin of
all his misfortunes. The General Assembly, having
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ADAMSON,
ARCHBISHOP.
j^nerally acceded to the new views which Melville
Introduced from Geneva as to the Presbyterian
form of government for the church, sought to im-
pose limitations on his powers, which were con-
trary to the previous usage of the church and to the
laws of the kingdom; to which ix^trictions, how-
ever, Adamson fi*om the outset and even before
his installation declai-ed, when questioned by that
court, that he would not submit. From the period
of his instalment, therefore, he was engaged, for
several years, in almost perpetual altercation with
the General Assembly. ** Adamson, " says Bishop
Keith, " did not receive, for what we know, any
ecclesiastical consecration." This, however, is
incorrect. From the acts of the General Assembly
threatening proceedings against his inaugumtoi-s,
the chapter of St. Andrews, we infer that he was
installed by a form of consecration similar to that
of his predecessor; which, as formally settled by
the General Assembly with reference to that cere-
mony, was the same as tliat of the superintendents,
and of which Bannatyne details the foimnla, (p.
821).
In the General Assembly, whicli met at Edin-
Durgh in April, 1577, Adamson was cited to answer
before some commissioners who had been appointed
to examine him ; and, in the interim, it was or-
dered that he should be discharged from exercis-
ing his episcopal functions *^ till he should be ad-
mitted by the Assembly." [CalderwooiTs History^
vol. iii. p. 379.] The same year he published a
translation of the Catechism of Calvin in Latin
verse, for the use of die young prince (James VI.),
which was much commended in England, France,
and the Netherlands, where he was already well
known by his translation of the Confession of
Faith. In 1578 he was induced to submit himself
to the General Assembly, but this did not long
secure his tranquillity ; for in the year following
he was exposed to .fresh troubles. In the record
of the 88th General Assembly, which met at Stir-
ling, 11 June 1578, as printed in *The Booke of
the Universall Kirk of Scotland,' there are five
pages blank, supposed, as marked in an old hand
on the copy transcribed, ** to be pairt of that which
was torn out by Adamson B. of St. Andrews."
Some after blanks are also pointed out. [B. of
UniversaU Kirk, pp. 180, 183, 208, 207, 338, foot-
notes.] This, however, is as likely to have been
done by another. The Greneral Assembly which
met at Edinburgh 7th July 1579, summoned him to
answer to five several charges, three of which were
for voting in parliament without a commission
from the Assembly, for giving collation of the vi-
carage of Bolton, and for opposing the policy oi
the church in his place in parliament. Finding it
expedient to retire for a time to the castle of St.
Andrews, where he lived, as James Melville ex-
presses it, *^ like a tod in his hole," be was, in the
year 1582, attacked with a grievous chronic dis-
temper, from which, as he could get no relief from
his physicians, he had recourse to a simple reme-
dy, administered by an old woman named Alisop
Peai'son, which completely cured him. His ene-
mies now accused him of dealing with a witch,
and applying to an emissaiy of the devil for means
whereby to save his life. The old woman herself
was committed to the castle of St. Andrews for
execution, but by the connivance of the archbish-
op she contrived to make her escape. Four years
tliereafter, however, she was again apprehended,
and burnt for witchcraft.
In the year 1583, King James visited St. An-
drews, when Aixihbishop Adamson preadied before
him with great approbation. In his sermon, he
inveighed, as Calderwood expresses it, against
the Presbyterian clergy, the lords reformere, and
all their proceedings. [Calderwood^s Histary^ vol.
iii. p. 716.] Tlie doctrines which the archbishop
avowed on this occasion recommended him to the
favour of the king, who sent him as his ambassa-
dor to the court of Queen Elizabeth, where his
object was twofold, namely, to recommend the
king his mastei* to the nobility and gentry of Eng-
land, and to obtain support to the tottering cause
of episcopacy in Scotland. His eloquent sermons
and address attracted such numerous auditories,
and excited such a high idea of the young king,
that Queen Elizabeth's jealousy was kindled, and
she prohibited him from preaching while he re-
mained in England. In 1584 he was recalled,
and on his return to Edinburgh, he exerted him-
self strenuously in support of King James' views
in favour of episcopacy. He sat in the parliament
held at Edinburgh in the month of August of that
year, and concurred in several laws which wero
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ADAMSON,
27
ARCHBISHOP.
enacted for esUblisbing the kiug's supremacy in
ecclesiastical matters. In the following year be
was appointed to rindicate these acts of parlia-
ment, and his apology is inserted in Holinshed^s
English Chronicle. Mr. James Melville gives a
full copy of what he styles "a Bull which the
archbishop of St. Andi-ews got of the king as su-
preme governor of the kirk, whereby he has power
and authority to use his arcbiepiscopal office with-
in the ku-k and his diocese." [Diary, p. 182.]
In April 158G, the provincial synod of Fife met
at St. Andrews, when Mr. James Melville, as mo-
derator of the previous meeting, preached the
opening sermon, in the course of which he de-
nounced the archbishop to his face, and demanded
Ihat he should be cut off, for having devised and
procured the passing of the late acts of parliament
in 1584, which were subversive of the Presbyte-
rian discipline. In his defence Adamson said that
the acts were none of his devising, although they
had his support as good and lawful statutes. He
then declined the jurisdiction of the court, and
appealed from it to the king and parliament, but
nevertheless was formally excommunicated by
the synod. In return, he next day ordered Mr.
Samuel Cunningham, one of his servants, to pro-
nounce the arcbiepiscopal excommunication against
Andrew Melville, James Melville, and others,
with Andrew Hunter, minister of Cambee, who
had denounced the anathema of the synod against
the archbishop. The proceedings of the synod
being manifestly informal, the General Assembly,
which met at Edinburgh in the following month,
annulled the sentence of excommunication against
him, and reponed him to the same position which
he had held before the meeting of the provincial
synod of Fife. The Melvilles being summoned
before the king for their conduct in this harsh and
vindictive transaction, were ordered to confine
themselves, Andrew to his native place during the
klng^s will, and James to his college. {MehiUe^s
Diary ^ p. 165.] The archbishop, besides his usual
rlerical duties, was required to teach public lessons
in I^tin within the Old college, and the whole uni-
versity commanded to attend the same. \Ibid.
p. 166.] As archbishop of St. Andrews he was
€x officio chancellor of the university.
About the end of June 1587, M. Du Bartas, the
famous French poet, being in Scotland as ambas-
sador from the king of Navarre, afterwards Henry
lY. of France, accompanied King James to St.
Andrews. His mi^esty, desirous of hearing a
lecture from Mr. Andrew Melville, principal of St.
Mai7*8 college, gave him an hour's notice of his
wish. Melville endeavoured to excuse himself,
but his majesty insisting, he delivered an extem-
pore discourse, upon the govemmeut of the church
of Christ, when he refuted the whole acts of par-
liament which had been passed against the pres-
byterian discipline. On the following day an en-
tertainment was given by the arclibishop to the
king and the French envoy, when Adamson took
occasion to pronounce a lecture, to counteract tliat
of Melville, his principal topics being the pre-
eminence of bishops and the supremacy of kings.
Melville was present and took notes, and had no
sooner returned to his college than he caused the
bell to be rung, and an intimation to be conveyed
to the king that he intended to deliver another
lecture after an interval of two hours. On this
occasion, besides the king, Du Bartas and Adam-
son were present. Avoiding all formal reference
to the previous speech of the archbishop, Melville
dexterously quoted from popish books, which ho
had brought with him, all his leading positions
and arguments in favour of episcopacy. When
he had shown them to be plain popery, he pro-
ceeded to refute them with such force of reason that
Adamson remained silent, although he had pre-
viously requested permission from the king to de-
fend his own doctrines. The king, however,
spoke for him, and after making some learned
and scholastic distinctions, be concluded with
commanding them all to respect and obey the
archbishop. The whole of this narrative, how-
ever, rests upon the authority of James Melville,
which, besides being that of a prejudiced oppon-
ent, is unfortunately in other matters relative to
Adamson found to be opposed to facts recorded
in the proceedings of the Church.
By the act of annexation passed in 1587 the see
of St. Andrews, with all the other church bene-
fices in the kingdom, was annexed to the crown.
The revenues of the archbishopric were thereafter
bestowed on the duke of Lennox, by James VI.,
excepting only a small pittance, reserved for the
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ADAMSON,
ARCHBISHOP.
gubsisteuce of Archbishop Adamson. In the fol-
lowing year he was exposed to a fresh prosecu-
tion by the church, having been summoned for
having, contrary to an inhibition of the presbytery
of Edinburgh, married the Catholic earl of Hnntly
to the king^s cousin, the sister of the duke of Len-
nox, without requiring the earl to subscribe the
Confession of Faith, although he had already sub-
scribed certain articles which were requii-ed of him
previous to the proclamation of the bans. Adam-
son on this occasion appeared by his procurator,
Mr. Thomas Wilson, (very likely his son-in-law,)
who produced a testimonial of his sickness, sub-
scribed by the doctor who attended him and two
bailies, but the memorial was not admitted as suf-
ficient. The pi-esby tery of St. Andrews proceeded
against him in absence, deprived him of all office
in the church, and threatened him with excom-
munication. The Assembly ratified the sentence
of the presbytery, and for this and other alleged
cnmes he was deposed and again excommunicated.
In the beginning of 1589 he published the La-
mentations of Jeremiah, in Latin verse, which he
dedicated to the king in an address, complaining
of the harsh treatment he had received. The
same year he also published a Latin poetical
translation of the Apocalypse, and addressed a
a>py of Latin verses to his majesty, deploring his
distress. The unfoitunate prelate had at one period
stood so high in the royal favour that James had
condescended to compose a sonnet in commenda-
tion of his paraphrase of the Book of Job ; but
times were altered, and the king paid no attention
to his appeals. In his need Adamson is said to
have addressed a letter to his former opponent,
Mr. Andrew Melville, with whom he at one pe-
riod lived on terms of good neighbourhood, but
opposite views in church government had long not
only driven them asunder, but rendered them bit-
ter antagonists. On receipt of his letter contain-
ing the sad disclosure of his destitute situation,
Melville hastened to pay the archbishop a visit,
and besides procuring contributions on his behalf
ft-om his brethren of the presbytery of St. Andrews,
continued for several months to support him from
his own private purse. Reduced by poverty and
disease, the unfortunate prelate, in the year 1591,
•uent to the Presbytery of St. Andi-ews a paper
expressive of his i*egret at the com*se he had pur-
sued, and desiring to be restored into the church.
This is not the same paper which afterwards ap-
peared under the title of *Tlie Recantation of
Maister Patrick Adamsone,* and which was pub-
lished as a pamphlet in 1598. Some of the Epis-
copal writers are disposed to deny the genuine-
ness of the latter, and it is to be regretted that
the proofs of its genuineness are not more com-
plete. Adamson died on the 19th Februai-y 1592,
and his death was speedily followed by the resto-
ration of the presbyterian form of church govern-
ment in Scotland. A collection of his Latin poeti-
cal translations from the Scriptures was published
in a quarto volume in London in 1619, with his
Life by his son-in-law, Thomas Wilson, an advo-
cate, under the title of Poemata Sacra, Several
of his other poems are to be found iu the Dditia
Poetarum Scotorum^ tome i., and in the Poetarum
Scotorum Mus<b SacrtBy tome ii.
Adamson^s character has been much traduced
by contemporary writers, but by none more so
than by Robeii; Semple, a minor poet of that day,
who wrote a gross and scurrilous work professing
to be his life, which he styled ' A Legend of the
Biscliop of St. Audrois* Life.' It is thought that
this ^ legend' had an effect on the king's mind unfa-
vourable to Adamson, but he fell more into dis-
grace with his majesty after having been ^^ put to
the horn," in 1587, and "denounced rebel," for
withholding their stipends from several ministers
in his diocese, and " for not furnishing of two gal-
lons of wine to the communion."
The following address to his departing soul,
written by Adamson in Latin poetiy, in which he
so much excelled, is, says Dr. Irving, " as much
superior to that of Adrian as Christianity is supe-
rior to Paganism :"
0 aDimm ! assidais vits jactata procellis,
Esilii, perttesa gravis, nunc lubrica, teinpus
R«gna tibi, et mxmdi inTisaa oontemnere sordett :
Quippe parens renim caeoo te oorpore olemens
Evocat, et verbi cracifixi gratia, ooeli
Pandit iter, patrioque beatam limine sistet
Progenies Jovis, quo te ooelestis origo
Invitat, felix perge, SBtemnmque quiesce.
Exuviie camis, oognato in pnlTere vocem
Angelicam ezpectent, sonitu quo patro cadnvet
Exiliet redirivum, et tottim me tibi reddet
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AIDAN. 29
Ecoe beaU dies ! noe agni dexter* ligno
FulgeDtes cnuns, et radiantes sangoine vivo
Exdpiei: qnain finna ilHc, qaam cerU oapeeset
Gaudia, felioes inter novns inoola dves!
AlmeDetu! Densalme! et non eflfttbile numen !
Ad te tmuin et tnnom, moribando pectore anhelo.
Besides the poems and translations already men-
tioned, Archbishop Adamson wrote many things
which were never published, among which may
be mentioned Six books on the Hebrew Republic,
various translations of the Prophets into Latin
verse, Prelections on St. Paul's Epistles to Timo-
thy, various apologetical and funeral oi-ations, and
a very candid history of his own times:
The following is a list of hb published works:
Catechisnras Latino Carmine Bedditus, et in libroi quatuor
digestns. Edin. 1581, 12mo.
Poemata Sacra, cam aHis Opnscnlia, et cam Vita qua; a
T. Voloaeno. Lond. 1619, 4to.
De Sacro Pastoris Mnnere Tractatos: cam Vita Aactoris
per Th. Voluscnum. Lond. 1619, 4to. 8vo.
Refotatio Libelli de Begimine Eccleais Sooticans. Lond.
1620, 8ro.
Adamsoni Vita et Palinodia. 1620, 4to.
Genethliaoon Jaoobi VI. Regis SootisB, Ang1i» i. Carmine.
Amst. 1637, 8vo. Inter Poet Scot vol. L p. 18.
Recantation of Mr. Patrick Adamson, sometime Archbishop
of St Andrews in Sootlande. To which is added, his Life in
Utin. 1598, 8vo.
Sermons. 1628, 8to.
Agxitiv, the name of an ancient famUj m Wigtonshire, tho
head of which was constable of the castle of Loohnaw, and
hereditary sheriff of that coonty. See Lociuf aw.
AID AN, the greatest of all the kings of the
Scots of Dalriad, a kingdom which formed what is
now Argyleshire, was the son of Gabran, or Gav-
ran, and succeeded to the throne in 575, on the
death of his cousin, Conal I. Ho reigned twenty-
four years, according to the celebrated Duan, a
Gaelic poem supposed to have been written by the
court-bard of Malcolm the third; or thirty-four by
the old lists. Duncan the son of Conal seems to
have contested the kingdom with him, but he was
defeated and slain in battle at a place called Loro
in Kintyre. Pinkerton thinks that the Duan dates
the commencement of his reign fh)m his unction
as king, which Columba long deferred, having a
preference for Aidants brother Eogenan or Eugain.
The Duan calls him " Aidan of the extended ter-
ritories," and he certainly carried the Dalriadic
power to a height from which it ever after declined,
till Kenneth IT. ascended the PicUsh throne, in
AIDAN.
836, and united the Picte and the Scots. In 579
the battle of Cue agiunst Aidan is mentioned in
the annals of Ulster, and in 581 the battle of Ma-
nan, (OTlaherty says, the Isle of Mann,) in which
he was victor. He also conquered in the battle of
Miathorum, or Lethrigh, in 589. In the following
year he was at the famous council of Drumkeat in
the diocese of Derry in Ulster, consisting of kings,
peers, and clergy, summoned by Aid, king of Ire-
land, in which council Aidan procured the remis-
sion of all homage due by the kings of Dab-iad to
those of Ireland. In 594 Aidan's brother Eugain
died. In 603, Aidan, who Is styled by Bede, ** the
king of the Scots who inhabited Britain,'* marched
against Ethelfrid, king of Northumbria, *^ with an
immense and strong army," but was conquered,
and fled with a few. ^' Forasmuch as," says Bede,
^* in the most famous place which is called Degsa-
stone, almost all his ai-my was cut to pieces: In
which fight also Theobold, brother of Ethelfrid,
with all that army which he himself commanded,
was killed." The place where this disastrous bat-
tle was fought is now unknown, but it is conjec-
tured by Bishop Gibson to have been Dalston near
Carlisle, or as Bishop NicoUon supposes, Dawston
near Jedburgh. Aidan died in 605, in Kintyre,
at an advanced age, and was buried at Kilcheran,
where no king was ever buried before. If the
date of his death be coirect, he reigned just thirty
years. He was succeeded by his son Achy, or
Achaius, or Eochoid-buidhe (Eochy the yellow)
who reigned for seventeen years. Another son,
Conan, was drowned in 622. He had several
younger sons. His brother Brandubiiis was king
of Leinster. — See PinkertorCi Enquiry^ vol. 2. page
113, and Ritson's Annals of the Caiedonianiy Picts,
and Scots, vol. 2, page 39.
AIDAN, bishop of Lindisfame, or Holy Island,
in the seventh century, was originally a monk in
the monastery of lona, and is said by some to
have been a native of Ireland. By his zeal, a
large poilion of the northern pait of England was
converted to Christianity. In 634, when Oswald
became king of the Angll of Northumberland, he
sent to Scotland for a missionary, to instruct his
subjects in the doctrines and duties of Christianity.
Aidan was accordingly consecrated a bishop, and
sent to the cx)urt of Oswald, and by his advice.
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AIRMAN.
30
AILSA.
the episcopal see was removed fi*om York, where
it had been fixed by Gregory the Great, to Lin-
disfame, a peninsnla adjoining the Northumbrian
coast, by a narrow isthmns, called also Holy
Island, because it was chiefly inhabited by monks.
Here Aidan exercised an extensive jurisdiction,
and preached the gospel with great success ; de-
riving encouragement and assistance in his labour
from the condescending services of the king him-
self. On Oswald being killed in battle, Aidan
continued to govern the church of Northumber-
land under his successors, Oswin and Oswy, who
reigned jointly. The following extraordinary in-
stance of the bishop*s liberality to the poor is re-
lated. Having received a present from King Os-
win of a fine horse and rich housings, he met with
a beggar, and dismounting, gave him the horse
thus caparisoned. When the king expressed some
displeasure at this singular act of humanity, and
the slight put upon his favour, Aidan quaintly but
forcibly asked, " Which do you value most, the
son of a mare, or the son of God?'* — the king fell
upon his knees and entreated the bishop's forgive-
ness. The death of Oswin so much affected him,
that he survived him only twelve days, and died
m August 1651. He was buried in the church of
Liiidisfarne.
AiKMAN, a sumaine, being the same as Oakman. An
oak tree was carried in the arms of persons of this surname,
and the family of Aikman of Cairney bad for crest an oak
tree proper.
AIKMAN, William, an eminent painter, the
son of William Aikman of Cairaey, advocate, by
Margaret, third sister of Sir John Clerk, of Penny-
cuik. Baronet, was born 24th October 1682. He
was intended by his father for the law, but the
bent of his own mind early led him to painting as
a profession. In 1707, after selling off his pater-
nal estate, he went to Rome, where he spent three
years in studying the great masters, and returned
to his native country in 1712, having also visited
Constantinople and Smyrna. At first his man-
ner was cold, but it afterwards became soft and
easy. Ho was particularly happy in giving grace-
ful airs and genteel likenesses to the ladies whose
portraits he painted. In 1723, being patronized
by John, duke of Argyle, he was induced to settle
as a portrait -painter in London, where he further
improved his coloming by the study of Sir Godfrey
Kneller*s works. His taste and genius introduced
him to the acquaintance and friendship of the duke
of Devonshire, the earl of Burlington, Sir Robert
Walpole, Sir Godfi-ey Kneller, and others. For
the earl of Burlington, he painted a large picture
of the royal family, which his death prevented
him from finishing. It is now in possession of the
duke of Devonshire. Aikman manied Marion,
daughter of Mr. Lawson of Caimmuir, county of
Peebles, by whom he had an only son, John. He
died 4th June, O. S. 1731, in his 49th year. His
remains, with those of his son, who predeceased
him about six months, were removed to Edinburgh,
and interred together in the Greyfriars' churcli-
yard. An epitaph, by his friend Mallet the poet,
was inscribed on his tomb. Several of his portraits
are in the possession of the dukes of Hamilton,
Argyle, Devonshire, and others. He numbered
among his friends Allan Ramsay, who wrote a
pastoral farewell to him on his departure for Lon-
don, Somerville^ the author of the Chase, and
Thomson, the author of the Seasons, who, as well
as his friend Mallet, wrote elegiac verses on his
death. Mallet's epitaph has been long effaced.
Thomson's poem on his death closes with the fol
lowing lines:
" A friend, when dead, is but removed from sight,
Sunk in the lustre of eternal night;
And when the parting storms of life arc o*er,
May yet rejoin us on a happier shore.
As those we lo\'e decay, we die in part,
String after string is severed from the heart,
Till loosenM life, at last but breathmg clay,
Without one pang is glad to fall away.
Unhappy he who latest feels the blow
Whose eyes have wept o*er eveiy ftiend laid low,
Dnigg*d lingering on from partial death to death,
* Till dying, all he can resign Is breath.**
Aikman was also intimate with Pope, Swift,
Arbuthnot, Gay, and most of the wits of Queen
Anne's days. His style l)ears a close resemblance
to that of Kneller. In the duke of Tuscany*s col-
lection of the portraits of paintere done by their
own hands, will be found that of Aikman, in the
ducal gallery at Florence. — Cunningham's Lives of
Painters,
AiLSA, marquis of, a title borne by the ancient family ot
Kennedy, earls of Cassillis, conferred in 1831, and taken from
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AINSLIE.
81
AIRLIE.
the ** craggj ocean pTramkl,** AQaa Cniig, in the month of the
frith of Clyde, which is the property of that family. See
Cassilus, earl of, and Kennedy.
AINSLIE, RoBEBT, writer to the signet, the
friend and correspondent of Robert Bums, was
bom 13th January 1766. He was the eldest son
of Mr. Ainslie of Damchester, residing at Berry-
well, near Dunse, the land agent for Lord Douglas
in Berwickshire. He served his apprenticeship
with Mr. Samuel Mitchelson, in Carrubber's close,
Edinburgh, who was a great musical amateur,
and in whose house occurred the famous *^ Haggis
scene *' described by Smollett in Humphrey Clink-
er. In the spring of 1787, when he had just com-
pleted his twentieth year. Bums being at that
time in Edinburgh, he was fortunate enough to
make his acquaintance, and in May of that year,
he and the poet went upon an excursion together
into Berwickshire and Teviotdale, when he intro -
dnced Bums at his father*s. house, and the recep-
tion he received from the family is pleasantly re-
ferred to, in his gifted companion's memoranda on
this tour. In 1789 Ainslie passed writer to the
signet. He afterwards visited Bums at EUisland,
when the poet gave him a manuscript copy of Tctm
O'SkcMteTy which he presented to Sir Walter Scott.
He married a lady named Cunningham, the daugh-
ter of a colonel in the Scots Brigade in the Dutch
service, by whom he had a numerous family, of
whom only two daughters survived him. He had
two brothers, and one sister, the latter of whom,
whose beauty was highly spoken of by Bums, died
before him. One of his brothers, Douglas, suc-
ceeded his father as land agent; and the other.
Sir Whitelaw Ainslie, is known as the author of an
elaborate book on the Materia Medica of India,
where he for many years held the situation of medi-
cal superintendent of the southem division of India,
for which work he was knighted by William IV.
Mr. Ainslie died on the 11th April 1838. He was
the author of two religious little works, * A Father's
Gift to his Children,' and ' Reasons for the Hope
that is in Us,' the latter comprising many of the
evidences for the trath of Christianity. He was
also a contributor to the Edinburgh Magazine, and
others of the periodicals, for forty years previous
to his death. His disposition was kind and bene-
volent, his manners affable and frank, and his
conversation cheerful and abounding in anecdote.
Many of Bums' letters to him will be found in the
poet's printed correspondence. — Obituary at thi
time, — Personal recollections,
AntiJB, earl of, a title posaened by a family of the name
of Ogiivy, lineally descended from Gilbert, third son of the
first thane of Angas, who fboght at the battle of the Standard
in 1188, and obtained from William the Lion the Unds of
Powrie, Ogilvy, and Kyneithin, when, as was onstomary in
those days, he assumed the name of Ogilry from his barony.
In 1892 Sir Walter Ogilvy of Wester Powrie and Anchter-
house, sherifi' of Angos, was sUin with sixty of his foltowera,
at Gasklone near Blairgowrie, in endearooring to repel an in-
oorsion of the clan Donnochy, or sons of Doncan (the clan
now called Bobertson) who had burst down upon the low
country fixHn the Grampian mountains.
Among the slain at the battle of Harlaw in 1411, was his
eldest son, "the brare lord Ogilvy, of Angus sheriff-prindpal**
See OoiLVY, surname of.
Sir Walter Ogilvy, knight, the second son, was in 1425
constituted lord high treasurer of Scotland. In 1480, he
became master of the royal household. In the following year
he was appointed a commissioner fw renewing the truce with
England. In 1484 he attended the princess Margaret into
France, on her marriage with the dauphin. By an order from
the king he erected the tower or fortalice of Eroly or Airly
in Forfarshire, into a royal castle. He married Isabel de
Durward, heiress of lintrathen, by whom he acquired that
barony. He died in 1440, leaving two sons. From Su: Walter,
the younger, sprang the earls of Findlater and Seafield, and
tho lords of Banff; see Banff, Futdlater, and Seafirld.
The elder son. Sir John Ogilvy, knight, of Lintrathen, was
succeeded by his eldest son Sir James Ogilvy of Airiie, am-
bassador from Scotland to Denmark in 1491. By James IV.
he was created, 28th April of that year, a peer of pariiament
by the title of lord Ogilvy of Airiie. James, the seventh lord
Ogilvy, for his loyalty and faithful services to Charles I., was
on the 2d April. 1689, created earl of Airiie, Altth, and Lix-
TRATHEN. He distinguished himself in the campaigns of the
marquis of Montrose, in particular at the battle of Kilsyth in
1646. Nimmo, in his history of Stirlingshire, states, that at
the commencement of that engagement, a thousand High-
landers in Montrose^s army, without waiting for orders,
marched np the hill to attack the enemy. Though displeased
with their rashness, Montrose despatched a strong detachment
to their assistance, under the command of the eari of Airiie,
whose arrival not only preserved this resolute corps from be-
ing overpowered by a superior force, but obliged the Coyenant-
en to retreat This was the most complete victory Montrose
ever gained. The loss on his side was small, only seven or
eight persons having been slain, three of whom were Ogilvies,
relations of the family of Airiie.
James, the second earl, was taken prisoner at Philiphangh,
and sentenced to death, but escaped from the castle of St
Andrews, the night before the day of his intended execution,
in the clothes of his sister.
David the third earl had two sons; the eldest, James,
lord Ogilvy, having engaged in the rel)e11ion of 1715, was
attainted of high treason. He was afterwards pardoned,
but, dying without issue, he was succeeded by his brother,
John, fourth earl. His son David, lord Ogilvy, joined Prince
Charies Edward Stuart, at Edinburgh, m 1746, with ax hun-
dred men, chiefly of his own name and family. He also was
attainted of high treason, but escaped to France, where Iw
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ATRTH.
32
AITON.
had the oommaDd of a Scotch regiment in the service of the
French king, called Ogilvj^s regiment. Having obtained a
free pardon, he retomed to Scotland in 1783, and died in 1803.
The title was for some time in abejanoe. Walter Ogilvy,
Ksq. of Airlie, Lord Ogilvj*8 son, styled tlie seventh earl, as-
sumed the title in 1812, hnt it was not restored till May
1836, when his son David was confirmed in it by act of par-
liament
Airlie castle, "the bonnie house of Airlie** of Scottish
song, once the chief residence of the family, was destroyed,
with Forthnr, another of their seats, by the marqnis of Ar-
gyle, in consequence of an order of the committee of estates,
in 1640. The phice had been regarded as almost impregna-
ble by nature, and had already, under Lord Ogilvy, eldest
son of the proprietor, successfully resisted an attack m'ade by
the earls of Montrose and Kinghom, but on the approach of
Argyle in 1641, with 5,000 men, the garrison fled, leaving
the fortress an easy prey to the Covenanters, who set it on
fire, and reduced it to ashes ; Argyle himself, according to
tradition, having taken a hammer and assisted in the demo-
lition of the doorways and hewing of the stone work, till he
waft completely fatigued. The modem house of Airlie, erect-
ed upon the ruins of the old castle, is a beautiful mansion,
most picturesquely situated upon a peninsnlated rode, at the
point where the river Melgam forms a junction with the Isla.
A fragment of the old castle remains, consisting of an old
strong gateway and part of a tower.
AiSTH, a dormant earldom in the peerage of Scotland, for-
merly possessed by a branch of the noble family of Graham,
conferred in 1633 on William, seventh earl of Menteith, de-
scended firom Sir Patrick Graham of Kincardine, the brother of
Sir John the Graham, the faithful companion and "right
hand " of Wallace, who was slain at the battle of FaUdrk.
Sir Patrick had previously fallen at Dunbar. The grandson
of the latter. Sir David Graham, styled in a royal charter,
witnessed by him in 1360, of Old Montrose, was the ancestor
of the dukes of Montrose of the name of Graham. See Mon-
trose, dukes of, and Graham, surname of. His only son.
Sir Patrick Graham, styled Domimu de DundafTet Kincardine,
acted a distinguished part In the reigns of David Bruce and
Robert IL The eldest son of the ktter, by a second mar-
riage. Sir Patrick Graham of Elieston and Kilpont, married
Eupheme, the sole heiress of Prince David Stewart, eari of
Stratheam, and acquired that title. He was killed near Criefl'
in 1413, by the steward of Stratheam, Sir John Drummond,
of Concraig. His son Malise was by James I. in Sept. 1427
created earl of Menteith or MonteiUi in h'eu of Stratheam.
His descendant and representative William, seventh earl of
this line, having attempted to resume the earidom of Strath-
eam, was by Charles I. deprived both of it and the earldom
of Menteith ; but to compensate him for the loss, he created
him earl of Auth, as ahtsady mentioned, with precedence
equal to what he had enjoyed as earl of Menteith, in which
earldom he was afterwax^ reinstated. Kilpont was the ba-
ronial title of the family. It seems to have been selected as
marking their descent from the stem of Kincardine, subse-
quently Montrose. The tower of Airth, in Stirlingshire, is
famous for an assault made upon it by Sir \^^lliam Walhuse,
when held by an English garrison, whom he put to the sword.
The square tower which makes a part of the present house of
Airth, upon tho west, is said to be the same in which that
bloody exploit was performed. [Mmtiu)** HtMtory of SHr-
Hngihire—Siirlmg'i edition^ 1817, page 170.] The title of
eari of Airth has been dormant since the death of William,
second ear. of Airth and Menteith in 1694. It was claimed by
I Robert Barclay Allardyce, Esq. of Urle and Allardyce, whu
died m 1856. See Menteith.
AUKEN, John, for some time editor of Con-
stable's Miscellany, was bom on 25th March 1798,
in the Tillage of Camelon, Stirlingshire. His first
situation was in the East Lothian bank, and soon
after he was sent to the banking office of Mr. Park,
Selkirk, brother of Mungo Park the traveller,
where he remained for several years. He was
afterwards appointed teller in the East Lothian
bank, where he had formerly been. He sub-
sequently removed to Edinburgh, and became a
bookseller. Having early displayed a predilection
for literature, he now resolved to follow the bent
of bis mind, and commenced editing ' The Cabi-
net,* an elegant selection of pieces in prose and
verse, three volumes of which were published.
The taste and judgment evinced in this publica-
tion recommended him to Mr. Archibald Consta-
ble, as the fittest peraon to undertake the editor-
ship of his Miscellany ; and though for a time
the failure of Messrs. Constable and Company
postponed the publication, when the work at last
appeared, it was under Mr. Aitken^s manage-
ment. On the death of Mr. Constable, he, in con-
junction with Mr. Heniy Constable and Messrs.
Hurst, Chance, and Company, Ix)ndon, purchased
the work, and continued editor till 1881, when
some new arrangements rendered his retirement
necessary. He afterwards became a printer on
his own account, with some prospect of success ;
but having caught cold, which produced erysipelas
in the head, he died on the 15th of February 1888,
in the 89th year of his age, leaving a widow and
four children. Mr. Aitken wrote a few pieces of
poetry of uncommon beauty and sensibility ; of
these, perhaps the most touching is the address to
his children, prefixed to the third series of the
Cabinet. — Obituary at the time.
ArroN, — for the origm of the name of Alton, see Ayton.
AITON, William, styled the Scottish Linnsus,
was bom in 1781, at a village near Hamilton.
Going to England in 1754, he was employed as an
assistant in the Physic gardens at Chelsea, under
Philip Miller, the superintendent, on whose recom-
mendation he was in 1759 appointed head gar-
dener to the Royal botanical garden at Kew, and
became a great favourite with George HI. In
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ALBANY,
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FIRST DUKE OF.
1783 he obtained also the appointment of super-
intendent of the pleasure-grounds at Kew. He
introduced a number of improvements into the
Rojal gardens, and formed there one of the best
collections of rare exotic plants then known, a
catalogue of which, with the title, Hortus Kewensis,
was published in 1789 in 3 vols. 8vo, containing
an enumeration of between five and six thousand
species, with thirteen plates. He died in 1793,
of a schirrus in the liver, and his son, William
Townsend Alton, was nominated by the king him-
self his successor.
Mr. Alton's publications are .
Hortos Kewenns: or a Catalogne of the Plants cnltivated
in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, illustrated with £n-
granngs. Lond. 1789, 8 vols. 8vo.
New Edition enlaxged. Lond. 1810-13, 5 vols. 8vo.
An Epitome of 2d. edit. Lond. 1814, 8vo.
Albaxt, duke of, a title formerly given to a prince of the
blood-royal of Scotland, — Albany, Albion, or Albinn, being
the ancient Gaelic name of North Britain, and until the
time of Caesar the original appellation of the whole island.
The Scottish Highlanders denominate themselves * Gael Al-
binn,* or Albinnidi, or Albainach. The name Albany is evi-
dently derived from the Pictish word Albtmy " the superior
height,** and is now applied to the extensive mountainous dis-
trict comprising Appin and Glenorchy in Argyleshirc, Athol
and Breadalbane in Perthshire, and a part of Lochaber in
Invemess-sfaire. The title of duke of Albany was first con-
ferred on the regent Robert, earl of Fife, son of Robert XL
' Since the Union, it has always been borne by the king's sec-
ond son, by creation, and was last held, as a secondary title,
by the late duke of York, son of George III. The history
of Scotland mentions four dukes of Albany who made a
' ' figure ni their time; whom, in consequence of their relation
to the royal family of Scotland, we maert here, rather than
under the family name of Stuart
ALBANY, Robert, first duke of, the thurd
son of Robert n. the first of the Stuarts, by his
first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Adam Mure
of Rowallan in Ayrshire. He was born in 1339.
He obtained the earldom of Menteith by his mar-
riage with Margaret, countess of Menteith, and
afterwards in 1371 that of Fife, on the i*esignatiou
of that earldom into the king's hands in his favour
by Isobel, countess of Fife, the widow of his eld-
est brother Walter, who had died young, without
issue. He was accordingly thereafter styled earl
of Fife and Menteith. In the years 1371 and 1372,
he presided at the courts of redress for settling
differences on the marches. In 1383 he was
appointed great chamberlain of Scotland, which
office he resigned in 1408, in favour of his son
John, earl of Bnchan. In 1385, accompanied by
the earl of Douglas, and John de Vieune, admii-a.
of France, who was then in Scotland, and a body
of French auxiliaries, he marched with an army
of 30,000 men towards Roxburgh, at that time in
the hands of the English. Proceeding into Eng-
land they took the castle of Wark in Northumber-
land, and ravaged the country from Berwick to
Newcastle ; but on the approach of the duke of
Lancaster, they resolved to return to Scotland.
On their way back, they sat down before Rox-
burgh, but were obliged soon to raise the siege.
On the invasion of Scotland by the English, the
earls of Fife and Douglas, and Archibald lord of
Galloway, made an incursion on the west borders,
as far as Cockermouth, spoiling the rich country
between the Fells of Cumberland and the sea, and
returned with several prisoners and abundance of
plunder. The talents of the earl of Fife, it is
stated, were so highly prized, that the principal
youth of Scotland flocked eagerly to his standard.
In the summer of 1388, when Douglas invaded
England on the ea<^t, and fell at Otterboume, the
earl of Fife, with his brother the earl of Stratheam,
entered that kingdom on the west, and after pass-
ing towards Carlisle, returned by Solway, without
sustaining any loss.
In 1389, in consequence of the advanced age of
the king his father, and the bodily infii-mity of his
elder brother, the earl of Carrick, afterwards Ro-
bert III., who had been rendered lame in eariy
youth by the kick of a horse, the earl of Kfe was,
by the three estates of the realm, appointed gov-
ernor of the kingdom. Desirous of signalizing
the commencement of his administration, he raised
an army, and advanced against the earl of Not-
tingham, marshal of England, warden of the east
marches, who, after the battle of Otterboume, had
boasted that he hoped to conquer the Scots, even
though opposed by a force double his own num-
bers. On the approach of the regent and the new
earl of Douglas, however, instead of giving battle,
he posted his men in a secure and inaccessible
place, and refused to stand the hazard of a. fight;
and the Scots army, after waiting half-a-day, with
banners displayed in sight of the foe, returned
home, wasting and destroying the country. A
truce was agi-eed to the same year, 1389. In
0
I
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ALBANY,
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FIRST DUKE OF.
April of the following year his father died, and his
elder brother John succeeded to the throne, when
he took the name of Robert II L, that of John
being considered inauspicious. The new khig,
besides being lame, was of a quiet disposition and
had no strength of mind, and the management of
public affairs was continued in the hands of the
earl of Fife. His nephew, however, Prince David,
carl of Carriek, conceiving that, as heir-apparent
to the crown, he was entitled, in preference to his
uncle, to be at the head of the administration, had
the addi*ess to compel his retirement from the
office of governor, and to get himself named regent
in his place, under the condition that he should
act by the advice of a council, of whom his uncle
was the principal. In March 1398 Albany and
his nephew Prince David had a meeting at a place
called Haudenstank, with John of Gaunt, duke of
Lancaster, and other English commissioners, for
settling mutual differences; and it is supposed that,
on this occasion, Lancaster, from his superior title
of duke, claimed some precedence not relislied by
the prince and his uncle ; for this year the first
introduction of the ducal title into Scotland took
place, tlie earl of Carriek, the king^s son, being
ci*eated duke of Rothesay, and the eai'l of Fife, the
king^s brother, duke of Albany. According to For-
dun, these titles were confeiTcd in a solemn council
held at Scone, April 28, 1398. In 1400, when Henry
IV. of England invaded Scotland, Albany assem-
bled an army to oppose that monai*ch. Henry took
Haddington and Leith, and laid siege to the castle
of Edinburgh, at which time William Napier of
Wrightshouses was constable of the castle. With
the aid of Archibald, earl of Douglas, and the duke
of Rothesay, at this time governor of the khig-
dom, he maintained that important fortress against
the whole English army, which was numerous and
well appointed. In accordance with the chivalrous
eustom of the times, Rothesay, who was not want-
ing in courage, though frequently charged with im-
prudence, sent King Henry a knightly challenge to
meet him where he pleased, with a hundi*cd nobles
on each side, and so to determine the quarrel, but
the English king was not disposed to give him this
advantage, and sent back an equivocating verbal
reply. He then sat down with his numerous host
before the castle, till cold and rain, and the want of
provisions, as the inhabitants had, as usual in those
days, taken care to remove every thing that the
invaders could lay their hands on from their reach,
compelled him to raise the siege and hastily re-
cross the Border, without his visit being produc-
tive of much injury either in his progress or retreat.
On his part the duke of Albany, whose ambition
was equal to his ability, desirous of having the gov-
ernment to himself, permitted the enemy to with-
draw without molestation, and obtained much
praise from them for his clemency to all who sur-
rendered.
Two years afterwai'ds occurred the tragic death
of the duke of Rothesay, which left a dark cloud
of suspicion on his uncle*s name, and the mys-
teiy attendant on which has never been satisfac-
torily cleared up. The circumstances of his death
ai'e rotated by Boece, who attaches the guilt of
murder distinctly to Albany, but the love of the
maiTellous which is so prominent in this writer as
to make even Tytler call him the most apocryphal
of Scottish historians, may be supposed to have led
him to give a high colouring to his narrative, which
the subsequent unpopulai-ity of Albany and the dis-
favour into which his memory fell with the Scot-
tish court, would not diminish. After mentioning
the death of the young duke's mother. Queen An-
nabella Drummond, his narrative thus proceeds :
^* Be quhais deith, succedit grot displeseir to hir son,
David, duk of Rothesay; for, during hir life, he.
wes haldin in virtews and honest occupatioun, eftir
hir deith, he began to rage in all maner of inso-
lence; and fulyeit virginis, matronis, and nunnis,
be his unbridillit lust. At last. King Robert, in-
formit of his young and insolent maneris, send
letteris to his brothir, the duk of Albany, to inter-
tene his said son, the duk of Rothesay, and to Icir
[learn] him honest and civill maneris. The duk
of Albany, glaid of thir writtingis, tuk the duk of
Rothesay betwixt Dunde and Sanct Androis, and
bix>cht him to Falkland, and inclusit [enclosed]
him in the tour thairof, but [without] ony meit or
drink. It is said, ane woman, havand commisera-
tioun on this duk, leit meill fall down throw the
loftis of the tom*e ; be qullkis, his life wes certane
day is savit. This woman, fra it wes knawin, wes
put to deith. On the same maner, ane othir wo-
man gaif him milk of hh- paup, throw ane lang
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ALBANY,
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FIROT DUKE OF.
reid ; and wes slane with gret craelte, fra i% wes
knawin. Than wes the duk destitnte of all mor-
tall snpplie ; and brocht, finalie, to sa miserable
and hungry-appetite, that he eit, nocht allanerlie
[not only] the filth of the toure quhare he wes,
bot his awin fingaris; to his great marterdome.
His body wes beryit in Lnndoris, and kithit mira-
klis mony yeris eftir; qabil [till], at last King
James the First began to punls his slayerls ; and
fra that time forth, the miradis ceissit.*' The
melancholy death of the dake of Rothesay forms
one of the most -effective incidents in Sir Walter
Scott's popular novel of 'The Fair Maid of Perth,'
in which the characters of the young prince, of
his weak-minded father Robert the Third, and of
his uncle the regent duke of Albany, are drawn
with great faithfulness and power.
It would appear that the duke of Rothesay,
who was of a wild and thoughtless disposition,
and little qualified for a charge so important as
that of regent of the kingdom, had alienated the
affections of all whom he ought to have courted
and conciliated. He had in early life been affi-
anced to his own CQusin, the beautiful Euphemia
dc Lindsay, sister of Sir William de Lindsay of
Rossie and of David earl of Crawford, — he slighted
her for Elizabeth Dunbar, sister of the earl of
March and Dunbar, to whom he was solemnly
contracted, — and her again for Marjory Douglas
daughter of the brave but unfortunate Archibald
earl of Douglas sumamed the Tmeman^ — ^whom he
ultimately maiTied. The consequence was the
deadly enmity of the earl of March and Sir Wil-
liam Rossie, the latter — in absence of the earl of
Crawford in Spain — the representative of the house
of Lindsay. More recently he had ofiended his
father-in-law, the earl of Douglas, by personal
affironts and neglect of his daughter, and by his
shameful debaucheries and vicious courses with
other women. He had disgusted and insulted one
of his own immediate followers. Sir William Ra-
morgny, a man of highly polished manners, but
of a revengeful heart. He conceived a strong
desire to effect the overthrow of Albany, which
he was at no pains to conceal, and was guilty
of repeated excesses which rendered his being
placed nnder some restraint a matter of neces-
sity.
On his suspension from the office of governor,
it was suggested by Sir William Lindsay and Ra-
morgny to the prince, in order to facilitate his cap-
ture, that he should ride to St. Andi'ews — the bishop
of which had just died, — and keep the castle for the
king's interest. He set off with a small train, but
was intercepted by them, and conveyed a prisoner
to the castle. Albany, and his father-in-law
Douglas, then at Culross, presently an-ived, and
after holding a council of the regency, it was de-
cided to transport the unfortunate prince to Falk-
land, where he was placed nnder the custody of
two individuals called Wright and Selkuk. The
rest of the story we have given in the woi'ds of
Boece. The tale contains matter that is fabulous
and untrue as well as revolting and improbable.
All the parties named by the tradition as the mur-
derers in chief we know to have died a natural
death, except the gallant Douglas, who fell at the
battle of Vemenil. If the remains of the prince
could have wrought miracles at all, there was
no truth therefore in the reason assigned why
the faculty had ceased. After a life so dissipated,
it is not improbable that the account given by
Bower, the continuator of Fordnn, may have had
foundation, namely, that the young prince really
died of dysentery, and to this view of the case
the filthy details of Boece would rather seem to
give some countenance. It is singular that Wyn-
toun, the earliest naiTator of the event, says no-
thing whatever of the alleged murder. At the
time of his death, he was in his 29th yeafi having
been born in 1373. — See Rothesay, duke of.
The mysterious death of the heir to the crown
having excited great attention, a parliament met
at Edinburgh on the 16th May after, to investigate
the matter, when Albany and the earl of Douglas
acknowledged having imprisoned tiieduke of Rothe-
say, but denied being guilty of his death, attribut-
ing it to divine providence. These statements
appear to have induced the parliament to de-
clare him innocent of the murder, while at the
same time he sought to make himself legally se-
cure by taking out a remission under the great
seal for the imprisonment, both for himself and for
Douglas. This remission, which is in Latin, was
first printed by Lord Hailes, but it does not follow
from the concluding remark of his comment, as
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ALBANY,
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FIRST DUKE OF.
Pinkerton says, that ho considered the prince as
having been murdered; namely, "The duke of
Albany and the earl of Douglas obtained a remis-
sion in terms as ample as if they had actually
murdered the heir apparent/' On the capital of
the pillar of the old chapel of St. Giles' cathedral
at Edinburgh are still to be seen sculptured the
arms of Robert duke of Albany, and those of
Archibald, fourth earl of Douglas, the father-in-
law of Rothesay, the former on the south and the
latter on the north side, and the author .of ^ Me-
morials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time ' infers
from this fact that this chapel had been founded
and endowed by them, as an expiatory offering
for the murder of the duke of Rothesay, and its
chaplain probably appointed to say masses for
their victim's soul. IWilson's Memorials ofEdtn-
burgh, vol. ii. page 168.] The friendship which
subsisted between Albany and Douglas seems a
more likely reason why their arms should have
been thus placed together, than any thing in con-
nection with the death of the young and wilful
prince, that could be imputed to either of them.
Soon after the death of Rothesay, Albany, in
order to turn the attention of the nation into
another channel, gave his consent for the renewal
of hostile operations against England. Two Scot-
tish armies were successively marched across the
Borders, but both were defeated and dispersed,
the first at the battle of Nesbit Moor, fought on
the 22d June 1402, and the other at Homeldon
hill, on the 14th September of that year, when the
celebrated Hotspur gained the victory. In the
latter the leaders of the Scots, Murdoch earl of
Fife, eldest son of the regent Albany, with the
earl of Douglas, his friend and supposed accom-
plice in the death of Rothesay, and eighty knights,
and a crowd of esquires and pages, were taken
prisoners, while not only among those slain but
m the list of the captives, were many of that party
which supported the king and his young son Prince
James, against the encroaching power of Albany,
whom they believed to be the murderer of his
nephew the duke of Rothesay. Soon after the-
battle of Homeldon, the Percies, who by this time
had become dissatisfied with the monarch whom
they had placed upon the English thi*one, began to
organise that famous rebellion which terminated
with the defeat and death of Hotspur in the battle
of Shrewsbury, in which they wei*e aided by their
prisoner the earl of Douglas. As a pi*etext for
assembling an army they pretended an invasion
of Scotland, and the duke of Albany, influenced
probably by the example and advice of Douglas,
and hoping that the kingdom would benefit by
their services, readily gave in to their designs
At the head of a large aimy Peix^y advanced
across the Border, but had only marched a few
miles into Scotland, when he commanded his
forces to halt before the insignifieant border-tower
of Cocklaws, but the officer commanding the tower
having entered into an agi*eement to capitulate in
six weeks if not relieved, the whole English army
retired. On receiving information of this, Albany
assembled the principal of the nobility, and hav-
ing explained to them the circumstances, advised
an immediate expedition into England. The
Scottish barons, who had been amazed at Al-
bany's former lukewarmness and inactivity, when
the capital had been invaded by Henry IV. in
person and the principal castle of the kingdom
was in danger of falling into his hands, were now
overwhelmed with astonishment at the sudden
blaze of bravery which seemed to animate his
breast when a paltry Border fortress was threat-
ened by the English. "All were of opinion,"
says Bower, " without a single dissentient voice,
that, upon so trivial an occasion it would be ab-
surd to peril the welfare of the kingdom ; but Al-
bany starting up, and pointing to his page, who
held his horse at a little distance; *You, my
lords,' said he, ^ may sit still at home; but I vow
to God and St. Fillan that I shall be at Cocklaws
on the appointed day, though no one but Pate
Klnbuck, the boy yonder, should accompany me.' "
The wai'like resolution of the governor was hailed
with gi-eat joy. "Never," says the historian,
" did men more joyfully proceed to a feast, than
they to collect their vassals." At the head of an
immense army, Albany advanced to the Borders,
but on his mnreh, a messenger from England
brought the intelligence of the result of the battle
of Shrewsbury and the termination of the rebel
lion in England. This, however, did not deter
him from pushing on to Cocklaws, and suiTOund-
ing the fortalice with his troops, and after causing
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ALBANY,
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FIRST DUKE OF.
it to be proclumed by a herald that the Fercies
had been utterly defeated, and so relieved the
fortress, ho returned, without entering England,
with his army, which he immediately disbanded.
In the meantime, the afflicted monarch, Robert
HI., resolved to send his second son James,
then in his eleventh year, to France for gieater
security ; but the vessel in which he sailed hav-
ing been driven by a storm on the coast of Eng-
land, was taken by an English cruiser, and the
youthful prince, although there was a truce at the
time between the two kingdoms, was ungenerously
detained a prisoner by Henry TV. for nineteen
years.
Robert ITT. died of a broken heart, 4th April,
1406, and the duke of Albany, in the absence of
James, was, by a parliament which met at Ferth,
confirmed in the regency. He was then ap-
proaching his seventieth year, but vigorous, poli-
tic, and ambitious as ever. During his regency
occurred the famous battle of Harlaw, which
was fought in 1411, between his nephew Alexan-
der, eaii of Mar, and Donald lord of the Isles,
the cause of which was ostensibly the earldom of
Ross, to which the lord of the Isles laid claim in
right of his wife, but there can be no doubt that
this claim and his subsequent invasion of the
district of Ross, formed merely a pretext, which
was intended to conceal his ulterior views on the
tfirone itself. It appears that the male line of the
possessors of this earldom had become extinct,
and the succession had devolved upon a female,
Euphemia Ross, the wife of Sir Walter Lesley, by
whom she had a son, Alexander, who succeeded
as earl of Ross, and a daughter, Margaret, married
to Donald of the Isles. The countess of Ross, on
the death of her husband, mamed Alexander earl
of Bnchan, fourth son of King Robert II. Her
son by her first marriage, Alexander earl of Ross,
man-ied Lady Isabel Stewart, eldest daughter of
the regent Albany, and the only issue of this mar-
riage was a daughter, also named Euphemia,
countess of Ross, at her father's death. This lady
became a nun, and committed the government of
her earldom to Albany, with the intention, as it
is conjectured, of resigning it in favour of her un-
cle, John Stewart, earl of Buchan, the second son
of the regent. As the countess Euphemia, by be-
coming a nun, was regarded as dead in law, her
next heir was her aunt Margaret, the only sister
of the deceased Alexander, eari of Ross, and the
wife of Donald lord of the Isles. That diieftain
accordingly asserted her right to the earldom, and
demanded to be put in possession of it. The claim
and the demand were both rejected by the regent,
"whose principal object," says Skene, "appears
to have been to prevent the accession of so exten-
sive a district to the territories of the lord of the
Isles, already too powerful for the security of the
government, and whose conduct was more actu-
ated by principles of expediency than of justice."
[History of the Highlanders^ vol. ii. p. 72.] Re-
solved to maintain his claims by force of arms,
and show his scorn of the authority of the regent,
Donald formed an alliance with Henry IV. of Eng-
land, and at the head of ten thousand men, which
ho had raised in the Hebrides and in the earldom
of Ross itself, suddenly invaded the district in
dispute, by the inhabitants of which he was not
opposed, and speedily obtained possession of the
earldom. On his arrival at Dingwall, however,
he was encountered by Angus Dow Mackay of
Farr, or Black Angus, as he was called, at the
head of a large body of men from Sutherland.
After a fierce attack the Mackays were completely
routed, and their leader taken prisoner, while An-
gus* brother Roderick was killed. Donald took
possession of the castle of Dingwall, and seized
the island of Skye, contiguous to his own extensive
territories. Flushed with success, he now re-
solved, in accordance with )^ secret design of
overturning the government, to carry into execu-
tion a threat he had often made to bura the town
of Aberdeen. He ordered the army to assemble
at Inverness, and gathering as he proceeded all
the men capable of bearing arms to his standai'd,
he swept through Moray without opposition, and
penetrated into Aberdeenshire. In Strathbogie,
and in the district of Garioch, which belonged to
the enrl of Mar, he committed great excesses.
To arrest his progress, the earl of Mar, the ne-
phew of the regent, and Sir Alexander Ogilvy,
the sheriff of Angus, hastily raised as many forces
as they could collect in the counties north of the
Tay, consisting of most of the retainers of the an-
cient families of these counties, the Ogilvies, tho
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ALBANY,
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FIRST DUKE OF.
Lyons, the Maules, the Carnegies, the Lindsays,
the Leslies, the Hurrays, tlie Straitens, the Ir-
vings, the Arbnthnots, the Leiths, the Bnmets,
and othera, led by their respective chiefs. The
two armies met at the village of Harlaw, in the
parish of Chapel of Gai'ioch, upwards of fifteen
miles from Aberdeen. Although the earl of Mar's
army was inferior in point of numbers to that of
the lord of the Isles, it was composed of low-
land gentlemen, better armed and disciplined
than the wild and disorderly hordes that followed
Donald, who was assisted by Mackintosh and
Maclean, and other Highland chiefs, all bearing
the most deadly hatred to their Saxon foes. This
memorable battle was fought on the 24th July,
1411, "upon the issue of which," says Skene,
** seemed to depend the question of whether the
Gaelic or Teutonic part of the population of Scot-
land were in future to have the supremacy."
IHistaty of ilie HighlcmderSy vol. ii. page 73.] The
disastrous result of this battle was one of the
greatest misfortunes which had ever happened to
the numerous respectable families in Angus and
the Meams. The earl of Mar lost five hundred
men, among whom were several gentlemen of dis-
tinction. Besides Sir James Scrymgeonr, consta-
ble of Dundee, Sup Alexander Ogilvy, the sheriff
of Angus, with his eldest son, George Ogilvy, Sir
Thomas Mnn-ay, Sir Robei-t Maule of Fanmure,
Sir Alexander Irving of Drum, Sir William Aber-
nethy of Saltoun, Sir Alexander Straiton of Lau-
rieston. Sir Robert Davidson, provost of Aberdeen,
and a number of tly inhabitants of that city, were
among the slain. A gentleman, named I^eslie
of Balquhain, whose residence was in the neigh-
bourhood of the field of battle, with six of his sons,
was killed. On the side of the lord of the Isles
nine hundred men wei*e slain, including the chiefs
of Maclean and Mackintosh. Neither party gained
the victory, and each, on reckoning its loss, con-
sidered itself vanquished, but the lord of the Isles
felt hunself so much weakenefd that he was com-
pelled to abandon the contest. The earl of Mar
and those of his companions who survived were so
much exhausted with fatigue that they passed the
night on the field of battle, expecting a renewal of
the attack next morning, but at daydawn they dis-
covered that Donald and the remains of his force
had retired during the darkness, without molesta
tion, retreating first to Ross, and then to the Isles
Immediately after the battle, the regent, anxious
to follow up the check which the Highland force
had received, collected an army, and marched to
the castle of Dingwall, which he took and garri-
soned towards the end of autumn. In the follow-
ing summer he sent three separate forces to invade
the territories of Donald. The haughty loixl of
the Isles was obliged to relinquish his claims to
the earldom of Ross, to make i)ersonal submis-
sion, and to give hostages for indemnification
and for the future observance of peace. The in-
strument by which the earldom of Ross was re-
signed by Euphemia the nun in favour of her
grandfather is dated in 1415, just four years after
the battle of Hariaw. The battle itself, as has
been well remarked, ** from the ferocity with which
it was contested, and the dismal spectacle of civil
war and bloodshed exhibited to the country, ap-
pears to have made a deep impression on the na-
tional mind. It fixed itself in the music and the
poetry of Scotland ; a march, called * Tlie Battle
of Harlaw,' continued to be a popular air down to
the time of Drummond of Hawthomden, and a
spirited ballad on the same event is still repeated
in our age, describing the meeting of the armies,
and the deaths of the chiefs, in no ignoble strain."
[Laing's Ecarly Metrical Taks^ page 229.] For «
long time after, it was customary for schoolboj-s
to arrange themselves into opposite parties, ana
fight the battle of Harlaw over again, for recrea-
tion. The ballad of the Battle thus concludes :
There was not, sin* King KennetVs daja,
Sic strange intestine cniel strife
In Sootlande seen, as ilk man says,
Where monie likelie lost their life ;
Whilk made diroroe tween man and wife,
And monie children fatherless,
Whilk m this realm has been full rife ;
I>ord help these lands ! our wrangs redress !
In July, on Saint James his enn.
That four-and-twenty dismal day,
Twelve hundred, ten score, and eleven
Of years mn* Christ, the soothe to say ;
Men will remember, as they may,
When thus the veritie they knaw ;
Ana monie a ane will mourae for aye
The brim battle of the Harlaw
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ALBANY,
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FIRST DUKE OF.
In the year last mentioned, namely 1415, the
regent obtained from Henry V. the liberation of
his son Mnrdoch, in exchange for Henry Percy,
the son of Hotspur. In 1416 he sent his second
son, John earl of Bnchan, ambassador to England,
to endeavour to procure the release of James I.
from the captivity in which he was held by the
English monarch. With a strange perversity, the
writers of Scottish history have almost unani-
mously charged the regent Albany with ** being in
no hurry to obtain the release of his nephew," as
Sir Walter Scott gently phrases it — nay, they even
go farther, and accuse him of tre^isonably intrigu-
ing with the English king to retain his sovereign
in prison, that his own power might not be inter-
rupted ; but hero is one instance where Albany
intrusted his son, the eai'l of Buchan, one of the
bravest and most accomplished knights of his age,
with a mission to England to endeavour to procure
the liberation of James. In 1417, when King
Henry V. was in France, prosecuting his wars there,
the regent, with a large army invaded England,
and after beginning the siege of Roxburgh, im-
mediately retreated in all haste on learning that
an English force, under the dukes of Bedford and
Exeter, was on the way to meet him. This was
long popularly remembered as the ** Foul Raid."
In 1419 he despatched his son, the earl of Buchan,
with a chosen army of 7,000 men, into France,
to assist the dauphin against the English king.
Neither this invasion of England, nor this assist-
ance sent to France, would have taken place had
Albany desired to keep on those good terms with
Henry which implied a mutual understanding as
to the retention of James from his kingdom. This
son, the earl of Buchan, was the offspring of Al-
bany's second marriage with MurieUa, the daugh-
ter of Sir William Keith, marshal of Scotland.
He was bom about 1380. When his father be-
came regent in 1406, after the death of his brother
Robert HL, he resigned, in favour of his son, the
office of great chamberlain. In 1408 Albany, as
regent, created him earl of Buchan. Five yeara
afterwards Buchan married Lady Elizabeth, daugh-
ter of Archibald earl of Douglas. While engaged
on the dauphin*s side against the English in
France, tlie earl of Buchan, on the 22d March
1421, defeated the duke of Clarence, the brother
of Henry V., at Baug^ in Anjou, and slew him
with a battle axe, after he had been pierced with
a spear by Sir William Swinton. To recompense
this signal victory the dauphin conferred upon him
the high office of constable of France. In 1422
he revisited Scotland, with the view of inducing
his father-in-law, the eari of Douglas, to join his
arms. Douglas consented, and was created duke
of Touraine in France by the dauphin. Both
Douglas and the earl of Buchan, constable ot
France, were slain at the battle of Verneuil in
Normandy, 17tli August 1424. A portrait of this
illustrious warrior is given on page 43, at the end
of the memoir.
The duke of Albany continued to administer the
affairs of the kingdom till his death, which took
place at Stiriing castle, on the 8d of September
1420, at the age of 81. His body was interred
in the Abbey church of Dunfermline. Our his-
torians generally have given a very unfair view
of Albany's character. Pinkerton thus depicts
it : ** His person was tall and majestic ; his coun-
tenance amiable. Temperance, affability, elo-
quence, real generosity, appai'ent benignity, a
degree of cool prudence, bordering upon wisdom,
may be reckoned among his virtues. But the
shades of his vices are deeper ; an insatiate ambi-
tion, unrelenting cruelty, and its attendant cow-
ardice, or, at least, an absolute defect of military
fame, a contempt of the best human affections, a
long practice in all the dark paths of art and dis-
simulation. His administration he studied to re-
commend, not by promoting the public good, but
by sharing the spoils of the monarchy with the
nobles, by a patient connivance at their enormi-
ties, by a dazzling pomp of expenditure, in the
pleasures of the feast, and in the conciliation of
magnificence. As fortune preserved his govern-
ment from any signal unsuccess, so it would be
an abuse of terms to bestow upon a wary man-
agement which only regarded his own interest the
praise of political wisdom." In this same strain
all our historians follow one another in their esti-
mate of Albany*s character, but I am not disposed
to agree with them entirely. Nothing could be
wiser or more calculated for the public good, than
his resistance to Donald of the Isles, whose object
was by the aid of England to destroy the Scottish
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ALBANY,
40
SECOND DUKE OF.
kingdom to his own aggrandisement; and what-
ever may be the motives imputed to Albany, or
the objects assigned as the moving springs of his
administration, surely it cannot be denied that the
public good was indeed promoted by his policy, and
by his judicious and vigorous measures on all occa-
sions. During his regency justice was regularly
administered. He took great care not to lay
any taxes on the people, and especially he steadily
and successfully opposed the levying of a tax of
two pennies on every hearth in the kingdom,
which had been proposed in parliament for the
purpose of defraying the expense of demolishing
Jedburgh castle. "Even in his time," says Sir
Walter Scott, ** it wonld seem that the extent of
writings used for the transference of property, had
become a subject of complaint. When upon this
subject, Albany used often to praise the simpli-
city and beauty of an ancient charter by King
Athelstan, a Saxon monaixh. It had been granted
to the ancient Northumbrian family called Rod-
dam of Roddam, and had fallen into the hands of
the Scots on some of their plundering excureions."
The duke of Albany, it is quite certain, was one
of the most popular and most able goveniora that
the kingdom ever possessed. He enjoyed to a high
degree the confidence of both king and nobles,
while the people placed the utmost reliance on
the justice and finnness of his government. The
following is an impression of his seal, taken frem
the Diplomaia ScoHcb:
Robert duke of Albany was twice mamed : first
to Margaret, countess of Menteith ; and secondly
to Muriella, eldest daughter of Sir William Keith,
gi-eat marischal of Scotland, and had issue by both
marriages. — Douglas' Peerage^ vol. i. — Piiikerton's
History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 85.
ALBANY, Murdoch, second duke of, son of
the preceding, succeeded him both as duke and
regent. At first he bore the title of earl of Fife.
He had a grant from Robert HI. in the thii*d
year of his reign, of a hundred merks sterling an-
nually from the customs of Aberdeen. He was
Justiciary of Scotland benorth the Forth, and
designed of Kinclevyne when taken prisoner at
the battle of Homeldon in 1402. Henry IV.
presented him in full parliament on 20th Octo-
ber, and he was allowed to be at large on his
parole of honour. By a letter from his father to
Heniy the Fourth, dated Falkland, June 2, 1405,
he seems to have received much kindness from that
monarch during his stay in England, as he thanks
him for his good treatment of his son Murdoch,
and the favourable audience given to Rothesay
herald. In 1415 he was exchanged for Henry
Percy of Northumberland, the son of Hotspur,
who, since the battle of Shrewsbury, had remained
in Scotland. He does not appear to have pos-
sessed the same degi-ee of energy as his father, but
the accounts of him given by our historians are
manifestly partial and exaggerated. It is stated
that on his father's death in 1419, he assumed
the office of governor of Scotland, just as if he
had naturally and legitimately succeeded to it as
a matter of hereditaiy right, and that he did not
think it necessary even to obtain the sanction of
parliament, but supported by the feudal nobility
at once usui-ped the government. This is not
likely to have been the conduct of a person of the
indolent, incapable, and unambitious character
which Duke Murdoch's is universally represented
to have been. In the commission pi*eserved in
the chapter of Westminster, and of which a copy
is given in Anderson's Diphmata, No. 64, it is
expressly stated that the parties therein named,
being the bishop of Glasgow, chancellor of Scot-
land, James Douglas of Balvany, brother-in-law
of Duke Murdoch, the earl of March, the abbot
of Balmennoch and othei's, empowered to ne-
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ALBANY,
41
SECOND DUKE OF.
gotiate for the deliverance of James from his cap-
tivity in England, were so appointed with the
knowledge and by the deliberate council of the
three estates of the realm (ex certa sdentia et
deliberato conciho tnum $tatuum regni)^ which
must have been assembled at the time, and pro-
bably for the purpose. This document beai-s date
19th August 1423, and is stated to have been
passed in the third year of Murdoch's government.
As, however, his father died in 1419, it is impos-
sible that it could have been so expressed had he
then assumed the government; for it would, in
that case, have been stated to have been done in
the fourth and not the third year of his regency ;
and it is but reasonable to infer that the post of
govcmof remained vacant after the death of his
father, till it could be legitimately conferred on
Murdoch by an act of some parliament, of the
proceedings of which, as well as of the one referred
to in the commission, no trace is now to be found
in history. It is said that Murdoch's conduct as
rogcut created so much dissatisfaction in the na-
tion that some persons refused to accept of the
most profitable offices, and others resigned theirs;
while the loss of place was accounted a proof of
men's honour and integrity. Bat in the com-
mission referred to, men of the highest rank and
character ahe mentioned as being in possession of
some of the chief offices in the kingdom. It is
certain, how'ever, that during Murdoch's govern-
ment, the affections of the people became more
intensely fixed upon their absent sovereign ; and
the greatest desire was manifested for his retum ;
to which Murdoch was induced to accede. A tra-
ditionary stoiy, in which we place no faith, is re-
lated that he was driven to this by his son Walter
having savagely wrung the neck of a favourite fal-
con which he coveted, on its being refused to him,
as Murdoch set out one day to enjoy the rcci*eation
of hawking. Provoked by his conduct, the regent
said to the youth, *^ Since thou canst not find in
thy heart to obey me, I will bring in another whom
both of us shall be forced to obey." Ambassadoi-s
being despatched to negociate with the English
court, after some delay the duke of Bedford, then
protector of England, agreed to deliver up the
i king of Scotland, on payment of £40,000, within
six years by half-yeai*ly payments, hostages be-
ing given for payment of the same. The am
bassadors who went to England, to concert mea-
sures about the payment of this sum, were the
bishops of Aberdeen and Dunblane and Mr. Tho-
mas Myreton. The aiTangement for the release of
the king was finally adjusted by the Scottish com-
missioners, who proceeded to London for that
pui-pose, on the 9th of March, 1424. In the fol-
lowing April James retunied to Scotland, after
having man-led the Lady Jane Beaufort, a daugh-
ter of the eai'l of Somerset, of the blood royal of
England. At his coronation, Murdoch, duke of
Albany, as earl of Fife, performed the ceremony
of installing the sovereign on the throne, and
amidst the rejoicings on the occasion, the king
conferred the honour of knighthood on Alexander
Stewart, the second son of the duke of Albany,
and twenty-four others of his principal nobility
and barons. An act had been passed in the first
parliament after James' return, ordering the she-
riffs to enquire what lands had belonged to the
crown during the thi-ee preceding reigns, and em
powering the king to summon the holders to show
their chartera. There had, probably, been some
demur, which roused James to adopt vigorous
measures, and to have recouree to the cruel expe-
dient of cutting off his own cousin and his family
as the authors of it. He first ordered the arrest
of Walter, eldest son of Murdoch, duke of Al-
bany, the late regent, with that of Malcolm Flem-
ing of Cumbernauld, and Thomas Boyd of Kil-
marnock; and in a parliament held at Penh,
25th March 1425, he ordered the arrest of Mur-
doch himself, his second son. Sir Alexander
Stewart, the earls of Douglas, Angus, and March,
and twenty other gentlemen of note. His view,
it is probable, in arresting so many was to pre-
vent an insurrection. Mui*doch was committed a
close prisoner to Caerlaverock castle, while his
duchess, Isabella, was sent to Tantallan, and the
king immediately took possession of Albany's
castles of Falkland in Fife, and Doune in Men-
teith. Immediately after the arrest of the duke
of Albany and the other nobles, the king ad-
jouiTied the parliament for two months. It re-
assembled in the palace of Stu-ling, on the 24th of
May, when the king presided in person, at the
tinal of Duke Murdoch, his two sons, and hiti
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ALBANY,
42
SECOND DUKE OF.
father-in-law, the aged earl of Lennox. No
known I'ecord specifies their crime, and our histo-
rians have conjectured that the charge was one of
high treason, for the alleged usurpation of the
government on tlie part of Albany. Walter Stew-
art, the eldest son, was first tried, on the 24th
of May, and being found gnilty was instantly be-
headed in front of the castle. On the following day,
tlie duke of Albany, Alexander bis second son, and
the «arl of I^ennox, were tried by the same juiy,
and being convicted were immediately executed.
None of the noblemen and others arrested with
them were brought to punishment. Seven of
them even sat on the jury of twenty-six persons
who found the duke and his companions guilty on
their trial. Alexander, lord of the Isles, who suc-
ceeded Donald, whom Duke Murdoch's father had
humbled (see p. 37), was also one of the jury,
whose verdict sent him and his sons and lus
father-in-law to the block. Upon this Alexander
of the Isles, the earldom of Ross, with extensive
possessions in the Western Islands, was bestowed
by James: an impolitic act, which afterwards
brought much evil upon the kingdom. The scene
of the execution was a rising ground in front of the
ca.stle of Stirling, which is still known by the
name of the Heading Hill.
** Amongst the people," says Tytler, " the shed-
ding of so much noble blood excited a sympathy and
commiseration for which James was not prepared.
Albany and his two sons, Walter and Alexander
Stewart, were men whose appearance and man-
ners, in a feudal age, were peculiarly fitted to
command popularity. Their stature was almost
gigantic; their countenances cast in the mould
of manly beauty; and their air so dignified and
warlike that when the father and the two sons
ascended the scaffold, it was impossible to behold
the scene without a feeling of involuntary pity
and admiration. Behind them came the earl of
J/cnnox, a venerable nobleman in his eightieth
year; and, when he laid his head upon the block,
and his grey haij-s were stained with blood, a
thrill of horror ran through the crowd, which, in
spite of the respect or terror for the royal name,
bix)ke out into expressions of indignation at the
unsparing severity of the vengeance." From the
place of his execution Duke Murdoch might sec in
the distance the fertile territory of Menteith, which
formed pait of his family estates, and even distin-
guish the stately castle of Donne, which bad been
his own vice-regal residence. Of this magnificent
edifice the following is a wood-cut.
The title and possessions of the duke of Albany
were forfeited, and the latter annexed to the crown.
To obtain these was, no doubt, the cause of his
death. A contemporary narrative of the murder
of King James, preserved in the General Register
House, and printed by Pinkerton, represents the
general impression to have been that " the kyng
did rather that rigorons execucion upon the lordes
of his kyne for the covetise of thai*e possessions
and goodes, thane for any rightful cause ; althoe
he fonde colourabill wayes to serve his intent yn
the contrarye." IPinkertan's Hist vol. i. p. 463.]
The estates of the earl of Lennox, his father-in-
law, were allowed to remain unforfeited. Duke
Murdoch's marriage to Isabella, the eldest daughter
of Duncan, earl of Lennox, who had been left a
widower without male issue, took place in 1391.
By the maniage contract, it was agreed that
should the eai'l of Lennox marry again, and have
an heir male, the latter should marr}' Duke Mur-
doch's sister.
The earl did not marry again, and had no heir
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ALBANY,
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THIRD DUKE OF
male of his body wbo might fnlfil the condition of
a marriage with the regent's daughter. Of the
marriage of Murdoch lUid Isabella, four sons were
bom, Robert, who died early, Walter, Alexander,
and James. The latter, who was the fourth son,
when his father, grandfather, and two brothers were
seized and executed, was the only male member
of the family who escaped. Resolving to succour
his kindred or avenge their fate, with a body of
armed followers, as desperate as himself, he car-
ried fire and sword into the town of Dumbarton,
and put to death the king's uncle, John Stewai*t,
called the Red Stewart of Dundonald, with thirty-
two others of inferior note. The king pursued
him with such determined animosity that ho was
compelled to fly with his abettor, the bishop of Ar-
gyle, to Ireland.— See Avakbale, lord, p. 169.
{^Ncgjier*s History of the Pcartihon of the Lennox^ pc
10.] Duke Murdoch's widow was allowed to re-
tain her estates and titles, and to reside till her
death upon her earldom of I^nnox. She lived
in the castle of Inchmurrin on Loch Lomond, the
chief messuage of the earldom, and there granted
charters to vassals as countess of liennox. She
survived to hear of the assassination of him whose
inflexible sentence had cut ofl* her father, her hus-
band, and her two sons. On one of the pillars of
St. Giles' church, Edinburgh, are the arms of Isa-
bella, duchess of Albany and countess of Lennox,
who, in 1450, founded the collegiate church of
Dumbarton and largely endowed other religious
foundations. She died about 1460. See Lennox,
family of. [DouglcuP Peerage, — TytUr's Lives of
Scottish Worthies, Life of James /.]
The physical strength and imposing appear-
ance of the descendants of Robert the firet duk^
of Albany have been frequently mentioned by
historians. Murdoch's half-brother, the earl of
Bnchan, constable of France, slain at Vemeuil in
Normandy, in 1424 (see ante, page 89,) of whom
a portrait is extant, seems to have possessed all
the qualities of his race in this respect. Of this
portrait, which was discovered about the middle
of the last century by Sir Greorge Seton of Garle-
ton, of the noble family of Winton, in the gallery
of M. Fiebet, at his seat near Chambord in France,
an engraving is given in Pinkerton's Portrait Gal-
lery. A woodcut of it is annexed.
ALBANY, Alexander, third duke of, was the
second son of King James II. His first titles were
earl of March and lord of Annandale, but he was
about 1456 created duke of Albany, a title which
had been foifeited to the crown when Duke
Murdoch was beheaded. Having been sent to
France to complete his education, he was in 1464,
on his voyage homeward frcm his uncle, the duke
of Gueldres, towards Scotland, captured by the
English, but soon released, a herald having been
sent to England to declare war in case of his being
detained. In February 1478 his brother James
III., a prince of a weak and irresolute temper, and
fond of mean favourites, on the sinister informa-
tion of some of these, ordered his arrest, and im-
prisoned him in Edinburgh castle. Soon after, his
younger brother, the earl of Mar, was also ar-
rested by the king's orders. Both of these princes
were popular with the nobility and people, and
had incuiTcd the king's suspicion and the hatred
of his favourites. As lord warden of the east
frontiers, Albany had besides restrained and dis-
obliged the Homes and Hepbunis and othera of
the Border clans, and in revenge they bribed
Cochrane, the king's principal adviser; to set the
king against him. Man* was taken out of his bed
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ALBANY,
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THIRD DUKE OF.
and sent prisoner to Craigmillar castle, and slioitly
thereafter, being accused by the king^s favourites
of consulting with sorcerers and witches to take
the king^s life, he was sentenced to have a vein
in his leg opened, and in a bath to bleed to death,
which was executed m toe Canongate in 1479.
IBalfour's Annals^ vol. i. p. 203.] Albany was
committed prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh,
out effected his escape, and proceeded to his
castle of Dunbar, from whence, after victualling
and providing it with all manner of munitions of
war, he sailed for France, llbtd. vol. i. p. 202.]
He was forfeited 4th October 1479, and troops
were sent to besiege his castle of Dunbar, which
soon yielded, the garrison escaping in boats to
England. On arriving at Paris, the duke met
with an honourable reception from I^uis XI. He
i*emained in France till 1482, when he proceeded
to England, and entered into an agreement with
Edward IV., by which the English king obliged
himself to aid him in invading Scotland, and to
place him on the throne; in return for which he
consented to sun*ender Berwick, to acknowledge
himself the vassal of England, to renounce all
alliance with Louis of France, and to marry one
of Edwai'd's daughtei's. In consequence of this
Albany assumed the title of king, declaring his
brother to be a bastard. An English army
amounting to 40,000 men, under the duke of Glou-
cester, afterwards Richard III., accompanied by
Albany, marched to Berwick, and invested that
town. The town speedily surrendered, but the
castle held out. In the meantime King James
having assembled his nobility, marched towards
the Boi-dera to meet the eneifly. As he lay en-
camped near Lauder, his nobles, highly exasper-
ated at their sovereign's conduct, headed by Ar-
chibald Douglas, eai'l of Angus, commonly called,
after this event, " Bell-the-Cat," after securing
the chief favourite Robert Cochrane, burst into the
royal tent during the night, and seized the rest
of the king's minions, all of whom, with Cochrane,
they hanged over the bridge of Lauder. They then
can-led the king to Edinburgh, and shut him up
in the castle, under the care of his uncles the earls
of Athol and Buchan. The road to the capital
was now open, and the dukes of Gloucester and
Albany, with their forces, advanced, in the month
of July, towards Edinburgh. The archbishop of
St. Andrews, the bishop of Dunkeld, with Lord
Avandale, the chancellor, and the earl of Argyle.
hastily collected a small army, and posted them-
selves at Haddington, to impede the advance of
the enemy. At the same time they entered into
negociations with Albany, and on the 2d of August
a treaty of peace was concluded. Albany en-
gaged to be a true and faithful subject to King
James, on his titles and estates, with Dunbar
castle, and the possessions of the late earl of
Mar, his brother, being restored to him, and the
office of king's lieutenant of the realm being con-
ferred on him. Two heralds were commanded to
pass to the castle to charge the captain to open the
gates and set the king at liberty. In Balfour's
Annals of Scotland, (vol. i. p. 207,) it is stated
that the duke of Albany and the lord chancellor
then govenied all the realm, and that with several
of the nobility Albany went to Stirling to visit the
queen and prince, and aflcr his return he laid siege
to Edinburgh castle, which he took, when the king
and such servants as were with him were set at
liberty. According to Lindsay of Pitscottie, (vol.
i. p. 200), the king, on recovering his freedom,
" lap on a hackney to ride down to the abbay ;
but he would not ride forward, till the duik of Al-
banie his brother lap on behind hun ; and so they
went down the geat to the abbey of Hallyraid hous,
qnhair they remained ane lang time in great miiri-
nes;" and, as Abercromby adds, he "would needs
make him a partnei* in his bed, and a comrade at his
table," that being considered in those days the best
proof of a perfect reconciliation. Albany immedi-
ately concluded a truce with the duke of Glouces-
ter, and on the 23d of August 1482 surrendered
to him the fortress of Berwick, after it had been
in possession of the Scots for twenty -one years.
Notwithstanding the favour which was now shown
to him by the king, Albany, in the following year,
engaged in another secret treaty with Edward
IV., for depriving his brother of the throne, and
securing it to himself. His designs being detected
by the nobles, he was obliged to fly to England,
having previously placed his castle of Dunbar in
the hands of the English. In consequence of this
traitorous proceeding, he was formally accused of
treason, and summoned to stand his trial; bul
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FOURTH DUKE OF.
failing to appear, he was condemned to death as a
traitor and to have his estates confiscated. Hav-
ing assembled a small force, he joined the earl of
Donglas, who was likewise an exile in England,
and made an inroad into his native country, but
uras routed near Lochmaben, 22d July 1484, when
Douglas was taken prisoner, but Albany escaped
by the fleetness of his horse. A tiiice for three
years was then agreed upon between the two
countries, and Albany, finding that he could ob-
tidn no farther protection in England, retii'ed to
France, where he was well received by Charles
Vni. He was accidentally killed at Paris in
November 1485, by the splinter of a lance, while
an onlooker at a tournament between the duke
of Orleans and another knight, and, by act of
parliament 1st October 1487, all his lands and
possessions in Scotland were annexed to the crown.
According to the description given of him by an
uicient Scottish author, the duke of Albany was
ffell-proportioned, and tall in stature, and comely
b his countenance; that is to say, broad-faced,
red-nosed, large-eared, and having a very awful
eountenance when displeased. Like his younger
brother, the unfortunate earl of Mar, who was of
a milder temper and manners, he* excelled in the
military exercises of tilting, hunting, hawking,
and other personal accomplishments, for which his
brother James UI. had no taste. He had married
first Lady Catherine Sinclair, eldest daughter of
William earl of Orkney and Caithness, but a divorce
took place, 2d March 1478, on account of propin-
quity of blood. By her he had one son, Alexander,
who was declared illegitimate by act of parliament,
13 November 1516, and who was made bishop of
Moray and abbot of Scone, in 1527. He married,
secondly, in Febraary 1480, Anne de la Tour,
third daughter of Bertrand, Count d'Auvergne
and de Bouillon, and by her he had one son,
Duke John, the subject of the following notice. —
Douglas^ Peerage. — Histories of the Period,
ALBANY, John, fourth duke of, son of the
preceding, was bom about 1481. Li 1505, he
married his cousin, Anne, or Agnes, de la Tour,
countess d'Auvergue and de Laurajais, by whom
ho got large possessions. On the death of James
IV , in 1513, his son James V. being then only
in his second year, the queen mother was ap-
pointed regent of the kingdom, but at a con-
vention of the estates held soon after at Perth,
it was agreed, at the m*gent suggestion of the
venerable Elphinston, bishop of Aberdeen, se-
conded by the I^rd Home, that the duke of
Albany, then in France, and who after the infant
king was next heir to the throne, should be invited
to Scotland to be governor of the kingdom, during
James* minority. This election was ratified by a
public meeting of the estates held at Edinburgh
soon after, and Lyon king at arms, with Sir Patrick
Hamilton, was sent to France to notify the ap-
pointment to the duke. In the meantime, the
sentence of forfeiture which had excluded him
from the enjoyment of his rank and estates in
Scotland was annulled, and his arrival hnpatiently
looked for by the people, as the queen mother had
married the earl of Angus, and, being opposed by
the nobility, nothing but anarchy and disorder pre-
vailed in the kingdom. On the 18th May, 1515,
the duke arrived at Dumbarton, Balfour says at
Ayr, with a squadron of eight ships; and soon after
he was installed into the office of i*egent. *^ He wes
ressaueit,*' says a chronicler of the period, ** with
greit honour, and convoyit to Edinburgh with ane
greit cnmpany, with greit blythnes, and glore, and
thair wes constitute and maid govemour of this
i*ealme ; and sone thairefter held ane parliament,
and ressauit the homage of the lordis and thre
estaittis ; quhair thahr wes mony things done for
the weiU of this countrey." His inauguration into
the regency was attended with great splendour.
A sword was delivered to him, and a crown placed
upon his head, while the peers made solemn obei-
sance. He was ddClared governor of the kingdom
till the king attamed the age of eighteen years.
The duke took up his residence at Holyrood, and
seems toiiave immediately proceeded with the en-
largement of the palace, in continuation of the
works which James IV., the late king, had carried
on till near the close of his life.
Albany, unfortunately, was ignorant not only
of the constitution, the laws and the manners, but
even of the language of Scotland. He was in
fact more French than Scotch. His mother was a
Frenchwoman, and so was his wife. His chief
estates were in France, where the greater part of
his life had been spent, and his loyalty to the
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FOURTH DUKE OF.
French king was so nndisgoised that he constantly
styled him master. When it is added to this that
his temper was passionate, that every comer of the
kingdom was filled with spies and agents in the
pay of England, and that the powerful honses of
Home and Douglas swayed tlie faction that were
opposed to him, it was hardly to be expected that
he would be successful in restoring peace to the
country. The infant king and his brother were
still under the care of the queen-mother; and a
parliament which assembled at Edinburgh, nomi-
nated eight lords, four of whom were to be chosen
by lot, and from these four the queen-mother was
to select three who were to have the charge of the
two infant princes. The queen, however, was not
disposed to part with her children, and when the
peers proceeded to the castle of Edinbui-gh, to
notify to her the commands of parliament, her
majesty, who was then no more than twenty-four
years of age, and in' the full bloom of her beauty,
was seen standing under the archway at the en-
trance, with the little. king at her side, holding
her hand, while a nurse stood behind with his in-
fant brother, the duke of Ross, in her arms.
In a loud voice, and with a dignified air, she
desired them to stand and declare what they
wanted. They answered that they came in the
name of the parliament to receive their sover-
eign and his brother, on which the queen com-
manded the warder to drop the portcullis, and
this being instantly done, she thus addressed the
astonished loi*ds : ** I hold this castle by the gift
of my late husband, your sovereign, nor shall I
yield it to any person whatsoever ; but I respect
the parliament, and require six days to consider
their mandate, for most important is my charge ;
and my councillors, alas! are now few." Ap-
prehensive, however, that she would not be able
to hold the castle of Edinburgh against the for-
ces of the parliament, she soon removed, with
the young king and his brother, to Stu'ling castle.
Albany immediately collected an armed force, and
proceeded in person to Stirling, where the queen
finding her adherents deserting her, was soon
obliged to suirender. The young princes were then
committed to the care of the earl Marshal and the
lords Fleming and Borthwick, while the queen
was conducted with every mai'k of i*cspect to Ed-
inburgh, where she took up her residence in the
castle. On the success of the regent. Lord Home,
one of the queen's principal adherents, at once
commenced to intrigue with England, and con-
certed measures with Lord Dacre, the English
warden, of resistance and revenge. Albany sum-
moned the whole force of the kingdom to the aid
of the government, and transmitted proposals to
the queen-mother, offering her a complete restoi*a-
tion of all the rights and revenues which she had
not forfeited by her marriage, if she would accede
to the wishes of the parliament, and renounce all
secret correspondence with England. These pro-
posals she indignantly rejected, whereupon Albany
proceeded against the insurgents, and took the
castle of Home. The queen sent Albany's pro-
posals privately to Lord Dacre, while Home re-
quested the assistance of an English army, and
retook the castle of Home. He also secured the
strong tower of Blackater, situated within the Scot-
tish border, about five miles from Berwick, to which
place the queen immediately fled. The regeut
followed her with a considerable army, and surpris-
ing Home in the house to which he had hastened
for refuge, made him prisoner, and committed him
to the custody of the earl of AiTan, governor of
the castle of Edinburgh. Arran disliked Albany
and his measures, and was easily persuaded by
Home to retire with him to the Bordcra, where
they actively commenced hostilities. Home and
his brother were again proclaimed rebels, and Ai*-
ran was reqmred to surrender himself within fif-
teen days. At the same time the regent, at the
head of a select body of troops, and a small train
of artillery, proceeded to invest the castle of Cad-
zow, near Hamilton, Arran's principal fortress.
Arran's mother, who was the daughter of James
the Second, at that time resided there, and order-
ing the gates to be opened, she came out to meet
the regent, and as she was his aunt by the father's
side, and greatly respected by him, he was easily
prevailed upon to listen to her solicitations in fa-
vour of her son. Terms of accommodation were
soon agreed to, and Arran was allowed to return
and resume possession of his estates.
In the meantime Home had fled to England,
whither he was soon followed by the queen and
her husband Angus. Negotiations for peace be-
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ALBANY,
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FOURTH DUKE OF
tween the two countries were set on foot, and
Angos, to whom the qaeen bad recently, at Har-
bottle castle in England, borne a daughter, the
1^7 Margaret Donglas, the mother of Dam-
ley, husband of Mary Queen of Scots, withdrew
from his wife, who lay dangerously ill at Mor-
peth, and with Home returned into Scotland.
They both made their peace with the regent, who
restored them to their hereditary possessions, and
for a tUtne they abstained from disturbing the gov-
ernment. Queen Margaret on her recovery pro-
ceeded to the court of her brother Heniy VUI.,
where she inveighed bitterly against both Angus
and Albany, but especially the latter, whom she
accused of having poisoned her second son, the
dake of Ross, who had died, at Stirling, of one
of the many diseases incident to childhood. Henry,
anxious to have Arran regent, directed a letter to
be written to the three estates of Scotland, com-
manding them to expel the regent Albany from the
kingdom, as, from his being the nearest heir of the
throne, he was the most dangerous person to have
the charge of the young king, his nephew. The
Scottish pailiament, which assembled at Edin-
burgh on the first of July 1516, replied with be-
coming sphit. They reminded the English king
that they themselves had elected Albany to the
office of regent, to which he had a right as nearest
relative to their infant king, that he had fulfilled
its duties with much talent and integrity, and that
the person of their infant sovereign was intrusted
to the keeping of the same lords to whose care he
had been committed by the queen-mother. They
concluded by assuring Henry of their determina-
tion to resist to the death any attempt to disturb
the peace of their country, or to overthrow the
existing government. Notwithstanding this spir-
ited reply, the intrigues of Henry's minister. Lord
Dacre, soon succeeded in creating distrust and dis-
turbance, and once more reinstating in its strength
the English faction in Scotland. On the 23d Au-
gust Dacre wrote from Kirkoswald to Cardinal
Wolsey, informing him that he had in his pay four
hundred Scots, whose chief employment was to
distract the government of Albany, by exciting
popular tumults, encouraging private quarrels, and
rekindling the jealousy of the feudal nobility. In
Scotland at this time Albany's administration was
rather popular than otherwise. He was *^ sup-
ported," says Tytler, ** by the affection and confi-
dence of the middle classes, and the great body of
the nation ; but their influence was counteracted,
and his efforts completely paralysed by the selfish
rapacity of the clergy, and the insolent ambition
of the aristocracy." A new insurrection soon
broke out, headed by the earl of Arran, who
associated himself with the earls of Glencairn,
Lennox, Mure of Caldwell, and the majority of
the noblemen and gentlemen of the west. They
met at Glasgow to the number of 12,000 men,
and seized on the royal magazines there. Under-
standing that some French ships, with supplies of
arms and ammunition for Albany, had appeared in
the Clyde, they sent a body of troops to take pos-
session of them. The vessels, however, had sailed
before their aiTival, but they seized a quantity of
gunpowder and other ammunition which had been
landed, and which they conveyed to Glasgow.
Lest it might fall into the hands of their enemle.'t
the powder was thrown into a drawwell. By a
stratagem Arran made himself master of the cas-
tle of Dumbarton, and expelled Lord Erskine the
governor. In the meantime the regent having
collected an army, advanced upon Glasgow, when
an accommodation was once more brought about,
chiefly through the means of Beaton, archbishop
of Glasgow, who was high in favour with the regent.
Lord Home, (see vol. ii. p. 473,) on his part, soon
violated the conditions on which the regent had
consented to pardon him. He renewed his treason-
able correspondence with Dacre, and employed
bands of marauders to break across the border and
ravage the country. Determined to put an end to
the anarchy created by the rebellious proceedings
of this fierce opposer of his government, the regent
allured the earl, who held the office of lord cham-
berlam, and his brother Alexander, to the court at
Holyrood, where they were instantly arrested.
They were immediately tried, on a charge of
treason, for having excited the late commotions
against the regent, of having been accessory to
the defeat at Flodden, and being concerned in
the assassination of James lY. after the battle.
Being found guilty, they were both beheaded, on
the 8th of October 1516, and their heads placed
above the tolbooth of Edinburgh. Soon after the
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FOURTH DUKE OF.
duke of Albany, in a convention of the estates of
the realm held at Edinburgh, was declared heir
apparent to the crown.
Anxious to procure assistance from the Fi*ench
king, and to revisit his estate in France, the re-
gent, in the parliament which assembled in No-
vember 1516, requested leave of absence for a
short period. The parliament accorded an unwill-
ing consent for four months, and in June 1517 he
embarked at Dumbarton, leaving the government
in the hands of a council, consisting of the arch-
bishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow, the earls of
Iluntlj, Argyle, Angus, and Arran, and cariying
with him the eldest sons of many of the great
barons as hostages for the peace of the country.
To each of the six persons mentioned was assigned
the charge of that part of the country contiguous
to his own estates, while to a brave and accom-
plished French knight, whose real name was An-
thony D'Ai'cie, but whose handsome person pro-
cured for him the distinguishing title of Seigneur
de la Beaut^ (absurdly called de la Bastie in all
our histories) was intrusted the government of the
eastern and middle marches, with the command of
the important castles of Home and Dunbar. The
young king was brought from Stirling to Edin-
burgh castle, and placed under the charge of Lord
Erakine, the earl Mai*shal, and the lords Borth-
wick and Ruthven. Fresh tumults broke out on
the boi*ders, and the vassals of the late Lord Home,
out of revenge at his fate, surprised and murdered
the Sieur de la Beautd, who had distinguished
himself by the activity and diligence with which
he punished and repressed disorder. Sir David
Home of Wedderburu, whose wife was the sister
of Angus, the husband of the queen -mother, gal-
loped into the town of Dunse, with the head of
the unfortunate Frenchman knit to his saddlebow,
by the fine long hair which he wore in accordance
with the fashion of the age, and after fixing it on
the market-cross, took shelter in his strong castle
of Edington, on the banks of the Whiteadder. For
this outrage the estates of the laird of Wedderbmn
and his associates were forfeited.
After this the -kingdom became a scene of disor-
der, anarchy, and confusion, the rival factions of
Douglas and Hamilton everywhere contending for
the mastery. The earl of Arran had been elected
by the council of regency their president, and at
this time had the chief diixiction of affairs, but he
was, upon all occasions, opposed by the earl of
Angus, who still had great influence, and the pri-
vate animosity which subsisted between these two
powerful noblemen k^pt the country in a continual
state of excitement and disturbance. As soon as
the queen>mother heard of Albany^s departure,
she returned to Scotland. Her arrival was at a
time of such universal confusion and strife that
even Albany himself, unwilling to leave France,
wrote to her, advising her that, if she could unite
the factions, she should resume the regency
Mai'garet, however, wished to have the office of
regent conferred on her husband, the earl of
Angus, to whom she had been lately reconciled,
but this neither the council nor the majority of the
nobles would agree to. Her jealousy, however,
soon caused a fresh quarrel with her husband, and
as her brother Henry VIU. took the part of
Angus, she foi-sook the English interests, and
entered into a correspondence with the duke of
Albany, urging him to return and take the regency
once moi*e into his own hands. During Albany*s
absence the famous street battle at Edinburgh,
between the rival factions of the Douglasses and
the Hamlltons, commemorated under the name ol
" Cleanse-the-Causeway,** was fought 30th April
1520, the result of which was that the Hamiltons
were defeated, ai\pl the earl of Angus got posses-
sion of the capital.
The next year Albany returned to Scotland
after an absence of five years. He arrived in
the Gareloch on the third of December 1521,
and was met at Stirling by the queen-mother,
accompanied by several lords and gentlemen.
It is stated that Margaret, who was very change-
able in her affections, and by no means careful
of her conduct, received him with transports of
joy, and with such familiarity as excited scanda-
lous rumours. Lord Daci*e, in a letter to his sov-
ereign. King Henry, says that, not satisfied with
being with him during the day, she was closeted
the greater part of the night with Albany, taking
no heed of appearances. The earl of Arran and
others of the nobility hastened to Stirling to wel-
come his arrival, and on the 9th he entered the
capital, accompanied by the queen and the chan-
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ALBANY,
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FOURTH DUKE OF.
rellor and a numerous attendance of peers and
gentlemen. Proceeding to the castle, he was ad-
mitted to an interview with the young king, on
which occasion the captain delivered the keys of
the fortress into his hands. These the regent laid
at the feet of the queen-mother, and she again
presented them to Albany, saying that she con-
sidered him the person to whose tried fidelity the
care of the monarch ought to be intrusted. On
the regent's approach the earl of Angus and his
party precipitately left the city, and fled to the
Border. In a parliament held at Edinburgh, on
the 26th day of December, Angus and his adhe-
i-ents were cited to appeal* before it, to answer for
various crimes and misdemeanours, but they paid
no attention to the summons, and had ah-eady re-
newed their negotiations with the English king.
The regent now endeavoured to reconcile the fac-
tious, and to procure a peace with England. But
it did not suit the ambitious projects of the Eng-
lish court that Albany should continue at the head
of affairs, or that peace and order should be re-
stored to Scotland. Lord Dacre, Henry's unscru-
pnlous agent, in the letters which he wrote to
Henry, repiesented that the life of the young king
was in danger, and that his mother was anxious
to obtain a divorce fi-om Angus, that she might
marry Albany, who, on his nephew's death, would
become king. He distributed money among the
factious nobles, and did every thing that he could
to stir up war between the two countries. Henry,
on his part, as he had done once before, addressed
a letter to the Scottish estates, demanding the
dismissal of Albany, and received a similar answer
to the former, being sharply told by the Scottish
parliament that they had themselves freely chosen
Albany to the regency, and would not dismiss him
at the request of his grace, the king of England,
or of any other sovereign prince whatever. Upon
this Henry, in the spring of 1522, sent the earl of
Shrewsbury with a large force to invade Scotland.
He advanced as far as Kelso, giving up the country
everywhere to havoc and spoliation, until he was
encountered and driven back into England, with
considerable loss, by the bold borderers of Teviot-
dale and the Merse. Albany having, with consent
of parliament, declai-ed war, and mustered the
whole force of the kingdom for an invasion of
England, at the head of eighty thousand men,
and with a formidable train of artillery, advanced
towai-ds the English borders, and encamped at
Annan. The queen- mother at this time, with
her characteristic fickleness, had cooled in her at-
tachment to the regent, and not only intrigued
with a party of the Scottish nobles to support her
views, but betrayed all Albany's secrets and plans
to the English warden. Lord Dacre. The regent,
ignorant of this, with his large army crossed the
borders and advanced to Carlisle. When within
five miles of that city Daci-e opened negotiations
with him, and succeeded in prevailing upon him to
agree to a cessation of hostilities for a month, in
oi*der that ambassadors might treat for peace. As
the English king, then engaged in a war with
France, had wisely departed from his demand for
Albany's dismissal fi*om the regency, the nobles
who had joined in the expedition saw no further
cause for continuing in arms, and Albany himself,
desirous of peace with England, disbanded his
army, and returned to Edinburgh, without strik-
ing a blow.
Finding the difficulties of his situation increase,
with the view of soliciting assistance fi*om the
French king, Albany, in October 1522, retired for
the second time to France, after appointing a
council of regency, consisting of the earls of Huntly,
Arran, and Argyle, to whom he added (xonzolles,
a French knight, in whom he had much confi-
dence. He promised to return in ten months on
pain of foifeiting his office. During his absence,
in the spring of 1523, the English renewed tlie
war by a vast inroad into Scotland. The earl of
SuiTcy, the victor of Flodden, at the head of
10,000 men, broke into the Meree, reduced its
places of sti-ength, and advancing to Jedburgh,
burnt that town, and left its beautiful abbey a
heap of ruins. Lord Dacre, after reducing the
castle of Ker of Femihnrst, and taking that cele-
brated border chief prisoner, sacked and depopu-
lated Kelso and the adjoining villages, while the
marquis of Doi'set, the warden of the east marches,
made an incursion into Teviotdale, giving its vil-
lages to the flames, and carrying off its grain and
beeves. Albany returned from France in Septem-
ber 1523, with a fleet of eighty-seven small ves-
sels, and a force of four thousand foot, five hun-
D
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ALBANY,
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FOURTH DUKE OF.
di'cd men at arms, a thousand hagbutteei-s, six
hundred horse, and a fine trtin of artillery, whicli
had been furnished to him by tlic French. He
lauded in the island of An'an, Balfour says *^ at
Kerkubright," having eluded the enemy's fleet,
>vhich was sent out to intercept him, and imme-
diately pi-oceeded to Edinbui*gh. The emban-ass-
ment of his position at this ciisis was greater than
ever. He found that the queen -mother was no
longer on his side, but deeply engaged in intrigu-
ing against him. That fickle, passionate, and un-
principled woman, whose character somewhat re-
sembled that of her imperious brother, Henry
VIII., was now as anxious to promote the English
interests as she had formerly been the French,
and had entered into negotiations with Sm-rey and
Daci-e, with the view of recovering the regency to
hei'self. The nobles, though willing to assemble
an ai'my for the defence of the Borders, were to-
tally averse to an invasion of England, while they
were jealous of the foreign auxiliaries which the
regent had brought with him.
The parliament assembled without delay, and a
proclamation was issued for a muster of the whole
force of the kingdom on the 20th of October. Al-
bany summoned together the principal nobility,
and urged them to cai'ry the wai* into England, to
avenge the disastrous defeat at Flodden and the
late excesses on the Bordei-s. He had brought
with him a large supply of gold from France, and
as he liberally dispensed it, he won over some of
the more venal of the nobles, and even the queen
herself was so channed by his presents, that she
wrote to the eai*l of Sui*roy, that unless her bro-
ther Henry remitted her more money, she might
be induced to abandon the English interest, and
co-operate with Albany. On the day appointed a
force of about 40,000 men assembled on the Bor-
ough-muir near Edinburgh, at the head of which
the regent set forward towai*ds the Boi-dei-s. But
never had general commenced an aggressive march
under such discouraging circumstances. Most of
the leaders who had answered the summons to
arm had taken the gold of England, and bound
themselves not to cross the Bordei-s, while othei*s,
such as Argyle, Huntly, and the master of Forbes,
did not appear at all at the muster. The expedi-
tion was nationally unpopular, and as the Scots
soldiers did not conceal their dislike of the for-
eign auxiliaries. Indications of disorganiiuition
soon became but too evident. Added to this, the
season was now far advanced, and much time was
lost in di-agging the cumbersome aitillcry over the
rude and difficult roads of those days, which had
been renderod still more wretched by recent falls
of snow and rain. Albany arrived at Melrose on
the 28th of October. When he reached the wooden
bridge at that place, a large portion of his army
refused to cross the Tweed, and those divisions of
the troops which had aUxsady passed over, turned
back, and in spite of all his entreaties and re-
proaches, recrossed the bridge to the Scottish side.
The regent remained in the neighbourhood ot
Melrose two days, after which he marched down
the Tweed, and arrived at Eccles, on the side
of the river opposite to Wark. The Scottish army
encamped near Coldstream, while Albany lodged
in Home castle. He ordered part of the artillery
to be conveyed to Berwick, but afterwards he laid
siege to Wark castle, chiefly with his foreign
troops and artillery, llie historian, George Bu-
chanan, who was a volunteer in his army, gives a
highly valuable account of his operations in this
his last campaign in Scotland. An attempt to
storm the castle was bravely met by the garrison,
who poured a destructive fire from the ramparts
upon the besiegers, and on the approach of nighty
the latter wei*e compelled to retire. It was pro-
posed, however, to renew the assault next day, but
dm*ing the night thero was a heavy fall of i*ain and
snow, which so flooded the river that all retreat
was threatened to be cut ofif. It was known thai
the Esu'l of SuiTey was advancing from Alnwick
with a foimidable force. Under these circum-
stances Albany, on the 4th of November, with-
drew his ai'tillery, and the assaulting party re-
crossed the Tweed, leaving three hundred killed,
mostly Frenchmen, and once more joined the main
ai'my. Balfour says that with the latter portion
of his troops he had spoiled all Glendale and
Northumbei'land to the walls of Alnwick, and re-
turned with a great booty. lAnnak, vol. i, page
252.] The regent rethed to Eccles, and thence
marched rapidly towards Edinburgh, approhen-
sive all the way of being seized by some of the
lords with lum, and delivered up to the English.
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ALBANY.
51
ALEXANDER L
His retreat had all the appearauce of a flight, the
disorder of which was increased by a scvei'C saow-
Btorm. Ou reaching Edinburgh, he assembled a
parliament, and ascribed the failure of the expe-
dition to the nobles refusing to march into Eng-
land, while they, on their part, accused him of
being the cause of the disgrace. Notwithstanding
the presence of the English army, under Surrey,
on the Borders, and the inclemency of the season,
some of the peera insisted on his instantly dis-
missing the foreign auxiliaines.' Thus compelled
to embai'k, the French were by a storm driven out
of their course, and a considerable number of them
were shipwrecked and drowned among the west-
em Isles. Soon after, having obtained three
mouths' leave of absence, Albany, in the end of
1523, retired in disgust and despair to France,
after taking an affectionate leave of the young
king, then at Stu'ling, and returned no moi*e to
Scotland.
He afterwards, in 1524, attended Francis I. in
his unfortunate expedition into Italy ; but before
the fatal battle of Pavia, fought 24th February
i525, he was detached with pai-t of the French
array against Naples. It was the absence of this
large portion of his troops, amounting to 16,000
men, which caused Francis to lose the battle, when
attacked by the emperor Charles. In 1533 Albany
conducted his wife's niece, Catherhie de Medici,
into France, on her marriage with Henry II. of that
kingdom. He was governor of the Bourbonnois,
d'Auvergnc, de Forest, and de Beaujolais. He
died at his castle of Mirefleur, 2d June 1536. By
his duchess he had no issue. By Jean Abemcthy,
a Scotswoman, he had a natural daughter, Eleo-
nora, who, after being legitimated, was in 1547
married at Fontainebleau, in presence of the
French king, to the count de Choisy.
This duke of Albany was a man of elegant and
gracefid manners and high accomplishments, and
very gay and sprightly in conversation, — qualities
which made him a peraonal favourite with Fran-
cis I. of France, but were little appreciated in
Scotland, where his vanity, of which he had a
large share, and evident pai-tiality for French offi-
cers and confidents, soon disgusted the haughty
and rapacious nobility. In Pinkerton's Scottish
Gallery, there is a fine portrait, supposed to be that
of Albany, of which a woodcut is annexed. It is
on the same enfjraviujr with one of Queen Margaret
JcJ^mu
The sign manual autograph ** Jehan" underneath,
is from the Cotton MSS. B. vi. fol. 170, in the
British Museum.
The title of duke of Albany was bestowed in 1540 on Ar-
thur, second son of James V. and his spouse Mary of Guise,
a prince who died in 1541. It was afterwards given to Henry
Stewart, lord Damley, or Demely, by Queen Mary, shortly
before their marriage in 1565. Charles L was created duke
of Albany, on his baptism at Dmifermline in 1600, his eldei
brother Henry, who died in 1612, being duke of Rothesay, the
title of the king's eldest son. The following is a fac simile of
the autograph and motto of this ill-fated prince, written in
an album in the Sloane MSS. No. 3415, as duke of Albany,
in 1609, before he had completed the ninth year of hb age:
Albany king at anus was one of the secondary heralds
in Scotland, when Scotland was an independent kingdom.
Prince Charles Edward Stuart, in the latter years of his life,
styled himself count of Albany.
ALES, or Alesse, Alexander, see Uailes,
Alexander.
ALEXANDER I., king of Scotland, surnamed
the Fierce, from his vigour and impetuous character,
has hitherto been represented as the fifth son of Mal-
colm III., surnamed Canmore, or great head, by
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ALEXANDER I.
52
ALEXANDER L
Margaret, daughter of Edwai*d, uephew of Ed-
ward the Confessor, king of England, but it is
now admitted that Ethelred, who had been be-
lieved to be the third, was the youngest son of
that maiTiage, and consequently Alexander was
not the fifth but the fourth son of Malcolm and
Margaret. It is also placed beyond a doubt that
by a previous marriage with Ingibiorge, the widow
of Thorfin, a powerful Norwegian earl, — who for
thirty yeai-s, duiing the reigns of Altsxander's fa-
ther Malcolm and his predecessor Macbeth, ruled
over all Scotland north of the Grampians, and
part of the present county of Forfar, — Malcolm had
two sons, Duncan, afterwards king of Scotland,
and Malcolm, both of whom wei*e alive at the
time of his death, so that Alexander was in reali-
ty the sixth of the sons of Malcolm Canmore.
[See life of Duncan, king of Scotland, posf]
Thei*e is no earlier instance in Scottish histoid
of the name of Alexander having been bonie by
king or noble, although it afterwards became
one of the most common and familiar Christian
names in Scotland. Lord Hailes has supposed
that it was bestowed in honour of Pope Alexan-
der II. If so, it was given to him after the death
of that pontiff, which occurred in the year 1073,
as no calculation from family or other events can
place the birth of Alexander, of which the pre-
cise date is unknown, eai-lier than about the year
1078.
Alexander was educated with gieat care, not
only in letters but in religious principles, and the
solemn injunctions of his excellent mother, on her
death-bed, to Turgot, prior of Durham, her con-
fessor and biogi'apher, which have descended to
us in his interesting memou' of that good queen,
prove how great was her solicitude in the latter
respect in regard to all her children. Alexan-
der pai'took of those vicissitudes of the family,
after the death of his father, which are detailed
in the lives of his uncle Donald Bane and of his
brothers Duncan and Edgar, and which serve to
exhibit, in a strong light, the peculiarities of the
law of succession to the throne among the Celtic
or Pictish races of that age, and they no doubt
contributed to form and give a direction to his
character and future government, when he became
king.
On the death of his brothei- Edgar, 8th January
1107, Alexander succeeded to the throne, but not
to the enjoyment of the same extent of possessions
as his predecessor. For the conquest of the toest-
em portion of the ancient principality of Cumbria
— ^a region extending between the Roman walls of
Agricola and Antoninus — ^liaving sometime previ-
ous been effected, by David his younger brother,
with an army of Norman chivalry from England,
the government of the province was also bestow-
ed upon him, and Edgar, on his death-bed, be-
queathed him all those extensive lands in those
regions held by him and Malcolm his father which
formed the subject of that homage rendered to the
Norman conqueror and his son William Rufits so
frequently refenred to in English history. [Xorrf
Hailes* Quotations horn English contemporaiy
writers, compared with the narrative of the in-
quisition into the lands of the see of Glasgow,
and existing charters of that epoch.] All Scot-
tish historians, from the fourteenth until within
the present century, have concurred in stating
that the province of Cumbria corresponded exactly
in tenitory with the present English county of
Cumberland, but chatters, and Saxon as well as
earlier Scottish writers, when coixectly understood,
leave it beyond doubt that the portion of country
so called comprehended the district extending from
the Clyde to the Solway, and included all the pre-
sent Scottish counties of Ayr, Galloway, Wigton,
Kirkcudbright, and Dumfries, with perhaps part
of Cumberland; the district of Lothian, comprising
the three counties which still bear that name ; and
the shires of Renfrew and Lanark, with part of
Lennox now Dimibartonshire. Such distributions
of the royal possessions amongst the n>embers of
their family were not uncommon with the mon-
archs of that age.
Whatever were the motives that led to this
disjunction from the Scottish crown, it proved a
fortunate arrangement for the nation. By the
subsequent death of Alexander without issue,
and the consequent succession of David to the
northern throne, the danger of contention be-
tween rival families for these possessions, and of
their permanent separation from the ancient king-
dom, was averted, and a united kingdom was
afterwards formed, able, with more or less suc-
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ALEXANDER I.
63
ALEXANDER 1
sess, to withstand the powerful neighbouring sou-
thern state ; which, if it had continued disjoined,
wonla most probably have fallen to it by piece-
meal a comparatively easy prey. While, on the
one hand, the happy genius of David for govern-
ment, and for attracting towards himself the love
and affection of all classes of people committed to
his care, enabled him to introduce amongst them
order and civilization, and to combine Saxon law
with Norman refinement, as well as the still higher
blessing of religions instmction, and while his
amiable qualities and the accident of his birth en-
deared through him the family of Malcolm to the
Saxon race, so that nearly four hundred years
afterwards an English writer resident in Scotland
thns commemorates one of them :
'* Onr soverane of Scotland .
Quhilk sail be lord and ledur
Oer broad Brettane all quhair
As saint Mergarettes air;**
[Buke of the Howlat^ si, xxix, printed for
the BamuUyne Club.^
the sterner rule of Alexander was made available
to keep under the dissatisfied feelings of the war-
like tribes of the north, not less averse to that
deviation from the ancient mle of succession by
which the descendants of Margaret were placed
on the throne, than jealous of the innovations of
Saxon law and Saxon settlements. It was not,
however, to be expected that to this disposition
of lands Alexander would at once quietly accede.
On the contrary, he at first disputed its validity,
and would willingly have annulled it, had he not
found that the powerful barons of the province in
question, and of the northern English counties, as
Gospatrick, Baliol, Bruce, Lindesay, Areskine, and
others, whose descendants afterwards occupied the
first rank among the Scottish nobility, and by the
aid of whose arms his brother Edgar had been placed
and sustained on the throne, were entirely favour-
able to this arrangement. He therefore prudently
desisted from the attempt, and confined himself dur-
ing the remainder of his reign to the northern por-
tion of the kingdom. [Speech of Walter VEspec at
the battle of the Standard^ in JLldredJ] It has been
inferred by modem writers who have recognised
the foregoing as the territorial limits of Cumbria,
that David held this government as a fief in sub-
ordination to Alexander, but this does not appear
to have been the case. David seems to have re-
gulated the afiairs of his government as an inde-
pendent prince. The motto of his seal during his
brother's lifetime benrs that he styled himself
* David, Comites Anglorum Regene Fratris, (con-
tracted into Frls) ; that is, David the count, bro-
ther of tiie Queen of the English. Annexed is a
representation of David's seal :
Several of his public instruments, too, after he as-
cended the throne, when relating to matters affect-
ing the southern districts, are addressed to the
"Francis et Anglicis," Normans and English,
[AnderaorCs LHphmata et Numismata, No. 17, 1
and 2] ; and at a later period, or when referring
to matters of more importance, to the " Francis et
Anglicis, et Scottis et Galwensibus,'* that is, the
Normans, English, Scotch, and Galwegians, which
latter style was uniformly adopted by his successor
and grandson Malcolm lY., ITdem, plates 19, 23,
25,] whilst the public instruments of Alexander
are simply addressed to the Scots and English,
" Scottis et Anglis " [/rf«m, page 9], showing that
he only ruled over the northern portion of the
kingdom in which these nations lived in the pro-
portion of the order in which they are placed.
It was fortunate both for Alexander and David,
and for the tranquillity of the government of the
former, that during the entire period of his reign
an unbroken peace was maintained with England.
The marriage of their sister Matildis in 1100,
during the life of their brother Edgar, with Henry
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ALEXANDER T
54
ALEXANDER L
king of England the brother of William Rnfns,
gi-eatly facilitated this harmony, and it was fnrther
cemented by the union of Alexander with Sybilla,
natural daughter of that monarch. Such an
alliance, says Lord Hailes, was not held dishonour-
able in those days.
The people of the north were not reconciled to
the sovereignty of the sons of Malcolm. Accord-
ing to their notions of the law of succession to the
throne, both the family of Donald Bane, and that
of Duncan the eldest son of Malcolm, had a prior
right to it. Edgar had bestowed upon his cousin
Madach, son of Donald Bane, the maormordom
of Athol, erected by him into an earldom, and on
his death, towards the end of the reign of David
the First, it was obtained by Malcolm, the son of
Duncan, the eldest son of Malcolm Canmore,
" either," says Skene, " because the exclusion of
that family from the throne could not deprive them
of the original patrimony of the family, or as a
compensation for the loss of the crown," [Skene's
Highlanders, vol. ii. p. 139,J and thus this branch
of the rival family were induced to remain in
quiet, although various attempts were afterwards
made to recover their rights, not only in the reign
of Malcolm IV., but for nearly a hundred yeai-s
after they were excluded from it.
Tlie descendants of Donald Bane appear to have
enjoyed another portion of the hereditary posses-
sions of the family in the person of Ladman his son,
and along with them some title which does not
appear. Even the descendants of Macbeth seem,
in the person of Angus the son of the daughter of
Lulach, Macbeth^s stepson, to have got the pos-
sessions and ancient maormordom of Moray erect-
ed into an earldom of that name. [Skene^s High-
landers, vol. ii. p. 162.] According to the Annals
of Ulster about 1116, a descendant of Malpedir,
maormor of Moem or Garmoran, a district in
northern Invemess-shire, one of the supporters of
Donald Bane, and who had murdered Duncan,
eldest son of Malcolm, in 1095, was in possession
of his father's title and lands, and at the instiga-
tion of Ladman, in order probably to revenge his
death, he combined with Angus earl of Moray,
already referred to as of the family of Macbeth, to
make an attempt to seize upon the person of Alex-
ander. At his baptism Alexander had a donation
made to him of the lands of Blairgowrie and Liff
by his godfather, Donald Bane, then probably
maormor of Athol, and in the first year of his
reign he began to build a palace or residence in
the vicinity ; but while engaged on this work the
Highlanders of Moem (not Meams, as commonly
supposed) and Moray penetrated stealthily from
their northern abodes to Invergowrie, where Alex-
ander was, and surprised him by night. Alexan-
der escaped to the shore, and crossing over the
Tay to Fife, collected vassals, and followed them
with surprising activity, through the 'Monthe' or
Grampians, across the Spey and over the " Stock-
furd into Ros." Of this passage Wintoun says,
" He tnk and dew thame or he past
Out of that land, that fewe he left
To take on hand swylk purpose eft.**
And again he adds,
** Fra that day hys legys all
Oysid byra Alysandyr the Fers to call.**
So effectually, indeed, did he succeed in crushing
the inhabitants of Moray that they were compelled
to put to death Ladman, the son of Donald Bane,
who had instigated them to the attempt on his
life. [Skene's Highlanders, vol. i. p. 130.] The
story that on this occasion the traitors obtained
admission to the king's bed-chamber, and that he
slew six of them with his own hand, is an invention
of Boece, and like many other of his fables has ob-
tained currency in Scottish history. Sir James
Balfour, in bis Annals [vol. i. pp. 6, 7.], has the
following passage on this attempt against the
king: "The rebells qubo besett him in the night
had doubtesley killed him, had not Alexander
Carrone priuly carried the king save away, and
by a small boate saived themselves to Fyfle, and
the south pairts of the kingdome, qnher he raissed
ane armey, and marched against the forsaid rebells,
quhome be totally ouerthi*ew and subdued; for
wich grate merccy and preseruationc, in a thankfull
retribntione to God, he foundit the monastarey of
Scone, and too it gaue lies first lands of Liffe and
Innergourey, in A° 1114. About this tyme K.
Alexander the L reuardit for hes faithfull seruice
Alexander Carrone, with the office of standart
bearir of Scotland, to him and hes heirs for euer.
He was called Scrimshonr, bccansse with a dranen
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ALEXANDER I.
55
ALEXANDER I.
suord, in a combat, he had stnicke the hand from a
courtier; wicli surname of Scrinscoure, hes posterity
to this day have kept." The name signifies a
hardy fighter. See Scrimgrour, surname of;
also, Dundee, earl of.
During the remainder of the reign of Alexander,
the Highlanders acquiesced in his occupation of
the throne, he being now, even according to the
Celtic laws, the legitimate heir of Malcolm
Canmore.
The principal feature in Alexander's reign was
his successful resistance to the efibrts made by the
English prelates to assert a supremacy over the
cliurch in Scotland. In 1109 when he first had
occasion to nominate a bishop to the see of St.
Andrews, to which place the primacy had been
removed from Dnnkeld, Alexander, with the ap-
probation of his clergy and people, named Turgot,
the monk of Durham already mentioned as the
confessor and biographer of his mother the pious
Queen Margaret. The consecration of Turgot was,
however, long delayed. The archbishop of York
pretended a right of consecrating the bishops of
St Andrews, but at this time Thomas, elected
archbishop of York, had not himself received con-
secration. In consequence of a report that the
bishop of Durham, concurring with the Scottish
bishops and the bishop of the Orkneys, proposed to
consecrate Turgot, in presence of the archbishop
elect of York, Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury,
in alarm, despatched a letter to the latter, inform-
ing him that consecration could not be performed
by an archbishop elect or by any one acting under
his authority, and requiring him to proceed to
Canterbury to receive consecration himself. The
Scottish clergy on their part contended that the
archbishop of York had no right to inteifere in
the consecration of a bishop to the see of St.
Andrews. While the two archbishops were en-
gaged in mutual altercations concerning canoni-
cal order and the privileges of their respective
sees, Alexander entered into a negotiation with
the English king, and an immediate decision
of the controversy was evaded by an ambiguous
acknowledgment by all parties, which, confessing
the independency of the Scottish church to be
at least doubtful, seemed to prepare the way
for its complete vindication at a future time. At
the request of Alexander, Henry, the English
king, enjoined the archbishop of York to conse-
crate Turgot, bishop of St. Andrews, " saving the
authority of either church." In that form Turgot
received consecration accordingly.
In the discharge of his episcopal functions
Turgot met with obstacles, which induced him to
form a resolution to repair to Rome to obtain the
opinion of the pope for regulating his future con-
duct; a journey which his death soon after pre-
vented him from carrying into effect. What the
nature of these obstacles were, we are not informed,
but as he perceived that he had lost that influence
which he formerly enjoyed in the time of Queen
Margaret, his spirit sunk, and in a desponding
mood he asked and obtained permission to retire to
his ancient cell at Durham, where he died, 3 1st
August 1115.
A new bishop of St. Andrews was to be
appointed, and to avoid any interference on the
part of the archbishop of York, Alexander, soon
after the death of Turgot, addressed a con-
fidential letter to Ralph archbishop of Canterbury,
who had succeeded Anselm, asking his advice and
assistance for enabling him to provide a fit suc-
cessor to Turgot. In this letter he observed,
" That the bishops of St. Andrews were wont to
be consecrated only by the Pope or by the arch-
bishop of Canterbury." " The expression," says
Lord Hailes ** is flattering and artful. Alexander
meant to relieve his kingdom from the pretensions
of the one archbishop without acknowledging the
authority of the other. He therefore left the right
of consecrating doubtful between the Pope and the
archbishop of Canterbury, while, at the same
time, he seemed to place them both on a level."
Eadmer, a monk of Canterbury, had been fixed
upon by Alexander to fill the vacant see, but not
receiving any answer to his proposal from the arch-
bishop of Canterbury, the king allowed the see of
St. Andrews, the chief bishopric in his kingdom, to
remain vacant for many years. At length, in 1120,
he despatched a special messenger to the archbishop
of Canterbury, with a letter requesting the arch-
bishop 'to set at liberty' Eadmer the monk, that
he might be placed on the episcopal throne of St
Andrews. The archbishop consented that Eadmer
should have liberty to accept the bishopric, and
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with tliat view he asked and obtained the approba-
tion of the English king. In a letter to Alexander
he said, " I send you the person whom you require
altogether free,^^ and concluded thus, " To prevent
the inconveniencies wUch I foresee and dread, I
would counsel yon immediately to send him back
to be consecrated by me." On his arrival in Scot-
land, Eadmer received the bishopric of St. Andrews
on the 29th of June 1120. The election was made
by the clergy and people, with the permission of
the king; but on this occasion Eadmer neither
received the pastoral staff nor the ring from the'
hands of Alexander, nor did he perform homage.
Next day Alexander held a secret conference with
him respecting the mode of his consecration, when
the king expressed his aversion at his being con-
secrated by the archbishop of York. Eadmer, on
his part, declared that the church of Canterbury
had, by ancient right, a pre-eminence over all
Britain, and he humbly proposed to receive con-
secration from that metropolitan see. He found,
however, that Alexander was as much opposed to
the pretensions of Canterbury as lie was to
those of York, and that he had determined to
free the Scottish church from dependence on any
foreign see but that of Rome. At EadmeWs proposal
Alexander is described as having started from his
seat with much emotion, and broken off the con-
ference. He commanded the pei'son, one William
a monk of St. Edmundsbury, who had presided in
the bishopric since the death of Turgot, to resume
his functions. At the expiry of a month, the king,
at the request of his nobility, sent for Eadmer, and
with difficulty obtained his consent to a com-
promise, by which Eadmer was to receive the ring
fi'om Alexander, to take the pastoral staff from off
the altar, as if receiving it of the Lord, and then to
assume the charge of his diocese. While the king
was absent with his army quelling some insur-
rection in the north, as the Highlanders of the
district of Moray, particularly at this time, gave
considerable opposition to his government, Eadmer
was received into the see of St. Andrews by the
queen, clergy, and people. •
Finding, however, that his own sovereign Henry,
who was then in Normandy, had, at the solicitation
of the archbishop of York, written to the arch-
bishop of Canterbury prohibiting him from con-
secrating Eadmer, and that Alexander had also
received three lettere from him requiring him not
to permit the consecration, the new bishop of St.
Andrews resolved to repair to Canterbury for
advice. On hearing of his resolution Alexander
sent for him, and said, '^ I received yon altogether
free from Canterbury; while I live, I will not
permit the bishop of St. Andrews to be subjected
to that see." "For your whole kingdom,"
answered Eadmer, ^'I would not renounce the
dignity of a monk of Canterbury." **Then,"
replied the king passionately, *' I have done no-
thing in seeking a bishop out of Canterbury." It
seems to have been Alexander's design by soliciting
a bishop from the province of Canterbury, to obtain
one who would have no partiality for the see of
York, and whom he hoped to win over to support
the independency of the Scottish Church ; but the
seal of Eadmer for Canterbury disappointed hit
views. Eadmer hunself has given an ample
account of the contest between him and Alexander;
and Lord Hailes, in his Annals of Scotland, has
genei-ally followed his statements. The bishop
complains that after the last interview with the
king, the latter became rigorous and unjust, and
would never afford him a patient hearing. He
refused to allow Eadmer permission to visit
Canterbury " for the counsel and blessing (mean-
ing no doubt consecration) of the archbishop,"
contending that the church of Scotland owed no
subjection to Canterbury, and that Eadmer him-
self had been freed from all subjection to it.
In the anomalous and uncomfortable position in
which he found himself, Eadmer was induced to
ask the advice of a friend in England, one Nicho-
las, whom Lord Hailes conjectures to have been
an ecclesiastical agent, whose business it was to
solicit causes at the court of Rome. This man ad-
vised him to obtain consecration from the Pope,
under favour of the Scottish monarch, and in the
meantime to be generous and hospitable to the
Scots, as the best means of rendering them tracta-
ble and courteous. He concluded his letter thus :
" I entreat you to let me have as many of the
fairest pearls as you can procure. In particular,
I desire four of the largest sort. If you cannot
procure them otherwise, ask them in a present
from the king, who, I know, has a most abundant
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ALEXANDER I.
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store" — a remarkable evidence of the wealth and
magnificence of the Scottish monarchs at this
time
Eadmer, in his perplexity, also asked the ad-
vice of John bishop of Glasgow, and of two monks
of Canterbury, and the answer which they sent to
him seems to have determined him npon resigning
the see. It was in these terms : " If, as a son of
peace, yon desire peace, you must seek it else-
where than in Scotland. As long as Alexander
reigns, it will be vain for you to expect any friend-
ly intercourse with him, or quiet under his gov-
ernment. We are thoroughly acquainted with his
dispositions : it is his will to be everything him-
self in his own kingdom. He is incensed against
you, although he knows no reason for hb resent-
ment; and he will never be perfectly reconciled
to yon, although he should see reason for a recon-
ciliation. You must, therefore, either abandon
this country, or, by accommodating youi*self to its
usages, dishonour your character and hazard your
salvation. Should you choose to depart from
among us, you will be constrained to restore the
ring, which you received fi*om the hands of the
king, and the pastoral staflf which you took fi*om
off the altar. Without complying with these con-
ditions yon will not be permitted to depart, unless
you conld make to yourself wings and fly away."
Eadmer consented to restore the ring to Alexan-
der, but with regard to the pastoral staff, he de-
clared that he would replace it on the altar,
whence he had taken it, * and leave it to be be-
stowed by Christ,' and that since force had been
used against him, he would relinquish the bishop-
ric, and not reclaim it during the reign of Alexan-
der, * unless by the advice of the Pope, the con-
vent of Canterbuiy, and the king of England.'
Having thus, in effect, resigned his see, Eadmer
was suffered quietly to leave the kingdom. He
afterwards addressed a long epistle to Alexander,
in which, after setting forth his pretensions to the
bishopric, he added, in a tone of submission which
would have better become him at an earlier peri-
od: ^* I mean not, in any particular, to derogate
from the freedom and independency of the king-
dom of Scotland. Should yon continue in your
former sentiments, I will desist from my opposition ;
for, with respect to the king of England, the arch-
bishop of Canterbury,* and the sacerdotal benedic-
tion, I had notions, which, as I have since learn-
ed, were erroneous. They will not separate me
from the service of God and your favour. In
those things I will act according to your inclina-
tions, if you only permit me to enjoy the other
rights belonging to the see of St. Andrews.** The
archbishop of Canterbury, too, wrote Alexander,
requiring him to recall Eadmer to Scotland ; but
Alexander would not listen either to the solicita-
tions, though humbly enough expressed, of the
one, or the requisition, however peremptory, of
the other. He was resolved to uphold the inde-
I)endence of the Scottish church; and the un-
daunted spirit with which he maintained it through-
out the whole contest, would have been equally
displayed, as Lord HaUes justly remarks, in de-
fence of the independence of his kingdom, had
England ever attempted to call it in qtiestion dur-
ing his reign.
In January 1123, about a year before Alexan-
der's death, the pretensions of the archbishop of
York were renewed, on the king procuring an
English monk named Robert, who was prior of
Scone, to be elected bishop of St. Andrews. The
latter, however, was not consecrated till the fourth
year of the reign of David I. about five years af-
terwards, when Thurstin, archbishop of York,
performed the ceremony, under leservation of the
rights of the Scots church.
While thus successful in his resistance to the
claims of supremacy on the part of the metropoli-
tan sees of York and Canterbury, Alexander,
as was usual in those days, evinced his devotion
to the church by the ample donations which he
made to it. He bestowed upon the see of St.
Andrews the famous tract of land called the Cur-
sus Apri, or Boar's Chase, of which it is not pos-
sible now to assign the exact limits; but **so
called," says Boece, ^^ from a boar of uncommon
size, which, after having made prodigious havoc
of men and cattle, and having been frequently
attacked by the huntsmen nnsuccessfnlly, and to
the imminent peril of their lives, was at last set
npon by the whole country up in arms against
him, and killed while endeavouring to make his
escape across this tract of ground." The historian
adds, that there were extant in his time manifest
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ALEXANDER I.
proofs of the existence of tiiis huge beast ; its two
tuskSf each sixteen inches long and four thick,
Iteing fixed with ii*on chains to the great altar of
St. Andrews, having been placed there by the
above named Bishop Robert, who obtained the
grant of the boar chase from Alexander, although
not consecrated bishop at the time it was bestowed.
The legend that this extensive tract of land was
confcn*ed in 370 by Hungus or Ilergustus, a Pict-
isli king, who is unknown to histoiy, is a monkish
fiction utterly unworthy of attention.
In 1123, having narrowly escaped shipwreck
near the island of -^mona, now called Inchcolm,
in the Frith of Forth, Alexander built a monas-
tery on that island, of the ruins of which a wood-
cut is given underneath.
The circumstances arc thus related by Fordun :
** About the year 1123, Alexander I. having some
business of state which obliged him to cross over
at the Queen's feiTy, was overtaken by a terri-
ble tempest blowing from the south-west, which
obliged the sailors to make for this island, (JEmo
na,) which they reached with the gi'eatest difficulty.
Hera they found a poor hermit, who lived a reli-
gions life according to the rules of St. Columba,
and performed service in a small chapel, support-
mg himself by the milk of one cow, and the shel-
fish he could pick up on the shore ; nevertheless,
on these small means he entertained the king and
his retinue for three days — the time which they
were confined here by the wind. During the
storm, and whilst at sea and in the greatest danger,
the king made a vow that if St. Columba would
bring him safe to that island, he would there found
a monastery to his honour, which should be an
asylum and relief to navigators. He was, more-
over, farther moved to this foundation, by having,
Iroui liis ciiilaliood, entertained a particular venera
tion and honour for that saint, derived from his
parents, who were long married without issue,
until imploring the aid of St. Columba, their
request was most graciously gi*anted." TJ e
monastery thus founded by Alexander was for
canons regular of St. Augustine, and was richly
endowed by the grateful and pious king its founder
and patron. Being dedicated to St. Colm or
Columba, the island obtained the name thereafter
of Inchcolm, which it still retains. The king had
previously brought a colony of canons regular of
St. Augustine from the monastery of St. Oswald
at Nastley, near Pontefract, in Yorkshire, and
established them at Scone, the abbey of which he
had founded in 1114, and dedicated to the Holy
Trinity and St. Michael. This famous abbey, it
is well known, enclosed the celebrated coronation
stone which was removed to England by Edward
I., and is still used at the coronation of the sove-
reigns of Great Britain at Westminster. Tlio
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ALEXANDER I.
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ALEXANDER L
abbey of Scone, also, thus founded by Alexander,
witnessed the crowning of the later Scoto-Saxon
kings. By a royal charter he conferred upon the
monks of this abbey the right of holding their
own court, and of giving judgment either by
combat, by iron, or by water; together with all
privileges pertaining to their court; including the
right in all persons resident within their territory,
of refusing to answer except in their own proper
court. [Cartulary of Sc4}ne^ p. 16.] This right
of exclusiye jurisdiction wa«< confirmed by four
successive monarchs. In 1122, on the death of
his qneen, Sybilla. who died suddenly at the castle
of Loch Tay, in Perthshire, on the 12th of June of
tha,t year, Alexander erected a priory on a small
islnnd on Loch Tay, for the repose of his soul and
tliat of his consort. According to Spottiswood,
this priory was a cell from the monastery of Scone,
and was founded by Qneen Sybilla herself, but
this is evidently a mistake. Some very inconsider-
able ruins of it still remain. Alexander also
granted various lands to the monastery of Dun-
fermline which his father had founded, and is said
to have finished the church. His queen Sybilla
also conferred lands on it.
Notwithstanding the rude condition of the inha-
bitants of Scotland at that remote period, the per-
sonal state kept up by Alexander the First is de •
scribed as having been scarcely, if at all, inferior
to that of his brother- monarch of the richer coun-
try of England. It is well-known that in the
i-eign of his father, Malcolm Canmore, an unusual
splendour was introduced into the Scottish court
by his Saxon consort, the good queen Margaret,
who not only encouraged the importation and use
of rich vestments from foreign countries, setting
the example by being magnificent in her own at-
tire, but increased the number of attendants on
the person of the king, and caused him to be
served at table on plate of gold and silver. [7Vr-
gofs Memoir of Queen Margaret."] Alexander I.
seems to have given to his public appearances, as
sovereign, a degree of splendour till then unkno^vn
in the northern end of the island. In his reign
there appears to have been a considerable inter-
course between Scotland and the East, as various
oriental commodities and articles of Asiatic luxury
were imported into this country. It is related of
this monarch, that, not content with endowing the
church of St. Andrews — which had been founded
in his reign by Turgot, its archbishop^with nu-
merous lands, and conferring upon it various im-
munities, as an additional evidence of his devotion
to the blessed apostle St. Andrew, after whom the
see was called, he commanded his favourite Ara-
bian horse to be led up to the high altar, his sad-
dle and bridle being splendidly ornamented, while
his housings were of a rich cloth of velvet. The
king's body armour, of superb Turkish manufac-
ture, and studded with jewels, with his spear and
his shield of silver, were at the same time brought
by a squire ; and these, along with the horse and
his furniture, the king, in the presence of his pre-
lates and barons, solemnly devoted and presented
to the church. The housings and arms were
shown in the days of the historian who has re-
corded the event. [Extract from the Register of
tJte Priory of St, Andrews, in PinkertofCs Disserta-
tiony Appendix, vol. i. p. 464. Winton, vol. i.
p. 286. See also Tyiler's History of Scotland, vol.
ii. p. 198.]
The rising commerce of the country in those
early times was much aided and advanced by the
settlement, in the districts contiguous to the Bor-
ders, of numbers of Flemish merchants, who, dur-
ing the reign of Alexander, gradually spread into
Scotland, and at a later period, namely, in the
reign of David the First, were found in all the
towns along the east coast, and even in the west-
em parts of the kingdom, wherever traflBc could
be. safely and profitably canled on. The money
in circulation in Scotland at that period appears
to have been of silver only. Indeed, down to the
reign of Robert the Second, the gold coinage of
England, then current in Scotland, seems to have
l)een the only gold money in use. Of the early
silver money of Scotland, the most ancient speci-
mens yet found are the pennies of Alexander the
First, which are now extremely rare. They are
described as being of the same firmness, weight,
and form as the contemporary English coins of
the same denomination, and down to the time of
Robert the First, the money of Scotland was pre-
cisely of the same value and standard as that of
England. [See Ruddiman's Introduction to An^
derson's Diplomata, pp. 64, 65. — Tytler's Hiftnry
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ALEXANDER I.
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ALEXANDER I.
of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 264.] The annexed en-
graving of the silver pennies of Alexander I. is
from Anderson's Numismata,
Annexed is a seal of Alexander L, in which he
is represented fully cased in the armour of that
period :
Here we find the scaled mail-coat composed of
masdes, or lozenged pieces of steel, sewed upon a
tunic of leather, and i*eachlng only to the mid thigh.
The hood is of one piece with the tunic, and covers
the head, which is protected with a conical st^el
cap, and a nasal ; the sleeves are loose, so as to
show the linen tunic worn next the skin, and again
appearing in graceful folds above the knee; the
lower leg and foot are protected by a short boot,
aimed with a spur. The king holds in his right
hand a spear, to which a pennoncelle, or small flag,
is attached, exactly similar to that worn by Hen 17
the First; the saddle is peaked before and behind;
and the horse on which he rides is ornamented by
a rich fringe round the chest, but altogether un-
armed. [Seal in the Diphmata ScoticB, plate 7.
Tytler's History of Scotland vol. ii. p. 360.]
Alexander the First died at Stirling on the 27th
of April 1124, in the seventeenth year of his reigc
and leaving no issue was succeeded by his young-
est brother, David. He was interred before the
high altar at Dunfermline, near to his father
During his reign, as dnring that of his brother and
predecessor Edgar, the laws, institutions, and
forms of government, except in the Gaelic portion
of the kingdom, were purely Saxon ; and to this
particular epoch in our nation's history, may be
traced the earliest existence in Scotland of some
of the great oflBcers of state, who after that period
discharged some of the more important functions
of the government, as the chancellor, the consta-
ble, &c. The fonner was the most intimate coun-
sellor of the king, and generally the witness to hia
chartei-s, lettera, and proclamations, and the lat-
ter, an office of undoubted Norman origin, was
the leader of the whole military power of the
kingdom. The first appearance in Scotland of the
now ancient oflSce of sheriff is also refeired to this
reign, although the division of the country into
regular sheriffdoms did not take place till a much
later period. " During the reigns of Edgar and
Alexander I.," says Skene, " the whole of Scot-
land, with the exception of what had formed the
kingdom of Thorfinn (during the Norwegian con-
quest consisting of the Orkneys, the Hebrides,
and a large portion of the Highlands), exhibited
the exact countei-part of Saxon England, with its
earls, thanes, and sheriffs, while the rest of the
country remained in the possession of the Gaelic
Maormors, who yielded so far to Saxon influence
as to assume the Saxon title of earl." [History
of the Highlanders, vol. i. p. 128.] The personal
character of Alexander was bold and energetic,
and his disposition fiery and impetuous. Sti'enu
ous in maintaining his authority, he had, early in
his reign, applied himself to repressing the disor-
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ALEXANDER IL
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ALEXANDER n.
ders and iDsurrections which were contiuually
breaking out in the Celtic poi-tion of his domin-
ions, and his ai*dent temper and daring spirit con-
tribated not a little to his success in overawing
the turbulent inhabitants of the north, and reduc-
ing them to submission. The boldest chieftains
are said to have trembled in his presence, and the
epithet of * Fierce' attached to his name seems to
have arisen fix>m the energy which he at all times
displayed, and which was necessary for reclaiming
the Scots from that savage barbarism into which
they had relapsed under Donald Bane. Although
tenible to the rest of his people, Alexander is de-
scribed by Aldred, as being humble and courteous
to the clergy, " not ignorant of letters," liberal
even to profusion, and kind and benevolent to the
poor. — Holies' Annals of Scotland^ vol. i., and tJie
authorities quoted in the preceding article,
ALEXANDER 11., king of Scotland, the fourth
in succession from the subject of the foregoing me-
moir, to whom he stands in the relation of great
grand-nephew, was bom at Haddington 24 Aug.,
1198. He was the only legitimate son of William
Bui-named the Lion, his predecessor on the throne.
His mother, Eimangarde, was daughter of Rich-
ard Viscount de Beaumont, a descendant from
Henry L of England, through his mother, a na-
tural daughter of that monarch. He succeeded
his father December 4, 1214, being then only six-
teen years of age, and was crowned at Scone on
the 20th of the same month.
Some years before the death of William his fa-
ther, that monarch had been engaged in warlike
demonstrations against England, followed, (in
1209,) by a treaty of a singular character, of which
the provisions have not yet been clearly ascertained.
It appears that during the troubles in which John
— ^the monarch who then sat upon the English
throne— was involved, (in consequence of disputes
with the head of the church and the dissatisfaction
of his barons, which finally resulted in the conces-
sion by him of Magna Chai'ta,) William— conceiv-
ing the opportunity to be favourable — took occa-
sion to demand that the counties of Northumber-
land, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, (which
until about the middle of the reign of Henry IL
had constituted the county or province of North-
umbria, and under that designation had been held
during the latter part of the reign of his grand-
father David I., by the eldest son of that mon-
ai*cn, the fatner of William, as a fief of the English
crown, but on the death of that monarch had been
resumed by Henry II.,) should be restored to the
Scottish nation. How far that claim — one of the
vexed qnestious of Scottish history — was founded
in right, does not properly fall to be considered in
this biography, but will be treated of in that of
Malcolm IV., the brother of William, on whose
accession these counties wei-e restored to Henry,
and to which therefore we refer. We may, how-
ever, remark, — unwilling as we are to yield to any
one in the asseition of the just rights of Scotland, —
that there does not appear in the circumstances
any warrant for assuming — as William then did,
and as Scottish writers have hitherto done — that
the intrusting of the government of these coun-
ties by Stephen in February 1189 to Prince Hen-
ry, son of David — as an individual lordship for
which he rendered homage— <^n be construed in-
to permanent cession of their possession from the
English to the Scottish crown. It may more pro-
bably be inferred as done in guarantee of the ful-
filment of the solemn engagement then entered
into with David by Stephen, that the crown of
England — usui-ped by him — should at his death
descend to Heniy, gi*and-nephew of David,— son
of the empress Matilda his sister's daughter the
rightful heiress,— on whose behalf alone it was
that that wise and righteous prince had professed
to take up arms. The retention in his own hands
by the English king, during the entire period of
their government by the heir to the Scottish throne,
of the commanding strengths of Bamborough,
Norham, aud Newcastle on Tyne, (the two former
situated neai* the Scottish border,) and the omission
of all reference to the circumstance of the supposed
cession on the part of English historians, gives
additional probability to this aspect of the ti*ans-
action. Its resumption, therefore, on the fulfil-
ment of that stipulation towards the close of the
reign of David, may in this view of the matter
have involved no uijustice on the part of the
English monarch, and^appears to have been peace-
fully acquiesced in by Malcolm, the then reign-
ing king. In the history of the two kingdoms of
that period, however, it will frequently be found
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ALEXANDER H.
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ALEXANDER U.
til at the occasion of distraction or civil contest
on the part of tlie one was frequently embraced,
to press to an issue assumed or disputed claims on
the part of the other, and the feaiful state of mat-
tere which then obtained in England — placed as it
was under a papal interdict, the public services of
religion suspended, the rites of interment with-
held, the prelates banished, and the nobles insult-
ed— presented an opportunity too tempting to be
withstood by William, for making a demand which,
if yielded to, would at once aggrandize his king-
dom, and avenge his long captivity. Nor is there
wanting, in the earlier history of that monai'ch
himself, more than one incident to illustrate the
truth of the foregoing remark.
In order to understand the position of the par-
ties, however, on the occasion of the conclusion of
this treaty, it is proper to observe that, according
to the English historians, John, — notwitlistanding
the dangerous situation in which he stood, and the
loss of reputation he had sustained by acquiescing
in the conquest of the English provinces in France,
— appears, on becoming aware of the military pre-
palpations of William, to have manifested a de-
gree of energy unusual to him, and to have resolved
to do some act that would give a lustre to his gov-
ernment. He is represented by them as hanng
been successful in his military entei-prises in Scot-
laud, as also in othei*s which he undertook against
the Irish and Welsh. It was in these circum-
stances, therefoi-e, that by the treaty in question,
the king of Scotland bound himself to pay to John
fifteen thousand merks (supposed to be equivalent
to one hundred and fifty thousand pounds ster-
ling of our present money) in two years, by four
equal payments, ^^for procuring his good will
(benevolentid)^ and for fulfilling certain conven-
tions between them," contained in a charter which
has not been preserved. For the performance of
this treaty William gave John hostages. He
likewise delivered his two daughters, Margaret
and Isabella, to the king of England to be edu-
cated at his court, and **that they might be pro-
vided by him in suitable matches,'' but not to
be considered as hostages. About thu'ty years
thereafter it was stated in the English parliament
that the conditions of the chai'ter referred to were
that the two Scottish princesses should be mar-
ried to king John's two sous, and that the money,
together with a renunciation of his claim to the
northern counties, was given by William as their
marriage portion. Hubeit de Burgh, the justici-
ary of England, who married the princess Mar-
garet, positively denied, however, all knowledge oi
any such condition as the former; while some
Scottish writers subsequently founded on its non-
fulfilment a supposed claim for the restitution of
the latter. [See Life of Willtam the Lion, post.}
Shortly after Alexander came to the throne
affaira in England became involved in a still
greater degree of confusion than before. John,
perfidious and perjm*ed as tyrannical, had violated
the provisions of Magna Chaita, set his barons at
defiance, and threatened alike to crush the liber-
ties of the counti-y and then* power. In this
emergency, they decided to renounce their allegi-
ance to him, and sent a deputation to ofier the
crown of England to Louis, son of the king of
France. At the same time such of them as held
possessions in the northern counties applied to
Alexander, and ofierod to put him in possession of
these districts as the consideration for his aiding
them against their oppressor. Although so young,
Alexander was not unwilling to avail himself ot
the proposal, and an agreement was accordingly
entered into to that efifect. In accordance with
this agi*eement, Alexander with an army mai'ched
into Northumberland, and on the 18th of October
1215, he roceivcd the homage of the barons of that
county at Felton castle. The castle of Norham
was besieged by him for forty days, during which
time Eustace de .Vesci, — one of the principal bar-
ons of the northern counties, who had made him-
self conspicuous by his opposition to John, — gave
him investiture of the county of Northumberland
by livery and sasine. The intelligence of these
negotiations, however, again stirred up John to
unwonted activity, and he resolved to ciiish the
northern invasion bcforo Louis should arrive in
England. Accordingly, immediately after Christ-
mas, whilst a deep fall of snow lay on the ground,
at the head of a large force, consisting principally
of foreign mercenaries, he advanced into Yorkshire
and Northumberland, devastating the estates of
the confederated barons, and burning and slaying
whcrovcr he came. All the castles and town«
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they could take were given to the flames, King
John himself setting the example, as he fired with
bis own hands in the moiiiiug the house in which
he had rested the preceding night.
On the approach northwaj-d of John, Alexander
raised the siege of Norham, and retu-ed within his
own dominions. The English barons accompanied
him, and those of the northern counties did homage
to Alexander at the abbey of Mebx>se on the 15th
Januai7l!216. IChronicleofMelrou^ p. 190. "] John
with his mixed and savage host of foreign soldiery
followed, burning, in their march, the towns of
Werk, Morpeth, Alnwick, Mitford, and Roxburgh.
After storming Berwick they entered Scotland,
torturing, plundering, and massacring the inha-
bitants in their way. The towns of Dunbar and
Haddington were likewise buint to the ground.
John was determined to have vengeance on Alex-
ander for the assistance which he had given to the
pati'iotic barons who had taken up arms against
him. " We will smoke," he said, " the little red
fox out of his covert." From this laconic descrip-
tion of him we may infer that Alexander the Sec-
ond was both diminutive in stature and ruddy in
complexion. John pui-sued his devastating com-se
as far as Edinburgh, but was soon obliged to
withdraw from a country which his troops had
ravaged so completely that it no longer afforded
them subsistence. In his retreat, his forces burnt
the priory of Coldingham, which had been found-
ed in the year 1098 by Edgar king of Scotland,
and the town of Berwick ; John himself, as was
his usual practice, giving the example to his bru-
tal soldiery by setting fire to the house in which
he had lodged.
For the priory of Coldingham thus ruthlessly
consumed by John's savage followers, Alexander,
like all the rest of the Scottish kings since the
time of Edgar its founder, had a great veneration,
lie had not only confii'med the chartei's which his
predecessors had granted to it, but exempted the
prior and his monks from a sum of twenty merks
that they had been hi the custom of paying yearly
to his exchequer, under the name of wattinga^ — a
tax which appears to have been levied from the
landholders ui Scotland for the pui-pose of erect-
ing and maintaining in repair the government for-
tresses. He also issued a writ to Robert dc Bern-
ham, the mayor, and to the ballifis of Berwick,
enjoining them to allow free passage to foreign
merchants, when on their way to the priory to
purchase the wool and other commodities belong-
ing to the monks, and prohibiting every one from
seizing any property, moveable or nnmoveable,
belonging to the convent, within the barony or
lordship of Coldingham, for debt on forfeiture.
Besides these immunities, he released ^^ the twelfth
village of Coldinghamshire, or that in which the
cbmx^h is founded," from the aids and militai-y
service which had foimerly been exacted. It was
not likely therefore that he would allow John's
destructive march to pass without taking dreadful
reprisals.
Accordingly, in the month of February fol-
lowing this inroad, Alexander in his turn wast-
ed the western marches with fire and sword
and penetrated into Cumberland. Some of the
undisciplined Scots, by which name the monk-
ish historians distinguish the Highlanders in his
army, plundered and burnt the abbey of Holm-
cultram, in revenge for the destruction of the pri-
ory of Coldingham by the English. These rever-
end chroniclers relate with apparent delight that
two thousand of the Scots, on their way home
with their booty, wei-e drowned in the flooded
cmrent of the river Eden, as a judgment for their
sacrilegious violation of a holy house. After a
temporary retreat into his own tenitories, Alex-
ander invaded Cumberland a second time, in the
month of July, with all his army, except the
Highlanders, whom he had chastised and dis-
missed [Chron. Mel.y p. 191], and on the 8th ot
August, he took possession of the city of Carlisle.
The castle, however, held out against him. He
then marched southwai'ds quite througli England
to Dover, to join Louis, the son of the king of
France, who by this time had arrived in England.
In his progress Alexander assaulted Bernard cas-
tle, the seat of the Baliol family, then held by a
garrison for John. Eustace de Vesci, who had
given him investiture of Northumberland at Nor-
ham castle, was slain there. On aniving at Dover
he found Louis besieging the castle, and as the
English bai'ons had done, he did homage to that
prince for all his lands in England, and paiticulariy
for the counties of Northmnberland, Cumberland,
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and Westmoreland, which were then granted to
him by chai-ter. IRymer's Fcsderoy torn. ii. p. 217.]
This he might very well do, for the French prince
Louis had not only been offered and had accepted
the crown of England, but actually had a claim to
it in right of his wife. On this occasion Louis, on
his part, swore that he would not conclude a
separate peace, an oath which he was soon com-
pelled to violate. On his return homeward Alex-
ander met with some obstruction in passing the
Trent, the bridge at Newark having been broken
down by the army of King John, who expii-ed at
the castle of Newaik, 19th Oct. 1216.
Some time before this (May 15, 1213) John had
been reduced to the unworthy expedient of sui?-
rendering his dominions into the hands of the
Pope, and of consenting to hold them hencefor-
ward only as his vassal, as a means of escaping
from the consequences of the papal interdict, and
threatened excommunication. When compelled
by his barons and clergy (June 19, 1215) to sign
the Great Charter, inwardly resolving to violate
its provisions, he, as one means of effecting this,''
laid a statement of the matter, with a complaint
of the violence imposed upon him, before his feu-
dal lord, the supreme pontiff, who issued a bull,
absolving him from his oath, annulling the char-
ter, and prohibiting the barons from exacting the
observance of it, on pain of excommunication.
Strange to say, the English primate refused to
obey the pope in publishing the sentence, and
though suspended on account of this proceeding,
and a new and particular sentence of excommuni-
cation was issued by name against the principal
barons, — including not only the French prince
Louis, but Alexander and his whole army, and
the entire realm of Scotland, — the nobility and
people, and even the clergy, of both kingdoms
adhered to the combination against him, and so
little zeal in the matter was manifested by the
clergy of Scotland, that nearly a twelvemonth
elapsed before it was published there. [Chron,
Melrose, 192. Fordun, ix. 31.]
Although Alexander, as ah'eady stated, had
taken the town of Carlisle, the castle held out,
and was besieged by him unsuccessfully. While
engaged in this siege, a portion of the army of
Prince lx)uis was entirely defeated in the streets
of Lincoln, 19th May 1217, the count de Perche,
its commander-in-chief, being killed, and many
of the chief commandei-s taken prisoners. On the
news of this defeat, Prince Louis, who was still
occupied with the siege of Dover, pix)ceeded to
London, where he learned the further defeat of a
fleet bringing him reinforcements from France,
and the general defection of the bai-ons, as they
had by this time become suspicious of his Inten-
tion. In the general turn which men^s disposi-
tions had taken, the excommunication denounced
by the legate failed not now to produce a mighty
effect on them, and they were easily persuaded to
consider a cause as impious, which had hitherto
been unfortunate, and for which they had already
entertained an unsurmountable avei*sion. Seeing
his cause to be desperate, Louis now .began to be
anxious for the safety of his pei*son, and entered
into a negotiation with the earl of Pembroke, pro-
tector of the realm of England, — Heniy the Tliird,
the son and successor of King John, being then a
minor, — and a peace was concluded, Louis stipu-
lating for a full indemnity to the English of his
party — with a restitution of then* honours and for-
tunes, together with the free and equal enjoyment
of those liberties which that wise noble had guar-
anteed in the name of the prince to the rest of the
nation — and formally renouncing his pi-etensions
to the crown of England. That Louis might be
reconciled to the holy see, he did penance by
walking baiefooted to the legatees tent, in pres-
ence of both armies. He then depaited with all
his foreign forces to France.
On receiving intelligence of these events, Alex-
ander, who was then on his march into England,
made overtures of peace to the young king Hen-
ry III., and after some time spent in negotia-
tion, a ti*eaty was concluded between them. He
then yielded up the town of Cariisle to the Eng-
lish, and in an interview which he had with King
Henry at Northamption, he did homage to him,
— but /or his English possessions only, as Scot-
tish writers allege, — and returned into Scotland.
[Chron, Mei, 192, 194, 195. Fordun ix. 31.]
Alexander now sought to be reconciled to the
Pope, and havmg procured a safe conduct from
England, he proceeded to Tweedmouth, on the
English side of the Border, and there met the
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ALEXANDER II.
archbishop of York and the bishop of Durham who
had been delegated by the Pope's legale for the
purpose, and received absolation from their hands,
1st December 1217, without being called upon to
perform the ignominious penance which generally
preceded absolution. Some days thereafter the
delegates also removed the ban of excommunica-
tion from Alexander's mother, queen Ermengai*de.
The sentence was also removed from the whole
body of the Scottish nation, except the prelates
and the clergy, who had become obnoxious by
reason of their reluctance to publish the bull.
In the spring of 1218, William, prior of Dur-
ham, and Walter de Wisbech, archdeacon of York,
traversed Scotland, '^ from Berwick to Aberdeen,"
for the purpose of absolving the Scottish clergy
from the sentence of excommunication. While
upon this tour, on arriving at a town they sum-
moned the clergy to attend them, and having
required them to swear allegiance to the papal
legate, and to make a candid confession of all
matters concerning which they were asked, they
absolved them, standing barefoot before the doors
of their churches and abbeys. The commission-
ers were very sumptuously enteitained, and their
favour was couited by large bribes of money, and
many presents. IRidpath's Border History^ p.
127.] On their return south they halted at the
abbey of Lindores, where the prior of Durham
was nearly suffocated with smoke, a fii*e having
broken out in the chamber where he slept, through
the carelessness and rioting of those who had the
chai'ge of the wine, '' his chamberman,'' as Balfour
pithily says, " being verey drunke.'' He died at
Coldingham priory, which appears to have been
partially restored after its burning by King John
in 1216. The following is a woodcut of the ruins
of this celebrated priory.
Against these proceedings the king appealed to
Rome, while the clergy themselves sent a deputa-
tion of three bishops to the Pope. A judgment was
obtained in their favour, which declared that the
legate had exceeded his powers, and not only was
absolution granted by Pope Honorius, but the
liberties and privileges of the Scottish church were
confiimed [Fordun a Goodal, vol. ii. pp. 40, 42.]
For this favour one of the causes mentioned is
the respect and obedience which Alexander had
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ALEXANDER U.
manifested to the papal see. This concession on
his part in a few years thereafter (in 1225) led to
one of still greater importance. The Scottish
clergy having represented to the Pope, that from
the want of a metropolitan they could not hold a
provincial conncil, he authorized them to hold a
general council of their own authority. Of this
permission they were not slow to take advantage,
and having assembled un'der its sanction, they
drew up a distinct fonn of proceeding, by which
the Scottish provincial councils were in future to
be held ; instituted the office of Conservator Sta-
tutorum, and continued to assemble frequent pro-
vincial councils, unfettered by the intervention of
my foreign superior.
By one article of the treaty of peace concluded
in 1217 between Alexander and Henry, it was
stipulated that the king of Scotland should marry
the princess Joan, the eldest sister of the king of
England; and their nuptials, after some delays,
occasioned by the detention of the princess in
France, were celebrated on the 25th of June 1221.
The princess Joan, on her marriage, was secured
in a jointure of one thousand pounds of land rent.
[Foederoy torn. ii. p. 252.] Lord Hailes says,
" The jointure lands were Jedworth, Lessndden,
Kinghom, and Crail. Any deficiencies were to
be made good out of the castles and castellanys of
Ayr, Rutherglen, Lanark, and the rents of Clydes-
dale. Kinghom and Crail were, at that time,
part of the jointure lands of the queen-dowager."
The peace with England and the marriage of
Alexander to the English king's sister put a stop
to all hostilities between the two nations for sev-
eral years, and intreduced a friendly Intercourse
between the two royal families, now so nearly re-
lated, which for a long time continued uninteiTupt-
ed. The king and qneen of Scotland made fre-
quent visits to the court of England ; where they
were nobly entertained, and received many valu-
able proofs of friendship from King Henry. The
alliance with England was still farther strength-
ened by the man-iage of Alexander's two sisters,
the princesses Margaret and Isabella, who had
been sent to England in the preceding reign, to
English barons of great power and influence,
namely, Margaret, soon after her brother's mar-
riage in 1221, to the celebrated Hubert de Burgh,
justiciary of England, and Isabella, iu 1225, to
Roger Bigot, eldest son of Hugh, Earl Bigot.
[Fardun, ix. 32, 38. Fadera, i. 227, 228, 874.
Matth, Paris, 216.] For providing portions for
his sisters, Alexander, in 1224, levied an aid of
ten thousand pounds upon the nation. This grant
is stated by some of our Scottish writers, in the
loose manner in which they are accustomed to
write of events which took place at that remote
period, to have been authorized by Alexander's
parliament; while, on the contrary, it was imposed
by the simple order of the king himself, without
the slightest appearance of a meeting of the three
estates, or even of the council of the king. Such
a thing as a parliament was then unknown in
Scotland. The first meeting, indeed, of what
may be teimed one did not take place till 1289,
fully sixty-five years later, when, after the death
of Alexander III., the estates of the kingdom,
that is, the five guardians or regents, ten bishops,
twelve earis, twenty-three abbots, eleven priors,
and forty-eight barons, calling themselves the
community of Scotland, although no representa-
tives of the burghs or of the people were among
them, met at Brigham, now Birgham, an obscure
village in Berwickshire, to take into consideration
the proposal for a marriage between the prince'ol
Wales, the son of Edward the First of England,
and the young queen Margaret of Scotland, called
" the Maiden of Norway." When Fordun (vol.
ii. p. 84) asserts that Alexander the Second, im-
mediately after his coronation, held his parliament
in Edinburgh, in which he confirmed to the chan*
cellor, constable, and chamberlain the same high
offices which they had filled at his father's death,
the word parliament so used may be held only to
mean an assembly of the court, or the council of
his nobles and great officers of the crown, and
not a parliament, or even convention of estates, in
the modem meaning of the word. [See Tyt/er*$
History of Scotland^ vol. ii. sect. 8.]
Anciently the barons of the realm, with the
crown vassals and higher clergy, constituted the
communitas regni, which formed the parliament,
as Mr. Skene terms it, of all Teutonic nations.
To this body, composed of Celtic, Norman, and
Saxon dignitaries and landholders, belonged the
duty of counselling the monarch, and expressing
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ALEXANDER IL
the wants and wishes of the nation, without tlio
great mass of the people having either a voice or
a will in the matter, the principle of elective re-
presentation being altogether unknown to them.
But there was another and even a higher body in
the state, independent of the cammunitas^ whose
peculiar privileges were only exercised on great and
rare occasions, namely, when there was a vacancy
in the throne. This was the Septem Comites Regni
Scotia, " the seven earls of Scotland." Until very
recently, the existence of such a corporate body
in the state seems to have been .entirely unknown.
To Sir Franci« Palgrave belongs the merit of hav-
ing made the discovery of a fact of so much im-
portance to the right understanding of the history
of Scotland. It is proved, he 8a}'s in his * Trea-
sury Documents lllnstrative of Scottish History/
published in 1837, that ** there existed in the an-
cient kingdom of Scotland, a known and estab-
lished constitutional body denominated ' the seven
earls of Scotland,^ possessing privileges of singular
importance as a distinct estate in the realm, sev-
ered equally fi*om the other earls, and from the
body of the baronage." These seven earls as a
body derived their fimctions from the old Celtic
constitution of the country, ancient Albania, or
Scotland, north of the friths of Forth and Clyde, be-
ing divided into seven great provinces or govern-
ments. The Pictish names of these provinces
were Fiv, Cait, Fotla, Fortrein, Circui, Ce, and
Fidach, corresponding with, according to Grcraldus
Cambrensis, Fife, Caithness, AthoU and Garmo-
rin, Stratheme and Menteth, Angus and Meams,
Moray and Ross, and Marr and Buchan. Three
of these were provinces of the Southern Picts,
namely, Fife, Stratheme and Menteth, and Angus
and Meams ; the other four belonged to the nor-
them Picts. These seven provinces formed the
kingdom of the Picts or Scotland proper, previous
to the ninth century. The Scottish conquest, in
843, having added to it Dalriada, which after-
wards became Argyle, and Caithness having to-
wards the end of the same century fallen into the
hands of the Norwegians, the former was after
that period substituted for the latter, and the earl
of Argyle instead of the earl of Caithness was
numbered among " the seven earls." The Pictish
nation consisted of a confederacy of fourteen tribes
spread over the seven provinces named, in each
of which one of the seven superior chiefs mled
under the Celtic name of maormor. In the reign
of Edgar they assumed the Saxon title of earl,
and their territories were exactly the same with
the earldoms into which the north of Scotland was
afterwards divided.
In the appendix to the fii-st volume of Mr.
Skene's valuable * History of the Highlanders,'
will be found a clear account of the * seven ancient
provinces of Scotland,' over which the seven earls
presided. It was the privilege of these seven
superior chiefs, by immemorial custom, as a
peculiar estate in the realm, to appoint a king,
whenever thei-e was a vacancy, and to invest him
with the royal authority, a right which they appear
to have exercised after the Pictish kingdom had
ceased to exist. Among the other documents
preserved in the Treasury, illustrative of Scottish
history, which the researches of Sir Francis
Palgrave have brought to light, is a roll contain-
ing the appeal of the seven earls in 1290 to the
authority and protection of Edward I. and th*.
English crown, against William Fi^aser, Bishop of
St. Andrews, and John Comyn, Lord of Badenocli,
the Scottish regents, during the interregnum that
succeeded the death of the Maid of Norway, on
the ground that the regents were infringing or in-
tending to infringe this their constitutional fran-
chise ; which appeal, it is now understood, led to
the famous summons of the English monarch
that the Scottish nobility and clergy should meet
him at Norham in the English teiTitories, on the
10th of May 1291, to decide upon the claims of
the various competitors to the Scottish crown.
Having given this explanation, which will form a
key to much of what would be otherwise unintel-
ligible or obscure in the early hbtory of Scotland,
we resume the regular narrative.
Tlie external tranquillity which Scotland en-
joyed after the peace with England and the mar-
riage of Alexander to the sister of the English
king, allowed Alexander leisure to suppress some
dangerous insurrections that had broken out at
home. In 1221, Somerled, a grandson of the
celebrated lord of the Isles of that name, pos-
sessed the whole district of Argyle, which was
then much more extensive than the modem Ar-
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gylesliire, and having that year risen in rebellion,
the king collected an army in Lothian and Gallo-
way, and sailed for Argyle, intending to disembark
his force, and penetrate into the interior of the
country, but his ships were driven back by a tem-
pest, and forced to take refuge in the Clyde. Al-
exander, however, was not discouraged, but re-
solved to proceed into Argyle by land. With a
large army, which he had summoned from every
quarter of his dominions, he made himself master
of the whole of the insurgent district, and compel-
led Somerled to flee to the Isles, where, about
eight years afterwards, he met a violent death.
Winton says,
" De king that yhere Argyle wan
Dat rebell wes till hym befor than
For wythe hys Ost thare in wes he
And Athe* tnk of thare Fewte,
Wythe thare aerwys and their Uomage
Dat of hym wald hald thare Herytage,
But of the Ethchetys of the lave
To the Lordies of that land he gave.**
The estates of those who fled were bestowed on
the principal men of the king's army as a reward
for their having joined the expedition ; but wher-
ever the former vassals of Somerled submitted and
were received into favour, they became crown
vassals, and held their lands in chief of the crown.
The district in which the forfeited estates were, was
farther brought under the direct jurisdiction of the
government, by being, according to the invariable
policy of Alexander II., erected into a sheriffdom
by the name of Argyle, the first sheriffdom bearing
that name, while the ancestor of the Campbells
was made hereditary sheriff of the new sheriffdom.
[Skene's History of the Highlanders, vol. 11. p. 46.]
The whole of the then northern Argyle, now part
of Inverness -shire, was bestowed on the earl of
Ross, as a reward for the assistance which he had
rendered to the king on this and a former occasion.
Besides suppressing this insurrection in Argyle,
Alexander was about the same time called upon to
punish some disturbances of an alarming kind
which had broken out in Caithness. In 1222,
Adam bishop of Caithness was cruelly burnt to
death in his own palace. He had proved himself
extremely rigorous in enforcing the demand for
tithes, leading the poor people's com, as Balfour
gays, '* too avariciously," and when the people ol
his diocese had assembled to consider what was to
be done under the circumstances, one of them
exclaimed, *^ short rede, good rede, slay we the
bishop," meaning, ^^ Few words are best, let us kill
the bishop." The persons assembled unfortunately
were too excited to pause or reflect — they followed
the cruel advice, thus rashly given, but too literally.
Rushing with eagerness to the bishop's house, they
furiously assaulted it, set it on fire, and burnt the
unhappy prelate in the flames of his own palace,
with a monk who attended him, named Serlo.
Some of the bishop's servants applied to the earl
of Orkney and Caithness to protect their master
from the fury of the mob; he answered that if
the bishop came to him he would be sure of pro-
tection, but did not offer to go to his assistance.
Alexander received Intelligence of this cruel action
when he was upon a jouraey towards England.
He immediately turned back, marched Into Caith-
ness with an army, and put to death four hundred
of those who had been conceiiied in the murder of
the bishop. The earl of Orkney who might have
prevented the catastrophe but did not, was believed
to have favoured the conspiracy, but him the king
pardoned, as he had no actual hand in the crime.
He had to pay, however, a lai*ge sum of money,
and give up the thii*d part of his estate. Balfour
says that in the following year, while Alexander
was keeping his birth-day at Forfar, the earl of
Orkney with a good sum of ready money redeemed
the third part of his estate from the king, but on
his retuiii home he was muixlered in his own
castle, which was afterwards burnt, in imitation
and revenge of the bishop's fate. This event,
however, according to the chronicle of Melrose
(p. 201) quoted by Lord Hailes, did not take
place till 1231.
In the life of Alexander I. allusion has been
made to the peculiar law of succession which pre-
vailed amongst the Pictish or Gaelic tribes. [See
p. 54, ante.'] This law of Tanistry, as it was called,
provided that on the death of a chief, the brother,
or " he of the blood who was nearest," succeeded
to the chiefship, to the exclusion of females and
even sons, the brother being considered one degree
nearer the original founder or patriarch of the
race than the son, and if the person who ought t«
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AT^XANDER U.
' succeed was ander fourteen years of age, — the an-
cient Highland period of majority, — ^his nearest
male relation became chief, and continued so dur-
ing his life, the proper heir inheriting the chiefship
only at his death. [Skem^s History of the Uigh-
kmderSy vol. i. pp. 160, 161.] The establishment
of such a law originated primarily, there cannot
be a doubt, in the natural anxiety to avoid mino-
rities in a tribe or clan, so that it might always
have a competent leader in war, a principle which,
I however much opposed to the feudal notions of
later times, flowed natm-ally from the patriarchal
constitution of society in the Highlands, being
peculiarly adapted to the circumstances of a peo-
ple whose warlike habits and love of military en-
terprise, as well as addiction to armed predatory
expeditions, demanded at all times a chief of full
age and every way qualified to act as their leader
and commander.
As, however, the Highlanders adhered strictly
to succession in the male line and according to the
lineal descent from the common ancestor, or found-
er of the tiibe, any infraction of this rule was of-
ten productive of the most serious outbreaks and
insurrections. This was remarkably the case in
the old maormordom or province of Moray, which,
at the period when Alexander the .Second ascended
the throne, included not only what now forms the
counties of Elgin and Nairn, but a considerable
part of Banffshire and nearly the half of Inver-
ness-shire. This was always one of the most re
bellious portions of the kingdom ; and although
the tribes of Moray, in common with the rest of
the Highlanders, recognised in Alexander I. and
his successor David I. the legitimate heirs of Mal-
colm Canmore, they were never without a pretext
for disturbing the country. After the suppression
of their attempt at insurrection early in the reign
of the former, when Angus referred to (p. 54) as
of the family of Macbeth, — whom Skene with rea-
son supposes to be the same with Head or Heth,
whose name with Comes attached to it appears as
witness in numerous charters of David I., Head
or Heth being the surname of the family, — was in
in possession of the earldom, they remained quiet
till 1180, Alexander's successor David I. being
then on the throne. In that year, an Angus earl
of Moray, — either the individual referred to above,
who escaped confiscation by causing his accom-
plice Ladman, younger son of Donald Bane, to
be put to death, or a descendant of the same
name, — ^taking advantage of David's absence at
the English court, broke dtit into rebellion, and
after having obtained possession of the northern
districts of Scotland, advanced at the head of a
numerous army, into Forfarshire; but Edward, son
of Si ward, earl of Northumberland, led an army into
Scotland, with which he defeated and slew the earl
at Strickathrow. Twelve years thereafter one Wi-
mund, an English monk, who had lisen to be bishop
of Man, claiming to be the son of Angus, asserted
his right to the earldom, and assumed the name of
Malcolm Macbeth. He was assisted by Somerled,
thane of Argyle, whose daughter he married, and
many of the northern chiefs. After having for
several years sustained a struggle with David, he
was at length betrayed by his own adherents,
who put out his eyes and delivered him up to the
Scottish king. He was sent a prisoner to the cas-
tle of Roxburgh, but after a tedious captivity, was
pardoned, when he retired to the abbey of Biland
in Yorkshire, where he died. [See Life of David
r. post,"]
On the death of David 1. in 1153, the Tanistic
law of succession would have conferred the right
to the throne on Malcolm son of Duncan, the eld-
est son of Malcolm Canmore, but being then in
possession of the earldom of Athol (p. 54), he
does not appear to have brought it forward, pro-
ferring probably the certainty of possession under
the feudal law to the risk of a hopeless conflict.
On his death however, some years afterwards, it
would appear that the law of Tanistry again came
into conflict with the established system, not only
as respects the succession to the crown, but in
reference also to the family possessions of the
eaildom of Athol, and we find the celebrated Boy
of Egremont, in the person of William, son of
William Fitz-Duncan, a younger son of Duncan,
appearing as a claimant of both, in opposition to
Malcolm IV., the reigning monarch, and to his
cousin Henry, son of Malcolm his father's brother,
then earl of Athol. The people of the Highlands,
ever prepared to avail themselves of an occasion to
thrust out the race that governed them according
to the Saxon laws, were the more encouraged to
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ALEXANDER II.
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ALEXANDER II.
support the claim of this individual in the absence
of Malcolm IV., then rendering military semce
to Henry U. in France, by the general dissatis-
faction professed to be entertained on account of
that servitude. Six of the seven great earls of
Scotland, who governed the districts into which the
ancient Pictish provinces of Scotland were divided
— and in whose hands the nomination of the crown
was vested [see p. 67] — sent a message to Mal-
colm, then at Toulouse, expressing then- disappro-
bation of his proceedings, and indicating a with-
drawal of their allegiance. On his return from
France, he met the chiefs at Perth ; and whilst
by the intervention of his clergy he endeavour-
ed to pacify them and regain their confidence,
he was in 1160 attacked by a portion of the
confederacy, but they were repulsed, and many of
their followers slain. [See life of Malcolm IV.
postJ] Donald Bane, another son of William
Fitz-Duncan, and grandson of Duncan, afterwards
took up the claim, ahd supported by the northern
chiefs, he for seven years held out the provinces
of Moray and Ross against William the Lion, but
in 1187, while his army lay at Inverness, a ma-
rauding party commanded by Roland of Galloway
accidentally encountering him, when attended by
few of his followers, attacked and slew him. In
1211 his son Guthred landed from Ireland and
wasted the province of Ross. Notwithstanding
that the king (William the Lion) went against
him in pereon at the head of an army, he kept
possession of the noi*th of Scotland for some time,
but was at last betrayed into the hands of Wil-
liam Comyn, by whom he was beheaded.
On the accession of Alexander II. to the throne,
Donald Bane, or MacWilliam, the brother of
Guthred, and the son of that Donald who was
slain in 1187, prepared to assert his own proten-
sions to the crown, and in conjunction with Ken-
neth Macbeth, who aft«r an nnsuccessful attempt
to obtain the earldom of Moray in the roign of
Malcolm IV. had taken refuge in Iroland, invaded
Scotland at the head of a numeions body of Irish
followers. They made an inroad into Moray, but
were met by Ferchard, earl of Ross, an ally of the
government, who defeated and slew them. Balfour
in his annals says: *^In the zeire 1215, Donald
Bane, the sone of Mack -William, and Keneth
Mack-Acht, with the son of a pittey king of
Irlaud, and a good armey, invadit the heighf
lauds. Against quhom Machentagar leweys ane
aiiney, and with them feights a werey bloodiey
and creuell bateU, quhom he totally ouerthrowes,
the 17 day of Julay, and solemly presents the
rebells heads to the king; for wich so gude
seruice the king solemley knights Machentagar,
and gives him a zeirly pensione during his
lyffe." [Vol. i. p. 88.] Lord Hailes transcribed
the same names, with a slight difference in the
spelling, from the Chronicle of Melrose. "The
author," he says, " being a Saxon, has corrupted
the Gaelic names ; Eenaukmacaht and M^Kentagar
are unintelligible words." Fiom the above retro-
spect, which was necessaiy to render the naiTative
clear, the reader will not be at a loss to under-
stand that by Donald Bane is meant Donald
M*William the gi-andson of William, and great-
giandson of Duncan king of Scotland, and b>
Machentagar, Ferehard Macantagart, earl of Ross,
who conquered and slew him and Kenneth Mack-
Act, or Macbeth, as already narrated.
The rebellion of Somerled in 1221, of which an
account has been given in pages 66, 67, is the last
of those persevering efforts made to replace the
family of Duncan on the throne of his father Mal-
colm. By an intermarriage of their families at an
earlier period Somerled had become closely related
to the race of Duncan. The language of the old
chronicler Winton, already quoted,
" Dat rebell wee till hym befor than,"
would imply that he with ti;o forces of Argyle had
aided in the previous one of 1215. The death, there-
fore, of the last of the hell's of the direct line seems
to have opened the way to a claim to the throne in
his own right. In reading of these continuous
struggles, and of the aid so frequently rendered
by the Irish and Scottish branches of the Celtic
family to the assertion of the old Pictish law, we
see another proof of the tenacity with which under
all discouragements they held to it. In the fre-
quent interference also of the Irish in these inter-
nal struggles, — made too, it is worthy of being
noted, generally on occasions when the occupant
of the throne was embaiTassed by other questions,
— we seem to read over again the series of con-
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ALEXANDER II.
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ALEXANDER n.
tests — ^brought to light by Skene and others —
whereby the Irish Dalriadic tribe, not having then
the Norman arms to encouiter, at «n earlier pe-
riod of the national history more successfully sub-
merged the existing government, and gave the
name of Scotland, and race of monarchs — the true
heirs according to their theory — to that country.
Although the family of Angus had become ex-
tinct by the death of Kenneth, yet by the Celtic
law of succession, the claims of the family were
transmitted to the next branch of the clan, and in
1228 the tranquillity of the same district was again
disturbed by one Gillespie, clauning to be the
chief of the province. This warrior, after burning
some wooden castles, surprising and slaying a
baron who had been sent against him, called Tho-
mas of Thirlstane, to whom Malcolm IV. had
given the district of AbertarfT, set fire to the town
of Inverness, and spoiled and wasted the crown
lands in that neighbourhood. The king went
against him in person, but for a while he eluded
his pursuit. He was at last encountered and slain,
by William Comyn earl of Buchan, the justiciary
of the kingdom. As a reward for suppressing
this insurrection Comyn got a gi*ant from the king
of the districts of Badenoch and Lochaber. In
accordance with his usual policy, Alexander erected
that portion of the extensive earldom of Moray,
which was not then under the rule of the Bissets,
the Comyns, and other Norman barons, into the
separate sheriffdoms of Elgin and Nairn. ^* The
authority of government,^' says Skene, ** was thus
so effectually established that the Moravians did
not again attempt any resistance; and thus ended
with the death of Gillespie, the last of that series
of persevering efforts which the earls of Moray had
made for upwards otone hundred years to preserve
their native inheritance.** [Highlanders of Scot-
land^ vol. ii. p. 170.]
In 1233 the most serious insurrection which
Alexander had yet to contend with occurred in
Galloway, arising out of a similar principle to
that which produced the disturbances in Moray ;
the adherence, namely, of the inhabitants to the
ancient law of tanistry, as evidenced in their un-
willingness to submit to female succession. The
people of that extensive district, which forms
the south-western angle of Scotland, were chiefly
of a Celtic race. Besides offshoots from the Scots i
of Kiutyre, large bodies of colonists from Ireland
formed, at various times, settlements there, during
the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, and from
the frequent incursions of these and other settlers,
the district obtained its name ; either, as is most
likely, from the word Cfall^ which originally signi-
fied stranger or wanderer, and in this sense was
applied to the pirates who, in those days, infested
the western coasts of Scotland, — hence the term
used by the Irish annalists, in reference to them,
namely the Gallgael, meaning Gaelic pirates or
rovera,— or, as is generally supposed, fi-om the
Gaelic origin of the inhabitants. Although flie
name is now confined to the shire of Wig-
ton and the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, it an-
ciently had a more extensive application, as it
comprehended the entire peninsula between the
Solway and the Clyde, including Annandale in the
south-east, and most of Ayrshire in the north-
west, and was governed by its native chieftains,
styled the lords of Galloway, who acknowledged a
feudatory dependence on the Scottish crown. Li
the twelfth century, Fergus, one of the most po-
tent of these, who was the son-in-law of Henry
r of England, endeavoured to throw off his alle-
giance to Malcolm IV., and raised a formidable
insurrection in Galloway. Enraged at his daring,
Malcolm marched into his teiTitory, and though
twice repulsed, he succeeded in a thud effort, in
the year 1160, in overcoming him. Fergus, after
suing for peace, resigned his lordship and posses-
sions to his two sons, Gilbert and Uchtred, and
retired to the abbey of Holyrood, where he died
in the following year. His two sons attended, as
feudatories, William the Lion, in 1174, on his un-
fortunate expedition into England; but they no
sooner saw iiim taken captive than, at the head of
their savage followers, they returned to their na-
tive wilds, attacked and demolished the royal
castles, and murdered many subjects of William
who were settled in Galloway. To protect them
against the vengeance of their own sovereign, they
besought Henry, the English king, to receive their
homage. In the meantime, before receiving an
answer to their request, Uchtred was cruelly mur-
dered by his brother Gilbert for his share of the
inheritance. Gilbeit renewed the negotiation with
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ALEXANDER H.
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ALEXANDER IL
Henry in his own name, and offei*ed to pay him a
yearly tribute of two thousand marks of silver,
Ave hundred cows, and five hundi*ed swine. To
mark his detestation of the treacherous murder of
Uchtred, Henry refused both the homage and the
tribute. On reguning liis liberty, King William
invaded Galloway with an army, but instead of
punishing Gilbert as he deserved, he accepted
from him a pecuniary satisfaction. In the follow-
ing year (1176) Gilbert accompanied William to
York, where he was received into the favour
of Henry, and did homage to him; the crown
vassals as well as the kingdom of Scotland be-
ing then, in terms of the treaty which restored
William to freedom, placed under feudal subor-
dination to England. [See life of William the
Lion, post,"] From this Gilbert, who died in 1185,
sprang, afterwards, in the third generation, Mar-
jory countess of Carrick in her own right, the mo-
ther of Robert the Bruce. Meantime Roland, the
son of the mui-dered Uchtred, seized the favoura-
ble moment of the death of his uncle Gilbert, to
attack and disperse his faction, and to claim pos-
session of all Galloway as his own inheritance, in
which he was favoured by his own sovereign,
William. Henry IL, however, the English king,
opposed his claims, and assembling a large army
at Carlisle, prepared to invade Galloway. Ro-
land resolved upon a desperate resistance, but the
dispute was ultimately adjusted by Roland, after
swearing fealty to Henry, being confirmed in the
lordship of Galloway, on condition of surrendering
the territory of Carrick to his cousin Duncan, the
son of Gilbert. He is the Roland of Galloway
who, iu 1187, encountered and killed the pre-
tender, Donald Bane, at Inverness, p. 69. On the
restoration of the national independence, Roland
obtained the office of constable of Scotland. He
died iu December 1200.
Alan, the eldest son of Roland, and the last
male-heir of the line of the ancient *■ lords of Gal-
loway,' died in 1233. He succeeded as constable
of Scotland, and was a personage of considerable
importance in Scottish history. He had been
twice married. By his first wife he had a daugh-
ter Helen, or Elena, married to Roger de Quincy,
earl of Winchester. By his second wife, Margaret,
the eldest of the three daughters, and eventual
heiresses of David, eai*l of Huntingdon, the bro-
ther of William the Lion, he had two daughter;
his eldest daughter by his second marriage, Devor-
guil, becoming the wife of John de Balliol, lord of
Bernard castle, transmitted to their son John Bal-
liol, the competitor, afterwards king, the lineal right
of succession to the throne. Devorguil's younger
sister Christian, was the wife of William des Forts,
son of the earl of Albemarie. Unwilling to have
their country partitioned among the husbands of
Alan's three daughters, the people of Galloway
offered the lordship to Alexander, whose sense of
justice prevented him from depriving the legiti-
mate heira of their right. They then requested
that an illegitimate son of Alan, named Thomas,
should be appointed their lord. To this applica-
tion Alexander also refused to accede, on which
the Galwegians broke out into open rebellion, bav«
ing at theii* head the bastard Thomas, aided by
an Irish chieftain named Gilrodh, who joined him
with a large force from Ireland. To suppress this
formidable outbreak, Alexander led an expedition
against the rebellious Galwegians, who did not
wait to be attacked by him, but rushed forth from
their mountains and fastnesses with Celtic fnry*
and proceeded to ravage the adjacent country.
They even contrived to surround Alexander, when
he had got entangled among morasses, and he was
in imminent danger till Ferchard, earl of Ross,
came to his assistance, and assaulting the rebels
in the rear, routed them with great slaughter.
Galloway was restored to Alan's heiresses, and
the inhabitants compelled to receive as their supe-
rior Roger de Quincey the husband of Elena.
Thomas and his Irish ally escaped- to L-eland, but
in the following year they returned with a fresh
force, and attempted to renew the rebellion. Gil-
rodh, on landing, burnt his vessels, as if resolved
to conquer or die. The insurgents were, however,
again defeated, and Gilrodh sniTendered himself
to the earl of March without resistance. He was
sent bound to Edinburgh castle, but both he and
Thomas were pardoned. Their Irish followers,
crowding towards the Clyde, in the hope of t>eing
able to find a passage to their own country, fell
into the hands of a band of the citizens of Glas-
gow, who are said to have beheaded them all ex-
cept two, whom Balfour calls two of their chief
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AI^XANDER II.
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ALEXANDER H.
commandei's, and these they sent to Edinburgh,
to be banged and quartered there. The king's
enforcing the rights of Alan's daughters, and at
the head of an army breaking down the spirit of
insurrection, was the introduction to the epoch of
granting charters for the holding of lands, and of
landholders giving leases to tenants, as well as of
the security of property and the cultivation of the
arts of husbandry in Galloway.
Notwithstanding the terms of amity in which
Henry and Alexander lived, there were still several
subjects of dispute between them, which now and
then occasioned some disquiet, and afforded matter
for discussion and negotiation ; although their own
pacific dispositions prevented an open rupture.
Henry showed at times an inclination to extend
the incidents of the homage of the king of Scot-
land to an unreasonable limit; and in 1234 he
went so far as to solicit the Pope to exhort Al-
exander to acknowledge the superiority of Eng-
land over Scotland, an exhortation which Alex-
ander, when he received it, paid no attention to.
Alexander, on his pait, always insisted either on
restitution being made to him of the three nor-
thern counties of England, or on the repayment of
the fifteen thousand merks paid by his father to
King John. The vacillating character of Henry
III. exposed the peace between the two countries
to the risk of constant inteiTuption, but sometimes
he would conciliate his brother-in-law's favour by
gifts, concessions, and the wai-mest professions
of friendship. An instance of this occurred in
1230, when Henry invited Alexander to York,
where he celebrated Christmas, and entertained
him with great state, and after loading him
with presents, sent him home. In 1236, after
an interview between the two monarchs at New-
castle, where they royally feasted each other,
Henry bestowed the manor of Driffield on his
sister, the queen of Scots, for life, and at a sub-
sequent period he conferred on the same prin-
cess the manor of Staunton. [Chron, Mdr. 203.
Padera, i. 370, 879.] At length in September
1237, the matters in dispute between Henry and
Alexander were heard at York, before Otho, or
Eudes le Blanc TAleran, a cardinal deacon and
the papal legate to England. The conference last-
ed for fifteen days, and twenty-four councillors of
the two kings were present. The negociations
terminated by a compromise. Henry, in full of all
claims, consented to grant to Alexander lands in
Northumberland and Cumberland, of the yeariy
value of two hundred pounds. Alexander agreed
to accept of these as an equivalent, and did hom-
age to Henry in general terms. Malcolm Macduff,
earl of Fife, Walter Comyn, earl of Menteith, and
others of the principal Scottish barons, bound
themselves by oath to maintain this agreement on
their monarch's part. [Fcedera^ i. p. 874, 400.
Fardun, i. 370. Hailes* Annals of Scotland^ vol.
L p. 153.]
On this occasion the papal legate took an op-
portunity of intimating to Alexander his intention
of soon visiting Scotland, in order, as he pretend-
ed, to inquh^ into the ecclesiastical affairs of his
kingdom. Alexander, however, was fully aware
of the true motive of this visit, namely, the exac
tion of money, and he had no desire to gratify the
legate in the matter. The avarice of the court of
Rome had, about this period, risen to such an ex-
orbitant height as to be the subject of general
complaint in all the nations of Christendom. The
enormous amount of power which tlie Pope and
his ministers universally possessed was used for
purposes of extortion in every kingdom subject to
their contix)l. The venality of the popedom was
so great that it guided all its dealings with princes
and people everywhere abroad, and pervaded its
tribunals at home. Simony was openly practised ;
neither favours, nor even justice could be obtained
without a bribe, and he who paid the highest price
was sure to obtain his suit. In 1226 Pope Hono-
rius, under pretence that the poverty of the see of
Rome was the souix^ of all the gi'icvances that
existed, that they might be remedied, demanded
from every cathedral in the Christian world two
of the best prebends, and from every convent two
monks' portions, to be set apart as a perpetual
and fixed revenue of the papal see. This demand
was felt to be so unreasonable that it was unani-
mously rejected, but about three ycai-s later he
claimed and obtained the tenth of all ecclesiastical
revenues, which he levied in the most oppressive
manner, rapacious and insolent collectors of the
tithes being sent into the different parishes, in
many cases before the clergy had even drawn
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ALEXANDER U.
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ALEXANDKlt TI.
their own i-euts. Of all this Alexander was not
ignorant, and he had not forgotten the conduct of
the two deputies of the papal legate when, in 1218,
they visited Scotland and grievously harassed the
Scottish clergy. For a long period previous to
his reign, Scotland had submitted, although re-
luctantly and impatiently, to the repeated visits
of a papal legate who, under the pretext of watch-
ing over the interests, and reforming the abuses of
the church, assembled councils, and levied large
sums of money in the country, but now that the
Scottish church had obtained fi'om the Pope the
right, however ambiguously and loosely worded
the bull granting it might be, to hold provincial
councils of herself, the presence of a papal legate
in Scotland for any such purpose as that pretend-
ed by Otho was altogether unnecessary. Alex-
ander, therefore, peremptorily declared that he
would not allow any such visit. ** I have never,"
he said, *^ seen a legate in my dominions, and as
long as I live, I will not permit such an innova-
tion. We i*equire no such visitation now, nor
have we ever required it in times past." He add-
ed a hint that should Ot]j)0 venture to disregard
his prohibition and enter Scotland, he could not
answer for his life, owing to the ferocious habits
of his subjects. The legate prudently abandoned
all idea of the expedition then, but, as shall pres-
ently be seen, he carried his intention into effect a
few years thereafter. {Matth, Paris, p. 377.]
Alexander's queen, Joan, had for some time
been in declining health, and according to the su-
perstition of the times, she sought relief at the
shrine of Thomas k Becket at Canterbury, but in
vain. She died on the 4th of March, 1238, in the
presence of her two brothers, King Henry and
Richard duke of Cornwall. 3he had no children.
About this time it would appear that despairing
of heirs of his own body, Alexander publicly ac-
knowledged, in presence and with consent of
his barons, Robert Bruce, known in Scottish his-
tory as Bruce the Competitor, the grandfather of
the hero of Bannockbum, as the nearest heir in
blood to the crown. The birth of a son by Alex-
ander's second wife, in 1241, put an end to his
expectations of the throne at the time; and on
the competition for the crown which took place
after the death of the Maid of Norway, more than
fifty years afterwai*ds, he urged this as one of hie
sti-ongest pleaa. [See life of Robeit the Bruce,
post.']
In the year 1239 Alexander had married at Rox-
burgh, Lady Mary de Coad, daughter of Ingelram
or Enguerrand de Couci, a lord of Picardy, Count
de Dreux, in France. His family affected a rank
and state scarcely inferior to that of a sovereign.
The motto of the new queen's father is said to
have been
Je ne snis Roy, ni Prince aussL
Je suifl le Seigneur de Conci.
The provision of Mary de Couci, on her mar-
riage, was a third of the royal revenues, amount-
ing to upwards of 4,000 merks. IMatth. Paris, p.
555.] Soon after this marriage, Alexander, being
in England, met the papal legate Otho on his way
to Scotland, and strenuously remonstrated with
him on his intended visit. Through his earnest
entreaty, however, but with extreme reluctance,
and only at the joint request of the nobility of both
kingdoms, the king at length consented to admit
him within his dominions, and even permitted
him to hold a provincial council at Edinburgh,
but he insisted upon and obtained a written decla-
ration from the legate, given under his seal, that
this permission to enter the kingdom should not
be drawn into a precedent. Not choosing, how-
ever, to countenance by his pi'esence what he af-
fiimed to be an unnecessary innovation, Alexan-
der retired into the interior of his kingdom, nor
would he suffer the legate to extend his pecuniary
exactions beyond the Forth. \Matth, Paris, p.
422.] Under such circumstances the papal emis-
sary tan-ied no longer than to collect those spoils
which both clergy and laity, eager to get rid of
him, poured into his rapacious hands. Secretly,
and without leave asked, he then departed from
Scotland. He had previously in this same year
(1240), plundered the prelates and convents of
England of large sums of money, partly by in-
trigues, and partly by menaces, and on his depar-
ture is said to have carried more money out of the
kingdom than he left in it.
In 1241, the queen gave birth to a son at Rox-
burgh, whom the king called Alexander after him-
self. He succeeded him on the throne under the
name of Alexander UI.
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ALEXANDER H.
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ALEXANDER H.
Although the ties of relationship which had
bound together Henry and Alexandei*, were now
fevered, jet so good a mutual understanding still
subsisted between the two kings, that in 1242,
when Henry pi*epared to visit his dominions on
the continent, after he had declared war against
Loois IX. of Fi-ance, he committed to Alexander
the care of the northern fi*ontiei*s of his kingdom.
He probably distrusted his own barons, who, dis-
contented with his patronage of foreigners, were
then preparing that confederacy against him which
under Simon de Montfort, a few years later, virtu-
ally wrested all his regal authority fi-om him. The
king of Scotland, in the absence of the English
sovereign, was the most likely person to have
seized the oppoitunity of disturbing the borders ;
but the trust thus so honourably confided to him
was as faithfully and honourably discharged.
Alexander II. was not a prince to violate his faith,
and he amply proved himself worthy of the confi-
dence which the English monarch had reposed in
him. IChr. Mdr, 203, 204. Matth. Paris, 895.]
In that age the gi*eat pastime of the nobles and
knights was the tournament. At one of these
feats of arms held in 1242, at Haddington, an inci-
dent occun'ed which led to important consequences.
Between the noble house of Athole and the Bissets,
an English family who held large possessions in the
noith of Scotland, a feud had long existed. At the
tournament referred to, Walter de Bisset was foiled
and overthrown by Patrick, earl of Athole, a young
nobleman of great promise. It has been already
stated *(life of Alexander I. p. 54, ante), that the
earldom of Athole was, towards the end of the
reign of David I. obtained by Malcolm, the son of
Duncan, the eldest son of Malcolm Canmore.
Malcolm was succeeded as earl by his son of the
same name. He left a son, Henry, who also en-
joyed the earldom. The latter died in the begin-
ning of the thirteenth century. By a son who
predeceased him he had two granddaughtera, Isa-
bel and Feiiielith. Isabel, the elder, married
Thomas of Galloway, a younger son of Roland,
and brother of Alan, lord of Galloway. Femelith,
the younger, married David de Hastings, an Anglo-
Norman knight. This Patrick, earl of Athole, was
the only child of the former, and the representa-
tive by the female line of the eldest branch of the
family of Duncan. In a short time after, the earl
of Athole was murdered at Haddington, and the
house in which he lodged set on fire by the assassins.
Suspicion at once pointed to the defeated Bisset
as the instigator, if not the actual perpetrator of
the crime. The nobility, headed by the earl of
March, immediately raised an aimed force, and,
excited to vengeance by David de Hastings, who
had maiTied Femelith, the aunt and heiress of
Patrick, and now earl of Atliole, they demanded
the life of both Walter and his uncle William
Bisset, the chief of the family. The latter offered
to mamt^in his innocence by single combat; and
urged that, at the time of the murder, he was at
Foifai-, seventy miles distant. By the exeitions
of the king he was saved from death, but he war
banished and his estates were forfeited. All hit
kindred were involved in his ruin. As his enemies
secretly sought his life, the king took him under
his protection and concealed him from their fiiry
for three mqnths. Escaping after that period
fii-st to Ireland and aftei*wards to England, Bisset
found his way to the court of King Henry, to
whom, as an English stfbject, he seems to have
appealed against the judgment that had stripped
him of all his possessions and exiled him from
Scotland, on the plea *^ that •Alexander, being
the vassal of Henry, had no right to inflict such
punishments on his nobles without the per-
mission of his liege lord. " So deep was his
desire of vengeance for the injuiies which he
had sustained, that, forgetful of all feelings of
gratitude to Alexander, to whose generous in-
terposition on his behalf, ue owed his life, he
endeavoured, by the most insidious representa-
tions, to incite Henry to take up arms against
him. He declared that the king of Scots was in
league with Fi-ance, and that he gave shelter and
protection to traitors from England who had taken
refuge in his dominions.
Henry, believing on good grounds that a strong
anti-English feeling had begun to prevail in Scot-
land, and suspicious of the friendly con*espondence
which Alexander had, since his maniage to
Mary de Couci, cultivated with France, gave
but too ready an ear to these artful statements
and insinuations. The personal intimacy of
the two kmgs had now for some time ceased.
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ALEXANDER II.
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ALEXANDER H.
and as oational jealousies began to revive, the
weak-minded English monarch was the more
easily influenced against his former friend and
brother-in-law. He complained to Alexander that
he had violated the duty which he was bound to
yield to him as his lord paramount, and Alexander
is said to have replied that he owed no liomage
to England for any part of his dominions, and
would perfoi-m none. Henry on this being re-
ported to him, determined on an immediate inva-
sion of Scotland. As one of his pretexts for
preparing for hostilities, he alleged that " Walter
Comyn, earl of Menteth, had given umbrage to
England, by erecting two castles, the one in Gal-
loway, the other in Lothian." [HaHes^ vol. i. p.
159.] The Comyns were remarkable at this pe-
riod for their championship of Scottish indepen-
dence, and as the Walter Comyn mentioned was
one of the principal noblemen in Scotland, Heni^
naturally enough looked upon him as representing
the feeling against England prevalent amongst
fl^e Scottish nobility at the time. There was an-
other pretext, " that Alexander had leagued him-
self with France, and imd affoi-ded an asylum to
Geoffrey de Marais, and other English offendci*s."
In 1242, as has been already stated, Henry de-
clared war against Louis IX. of France, and made
an expedition into Guienne, his stepfather, the
count de la Marche, having promised to join him
with all his forces. He was unsuccessful, how-
ever, in all his attempts against the French king.
He was woi-sted at Taillebourg, was deserted by
his allies, lost what remained to him of Poitou,
and was obliged to return with loss of honour to
England. This disgrace rankled in his breast,
and Bisset*s charge that Alexander was in league
witii France, touching him on the point where he
was most sensitive, incensed him against Alexan-
der. He secretly applied to the earl of Flanders
for succoura, and instigated no fewer than twen-
ty-two Irish chiefs to make a descent on the
Scottish coast. Having aiTanged all his plans,
he proclaimed war against Alexander in 1244, and
assembled a numerous and well-appointed army at
Newcastle, prepai'ed to cross the bordei-s into Scot-
land. Some troops which had been sent to the
assistance of Alexander by his brother-in-law,
John de Couci, were intercepted by Henry. Tlie
English monarch at this period was not on good
terms with his nobles, most of whom were per-
sonally intimate with Alexander, and remembered
their old association in arms with him against the
tyrant. King John. From some one ^r other of
them he doubtless obtained information of Henry*s
intentions, in time to send notice to his brether-
in-law in Picai-dy for what aid he could furnish him
with. He then determined upon^ a vigorous re-
sistance, and was warmly seconded by his nobility.
Measures were taken to strengthen the frontier
fortresses of the kingdom ; and at the head of a
gallant army Alexander marched southward, re*
solved to be beforehand with Henry, and encounter
his foes on English ground. From the description
which the contemporary English historian, Mat-
thew Paris, has given of the force under Alexandei
on this occasion it appears to have been a formid-
able one. "His army," he says, " was numerous
and brave; he had a thousand horsemen tolerably
mounted, though not indeed on Spanish or
Italian horses. His infantry approached to a
hundred thousand, all unanimous, all animated
by the exhortations of their clergy, and by con-
fession, courageously to fight and resolutely to dis
in the just defence of their native land." The
horsemen were clothed in armour of iron network.
Henry had a larger body of cavalry than the Scot-
tish king, and his anny included a force of five
thousand men at arms, splendidly accoutred
lAfatth. Paris, p. 645. Chr. Mdr, p. 156.] The
rival armies came in sight of each other at a place
called Ponteland in Northumberland. No battle
ensued, however. The English nobles held in high
respect the character of the Scottish king, who,
according to Matthew Paris, was justly beloved by
all the English nation, no less than by his own
subjects, and they did not fully approve of the
rash enterprise of their own sovereign. While the
Scottish army, undismayed by the superior array
of their opponents, were prepared and eager for
battle, the leaders of the English, on the other
hand, were only anxious to avert hostilities.
Henry soon saw tliat it would be dangerous to
push matters to extremities. Through the media-
tion of Richard earl of Cornwall, the brother of the
king of England, and the archbishop of York, a
treaty of peace was concluded at Newcastle on the
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ALEXANDER II.
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ALEXANDER U.
13th of August, the terms of which were honoura-
ble to both sovereigns, and that without a sword
' being drawn, a bow bent, or a lance put in rest.
Henry did not insist on an expi*ess act of homage
from Alexander for the kingdom of Scotland,
while Alexander, on his side, agreed always to
bear good faith and affection* to Henry as his liege
lord, and not to enter into any alliance with the
enemies of England, unless the English did him
some wrong. \_Fcuiera^ torn. i. p. 429.] The
terms of the treaty have by Scottish writers been
represented as favourable to Scotland, as in then*
opinion Henry by it undoubtedly conceded the
point in dispute between them. Dr. Lingard,
however, an acute and impartial investigator, de-
scribes it as " an arrangement by which, though
Alexander eluded the express recognition of feu-
dal dependence, he seems to have conceded to
Heniy the substance of his demand." This much
is certain, that although the matter was not pressed
to extremities, the claim of Henry was both re-
vived and in part exercised early in the following
reign. [Life of Alexander III.'] It was also one
of the stipulations of the treaty, that a proposal
made in 1242, the year after a son was bom to
Alexander, of a marriage between Margaret the
daughter of the king of England and the young
prince of Scotland, should be carried into effect,
as it subsequently was in 1251, when Alexander
in. was only ten years old. Alan Durward, at
that time considered the most accomplished knight
and the best military leader in Scotland, Henry
tie Baliol, and David de Lindesay, with other
knights and prelates, swore on the soul of their
lord the king, that the treaty should be kept in-
violate by him and his heirs.
In 1247 Alexander was again called to suppress
an insurrection which had broken out in Galloway.
Exasperated by the oppressions of their liege lord
Roger de Quincy, earl of Winchester, the husband
of Elena the eldest daughter of the deceased Alan,
lord of Galloway, the people of that district
suddenly rose against him, and besieged him in
his own castle. In a sally which he made he was
successful in cutting a passage through his rebel-
lious vassals, and instantly sought redress from the
king. Alexander chastised and subdued the insur-
gents, and reinstated de Qumcy in his superiority.
llie last expedition in which Alexander was
engaged was undertaken in order to compel van- ,
ons of the chiefs in the western islands and in the ;
north of Scotland who were at that time the vas- !
sals of Norway, to renounce their allegiance to that
power, and to reduce the entire country under his
own dominion. On setting out he declared *' that
he would not desist till he had set his standard
upon the cliffs of Thurso, and sul)dued all that the
king of Noi*way possessed to the westward of the
German Ocean." IMaUh. Paris, p. 550.] The
principal of these chiefs was Ewen, great-grand-
son of the first Somerled, lord of the Isles, and
grand^n of his eldest son Dugall, who held cer-
tain of the western islands under the king of Nor-
way. Ewen being the vassal of both sovereigns
for different parts of his possessions, was placed in
an awkward position between them, for if he con-
sented to the demand of Alexander, he would only
expose himself to the hostility of the Norwegian
king, while if he refused it, he was sure to incur
the vengeance of the king of Scots. Ewen seems
to have considered it the better policy to remaiiS
true to the king of Norway. Alexander collected
a great fleet and sailed for the western Islands,
determined upon making every effort to obtain
possession of them. It appears that so great was
the attention which was paid to the building of
ships in those days, that not only was Alexander
possessed of a considerable naval force, but even
the Hebridean chiefs, whose principal busmess was
piracy, then esteemed an honourable profession,
had formidable fleets. It is stated also that in 1281
Alan, lord of Galloway, who has been ali*eady
mentioned, was able to fit out a fleet of a hundred
and fifty ships, from his own territories, with
which he drove Olave the Black, king of Man,
from his dominions. This may help to furnish
some idea of the extent of the naval strength of
Alexander the Second, when he set forth to the
western Isles to bring them under his sway. .
Deeming it of the greatest consequence to gain
over Ewen to his interest, he besought him to
give up Kemeburgh, and other three castles,
together with the lands which he held of Haco
king of Norway, promising him that if he would
come under his allegiance, he would reward him
with many greater estates In Scotland, and take
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ALEXANDER II.
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ALEXANDER H.
hiin into his confidence and favour. All E>ven's
relations and friends advised him to yield to the
king of Scotland and relinqnish his fealty to the
Norwegian monarch, but the Island chief remained
steadfast to his allegiance, and declared that he
wonid not break his oath to King Haco. ISkene's
History of the HtghlanderSy vol. ii. p. 61.] Al-
though, however, he is said to have refused all
ofifers of compromise, he appears to have agreed
to pay to Alexander an annual tribute of three
hundred and twenty marks, {Ayloff^s Calendars
of Ancient Charters^ p. 336], doubtless for such
portion of his possessions as was under the actual
government of the king of Scots. All our histo-
rians style this Ewen, Angus of Argyle, but this
is evidently erroneous.
Alexander was not destined to see the end of
his expedition. The subjection of the western
Isles to the Scottish crown was reserved for his son
and successor, Alexander in. When preparing
to invade these islands, and so far on his progress
as the Sound of Mull, this brave and prudent
monarch was attacked with a fever, of which he
died July 8, 1249, at Ken*ara, a small island lying
off the bay of Oban ; being at the time of his death
in the 51st year of his age, and 3l8t of his reign.
A legend full of the superstitious feeling of the
times, yet not without a certain degree of poetical
interest, states that as Alexander lay in his bed
there appeared to him three men ; one of them
dressed in royal garments, with a red face, squint-
ing eyes, and a terrible aspect; the second was
very young and beautiful with a costly dress, and
the third was of larger stature than either, and of
a still fiercer countenance than the first. , The last
personage demanded of him whether he meant to
subdne the islands, and on his answering in the
affirmative he advised him to return home; a
warning to which he paid no attention. Tlie
three persons, says the tale, were supposed to be
St. Olave, St. Magnus, and St. Columba. The
latter certainly showed a most forgiving disposition
in taking part with the two Norwegian saints, as
the piratical invaders from Norway had always
been bitter enemies of his monastery of Ion a.
All historians agree in giving Alexander the
Second the character of a wise, prudent, and mag-
nanimon&tprince. Brave, and not unsuccessful in
war, he was yet disposed to cultivate the bless-
ings of peace. His rule was firm and strict, and
under his sway Scotland advanced in prosperity
and civilization ; so that at his death he left It a
more powerful nation than it had ever been in any
previous period of its history. Though prompt
and severe in the administration of justice, he was
impartial and just, and his personal qualities wera
of that generous and popular nature which ren-
dered him beloved equally by his nobility and
people. Twenty-five statutes of Alexander II.
were added to the code of Scottish laws ; several
of which, says Lord Hailes, require a commentary.
His body was bui-ied before the altar of the abbey
of Melrose.
The burghs of Dumbarton and Dingwall are the
only two which received charters from this mon-
arch. The fonner town had been resigned by
Maldwin, earl of Lennox, into his hands, and in
1222 he erected it into a free royal burgh, with
extensive privileges. The latter was made a royal
burgh by Alexander in 1227. To the church he
was a generous benefactor, as be founded no fewer
than eight monasteries for the mendicant friars of
the order of St. Dominic, called the Black Friars,
namely, at Aberdeen, Ayr, Berwick, Edinburgh,
Elgin, Inveraess, Stirling, and Perth. Boece,
with his usual ingenuity, supposes that Alexander
saw Dominic in France about the year 1217 ; but
that was the year when he was deserted by the
French prince Louis, and when Alexander was
anxious to be reconciled to the Pope and to make
peace with England. There is no evidence that
Alexander ever was in France. Lord Hailes thus
remarks on this conjectui-e of the inventive Boece :
*^ The sight of a living saint may have made an
impression on his young mind: but perhaps he
considered the mendicant friars as the cheapest
ecclesiastics. His revenues could not supply the
costly institution of Cistercians and canons regu-
lar in which his great-grandfather, David I., took
delight." Some idea may be formed of the value
of land in Scotland in Alexander the Second's
reign, from the circumstance that the monks of
Melrose purchased from Richard Barnard, a mea-
dow at Famingdun, consisting of eight acres, at
thirty-five marks.
Tlie following is the seal of Alexander II ,
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I— -
ALEXANDER III.
79
ALEXANDER III.
taken from Anderson's Diphmata et Numismata^
plate 31. Alexander is here represented clothed
bi a complete coaf of mascled mail, protected by
plates at the elbows. The surcoat also first woi*n
in England by King John, is thrown over his ar-
mour, another proof, as Tytler remarks of the
progress of military fashions from England into
Scotland at that period. His shield is hollow(d,
so as to fit the body, and completely defend it.
The shield then in use in Scotland was the kite-
shaped shield of the Normans, and previous to
Alexander's time, it was plain and anomamented.
The emblazonment of the lion rampant, which
had been chosen as his armorial bearing by his
father William, snmamed the Lion, and which
ever after formed the arms of Scotland, appeared
on Alexander's shield for the first time. In this
he followed the example of Richard Coeur de Lion,
who was the first to introduce into England he-
raldic emblazonments on the E.iield. In the above
seal, Alexander's horse has no defensive armour,
but is ornamented with a fnnged and tassel led
border across the chest, and an embroidered sad-
dlecloth, on which the lion rampant again appears.
Tlie unicorns as supporters of the royal shield
were, added by the Stewarts to the arms of Scot-
land.
ALEXANDER m., king of Scotland, the only
son of the preceding and of his queen Mary de
Couci, was bom at Roxburgh castle, on the 4th
of September 1241. He succeeded to the throne
on the death of his father, 8th July 1249, being then
Senl ot Alexander III.
in the ninth year of his age, and was crowned at
Scone on the 13th of the same month. This pre-
cipitancy was owing to the apprehension enter-
tained by that portion of the Scottish nobles who
were opposed to the English claim of supremacy
over Scotland, that the English king Henry HI.,
who esteemed himself the feudal superior of the
Scottish sovereigns, would interfere in the ar-
rangements preliminary to the young monarcirs
inauguration. In this proceeding they not only
flattered the popular sentiment but were actuated
by a regard to the interest of their order, as the
privileges of the Scottish barons and clergy, and
especially that of independent heritable jurisdic-
tion within their lands, was not only not enjoyed in
England, but proved a serious check -upon the royal
authority and power, and any assimilation of the
two countries in this respect was calculated to
place their continued enjoyment of them in dan-
ger. Of this party Walter Comyn, earl of
Menteith, was the head. Indeed, all the power
of the kingdom was, at this time, chiefly in the
hands of the Comyns, a family descended from
Robert Comyn, a Norman knight from Northum-
berland, who came into Scotland in the time of
David the Fii-st. During the first years of Alex-
I
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ALEXANDER m.
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ALEXANDER IIL
ander*8 reign, (when, to use the words of Buchan-
an, ^'thia family governed rather than obeyed
him,'') their influence in the administration of the
country was characterized by a spirit of nation-
ality and opposition to English interference in
eveiy shape that was or might be exhibited.
On the day of the coronation, the bishops of
St. Andrews and Dnnkeld, witli the abbot of Scone,
attended to officiate, when some of the counsel-
loi*s, and among the rest, Alan Dnrward, the high
justiciary, or lord chief justice, of Scotland, called
also Ostiarius, and in the Fi*ench rilmmer, from
his office as keeper of the palace gate or of the
door of the king's chamber, objected to the young
king being crowned so soon after his accession, on
the grounds that " the day appointed for the cer-
emony was unlucky, and that the king, previons
to his coronation, ought to receive the order of
knighthood.*' Durward doubtless expected that,
from his being at the head of the Scottish chival-
ry, as well as from having married a natural sister
of the young king, the honour of knighting Alex-
ander would devolve upon himself; but in this he
was disappointed, as the earl of Menteith pro-
posed that the bishop of St. Andrews should both
knight the king and place the crown on his head,
citing the instance of William Rnfus as having been
knighted by Lanfranc archbishop of Canterbury.
IFordun^ b. x. c. i.] Fie also urged the danger of
delay, as the English king, in a letter to the Pope,
had solicited a mandate from his holiness to the
young monarch of Scotland, that ** being Henry's
liegeman, he should not be anointed or crowned
without his permission." He, therefore, strongly
advised that the ceremony should be over before
the Pope's answer could arrive. Henry, it would
appear, bad also requested a grant of the tenth of
the ecclesiastical revenues of Scotland. Both re-
quests were, however, rejected by the Pope, In-
nocent rV., the first as derogatory to the honour
of a sovereign prince, and the second as without
example. [Fcedera^ vol. i. p. 163.] It is ex-
tremely likely that, chagrined and disappointed at
not getting the full extent of his claim as feudal
superior recognised by the treaty of Newcastle in
1244, Henry had made this application to Rome
before the death of Alexander the Second, to be
prepared to assert it effectually when his successor
came to the throne; as there could be no time to
have done so in the short period, only five days,
that elapsed between the acceseion and the coro-
nation of Alexander the Third.
The advice of the earl of Menteith was followed.
Without waiting for the result of Henry's appli-
cation to the Pope, the Scottish nobles and pre-
lates seated the young Alexander in the regal
chair or sacred stone at Scone, which stood before
the cross at the eastern end of the church, and
invested him with the crown and sceptre and the
other insignia of royalty. The barons, in token
of their homage, cast their mantles at the feet of
their young sovereign, who pi*evious to the cere-
mony had been by David Bemham, bishop of St.
Andrews, begiit with the belt of knighthood
The coronation oath was read in Latin, and then
explained in French, that being then the language
of the court, clergy, nobility, and barons of
Scotland as well as of England, and the various
countries more immediately connected with France.
During the ceremonial an Impressive incident
occurred. Wliile the king sat npon the inaugu-
ral stone, the crown on his head and the sceptre
in his hand, a white-haired Highland scnnachy or
bard, of great age, and clothed in a scarlet mantle,
advanced from the crowd, and bending before the
king, repeated in the Gaelic tongue, the genealogy
of the youthful monai-ch, deducing his descent
from the fabulous Gathelus, who, according to le-
gendary lore, married Scota, the daughter of Pha-
raoh, and was the contemporary of Moses I Al-
exander, though he did not comprehend a word
of this singular recitation, is said to have liberally
rewarded the venerable genealogist, who thus un-
expectedly introduced this Celtic usage at the
coronation of a Scoto-Saxon monarch.
The first act of the new reign, after the corona-
tion of Alexander, was of a religions character, yet
held at that period as of no less importance than
the coronation itself. The virtues of the pious
queen Margaret, the wife of Malcolm Canmore,
having become the subject of universal belief as
well as of monastic biography, according to the
superstition of that age her remains were believed
to have the faculty of working miracles, and an
application was made to the Pope in 1246, by
Alexander II., to admit her into the calendar of
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ALEXANDER HI.
81
ALEXANDER IIL
the saints. As the general reader is well aware,
the evidence requh-ed to establish such a claim re-
qoired to be full and distinct ; and in the present
instance, after a commission, consisting of the
bishops of St. Andrews, Dnnkeld, and Dunblane
had made a&vourable repoit, it was found invalid,
because it had not incorporated the evidence of
the witnesses, and a new commission was issued,
if we can only get over the difSculty as to whether
the class of miracles on which such claims are
founded are to be admitted as proveable by any
human testimony whatever, the most sceptical
must admit that the evidence generally, such as it
might be, was both abundant and sti'lct. In con-
sequence of these delays, it was not till 1249 that
Queen Margaret became, as a canonized saint, the
object of ecclesiastical dedication, and the abbey
of Dunfermline, called after her name, had her
bones "transferred" from the place wei-e they
were originally deposited " in the rude altar of the
kh'k of Dunfermline" to the choir of the abbey
church. The young lung Alexander III. with his
mother, and a large assembly of nobles and clergy,
were present at the ceremony. Robert de Kelde-
licht, the abbot, raised to the dignity of the mitre
in 1244 in a bull, the terms of which are preserved
in the registry, granted at the special request of
Alexander II., saw the reward of hilb ambition and
donations to the legate. The remains were placed
in a silver sarcophagus, which the chroniclers state
was adorned with precious stones. So interest-
ing a scene could not take place without a miracle.
The body of the wife refused to be translated until
that of her husband had been fim lifted to the
intended spot, then
*• Syne in fayre manere
Her corse thai tnk op and bare ben,
And thame enterydd togyddjr, then
Swa trowyed thai all that gadiyd tbaro
(jahat boQoure til hyr lord scbo bare."
Wynton, b. 7, c. 10.
llie next pnxseeding of the new government was
to change the stamp of the Scottish coin, the ci'oss,
which previously was confined to the inner circle
being now extended to the circumference. This
took place in 1250. The coins of this reign were
pennies and half-pennies of silver, but though these
only were issued, other denominations of money
were named in accounting, as the shilling, the
merk, and the pound, while foreign coins, which
were fi'om time to time imported by the merchants,
were allowed to be current in the kingdom. To
give some idea of the value of the Scottish silver
penny, it may be stated that ten of them wei'e
equal to half a crown of our present money. Five
pence was the yearly i-ent paid to the king by the
burgesses of every royal burgh, for each rood of
land possessed under burgh privileges. The vas-
sal of a thane, or of any other subject, was fined
in fifteen ewes, or six shillings, for disobeying the
king^s summons to join the royal army. Money
was common only in the burghs, at markets and
fairs, and through the more populous and culti-
vated parts of the kingdom. In secluded districts,
cattle were more frequenfty referred to, as a coni^
mon measure of value, [^/inderson^s Diplomata
ScotuSy with RuddimojCs Introduction,']
In 1251 some measures appear to have been
employed by those at the head of affaii-s in Scot-
land for circumscribing, or at least for defining the
limits of the power of the clergy, as the Pope
directed a bull to the bishops of Lincoln, Worces-
ter, and Litchfield in England, requiring them to
examine into the abuses said to prevail in Scot-
land, and on these delegates he conferred ample
powers of excommunication. [Chartulary of Mo-
ray^ i. 30.] Lord Hailes, who has printed this
bull in full in the appendix to the fii-st volume of
his Annals of Scotland, thinks it probable that it
was never ti*ansmitted to the English bishops, no
historian having made any mention of it.
The state of the kingdom at this time was unfa-
vourable to the continuance of that peace and
prosperity in which the fiim and prudent adminis-
tration of Alexander the Second had left it at \\\s
death. The kmg was a minor, and exposed to
the continual demands of the sovereign of England
for a recognition of his claim of feudal superiority,
while the nobles, instead of joining together and
acting in unison for the common welfare, wei-e en-
gaged against each other in a factious, struggle for
power. They wei'e divided into two gi-eat pai'ties.
The one, composed of the potent family of the
Comyns and their adherents, among whom was
John de Baliol, lord of Galloway, were masters of
the government. The chiefs of the other paity
F
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ALEXANDER IIL
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wei-e Patrick Cospatrick, earl of Mai*ch and Dun- 1
bar, Mallse, earl of Stratherae, Niel or Nigel, earl
of Carrick, Alexander, the steward of Scotland,
Robert Bruce, lord of Annandale, and Alan Dur-
ward, the high justiciary. The latter party acted
all along in alliance with Henry IIL of England,
who, by the maniage of his daughter to Alexan-
der, soon obtained a fair pretext for interfering in
the affairs of Scotland.
As stated in the life of Alexander the Second,
(owte, p. 77,) the young prince his son had been
betrothed when only a year old to Henry's eldest
daughter, Margaret, who was about the same age,
and their nuptials, although neither of them had
reached theur eleventh year, were solemnized at
York, 26th December 1251, amidst cucumstances
of extraordinai7 splendour. Besides the bride's
father and mother. King Henry and his queen,
the mother of the young bridegroom, Maiy de
Coud, the queen-dowager of Scotland, with a
train worthy of her high station, was present at
the nuptials, IRymer^ voL i. edition 1816, p. 278,]
having come for the purpose from France, whither
3he appeal's to have retired soon after the death
of Alexander the Second. There were also pres-
ent the nobility and the dignified clergy of both
countries, and in theur suite a numerous assem-
blage of vassals. According to Matthew Paris, a
thousand knights, in robes of silk, waited upon
the princess at her bridal, and the primate of
York contributed six hundred oxen, as part of the
marriage feast, which, says the matter-of-fact
chronicler, *^ were all spent upon the first course."
With the hand of his daughter Henry gave the
promise of a dowry of 6,000 merks, IFccdera i.
467,] which, however, was not paid till several
years afterwards.
In the midst of the marriage festivities, Alex-
ander, according to custom, did homage to Henry
for the lands which he held in England, but on
his father-in-law requiring him to render fealty
for his kingdom of Scotland, *^ according to the
usage recorded in many chronicles," Alexander, by
the advice of his council, returned this prudent
answer : " I have been invited to York to marry
the princess of England, not to treat of affairs of
state, and I cannot take a step of so much impor-
tance w^ithout the knowledge and approbation of
my parliament." IMatth. Paris, p. 829.] This
famous reply, there cannot be a question, was
dictated by the Comyns, whose policy at that pe-
riod was strictly national, and against the claims
of England. The word parliament as here used
must be taken with the limitation of meaning
pointed out in the life of Alexander the Second
(ante, p. 66). It signifies no more than the states
of the kingdom, that is a meeting of the regents
and counsellors of the king, with the nobles,
crown vassals, and superior clergy. Under the
feudal system all vassals of the crown, holding
their possessions and privileges by the tenure of
fixed and certain services, were entitled to receive
the royal summons to sit in parliament, as it
would now be called, whenever the necessities of
the kingdom compelled the king to demand their
advice and assistance for his dii*ection and support
in providing for the common welfare of the realm.
While the young kmg remained at York, Alan
Dnrward, the high justiciary of Scotland, who
had accompanied him, and who by virtue of his
office was one of his chief counsellors, was accused
by Henry himself [ffoiZw' Annals, vol. i. p. 164]
of a design against the Scottish crown, *^ for that
he and his associates had sent messengers, accom-
panied with presents, to the Pope, soliciting the
legitimation of his daughters by the king^s sister ;
whereby, in the event of the king*s death, they
might succeed as lawful heirs of the kingdom of
Scotland." Balfour in his Annals, [vol. i. p. 59,]
says that ^* as conscious to this plot were accused
likewise Walter Comyn, earl of Menteith, Wil-
liam Comyn, earl of Mar, and Robert, abbot of
Dunfermline, chancellor of Scotland, who was
accused that he had passed a legitimation under
the great seal to the king^s base sister, the wife of
Alan, earl of Athole, great justiciary of Scotland."
The story is taken from the Chronicle of Melrose.
Whether there was any foundation for the accu-
sation or not, it is certain that the chancellor
hastily left the English court, where he had been
with the young king, and returning to Scotland,
resigned the seals, quitted his abbey, and assumed
the habit of a monk at Newbottle, in Mid Lothian,
IChr. Mdr, 219,] and that Henry, on the return
of Alexander and his queen into Scotland, sent
with them Geoffrey de Langley, keeper of the
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ALEXANDER IH.
ALEXANDER m.
royal forests, to act in concert with the Scottish
nobles, as guardian of the young king, but he
proved so insolent and rapacions that he was soon
dismissed. [Matdi. Paris^ 671.] Tytler says, bnt
without giving any anthority, that the accusers of
Dnrward were the earls of Menteith and Mar,
and that Henry placed these noblemen at the head
of the new appointment of guardians to the young
king, which he made at this time. [Hist, of Scot-
land^ vol. i. p. 9.] It is not improbable that Hen-
ry's object in biinging this accnsation against the
popular and potent Alan Durward was as much to
remove so dangerous a rival from about the person
of the queen, as to obtain the services of so ac-
complished a soldier and so expert a leader, in his
wars in Gufenne, which he was conscious he had
no means of securing otherwise than by driving
him into a sort of banishment from his country,
under a charge of meditated treason, not easily
repelled. Two y^ars after these transactions, the
Pope, havmg induced Henry to embark in a pro-
ject for the conquest of Naples, or as it was called,
SicOy on this side the Fare, levied a tenth on all
ecclesiastical benefices in England for three years,
and in 1254 granted to Henry a twentieth of the
ecclesiastical revenues of Scotland for the same
term, which grant was renewed in 1266 for one
year more, to he employed by the English king,
as asserted by the chroniclers of the period, in the
expenses of an expedition to the Holy Land.
ICkr. Mdr. i. 80. Fcedera, vol. i. 467.] We ra-
ther think, however, that while this was the pre-
text, the money thus received from Scotland for
four years was by Henry intended to be applied,
and was in fact expended, in a fruitless endeavour
to secure the crown of Sicily for his second son
Edmond, which had been promised him by the
Pope. [Fcedera, vol. i. p. 602, 612, 630.]
At this time the Comyn party appear to have
been in full possession of the government. Robert
de Ros and John de Baliol, two of their fiiends,
had the name of regents. In 1264 Simon de
Montfort, the great earl of Leicester, the same
powerful nobleman who, four years afterwards,
attempted to wrest the sceptre from Henry's hand,
was sent into Scotland, charged with a secret mis-
sion from Henry [JVedcro, vol. i. p. 623]; the
precise nature or object of which can only be con-
jectured from subsequent events. In the following
year complaints were sent fh)m the young queen j
to the English court, that she was confined in the
solitary castle of Edinburgh, "a place without ver-
dure, and owing to its vicinity to the sea unwhole-
some,*' that she was not permitted to make excur-
sions through the kingdom or to choose her female
attendants, and that, although both she and Alex-
ander had completed their fourteenth year, she
was still secluded from the society of her husband.
Henry had all along been in communication with
the discontented nobles who were opposed to the
Comyn party having possession of the government,
and there can be no doubt that while he professed
to interfere only for the good of his daughter, he
fanned their mutual jealousies and animosities, and
gave his countenance and support to their pro-
ceedings. He declared that he would protect
them against the enemies of the king and the
gainsayers of Queen Margaret, and promised to
make no attempt to seize the person or impair the
dignity of the king, and that he would never con-
sent to the dissolution of his marriage with the
queen. [Fosrfero, vol. i. p. 559.] The particular
causes of such a declaration are said by our histori-
ans to be unknown [Hailes* Annals, v. i. p. 165],
and to be involved in much obscmity ITytler's His-
tory of Scotkmd, vol. i. p. 11] ; but there can be
no doubt that when Henry engaged to support
the interests of the party favourable to his claim
as feudal superior over Scotland, and was prepar-
ing to interfere actively in the overthrow of those
ministers who were opposed to it, he had found it
necessary to make some declaration of the kind tc
satisfy them that his interference in Scottish affaira
was meant to go no farther than a mere change in
the party administering the government.
Alan Durward, who was serving with the Eng-
lish army in Guienne, had gained, by his military
talents and address, the favour of the fickle mon-
arch of England, and by his advice Henry sent
Richard de Clare earl of Gloucester, and John
Maunsell, his chief secretary, to Scotland, ostensi-
bly to relieve the young queen from the real or
pretended durance of which she complained, but
in reality to assist the discontented nobles in theur
efforts to overturn the Comyns, and place the
government in their own hands. While the re-
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ALEXANDER UL
gents and thejr protectors the earls of Mcuteith
and Mar wci*o engaged in pi-eparatious for holding
a meeting of the estates at Stirling, Gloucester, in
concert with the earls of Can-ick, March, and
Stratheme, surprised the castle of Edinbm*gh, re-
stored the king and qaeen to liberty, and allowed
them free conjugal intercourse. ^Chr. Mdr. p.
220. MattJi, Paris, p. 908.] To aid this enter-
prise, Heniy assembled a numerous army, and as
he led it towards the borders, he issued from New-
castle, August 25, 1255, a proclamation declaiing
that in this progress to visit his dear son Alexan-
der, he did not design anything prejudicial to the
rights of the king, or the liberties of Scotland.
[Fadera, vol. i. pp. 560, 561.] The young king
and queen were immediately conveyed to the
north of England, and h.id an interview with
Henry at Werk castle in Northumberland. Thehr
safe conduct bore, "that they and their retinue
should not taiiy in England, unless with the gen-
eral approbation of the Scottish nobility." IFcedera,
vol. i. p. 562]. Henry, soon after, visited Alex-
ander at Roxburgh, within his own territories.
At the abbey of Kelso, whither the two kings
had repaired with great pomp, a new regency was
appointed, 20th September 1255. This proceed-
ing was said to be by the advice of the English
king, but there can be no doubt that these, entire
transactions were under his express direction or
rather control and management throughout. The
paity of the Comjus were removed frem the king's
council and all thehr employments in the state.
Those among them who were particularly named
were Gamelin, chancellor of Scotland and bishop-
elect of St. Andrews, William do Bondington,
bishop of Glasgow, Clement, bishop of Dunblane,
Walter Comyn, earl of Menteith, Alexander
Comyn, earl of Buchan, William de Mar, earl of
Mar, John de Balliol, Robert de Ros, John Comyn,
and William Wishart, archdeacon of St. Andrews,
of which see he was afterwards bishop. IFcsdera,
vol. i. pp. 565, 567. Chr, Mdr, p. 221.] The
English faction, as the earl of March and his
friends were accounted, to the number of fifteen,
were appointed regents of the kingdom and guar-
dians of the king and queen. [Fcedera, vol. i. p.
566.] The following are then* names: Richard
luverkeithen, bishop of Dunkeld ; Peter dc Ram-
say, bishop of Abei-deen ; Malcolm Macduff, car)
of Fife ; Patrick Cospati-ick, earl of March and
Dunbar ; Malise, earl pf Stratherne ; Nigel, earl
of Carrick ; Alexander, the steward of Scotland ;
Robert de Bi-us; Alan Durward; AValter de
Moray ; David de Lindsay ; William de Brechin ;
Robert dc MejTiers : Gilbert deHay; Hugh Gif-
ford de Ycster. The government thus new mo-
delled was to subsist for seven years, that is, till
Alexander should have attained the age of twenty-
one, and vacancies in the regency were to be sup-
plied by the surviving regents. Alexander declared
that he would not restore the Comyn party to
favour until they had atoued for their offences
agiunst the king of England as well as against
himself; except in the event of Scotland's being
invaded by a foreign enemy, when they might be
again taken mto favour. To Henry he promised
that he would treat his daughter with conjugal
affection and all due honour ; and to the regents
that he would ratify all their public acts and rea-
sonable gi-ants. Patrick, cail of Mareh and Dun-
bar, swore upon the king's soul, a customary form
of oath in those days, that these engagements should
be fulfilled, and Alexander subjected himself to the
papal censures should he fail ih peiformance. The
instrument drawn up on the occasion was depos-
ited in the hands of the English king [Fcsdera,
vol. 1. p. 567.] It was considered by the Scottish
party in general as derogatory to the dignity of
the kingdom, and Bondington, bishop of Glasgow,
Gamelin, bishop elect of St. Andrews, and the earl
of Menteith, indignantly refused to afiix their seals
to a deed which, as they asserted, compromised
the libeities of the country, and was prejudicial to
the honour of the king. [Chr, Mdr, p. 221.]
Winton (book vii. chap, x.) says of it :
*' Thare wes made swylk ordjnans, *
That WC8 grot grefe and displcsans
Till of Scotland ye tkre statis,
Burgens, Barownys, and Prclads."
Before returning to England,^ Hemy, with the
view of raising money, proceeded to take cogni-
zance of the offences of the late regents John de
Baliol and Robert de Ros. As they both pos-
sessed estates in England, he held them to be
amenable to his courts, even on a vague chai'ge of
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ALEXANDER HI.
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ALEXANDER IIL
disrespect and disloyalty to Alexander and his
qneen. John de Baliol obtained his pardon by
the payment of a large fine, but Robert de Ros,
to whom the castle of Werk belonged, not appear-
ing to his summons, was deprived of his lands
in England, which were confiscated by Heniy.
IMatth, Paris, p. 611.]
The tranquillity of the kingdom being thus, in
the meantime, in some degi*ce restored, the young
king and queen, attended by a retinue of three
hundred horse, visited the court of England in
August 1256, and were royally enteitained at
I^ndon, Woodstock, and Oxford. On the second
of September of that yeai* Alexander was invested
by his father-in-law in the earldom of Hunting-
don as a fief held by his ancestors. [Matth, Pa-
rw, p. 626] 'As a farther mark of his affection,
Ileniy issued orders to all his military tenants in
the five northern counties to assist the king of
Scotland with all their forces. [Fadera, vol. i. p.
605.] He farther declared that the grant which
he himself had obtained from the Pope of a twen-
tieth of the ecclesiastical revennee of Scotland
should never be urged as a precedent to the hurt
of the nation.
The late settlement of the government having
been brought about by English influence, was gen-
erally unpopular in Scotland, and did not last
longer than about two years. "The greater part,"
says Buchanan, [vol. vii. p. 60,] "of the nobility
and the ecclesiastical order, their power being
curtailed by the new ordinances, stigmatized them
as an English thraldom and a commencement of
slavery." Tlie Comyns, taking advantage of this
feeling, and working upon the sensitive national
jealousy of England, now endeavoured to regain
their former position in the government. That
party was still powerful, there being at this time
in the kingdom three earls and thirty-three barons
of the name, [see Comyn, surname of] ; and
the number of their retainers, assisted by the
forces of the other patriotic nobles, backed by
the influence of Gamelin, late chancellor and bi-
shop elect of St. Andrews, enabled the Comyns
to present a formidable opposition to the re-
gency. Gamelin had, towards the close of 1255,
procured himself to be consecrated by William de
Bondiiigton, bishop of Glasgow, in dh-ect opposi-
tion to an injunction of the regents. For this act
of disobedience he was outlawed, and the revenues
of his see were seized. [CJtron, Meir, p. 221.]
Gamelin immediately hastened to Rome and ap-
pealed to the Pope, who espoused his cause,
declared him worthy of his bishopric, and ex-
communicated his accusera, ordering the sen-
tence to be solemnly published in Scotland by
Clement bishop of Dunblane and the abbots of
Melrose and Jedburgh, llbid.'] Enraged at the
bold opposition of Gamelin, Henry, to whom the
Pope had addressed an imperious letter, on his
behalf, prohibited his return, and issued orders
for his arrest, if he attempted to land in England.
[Fewfero, vol. i. p. 652.]
In the meantime the Comyns received a power-
ful accession to their cause in the support given to
them by Mary de Couci, the mother of the young
king, who in 1257 returned to Scotland. That
princess had, during her residence in France, ta-
ken for her second husband John de Brienne, the
son of Guy of Lusignan, the titulai* king of Jeru-
salem. After the male Une of Godfrey of Bouil-
lon had become extinct, the sceptre of Jerusalem
was held by Sybilla the daughter of Baldwin and
granddaughter of Fulk, count of Anjou, grandfa-
ther of Henry the Second of England. Having
such an adversaiy as Saladin the Great to con-
tend with, Queen Sybilla, to strengthen her hands,
found it necessary to marry one of the bravest of
the knights then engaged in her service, and the
husband she made choice of was Guy de Lusig-
nan, the father of John de Brienne, a prince of
a handsome person but of no very honourable re-
nown. Although he lost his kingdom by the in-
vasion of Saladin in 1187, he was still acknow-
ledged by all the Christians as king of Jerusalem.
Tlie queen-dowager was accompanied to Scot-
land by her second husband, and supported by
their influence the Comyns and their party ac-
quired strength enough to effect a counter-revolu-
tion in the government. It was now considered a
favourable time to publish the sentence of excom-
munication which had been procured from the
pope against the enemies of bishop Gamelin. The
awful ceremony was perfonned by the bishop of
Dunblane and the abbots of Jedburgh and Mel-
rose, the delegates of the Pope, in the abbey
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ALEXANDER IH.
church of Canibuskenneth, and repeated * by bell
and candle* in every chapel in the kingdom. [Ckr,
Melr, p. 182.] The Comyns hereupon declared
that the king was now in the hands of persons
accursed, and. that the kingdom was in immediate
danger of papal interdiction, and under the pre-
text of rescuing the king fi-om such a state of
things, and relieving him from the control of for-
eigner who, they said, filled all the highest offices
of the state, they assembled in great strength, and
headed by the earl of Menteith, they during the night
attacked the court at Kinross, seized the person
of the king while in bed, and carried him and the
queen before morning to Stirling. They obtained
at the same time possession of the great seal of
the kingdom. The king and queen were kept
separate till the party of the regents were dis-
persed. [Matih, Paris, p. 644.] The charge they
brought against the young queen was that '^ she
had incited her father, the king of England, to
come against them with an army in a hostile man-
ner, and make a miserable havoc" in the country.
llbt'd. p. 821.] To strengthen their interest, the
Com3m8 concluded an alliance with Lewellyn
prince of Wales, who was then (1267) at war with
England, whither Alan Durward had precipitately
fled. Taking the young king with them, the
forces of the Comyns marched southward to the
borders, where it would appear the adherents of
the late government had rallied and collected their
strength. A negotiation was set on foot which
led to a compromise between the lival factions
at Roxburgh ; the leaders of the defeated party
agi-eeing to refer all disputes to a conference to be
held at Forfar- This, however, was only an ex-
pedient to gain time, as the latter retired into
England, and the earls of Albemarle and Here-
ford, with John de Baliol, were soon after sent
by Henry to Melrose, where Alexander held his
court for the time. Although their avowed object
was to mediate between the twx) factions, their
real intention was to seize, if possible, the person
of the king, and carry him to England. Past ex-
perience, however, had led the Ck>myns to distrust
their professions, and the person of Alexander
was removed from the abbey of Melrose to the
forest of Jedbui-gh, where the greater part of the
Scottish forces had already assembled.
The king of England, obliged to suppress foi
the present his bitter opposition to bishop Ga-
melin, and to be silent regarding the obnoxious
treaty of Roxburgh, was thus constrained to ac-
cede to the appointment of a new regency, con-
sisting of ten persons, six of them being of the
Comyn faction, with four of the former regents.
This took place in 1258. At the head of the new
regency, which may be said to have governed the
country till the king came of age, were placed the
queen-dowager and her husband. The regents
were, Mary the queen -do wager; John of Brienne,
her husband ; Gamelin, bishop of St. Andrews ;
Walter Comyn, earl of Menteith; Alexander
Comyn, earl of Buchan ; and William, earl of
Mar. Their colleagues were, Alexander, the stew-
ard of Scotland ; Robert de Meyners ; Gilbert de
Hay ; and Alan Durward. IMatth, Paris, p. 644.
Foedera, vol. i. p. 670.] Soon after, Walter eail
of Menteith, one of the regents and the soul of
the national paity, died suddenly. In England it
was reported that his death was occasioned by a
fall from his horse. In Scotland it was believed
that he had been poisoned by his wife, countess
in her own right, that she might be free to indulge
a guilty passion for one John Russel, an English
knight, called by Boece an obscure Englishman,
whom, disregarding ihe addresses of the Scottish
nobles, she somewhat precipitately married. The
suspicion of her guilt, perhaps gronndlessly ex-
cited by the slighted suitors, was employed as a
pretext for depriving her and her second husband
of the earldom, driving them in disgrace from the
kingdom, and at last dividing the inheritance be-
tween her heirs and those of her younger sister.
The latter had married Walter Stewart, called
Bailloch or "the freckled," a younger brother of
the steward of Scotland, who laid claim to the
earldom of Menteith in right of his wife, and by
the favour of those in power obtained and kept it.
[Forrfiin, X. 11. Foidera, ii. p. 1082.]
It was the, policy of the court of Rome in that
age, when it asserted a right over all kingdoms
and grasped at power wherever it could be claim-
ed, to secure all ecclesiastical patronages to itself;
and scarcely was the dispute relative to the re-
gency settled when Alexander found himself likely
to be involved in a difference with the Roman
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pontiff. Tbe bishopric of Glasgow becoming va-
cant by the death of William de Bondington,
Alexandei* in 1259 bestowed it npon Nicholas
Moffat, archdeacon of Teviotdale, one of his own
subjects. Disregarding the king^s appointment,
the Pope, Alexander IV., gave the vacant see to
his chaplain, John de Cheyam, an Englishman,
and archdeacon of Bath. Sensible, however, that
this step would prove disagreeable to the young
Scottish monarch, he requested the king of Eng-
land to use his good offices with his son-in-law,
to receive Cheyam, and put him in possession of
his temporalities. " Although he is my subject,"
said Henry to the king of Scots, ^*I would not
solicit you in his behalf, could any benefit arise to
you from your opposition to a man on whom the
Pope has already bestowed ecclesiastical jurisdic-
tion." Alexander thought fit prudently to acqui-
esce in the Pope^s nomination, but though Chey-
am was kindly enough received at the Scottish
court, the bishop himself knew that he was obnox-
ious to the government, and he took the first op-
portunity of leaving the kingdom, and enjoying
the revenues of his see abroad. IFcedera, vol. i.
p. 683. Chr. Mdr. p. 222.] Satisfied with Alex-
ander's apparent submission to his wishes, the
Pope recalled certain angry mandates which he
had issued against him and his kingdom.
In 1260, Alexander, who had then attained his
twentieth year, was invited by his father-in-law
to visit him with his queen at London. Whatever
may have been the motive of this invitation, the
manner in which it was conveyed filled the regents
and nobility of Scotland with suspicion as to the
ulterior intentions of Henry. It appears that
he sent to Alexander for the purpose a monk of
St. Albans, who arrived at a time when the king
and his nobles were assembled in council, to whom
he declined to impart the special objects for which
the meeting was desired by the English monarch,
farther than that it was to treat Of matters of
great importance. Two of the regents, Alexander
Comyn, earl of Buchan, and Alan Dnrward the
justiciary, with William Wishart, chancellor of
the kingdom, were despatched on a secret mission
into England, to exact pledges from Henry as to
his behaviour towards the young king while at his
court The conditions on which Alexander and
his queen consented to visit England on this occa-
sion were, that during^ his residence at the Eng-
lish court neither the king nor his attendants
should be required to ti-eat of state affairs, and
that if the queen of Scotland became pregnant, or
if she gave birth to a child during her stay with
her father, neither she nor her infant were to be
detained in England. To the latter stipulation
particularly Heniy gave his solemn oath. \ Fad-
era^ vol. i. pp. 713, 714.]
Thus secm*ed, Alexander, attended by a large
concourse of the nobility, pix>ceeded, in October
1260, to the court of England. The young queen
followed him by slow stages, and on her approach
to St. Albans, she was met by her younger bro-
ther Edmond, then a mere youth, who with a
splendid retinue conducted her to London. Their
reception was unusually magnificent, but Alexan-
der, young as he was, did not allow the festivities
which marked the occasion to divert his mind
from two objects which had been strong induce-
ments with him to comply with King Henry's in-
vitation. He wished to exercise his rights over
the earldom of Huntingdon, which he held of the
English crown, as well as to obtain payment of
his wife*s marriage portion, which had been too
long delayed. In this last matter, however, he
was disappointed. The authority of the English
monarch had been now for nearly two years
usurped by the twenty-four barons, at the head
of whom was Simon de Montfort, earl of Leices-
ter, and Henry's exchequer was in too impover-
ished a state to allow him to discharge the debt
at this time.
It was agi*eed that the queen should remain in
England until she gave birth to the child of which
she was then pregnant, and Henry entered into a
solemn engagement that, in the event of the death
of Alexander, he would deliver up the child to the
following Scottish bisho])s and nobles to be con-
veyed to Scotland, namely, the bishops of St.
Andrews, Aberdeen, Dunblane, and Galloway,
and to Malcolm, earl of Fife, Alexander Comyn,
earl of Buchan, Malise, earl of Stratheme, Patrick,
earl of March and Dunbar, AVilliam, eai'l of Mar,
John Comyn, Alexander, the steward of Scotland,
Alan Durward, and Hugh de Abemethy, or to
any three of them. This list would seem to indi-
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cate that the two rival factions into wliich the
nation had been so long divided had at last united
to resist English interference in the domestic
affairs of Scotland. Alexander now returned to
Ills own kingdom^ and in the succeeding Februaiy
(1261) the young queen was delivered at Windsor
of a daughter named Margaret, afterwards maiTied
to Eric king of Norway. [Fcedera^ vol. i. p. 713.
Chr, Melr, p. 223.] With regard to the dowry
promised with the queen it may be stated that in
1262 Alexander sent the steward of Scotland to
England to demand payment of it from Heniy.
He paid an instalment of five hundred marks,
which drained his treasniy ; and promised to make
payment of the remainder at Michaelmas 1263 and
Easter 1264. *^ I appoint such distant terms/' he
said, '•*' because I mean to be punctual, and not to
disappoint you any more." Tlie marriage portion
of the princess of England was in fact not all paid
till some time after this, and only in small partial
payments. \Ibid.'\
Alexander havuig now (1262) arrived at full
age, took the reins of government into his own
hands, and in the administration of affaire he
showed both prudence and courage. Combining
the zeal, but tempered with discretion, for national
independence which had characterized the Comyns,
with something of the friendly disposition towards
England which had been the most marked feature
in the policy of their opponents, this strong-willed
monarch was able at once to shake himself loose
from the tutelage of either party, and to conduct
the government in his own person, according to
his own views and judgment. His first important
undertaking after he came of age, was to accom-
plish the subjection to his sway of the chiefs of the
western islands, an object which death had pre-
vented his father, Alexander the Second, fi*om
effecting, although as related (an/«, p. 78), he had
prepared an expedition for the purpose. The
king of Norway, at this time, held unquestioned
possession of the Orkneys and the Shetland Isles,
and claimed also to rule over the Hebrides. In
1255 the possessions of Angus Macdonald, lord of
Islay, the descendant of Reginald, a son of Somer-
led, lord of the Isles, were ravaged by Alexander,
because he would not consent to renounce his
fealty to the king of Norway, and he was thus
compelled to become a vassal of Scotland. In
1262, Henry, the English king, interposed his
good offices to prevent a rapture between Haco,
king of Norway and Alexander, as to the posses-
sion of the Islands [Farfera, vol. i. p. 753], which
were remarkable at that period for their prosper-
ous condition, their crowded population, and their
advanced state of civilization. Haco returned an
evasive answer, and after an unsuccessful embassy
to the Norwegian court, Alexander determined
upon at once endeavouring to bnng the Islands
under his sovereignty. For this purpose he in-
stigated William, earl of Ross, at that time, says
Skene, the most powerful nobleman in Scotland,
and whose great possessions extended over tho
mainland opposite to the northern isles, to com-
mence hostilities against them. This AViUiam
was the son of Ferchard who acted such a promi-
nent part in the raign of Alexander the Second
(see pp. 70 and 72). Ferchard was snrnamcd
GiUeanrias, " the priest's son," — whence Anria^
or Ross, the family name, — descended from a noble
who figured amongst the earls that besieged Mal-
colm IV. in Perth in the year 1160. [See Ross.
Earldom of.] Being joined by the Mathiesons,
and other powerful dependents, the earl suddenly
crossed over to the Isle of Skye, where he rav-
aged the country, burned villages and churches,
and put great numbers, both of men and women,
to the sword. [Skene^a IlighUmders of Scotland^
vol. ii. p. 52.] The Norse Chronicles relate, that
in their wanton fury his soldiers raised little chil-
dren on the points of their spears, and shook
them till they fell down to their hands. The
complaints of the island chiefs of the atrocities
committed by their savage invaders deteimined
Haco to fit out an expedition to revenge the in-
juries offered to his vassals.
He accordingly repaired to Bergen to superin-
tend in person the preparations of this armament.
These were so vast and so threatening as to
spread alarm, as to its destination and objects,
even upon the coasts of England. When all was
complete, he sailed from Herlover, on July 7,
1263. His own ship, described as having been
entirely of oak, was of larger size than the rest,
having twenty-seven banks of oars, that is, twen-
ty-seven scats for the rowers. It is also said to
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have been ornamented with richly carved dragons,
overlaid with gold. [Norte Account of the ExpC"
dition^ with Johnstone's Notes ^ p. 25.] The Nor-
wegian fleet reached the Shetland Isles witliin
two days, whence steering for the Orkneys, Haco
proposed to despatch a sqoadron of light vessels
to ravage the south-eastern coasts of Scotland,
bnt the principal nobles and knights on board his
fleet declined to proceed unless he himself went
with them, and he was constrained to bear up for
Ronaldsvoe, now Ronaldshay, the most southern
of the Orcadian group, situated about six miles
from Duncansby head, on the coast of Caithness,
and near to the moutli of the Peutland frith.
Here he remained at anchor for some weeks, dur-
ing which he levied contributions upon, and ex-
acted tribute from, the inhabitants both of the
neighbouring islands and of the opposite main-
land of Caithness, a district which appears to
have been reduced under the Scottish sway in the
interval between the death of Alexander the Sec-
ond and the arrival of Haco. It is recorded in
the Norse Chronicle of the expedition that, while
the fleet lay at Ronaldsvoe, '^a great darkness
drew over the sun, so that only a little ring was
bright round his orb,** which precisely fixes the
date of this great invasion, as the remarkable
phenomenon of an annular eclipse has been ascer-
tained to have been seen at Ronaldsvoe on the
5th of August 1263.
Haco now sailed to the south. Crossing the
Pentland frith, his galleys proceeded by the Lewes
to Skye, where he was joined by the squadron of
Magnus king of Man. Holding on his course to
the Sound of Mull, Dugal of Lorn, the son of Ro-
nald, the sou of Reginald MacSomerled, and other
Hebridean chiefs, united their forces to his, so
that he soon found himself at the bead of a fleet
of above a hundred sail, most of them vessels of
considerable size. Though far fix>m being of the
dimensions of the vessels of war of our day, these
craft of Norway and the island chiefs were very
formidable in piratical excursions. Dividing his
force, he sent one powerful squadron, under Mag-
nus and Dugal, to ravage the Mull of Kint3rre,
and lay waste the estates of those chiefs who had
submitted to Alexander, while another was de-
rtpatched to reduce the isles of Arran and Bute, in
the frith of Clyde. The comprehensive name ot
the Hebrides comprised in those days not only
the numerous islands and islets extending along
nearly all the west coast of Scotland, but also the
peninsula of Kintyre, the islands of the Clyde,
and even for some time the Isle of Man. With
the remainder of his fleet Haco cast anchor at
Gigha, a little island between the coast of Kin-
tyre and Islay. While he lay here be was met
by the island chief Ewen, mentioned in the life of
Alexander the Second (page 77), as having re-
fused to withdraw his allegiance from Norway,
when that monarch in 1249 set out on his expedi-
tion against the westciii islands. Since then he
seems to have reflected on the hazai-d of holding
out against the king of Scotland, as he subsequent-
ly, although at what period does not appear, swore
fealty to his successor, and on Haco*s desiring
him to follow his banner, he excused himself, on
the gi-ound that he had sworn an oath to the Scot-
tish king, and that he had more lands of him than
of the Norwegian monarch. He therefore en-
treated King Haco to dispose of all those estates
which he had conferred upon him. Haco was
satisfied with his reasoning, and after bestowing
presents on him dismissed him honourably. The
reguli or petty chiefs of the Hebrides were in
those remote times called kings, and accordingly
Ewen is called King John by Tytler, who evidently
assumed that Ewen is the Celtic name of John,
[History of Scotland^ vol. i. p. 25], and King Ewen
by Skene [History of the Highlanders^ vol. ii. p. 52.]
The politic example of Ewen was not followed
by the other island chiefs who had owned allegi-
ance to Alexander, for Haco was soon after joined
by Angus lord of Islay and South Kintyi-e, who
had submitted to Alexander ouly eight years be-
fore (p. 88), giving his infant son as a hostage,
and agreeing, by a formal instrument, that his
whole territories should be forfeited, if he ever
deserted ; and even by Murchard, a vassal of the
earl of Menteith in North Kintyre, who had ob-
tained this district from the baron to whom it had
been granted by Alexander the Second. [Skene^s
Highlanders^ vol. ii. p. 53.] Roderic, the Norwe-
gian leader, who had been despatched to reduce
Bute, took the strong castle of Rothesay, its gar-
rison having capitulated, pait of whom he savage-
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ALEXANDER HI.
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ly ronrdered. Ue then laid waste the island, and
carried fire and swoi*d throughout the adjoining
distiicts of Scotland. After sending a force under
Sigurd, a Hebridean chief, to the assistance of the
Ostmen, or descendants of the Danes settled on
the eastern coasts of Ireland, who were anxious
to throw off the English yoke, Haco, with his
fleet, the greater part of which had now rejoined
him, sailed round the point of Kintyre, and enter-
ing the frith of Clyde, anchored in the Sound of
Kilbrannan, which lies between the island of Ar-
ran and the mainland.
By this time the Norwegian fleet had increased
to a hundred and sixty sail, and the danger of a
descent on the Scottish coasts became imminent.
In this emergency Alexander despatched a depu-
tation of Barefooted friars with ovei*tures of peace
to Haco ; in consequence of which five Norwegian
commissioners ^ere sent to the Scottish court to
arrange the preliminaries, when a truce was agreed
upon. The defenceless state of the western and
south-western portions of Scotland made the gain-
ing of time a matter of the flrst importance to
Alexander until an army could be collected suffi-
ciently strong to repel the invaders. Alexander
offered to resign to Haco the sovereignty of all
the western or Hebridean isles, claiming as be-
longudg to Scotland only those of Arran, Bute,
and the two Cumbrays, in the frith of Clyde.
[Norse Account of the Expedition^ p. 71.] These
moderate terms of the king of Scotland were re-
fused by Haco, who carried his fleet across the
frith to Millport Bay. Although the coast of
Ayrshire was now open to a descent from his
fleet, Haco, in consideration of the existing truce,
restrained his followers from plunder, but provi-
sions becoming scarce, the officers of the expedi-
tion earnestly entreated him for permission to
land, that they might obtain by seizure supplies
for the ships. Thus pressed, Haco despatched a
last envoy to Alexander, of the name of Kolbein
Rich, with the following chivaUic proposal : "That
the sovereigns should meet amicably at the head
of their armies, and treat regarding a peace, which
if, by the grace of God, it took place, it was well ;
but if the attempt at negotiation failed, the am-
bassador was to threw down the gauntlet fr*om
Norway, to challenge the Scottish monarch to
debate the matter with his army in the field, and
let God, in his pleasure, determine the victory."
Alexander was too wary to accept the challenge,
although, says the Norse Chrenicle, he " seemed
in no respect unwilling to fight," and the truce
was declared at an end. [Norse Account of the
Expedition, p. 75.]
A fleet of sixty vessels, under the command of
Magnus king of Man, and with him four Hebrid-
ean chiefs and two principal Norwegian officers,
was now despatched by Haco, across the Clyde
to Loch Long, where they took to their boats,
and dragging them across the neck of land be-
tween Arrochar on the west and Tarbet on the
east, which separates the salt and the fresh water
lochs, they can-ied havoc and destruction through
the numerous islands on Loch Lomond. Sturlas,
a Norwegian poet, thus celebrates this exploit:
" The persevering shielded waniors of the thrower
of the whizzing spear drew their boats across the
broad isthmus. Our fearless troops, the exactors
of contribution, with flaming brands, wasted the
populous islands in the lake and the mansions
around its winding bays." A devastating expe-
dition into Stirlingshire followed under another
leader, who returned to the ships loaded with boo-
ty. Haco had now to contend with the storms
and tempests of the end of autumn, which had
been counted upon by the Scots as likely to bring
wreck and disaster to the invaders. Ten of their
best ships were lost by a storm in Loch I/)ng, and
on the fii-st of October, while the main fleet of
Haco lay at anchor in the capacious and usually
well-sheltered bay between the island of Cumbray
and the mainland of Ayrahire, it was overtaken
by a tempest of so severe and protracted a char-
acter, the wind blowing right up the frith and
sound upon his fleet, that the superstitious Nor-
wegians ascribed its extreme violence to the pow-
ers of enchantment. [Norse Account of the Expe-
ditiony pp. 81, 87.] The galley of the king was
in imminent peril, and several vessels were strand-
ed. The storm increasing, Haco rowed to one ot
the Cumbray islands, and caused mass to be
chaunted amid the roaring of the elements, in the
hope that the dreaded powers of magic might be
neutralized by the services of religion. Still tho
tempest continued, and his own ship, with five
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ALEXANDER III.
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other galleys, was cast ashore, while those of the
fleet that stlU rode out the gale, though mostly
dismasted or otherwise disabled, were driven vio-
lently ap the channel towards Largs, llbid. p. 85.]
The Scots collected on the sarronnding heights
watched with intense interest the dispersion of the
invading armament, and crowding to the beach,
immediately attacked with fury tKe ci'ews of the
Norwegian ships as they were successively diiven
ashore. The Norwegians defended themselves
with great intrepidity, and Haco, taking advan-
tage of a lull in the storm, succeeded in sending
in boats with reinforcements to their relief, when
the Scots deemed it expedient to retire, but only
to return again at night to plunder the stranded
vessels, among which were two transports. At
daydawn next moniing Haco landed with a large
force, and ordered the transports to be lightened
and towed to sea, with those vessels which had not
been totally wrecked. The rays of the rising sun
now shone upon the Scots army mustered on the
heights above the village of Largs, and as it de-
scended fi'om the high grounds towards the beach
it had truly a formidable appearance. It was led
by the king in person, along with Alexander the
steward of Scotland, the grandfather of the first
lovereign of the name of Stuart who occupied the
Scottish throne; and consisted of a numerous body
of foot-soldiers, well accoutred and armed for the
most part with bows and spears, with a force of
fifteen hundred horsemen, chiefly knights and bar-
ons, many of them with their Spanish steeds
sheathed in complete armour. All the horses had
breastplates. The Norwegians on shore numbered
little more than nine hundred men, commanded
by three principal leaders. Two hundred of them,
under Ogmund £j*akldants, occupied a rising
ground in advance of the main body, which were
posted on the beach. With the former was Haco,
who, on the approach of the Scottish army, was
anxiously entreated by his chiefs to row out to
the fleet and send them reinforcements. The king
insisted on remaining on shore, but they would
not consent to his exposing his life unnecessarily,
and he returned in his barge to his fleet at the
Cumbrays. The Nomvegians on the hill, being
attacked with great fury by the Scots, who greatly
outnumbered them, and pressed them on both flanks,
became apprehensive of being suri-ouudcd, and
began to retire in scattered parties towards the
sea. Their retreat soon changed into a flight,
and the divisions drawn up on the beach suppos-
ing they had been routed, broke their ranks, and
while many of the Norsemen threw themselves
into their boats and attempted to regain their
ships, the rest were driven along the shore amid
showers of arrows, stones, and other missiles, to a
place a little below Kelbnme. In the meantime
another violent storm had come on, which not
only prevented Haco from sending ashore in time
the expected reinforcements, but completed the
ruin of the Norwegian fleet, already much shat-
tered by the previous gales. The Norwegians on
land, thus left to themselves, gallantly maintained
the unequal contest, and repeatedly I'allying, made
an obstinate stand wherever the nature of the
ground favoured their movements. Gathering
round their stranded galleys they defended them-
selves with all their accustomed bravery, and kept
their pursuers for some time in check, llbtd. p.
97.] A young Scottish knight named Sir Piers
de Curry was here slain. According to the Norse
Chronicle, his helmet and coat of mail were plated
with gold, and the former was set with precious
stones. In the true spirit of chivaliy he galloped
frequently along the Norwegian line, endeavour-
ing to provoke some one to single combat. An-
drew Nicolson, one of Haco's chiefs who conducted
the retreat, answered his defiance, and after a
brief encounter, killed him with a blow which
severed his thigh from his body, the sword cutting
through his armour, and penetrating to the sad-
dle. The Norwegians stripped him of his rich
armour; but while doing so they were attacked
furiously by the Scots, and many fell on both sides.
{^Tbid. p. 99.] The Norwegians would have been
cut to pieces to a man, had not a reinforcement
reached them towards evening from the fleet, the
boats being pushed through a tremendous surf to
the shore. These fi-esh ti-oops instantly attacked
the Scots upon two points, and their an*ival gave
new courage to the Nonvegians, who began to
form themselves anew. The contest was pro-
tracted till night, when, according to the Noi-so
account, the Noi-wegians, uniting in a last grand
eflbit, made a desperate charge against their ns-
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snilanUt, who were posted on the heights over-
hanging the shore, and succeeded in beating tliem
back, after a short and farions resistance. The
survivors then re-embarked in their boats, and
thongh the storm continued to rage, got on board
their shattered vessels in safety. [/6irf. p. 103].
Among the Norwegians of note who fell were
Haco of Steine and Thorgisi Eloppa, both of King
Haco's household, with many more of the princi-
pal Norwegian leaders. Sir Piers do Curry is the
only name of mark mentioned as having fallen on
the Scottish side.
Next morning the sti*and was seen covered with
dead bodies and strewed with the wreck of the
best appointed fleet which Norway had ever sent
out. Alexander granted a truce to Haco, to ena-
ble him to bnry his dead, and to raise above their
bodies those rude memorials which to this day
mark the site of the field of battle. The chief
scene of the contest is supposed to have been a
large plain southward of the village of Largs, still
presenting a recumbent stone ten feet long, which
once stood upright, and is believed to have been
placed over the grave of a chieftain, and vestiges
are found of cairns and tumuli formed, as is said,
over pits into which the bodies of the slain wci'e
thrown.
Such was the battle of the Largs, famed in story,
song, and tradition, and the most memorable event
in the reign of Alexander the Third. The loss
sustained by the Norwegians is thus feelingly
alluded to in Lady Wardlaw*s celebrated ballad
of Hardy knute: —
" In thraws of death, with wallert dicik,
All panting on the plain,
The fainting corps of warriours lay,
Neir to aryse again:
Neir to return to native land;
Nac mair, wi* blytheome sounds,
To boist the glories of the day,
And shavr their shynand wounds.
On Norway*s coast, the widow'd dame
May wash the rock with teirs.
May lang luik ower the shiples seis,
Before hir mate appeirs.
Ceise, Emma, ceise to hope in vaii:
Thy lord lyes in the clay;
rhe valiant Scots nae reivers thole
To carry lyfe away."
After the stranded vessels had been bunit by^
his order. King Haco weighed anchor with the
small remnant of his fleet that remained to him
under the Cumbrays, and, being joined by the
squadron which had been sent up Loch Ix>ng, he
steered to the bay of Lamlash in the Island ol
Arran,, and across the frith of Clyde, a few miles
from the scene of his disasters and defeat. In
Lamlash bay he met Sigurd, whom he had sent
to inquire into the situation of the Ostmen of Ire-
land, and was assured by him that they would
willingly receive his aid against the rule of Eng-
land. The aged but heroic monarch, anxious to
wipe out the disgrace of his repulse at Largs, was
eager for the enterprise, but a council of his offi-
cers opposed the expedition, and it was accord-
ingly abandoned. [^Norse Account, p. 109.] He
afterwards sailed past Sand, Gigha, the Call of
Mull, Rum, and Cape Wrath, to the Orkneys,
where he arrived on the 29th October, abandoned
by the island chiefs who had joined him, and even
by many of his own followers, and with the loss
of another vessel in the Pentland Frith. At Kirk-
wall a mortal illness, brought on by anxiety and
disappointment as much as by overfatigue, seized
upon Haco, under which he lingered for some
weeks, and at last expired on the 15th December
(1263). Thus ended the last great attempt of the
Scandinavian monarchs to secure to themselves
the possession of the Western Isles.
The tidings of the death of Haco and of the
birth of an heir to the throne wero received by
Alexander on the same day, the queen having, on
the 21st of January, been delivered at Jedburgh,
of a son, who was named Alexander. ^Chr, Melr.
p. 226.]
To follow up the advantages which he had al-
ready gained, and complete the reduction of the
isles, wero now the chief objects of Alexander.
With the intention of invading the Isle of Man,
he raised an army, and compelled the island chiefs
to furnish a fleet for the transport of his troops.
Di*eading bis vengeance, and despairing of assist-
ance from Norway, Magnus, king of Man, son of
Olave the Black, who had been subdaed by Alan
lord of Galloway in 1231, sent envoys with ofiers
of submission, and hastened himself to meet tho
Scottish king, which he did at Dumfries on his
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way to subdue the Isle of Man, where he swore
realty to the crown of Scotland, and became bound
to famish to his lord paramount, when required,
ten war-galleys, five with twenty-four oars and
five with twelve. [Forrfun, b. 10. c. 18.] This
Magnus, king of Man, died in 1265. A military
force, under the earl of Mar, was next sent against
those chiefe of the Western Isles who had joined
or had favoured the invasion of Uaco. Some of
them were executed, and the rest reduced. After
negotiations which lasted for nearly three years, a
treaty of peace was at last, in 1266, concluded
with Magnus, king of Norway, the successor of
Haco, whereby the Hebrides and the Isle of Man,
and all other islands in the western and southern
deas, of which the Nonvegians might have hitherto
held, or claimed the dominion, were made over In
full sovereignty to Scotland. The Shetland and
Orkney islands remained in the possession of Nor-
way. One of the articles of this important treaty
provided that four thousand merks sterling of the
Roman staudai-d, in four yearly payments, and a
perpetual quitrent of one hundred merks annually
should be paid by Scotland to Norway, in consid-
eration of the latter yielding up all claim to the
isles. Another declared that such of the subjects
of Norway as were inclined to quit the Hebrides
should have full liberty to do so, with all their
efiects, whilst those who preferred remaiuiug, were
to become subjects of Scotland. To this latter
class, the king of Norway, in fulfilment of his part
of the treaty, addressed a mandate, enjoining them
henceforth to serve and obey the king of Scot-
land as their liege lord ; and it was further ar-
ranged that none of the islandei's were to be
punished for their former adherence to the Nor-
wegians. [Gregory* 8 Highlands and Isles of Scot-
land^ p. 22.] To the treaty, which is dated the
20th of July, 1266, was added the penalty of a
fine of ten thousand merks, to be exacted by the
Pope from the party breaking it. The patronage
of the bishopric of Sodor and Man was expressly
ceded to Alexander, while the ecclesiastical juris-
diction was reserved in favour of the archbishop
of Drontheim in Norway. [Ty tier's Hist, of Scot-
land, vol. i. p. 41, note,'\
After the treaty of cession, Alexander appears
to have acted in a liberal spirit towaids the i^ihmd
chiefs. Ewen of Lorn, (ali*eady referred to as a
grandson of Dugall, eldest son of the first Somer-
led by his second wife, daughter of Olave the red,
Norwegian king of the Isles,) was. of course re-
stored to the lands in that portion of the Hebrides
termed by the Norwegians the Sudreys, which ho
had resigned into the hands of Haoo (an/e, p. 89),
and which he had fonneriy held of Norway, and
was further rewai*ded for his services and fidelity.
By his death, however, without male issue, this
branch of the descendants of Somerled, chief of
the Macdonalds, became extinct. Angus Moir,
of South Klutyre and Islay, grandson of Reginald
the second son of the elder Somerled by the same
marriage, the ancestor of the second race of the
lords of the Isles, who had on its arrival joined the
Norwegian expedition (onto, p. 89), having deter-
mined to remain in the isles, became, according to
the treaty, a vass^ of the king of Scotland, for his
lands there, and was allowed to retain, under one
king, all that he had fonneriy held uuder both.
His sou Alexander having subsequently married
one of the daughters and co-heiresses of Ewen ol
Lorn, became the lineal representative of the elder
branch of the race of Somerled. The isles of Skye
and Lewis wei*e conferred upon the earl of Ross,
no part of these islands, or of Man, Arran, and
Bute, being granted on this occasion by Alexan-
der the Thii-d to any of the descendants of Somer-
led, to whom they had formerly belonged. The
former, however, viz. the isles of Skye and Lewis,
afterwards reveited to that family, when on the
utter ruin of the Albany family, accomplished by
the revenge of James I., the Macdonalds, lords of
the Isles, quietly succeeded to the earldom of
Ross, through their descent from the last heu'css
of that line.
While thus fortunate in securing peace at homc;
Alexander had been able, in 1264, to allow a lai'gc
body of Scottish auxiliaries under John Baliol,
lord of Galloway, Robeit de Brus, lord of Annan-
dale, and John Comyn, to be sent to the assist-
ance of his father-in-law, Hcuiy III., who with
his son Edward prince of England, afterwards
Edward I., was in arms against his revolted bar-
ons, led by Simon de Montfoit, earl of Leicester.
Northampton was stormed by the royalists, but
at the battle of Lewes, 14th May, Ilcnry was de-
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feated and made prisoner, as were also two of the
Scottish leaders, John Comyn and Robert de Brus.
In this battle great slaughter was made of the
Scottish anxiliarics, who behaved with all their
accostomed bravery. IMatth, PariSy p. 669. Hem-
ingford, p. 581. Knyghtotty p. 2447.] The battle
of Evesham, 4th Angust, 1265, where Simon dc
Montfort was discomfited and slain, retrieved the
foi-tnnes of Henry, and the Scottish barons soon
obtained their liberty. [Chr, Mdr, p. 226.]
The long minority of Alexander, fi'om the con-
stant fends and contentions among the nobles, and
the anarchy which generally prevailed, had stmck
deep at the roots of the prosperity of his kingdom ;
bat his wise, firm, and jndicions rale after he came
of age, was well calculated to heal the wounds
that had been inflicted, and to restore confidence
and tranquillity to his people, by whom he was
imiversally beloved. After the Norse invasion
and the reduction of the isles, the kingdom was
not again, during Alexander's life, assailed by a
foreign enemy, while its internal peace seems to
have been no longer disturb^ by the turbulence
of its domestic factions. For three years after,
Alexander was engaged in maintaining the inde-
pendence of the national church against the exac-
tions of the court of Rome, at the same time, with
equal spirit and prudence, keeping in check the
domineering spirit of his clergy. In the year
1266, Cardinal Ottobon de Fieschi, the legate of
the Pope in England, demanded six merks from
every cathedral in Scotland, and four merks from
each parish church, for the expenses of his visita-
tion. This demand the king firmly resisted, and
appealed to the pontiff. To defray the expenses
of the appeal, the clergy supplied him with two
thousand merks. [Fordun^ b. 10. ch. 21.] Soon
after (in 1267) a dispute between the king and
the bishop of St. Andrews arose from the excom-
munication of a certain knight named Sir John de
Dunmore, for offences committed against the prior
and convent of St. Andrews. The king required
Gamelin, the bishop, to absolve him, without sat-
isfaction. The latter refused, and not only ratified
the sentence, but excommunicated all the adhe-
rents of Dunmore, the royal family only excepted.
Irritated at his zeal, Alexander allowed the legate
to levy part of the disputed contributions, and the
contention between the king and the bishop threat-
ened to rise very high, when, to put an etid to it,
Dunmore, of his own accord, with creditable good
scQse, ask^ forgiveness of the church, made rep-
aration, and was absolved ; on which the king and
the bishop were reconciled. The papal legate
now demanded admittance into Scotland, but the
king, having examined his commission, and con-
sulted with his clergy, sent him a peremptory re-
fusal. [Ibid. c. 23.] Foiled in this scheme, the
legate, in 1268, summoned the Scottbh prelates to
attend him in England, at whatever place he
should think fit to hold a council. He also re-
quu'cd the Scottish clergy to send two representa-
tives, who should be heads of monasteries. Tlie
Scottish bishops deputed two of their number, and
the other clergy two; but though they acceded
thus far, it was not to assist the council, but to
watch its proceedings, as the cardinal-legate soon
found ; for when he had procured several canons
to be enacted relative to Scotland, the Scottish
clergy at once disclaimed obedience to them. See-
ing them so resolute, the Pope, Clement lY., took
up different ground, and in the course of the same
year claimed from the clergy of Scotland a tenth
of their revenues to be paid to Henry of England,
as an aid for an intended crusade, an object which
he thought they could have no excuse in declin-
ing to subscribe to. Here again, however, he
was bafiled, as both king and clergy united in a
decided refusal to the requisition, Alexander de-
claring that Scotland was ready to equip a compe-
tent body of knights to proceed to the Holy Land.
Accordingly David earl of Atliole, Adam earl of
Carrick, William Lord Douglas, John Steward,
Alexander Comyn, Robert Keith, George Dur-
ward, John de Quincy, and William Gordon, all
connected with the first families in Scotland, as-
sumed the cross, and sailed for Palestine, whence
few of them ever returned. The earl of Carrick
here mentioned was Adam de Eilconath, the hus-
band of the lady Marjory, only daughter of Nigel
earl of Carrick, whose recent death in the Holy
wars had left her heiress in her own right of the
whole lands and earldom of Carrick. Her hus-
band, Adam de Kilconath, who became eari of
Carrick in her right, having also been slain in
Palestine in 1270, she afterwards became the wife
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of Robert de Bros, the father of the restorer of the
Scottish monarchy.
In the meantime, founding npon the papal grant,
the king of England, in 1269, attempted to levy
the tenth of the ecclesiastical revenues in Scot-
land, for the crusades. The attempt was spirit-
edly met by the Scottish clergy, who, not content
with appealing to Rome, to show theur indepen-
dence both of the papal legate and the English
king, assembled in a provincial council at Perth,
under the authority of the bull of Pope Honorins
IV., granted in the year 1225, during the reign of
Alexander the Second. [See cmte, p. 66.] At
this council, over which one of their own bishops
presided, tliey passed various canons for the regu-
lation of the Scottish church, which remained in
force till the Reformation, and with those of the
council of 1242, are preserved in the Chartulary
of Aberdeen. The first of them appointed a coun-
cil of the national clergy of Scotland to be held
annually, and the second decreed that each of the
bishops should, in rotation, be *' conservator statu-
torum," or protector of the statutes, and during the
interval between each council he should enforce
obedience to the canons, under pain of ecclesias •
tical censures. IFordun, b. 10. c. 28, 24, 26. CTw,
Mdr. pp. 241, 242.]
In 1270, Alexander's queen gave bii'th to a
second son, who was named David, but who died
in his eleventh year. The country at this period
enjoyed both peace and plenty, and few events of
a domestic nature seem to have occurred of suffi-
cient importance to deserve a place in history.
The friendly relations which had been for some
time maintained with England were not impaired
by the death of Henry III., which took place No-
vember 16, 1272. At the coronation of Henry's
son and successor, Edward I., at Westminster,
19 August, 1274, Alexander and his queen, Mar-
garet, Edward's sister, were present, with a splen-
did train of his nobility. Before proceeding to
London, Alexander took care to obtain from his
royal brother-in-law a letter declaring that his
friendly visit to him, on this occasion, should not
be construed into anything prejudicial to the inde-
pendence of Scotland. In those feudal times such
a precaution was customary, and we find Edward
himself, when twenty years afterwards he sent
some ships to the assistance of the king of France,
his feudal superior for the duchy of Normandy,
requiring fh>m that monarch a similar declaration.
About six months after she had attended her bro-
ther's coronation, Alexander lost his queen, who
died 26th February 1275, in the prime of her age.
In 1275, a tenth of the church revenues of Scot-
land was again required by the Pope, for the relief
of the Holy Land. Benemund de Vicci, corrupted
into Bagimont, was sent to cx>llect this contribu-
tion, which was paid by all the clergy, except the
regulars of the Cistertian order; that order having
compounded with the Pope, by granting a general
aid of fifty thousand merks ; and thus the amount
of their annual revenues throughout Europe re-
mained unknown. Bagimont was prevailed upon
by the Scottish clergy to spply to Rome on their
behalf for an abatement of the tax ; but the Pope,
remembering no doubt their former resistance to
his demands, refused to grant any commutation,
and it was rigidly exacted. The rent-roll by which
this tax was levied is known in history by the
name of *'Bagimont*s roll," the estimate being
made not according to *^ the ancient extent, but
the true value." [Fordun^ b. 10. c. 85.] Two
years thereafter, Alexander was involved in a dis-
pute with the bishop of Durham, who accused him
of encroachments on the English marches. The
king of Scots sent five ambassadors to the court of
Edward, with the declaration that he had only
maintained the marches according to ancient usage,
that is, "to the floodmark towards the south,"
[Fcedera^ vol. iJ. p. 84,] and bearing a proposal
that commissioners should be appointed by both
crowns to adjust the matter. This dispute, which
Lord Hailes thinks, and with good reason, related
only to a salmon fishing at the mouth of the
Tweed, was, soon after, amicably settlecj.
In 1278 Alexander attended the English parlia-
ment at Westminster on Michaelmas day, when he
took the general and traditional oath of fealty to
Edward in the following terms : " I, Alexander,
king of Scotland, do acknowledge myself the liege-
man of my lord Edward king of England, agamst
all deadly." This Edward accepted, ** saving the
claim of homage for the kingdom of Scotland,
whenever he or his heirs should think proper to
make it." [Ftedera, vol. ii. p. 126.] On this
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ALEXANDER III.
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ALEXANDER III.
occasion Robert de Bros, eldest son of the lord of
Annandale, and who was, by marriage, earl of
CaiTick, — having seven years before espoused
Martha or Maijory, countess of Carrick in her
own right, the widow of his old companion in
arms, and fellow-ci'usader, Adam de Kilconath, —
by the command of Alexander and with the ap-
probation of Edward, performed the accompany-
mg ceremony of homage, in these words: ^^I,
Robert eai-l of Canick, according to the authority
given to me by my lord the king of Scotland, in
presence of the king of England, and other pi-e-
lates and barons, by which the power of swearing
upon the soul of the king of Scotland was confer-
red upon me, have, in presence of the king of
Scotland, and commissioned thereto by his special
precept, sworn fealty to Lord Edward king of
England in these words: ^I, Alexander king of
Scotland, shall bear faith to my lord Edward king
of England and his heu*s, with my life and mem-
bers, and worldly substance; and I shall faith-
fully perform the services, used and wont, for the
lands and tenements which I hold of the said
king.' " *This having been sworn by the earl of
Canick, was confirmed and mtified by the king of
Scotland. [Ibid.^ Both kings were then and al-
ways amicably disposed towards each other, and
the time had not yet come for Edward to advance
those claims of supremacy over the kingdom of
Scotland which, whether well or ill founded, had
so often created disquiet between the two king-
doms, and were only finally got rid of on the field
of Bannockbuni. It is remarkable that the cere-
mony of homage, under the reservation on Ed-
ward's pai't of the claim of fealty for the kingdom
of Scotland, should have been on this occasion
performed by the father of that Bruce who, after
the long struggle for independence, should have at
last succeeded in rescuing the kingdom from the
claim for ever. The following portrait of Alex-
ander 111. is from a print of the parliament of
Edward I. in which the above ceremony was
performed, published in Pinkerton's porti-aits of
illustrious persons of Scotland, taken from a copy,
in the collection of the eai'l of Buchan, from an
ancient limning fonncrly in the Colluge of Anns,
London
JScotoxt-
In 1281 the treaty which, in 1266, had been
concluded with Norway, was farther cementi^d by
the marriage of Margaret, the only daughter of
Alexander, who was then twenty-one years old,
to Eric king of Norway, then in his fourteenth
year. A dowry of fourteen thousand merks was
given with the princess, who was accompanied to
the Norwegian court by Walter Bailloch earl of
Menteith and his countess, the abbot of Balmeri-
no. Sir Bernard Montalto, and other knights and
barons. The alliance thus happily formed between
the two countries was calculated to put an end to
those troubles which the restless chieftains of the
western islands so frequently occasioned by their
turbulence and ambition, and the wavering fealty
of whom even the late treaty of peace had failed
to secure for any length of time to Scotland. It
appeal's that notwithstanding the submission of
King Magnus, Alexander had been compelled in
1275 to lead an aimed foi*ce against the Isle of
Man, and in 1282, the very year following the
marriage of the princess Margaret, Alexander
Comyn earl of Buchan and constable of Scotland,
proceeded with an army to suppress some dis-
turbances in the lately ceded islands. [Fadera^
vol. il. p. 205.1
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ALEXANDER ni.
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ALEXANDER Til.
Soon after the marriage of hi« sister, Alexander
the prince of Scotland, then in his nineteenth
year, was united, in 1282, to Margaret, the daugh-
ter of Guy earl of Flanders. The cei*eniony took
place at Roxburgh, and the rejoicings lasted for
fifteen days. The king himself was, at this time,
only in his forty-firet year, and might reasonably
have expected a lengthened reign, while the mar-
riages of his son and daughter, tjins so auspicious-
ly formed, gave an almost certain hope that his
sceptre would be transmitted to descendants of his
own line. But a singular train of calamities fol-
lowing each other in rapid succession, soon de-
stroyed all such hopes and expectations. The
queen of Norway died about the end of 1288,
leaving an only child, known in Scottish history
as " the Maiden of Norway ;" and very soon after,
! on the 28th of January 1284, the prince of Scot-
land, who had always been of a weak constitution,
also died, at the abbey of Lindores in Fife, leav-
ing no issue. Prince David, the youngest son of
Alexander, had, as already stated (p. 96), died
in 1281, the year of his sister's marriage. Both
princes were interred at Dunfermline.
Being thus bereaved of his chUdren, the first
care of Alexander was to take the necessary^ mea-
sures for the settlement of the succession. On the
5th of February, 1284, the estaf-es of the kingdom
assembled at Scone, when the prelates and barons
became bound to acknowledge Margaret, princess
of Norway, as their sovereign, "failing any chil
dreu whom Alexander might have, and failing the
issue of the prince of Scotland, deceased ;'' it not
being then known whether his widow was preg-
nant. IFcedera, vol. ii. p. 266.]
In the following year, being earnestly entreated
by the lords of his council and the estates Of the
realm, Alexander deemed it prudent to contract a
second marriage, and accordingly sent Thomas
Tartar, the lord chancellor, with Sir Patrick Gra-
hame. Sir William St. Clair, and Sir John de
Sonlis, knights, as ambassadors ta France, to
choose for his bride Joletta, the beautiful and ac-
complished daughter of the count de Dreux. This
lady accompanied them to Scotland, and their
nuptials took place at Jedburgh, April 15, 1285.
In the midst of the marriage rejoicings, an inci-
dent occurred which, in that superstitious age, dis-
mayed and distressed the guests who had througcJ
to the royal festivities. Amidst the masques and
pastimes usually produced on such occasions, and
when the enjoyment of the scene was at its height,
a spectral image of death glided with fearful ges-
tures among the revellers, and after striking ter-
ror into all present, vanished suddenly. The
thing was nothing more than a well-acted piece of
mummery, or clever pantomunic representation by
a person expert in such performances, which were
not unusual in the "Moralities'* and "Mysteries"
as enacted in those days by the monks, but it was
held as if foreshadowing those misfortunes which
so soon after befell Scotland, beginning with the
sudden and violent death of the king himself.
[Fordun, b. 10. c. 11.] To the north of the burgh
of Kinghorn, on the sea-coast of Fife, and north -
em shore of the Frith of Forth, there stood in
Alexander's time a castle, bearing the name of
the burgh, which was often the residence of the
Scottish kings, but of which no vestige now re-
mains. This castle and the domains attached to
it, were frequently pledged, along with others, in
security for the jointure of their quedfe. The
young queen Joletta appears to have been resid-
ing here on the 16th Maitsh 1286, when Alex-
ander the Third, who had been enjoying the chase
towards Burntisland and Inverkeithing, turned
his horse's head, in the dusk of the evening, to-
wards Kinghorn. The road then wound along
the top of the rocks which overhang the sea, and
as it was dangerous to proceed in the dark, bis
attendants strongly urged him to remain at Inver-
keithmg till the morning. Disregarding their re-
monstrances the king galloped forward, and when
little more than a mile west from Kinghorn, his
horse stumbled, and he was thi-own over a lofty
and rugged precipice, and kUled on the spot. The
place is stiU familiarly known in the traditions of
the district as the King's AVood-End. The ac-
companying cut represents the scene of this un-
happy catastrophe. This event, the greatest na-
tional calamity that Scotland ever sustained, took
place when Alexander was in the 45th year of his
age, and 37th of his reign. His corpse, after be-
ing embalmed, was solemnly interred at Dunferm-
line, among the kings of Scotland.
The loss of a sovereign so deservedly beloved
G
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ALEXANDER TIT.
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ALEXANDER TR.
— altIioii*^ii at the time they cotild not
have foreseen the premature death of
his granddaughter the princess of
Norway, much less the cmitest for the
succession to the crown, the overween-
ing claims of the king of England, or
the subsequent intestine war and the
struggle for independence whicl^ em-
bittered it, in which the best blood of
Scotland was shed and many noble
families ruined and cast into exile —
yet the many amiable qualities of the
deceased monarch, the series of do-
mestic disappointments by which his
government had been preceded, and
those presentiments of coming ca-
lamities which so often cast their
shadows before them, tended to
overwhelm the people of Scotland with grief
and dismay, and the misfortunes and miseries
which followed, caused it to be long and deeply
deplored. "Neuer," says honest Balfour, "was
thcr more lamentatione and sorrow for a king in
Scotlan(^than for him; for the nobility, clergie,
and above all, the gentrey and comons, bedoued he^
coffin for 17 dayes space with riuoletts of teares."
[Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 77.] The oldest
specimen of the Scottish language known to be in
existence is a sort of monody, written on the
death of Alexander, which has been preser\'ed by
Winton :
" Qnhen Alysandyr, oure k^g, wes dede,
That Scotland led in lawe and le.
Away wes sons of ale and brede,
Of wyne and wax, of gamyn and gle.
Oure gold wes changyd into lede. —
Christ, bom in -to viigynyte,
Sacoour Scotland, and remede,
That stad is in perplexyte."
W{r4on, vol. i. p. 401.
Tlie death of Alexander, so disastrous to Scot-
land, is said to have been foretold, the day previous,
to the earl of March, who was one of the chiefs of
the English faction during Alexander's minority,
at his castle of Dunbar, by Thomas of Ercildon,
commonly called Thomas the Rhymer. On the
night preceding the king's death, Thomas having
arrived at the castle, was jocularly asked by the
Scene of the death of Alexander III.
earl if the next day would prodnce any remarkable
event; to which the bard replied, "Aliis! for
to-morrow, a day of calamity and misery! Before
the twelfth hour shall be heard a blast so vehe-
ment that it shall exceed those of every former
period, a blast which shall strike the nations with
amazement, shall humble what is proud, and what
is fierce shall level with the ground I The sorest
wind and tempest that ever was heard of in Scot-
land!" Next morning, discovering no unusual ap-
pearance in the weather which indicated a storm,
the day on the contrary being remarkably clear
and mild, the earl and those who were with him
began to doubt the powers of the prophet, as Tho-
mas was esteemed, and having ordered him into
their presence, they upbraided him as an impostor,
and hastened to enjoy their wonted repast. But
his lordship had scarcely seated himself at table,
and the shadow of the dial fallen on the hour of
noon, when an express, his horse covered with
foam, appeared at the castle-gate, and demanded
an audience. On being asked what news he
brought, he exclaimed: "I do indeed bring news,
but of a lamentable kind, to be deplored by the
whole realm of Scotland I Alas, our renowned
king has ended his fair life at Kinghoni !" " This,''
cried Thomas, gathering himsdf up in the con-
sciousness that his prediction had been fulfilled,
" This is the scaithful wind and dreadful tempest
which shall blow such a calamity and trouble to
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ALEXANDER III.
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the whole realm of Scotland ! ** Whether ^^ the sun-
set of life had given mystical lore'' to this singular
personage, or he had uttered his prediction in the
usual mystical language of soothsayers, leaving its
fulfilment to accident or the weather, as chance
might determine, it is ceitain that the story has been
generally credited fi*om that time till the present,
and it would be very difficult now to shake the
universal belief in it. As Indicating at feast the
impression which seems to have prevailed, that
the death of Alexander foreboded greater disaster
and woe to Scotland, than any former event in oar
annals, it is not without a certain degree of histo-
rical interest, and could not well be omitted in
any narrative of Alexander's life.
The appearance and manners of Alexander the
Third were in the highest degree noble and digni-
fied, and such as befitted a king. Though tall
and large-boned, his limbs were well-formed and
strongly knit. His figure was majestic, and his
countenance handsome and expressive. His sin-
cerity of character and excellent nnderstanding
were such as to command the respect while they
won the attachment of his people. He is described
as having been affable in demeanour, easy of ac-
cess, firm of purpose, and of a just yet generous
disposition. His kingdom he governed with wis-
dom and energy. With England he maintained
constant peace and amity, yet, as Lord Hailes
justly remarks, never submitted to any concessions
which might injure the independence or impair the
liberties of the realm or the church of Scotland.
In the administration of the laws he was diligent
and impartial, and his inflexible love of justice,
and patience in hearing disputes, were amongst
the qualities which endeared him to his subjects.
For the punishment of offenders and the redress of
wrongs, he divided Scotland into four great dis-
tricts, and made an annual progress through each,
attended by his justiciary and his principal nobles.
In passing fVom one county to another he required
the attendance of the sheriff with the whole force
of the shire ; and the train of retainers of the
nobles who accompanied him being, while travel-
ling, limited by law, the people were thus relieved
of the charge of supporting the royal retinue. He
greatly contributed to diminish the burdens of the
feudal system, and to restrain the license and op-
pressions of the nobility ; keeping them in quiet
subjection to his authority, and obliging each to
act peaceably in his own allotted sphere. In his
private life, Alexander was upright, temperate and
pious, and in all his domestic relations kind and
affectionate. During his reign, according to For-
dun, "the church flourished, its ministers were
treated with reverence, vice was openly discour-
aged, cunning and treachery were repressed, injury
ceased, and the reign of truth and justice main-
tained throughout the land." [Forrfwn, b. 10,
ch. xli.]
In Alexander's reign the little trade that was iii
the country became so flourishing that foreign
merchants were attracted to Scotland in numbers,
from the maritime and commercial cities of Italy,
France, Germany, and the Low countries, who
were allowed to traffic with the burgesses, and had
free and safe access to markets in every burgh
town. The imports were chiefly wine, cloth anci
rich stuffs, armour and other commodities, while
the staple exports of the kingdom consisted almost
solely of fish, wool, and hides. The exportation
of Scottish merchandise was. however, prohibited
by Alexander under severe laws, owing to the fre-
quent losses of valuable cargoes, by pirates, wrecks,
and unforeseen arrestments Notwithstanding
this restriction, which showed very narrow ideas
on the subject of trade, Scotland, we are told,
speedily became rich in every kind of wealth, and
in the production of the arts and manufactures.
Agriculture, too, had made great progress in Alex-
ander's peaceful reign, and, besides the produce of
the ground, flocks and herds abounded everywhere
According to Winton :
•* Yowmen, pewere kari, or knawe
That wes of mjcht an ox til hawe,
he gert that man hawe part in pinch e ,
Swa wes com in hb land enwche ;
Swa than begonth, and efler lang
Of land wes meenre, ane ox-gang.
Mychty men that had ma
Oxyn, he gert in plnchp ga.
Be that vertn all his land
Of com he gert be abowndand.**
Vol. i. p. 400
Indeed, Scotland at that period presented such n
field for commercial enterprise that a number of
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ALEXANDER HI.
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Lombard merchants, who were iu that age the
most active traders in Europe, and then filled
every mart in England, arrived in the kingdom,
and ofTered to establish roannfactnring and mer-
cantile settlements in various pait«, specifying
particularly an island near Cramond, and the monnt
above Queensferry. All they asked in return was
to be allowed certain spiritual immunities. Their
proposal was, however, opposed by some of the
most powerful of the nobility, though Alexander
himself is said to have l)een desirous of encourag-
ing them; and their negotiations on the subject
were defeated only by his sudden and premature
death. [Fordun, b. 10. ch. xli. xlii.]
In the period of two hundred and thirty years,
which elapsed from the accession of Malcolm Can-
more to the death of Alexander the Third, that is,
from the middle of the eleventh to near the dose
of the thirteenth century, a great change had taken
place on Scotland as a nation. The vast moral
revolution which the Saxon connexion and influ-
ence of Malcolm's queen, Margaret, at first re-
motely worked upon the country had, during that
time, extended its effects more and more through-
out all its relations, to the great improvement of
the people, and their steady advance in civiliza
Hon. But a sad reverse was now to take place
in their destinies. Tlie line of Scotland's ancient
kings terminated with Alexander the Third, and
the continuous train of miseiies and wasting cala-
mities in which the kingdom was involved for
more than a generation after his unhappy death,
from the long and fierce struggle that ensued for
the succession to the throne, in which the national
liberty and independence were frequently at stake,
marks a peculiar era in the history of Scotland,
and caused the memory of so good a king to be
long held ia affectionate remembrance by the
Scottish people.
Duiing the interval fi*om what is usually called
in Scottish annals " the Saxon Conquest,'' — when
by the aid of a Northumbrian Saxon armf, Mal-
colm Can more was enabled, firet to drive Mac-
beth beyond the Forth, and four years afterwards
to defeat and slay him at the battle of Lum-
phanan in Aberdeenshire, — to the death of Alex-
ander the Third, the last of Malcolm's dynasty, the
advance made in civilization, in the useful arts,
and in the habits of social life among the people of
Scotland was most remarkable. This was chiefly
owing in the first instance, to the settlement of the
Anglo-Saxon nobles and leaders in the Lotbians
and lowlands, and, in the second place, to the iu-
tixxluction of the feudal system by the Norman
adventurers who followed them. The revolution
that in the course of these changes took place in
the laws and customs and forms of government
was strikingly favourable to the progressive im-
provement of the country. The Saxon and Nor-
man colonization of the southern and midland dis-
tricts exercised a far more direct and beneficial
influence on the national character than ever was,
or could be, derived from the Celtic race ; much
of what is peculiar and distinctive in its formation
being mainly ascribable to this important acces-
sion to the population ; and from this period the
Saxon domination may be said to have been firmly
and securely established in Scotland. In the reign
of Edgar one of its principal effects was to con-
fine the Celtic portion of the community to the
mountainous districts, while the more enlarged
and comprehensive policy of Alexander led him to
extend the Saxon institutions to those portions of
the country yrhich he may be said to have con-
quered, and, as we have seen, by the erection of
separate sheriffdoms, to bring them more imme-
diately under the operation and subjection of the
laws and government.
The changes which took place on the Scottish
church and clergy were among the most important
of the effects produced by the Saxon conquest,
and in this respect it may be truly said, as Mr.
Daniel Wilson has remai'ked, to have been ** even
more an ecclesiastical than a civil revolution."
\^Arch<Bology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland,
p. 604.] By the marriage of Malcolm Canmore
with the Saxon princess Margaret, the sister of
Edgar Atheling, much of elegance and refinement
were introduced into the Scottish court. By her
influence, joined to that of the Saxon refugees,
not only were several of the more gross and bar-
barous customs of the Scots abolished, and various
wise and beneficial laws adopted from the system
of the Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, but the whole
form and fabric of religion was reformed, and the
Scottish church assimilated as much as possible to
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ALEXANDER m.
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ALEXANDER HT.
the English, and to that of Rome ; so that, as Mr.
Wilson says, " in the period which intervened be-
tween the landing of the fngitive Saxon princess
at St. Margaret^s Hope and the death of her
younger son David, nearly all the Scottish sees
were fbnuded or restored, many of the principal
monasteries were instituted, their chapels and other
dependencies erected, and the elder order of Cul-
dee fraternities with their missionary bishops for
the first time superseded by a complete parochial
system." [/Wrf.] The change to the better on
the ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland that fol-
lowed was proportionately great. The Scottbh
clergy, although not so wealthy as their English
brethren, appear to have been equally anxious to
improve the splendour of their churches, and the
commodiousness of their dwellings. Even before
the reign of Malcolm Canmore there were at Dun-
keld, Brechin, Abemethy, and St. Andrews, reli-
gious edifices, as grand and suitable in their way
as the state of the arts and manners of those times
would admit ; but the attention paid to religious
matters by his pious queen Margaret, and the en-
couragement given by her to foreign clergymen to
resort to this kingdom, to whom new establish-
ments required to be assigned, fixed a new era in
the style and character of the ecclesiastical build-
ings in Scotland. The Anglo-Saxon and Norman
nobles who were driven into this country by the
oppressions of William of Normandy, historically
styled the Conqueror, also gave an impetus, by
their advice and benefactions, to the changes and
improvements which took place in the ecclesiasti-
cal architecture of the people amongst whom they
had found a home. Previous to this period, ttie
churches had been in form, square or oblong, gen-
erally built of timber or baked clay, and covered
with lead, thatching, or tiles. In imitation of the
only pai*ts of the military architecture of the pe-
riod that could be, in any degree, accommodated
to religious purposes, beside some of these square
chuix^hcs, round towers had been erected, either
as ornamental, or as secure repositories for valua-
ble things in times of danger. In many instances
those round towers may have served as belfries,
and in others as places for conveying signals;
while in some, it is not unlikely, they were used
as prisons. In the ecclesiastical architecture in-
troduced at this period, the nave and the aisles,
the chancel and the choir, were distinct parts of
the same structure. The relative positions of the
nave and the aisles were arranged by the practice
of building these sacred edifices in the form of a
cross. The native style of ecclesiastical architec-
ture which had been in use was, in the progress of
the reformation in the church, entirely superseded
by the mode prevalent in England, as its ecclesi-
astical system had also been. What immediately
succeeded appears to have been what is called the
early or older Norman, to which Mr. Wilson gives
the name of the Romanesque style. Of this the
oldest and one of the most interesting specimens
now remaining in Scotland is the nave of the
church founded and endowed by Queen Margaret
at Dunfermline, where her nuptials with Malcolm
took place in 1070, which she dedicated to the
Holy Trinity, and which was the origin of, and
partly incorporated into, the Benedictine abbey of
Dunfermline. The erection of the little chapel of
St. Margaret in the castle of Edinburgh is assigned
to the same period. This has been supposed, or
good grounds, to have been erected over the place
used for her devotions by Queen Margaret during
her i-esidence in the castle till her death in 1098.
"It is in the same style," says Mr. Wilson,
"though of a plainer character, as the earliest
portions of Holyrood abbey, begun in the yeai
1128 ; and it is worthy of remark, that the era of
Norman architecture is one in which many of the
most interesting ecclesiastical edifices in the neigh-
bourhood of Edinburgh were founded, including
Holyrood abbey, St. Giles* church, and the parish
churches of Duddingston, Ratho, Kirkliston, and
Dalmeny." ^Memorials of Edinburgh, vol. i. p.
129.] As specimens of the early Norman the
following may also be mentioned, namely, the
parish churches of Leuchars, in Fifeshire ; Borth-
wick, in Mid Lothian ; Gulane, in East Lothian ;
Uphall, and Abercom, in West Lothian ; St. He-
len's, Cockbnmspath, in Berwickshire ; Mortlack
and Monymusk, in Aberdeenshire ; St. Columba's,
Southend, Kilchonchan, Campbeltown ; and " the
beautiful little mined church of St. Blane, on the
island of Bute, with its Norman chancel arch and
graceful First -pointed chancel; besides tarious
others more or less perfect still remaining in Ar-
L=
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ALEXANDER III.
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ALEXANDER HI.
gyleshire — all pi'esentiug interesting features illos-
trative of the development of tlie Romanesque
style in Scotland, and furaishing evidence of the
grcat impetus given to church building at the pe-
riod." [WilaorCs ArchcBologyy p. 614.] We learn
fi-om the work just quoted that the portions which
remain of the original Noimau structm*c of Alex-
ander the Fb-st's foundation on Inchcolm, (of
which the cut given in p. 58 will illustrate our
remarks,) erected about 1123, are characterized
by the same unornate simplicity that marks the
little chapel of St. Margaret in the castle of
Edinburgh, which has already been referred to,
and that it was not till the reign of David the
First that any certain examples wei-e furnished
of the highly decorated late Norman work.
The ai*cliitecture of Kelso abbey, founded in 1128
by David the Fii-st, (in the same ycai* with
Holy rood abbey,) and the singularly rich de-
tails of which have made it one of the most cele-
brated remains of the middle ages in Scotland, is
Saxon or early Norman, with the exception of
four magnificent central arches, which ai'e decid-
edly Gothic ; and is a beautiful specimen of this
particular style, being regular and uniform in its
titructnre. Though built under the same auspices,
and nearly about the same period as the abbeys
of Melrose and Jedburgh, it totally difiei*s from
them in form and character, being in the shape of
a Greek cross. Melrose abbey, founded in 1136,
was partially consumed by fire in 1322, and what
now remains of the i*e-edified structure exhibits a
style of architecture of the richest Grothic, which
has been ascertained to belong to a later age than
that of David. The well-known masterly de-
scription of it by Sir Walter Scott in the ' Lay of
the Last Minstrel,' may, however, not unfitly be
applied to the richer portions of the early Scottish
Gothic style, which were constructed at the close
of this period.
*' The darkened root rose high oloot
On pillars lofty and light and small ,
The keystone that locked each ribbed uisle
Was a flenr-de-lys or a quatre-feuille
The corbells were carved grotesque and gnm ,
And the pillars, with clustered shafts so trim,
With base and with capital flourish*d around,
SeeniM bundles of lances which garlands had bound/'
The chief object of architectural intei-est in Jc<i-
burgh abbey is the Norman door, which, for the
elegance of its workmanship, and the symmetry of
its propoi-tions is unrivalled in Scotland.
Although iu)t stiictly pertaining till a later
period to Scotland, perhaps the most interesting
specimen of later Norman work is the cathedral of
St. Magnus at Kirkwall in Orkney, the most per-
fectly preserved cathedral of that epoch, the foun-
dation of which was laid in the year 1138, by
Kognwald or Ronald, Norwegian eari or count of
Orkney, the nephew of the sainted Magnus. Like
St. Mungo's in Glasgow, it boasts of being a com-
plete cross church, with all its essential parts en-
tire, and these are the only two cathedral edifices
now existing in Scotland, to which this descrip-
tion applies. A remai'kably curious and indeed
unique example of the arehitecture of the period
Is the little chureh and tower of St. Rule, at St.
Andrews. The Norman prevailed about a hun-
dred years, during which period the ecclesiastical
architecture of England and Scotland was much
the same in character as well as details. The
next stylo that was introduced was the Firat-
pointed or early English, which was adopted about
1170, and was used till about 1242 — a period of
seventy years. Of this, which is considered an
improvement on the later Norman, the crypt and
choir of Glasgow cathedral, built between 1188
and 1197, the nave of Dunblane cathedi*al, Kil-
winning abbey, the ruined abbey of Dryburgh,
and the chancel of St. Blane^s, Bute, already men-
tioned, are fine examples. Subsequently the ec-
clesiastical architecture of Scotland assumed a
somewhat different style from that of England,
and became more distinctive and peculiar in its
character. The magnificent abbey of Aberbroth-
wick, which was founded by William the Lion in
1178, and which furnishes a most interesting spe-
cimen of the early Scottish Gothic, is thought to
mark the historic epoch in which the native styles
had their rise. \^\ViUon^8 ArditBohgy^ p. 618.]
As an illustration of the progressive character of
Scottish architecture, and the slow rate at which
ecclesiastical structures in that age were erected,
the reader is presented with the following view of
'*The North Aisle of the Nave of Dunfermline
Abbey, looking west."
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ALEXANDER III.
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ALEXANDER IlL
Tlic architectural distinctions wiiicii are liere
observable indicate a difference of ages in the styles
adopted as well as in the periods of erection. The
nave is the only portion of the original abbey
church which remains. At the time of the removal
of the relics of the sainted queen Margaret, in the
beginning of the reign of Alexander the Third, as
already related (see p. 81) the choir was remodel-
led according to the prevailing first pointed style
of the thirteenth century, and on this occasion the
nave also must have undergone some modifica-
tions. The interior of the nave is thus refciTcd to
ill * Billings* Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiqui-
ties of Scotland/ article Dunfermline : " ToAvards
the westem extremity the clustered pillar supports
tlie deeply moulded pointed arch," — this later
style probably indicating the period when the new
church was rebuilt, — "while further on," viz.
towards the front of the engraving, **the sup-
porting pillars are circular with the stunted hard
Norman capital, and the arches are semicircular.
The cylindrical shafts of the easternmost arch on
either side are adorned by large zigzags," indicat-
ing the varieties of the early Norman. In the
middle ages the most skilful architects were gen-
erally monks or secular clergymen, who were at
once the patrons and chief practitioners of the
highest branches of the art ; hence the peculiarly
rich and splendid style of their architectural work,
and as a guild of lay masons was generally organ-
ized wherever any great ecclesiastical erection
was going on, hence, too, that singular progres-
sive unity of purpose traceable throughout the
various styles of the ecclesiastical architecturo of
that period.
During the reigns of Alexander the Second and
Alexander the Third, Scotland began for the first
time to assume that position among the nations of
Europe which it continued to sustain while it re-
mained an independent kingdom. Its geographi-
cal and political isolation, and smallncss of extent
and power in proportion to the neighbouring realm
of England, as well as its Intestine wars, and as
has been remarked, " very partial share in the great
movements of mediaeval Europe, including the
crusades," had hitherto prevented its importance
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ALEXANDER III.
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ALEXANDER in.
from being acknowledged ; but its growing influ-
ence and gradual development of strength under
the monarcbs of the period included within what
is called " the Saxon Conquest," could not fail to
be, in course of time, duly recognised by the other
powera ; and the marriages of the second Alexan-
der, firat to Joan, the sister of John king of Eng-
land,, the daughter of a French hidy and educated
in France, and afterwards to Mai*y de Couci; of
Alexauder, prince of Scotland, the son of Alexan-
der the Third ; and latterly of Alexander himself,
to other illustrious ladies connected with that
kmgdom, could not fail to mark the consideration
in which Scotland was at this period beginning to
be held. It may here be stated that Enguerraud
de Couci, the father of Maiy de Couci, the mother of
Alexander the Third, was one of tlie most accom-
plished knights of the age in which he lived, and
conspicuous above his contemporaries for his vir-
tues and abilities. He stood so high in the esti-
mation of his brother knights and nobles that they
At one period seem to have entertained a project
of placing him on the throne of France. Win-
ton (vol. ii. p. 482), says that on account of his
brave actions, his possessions, and three marriages
with ladies of royal and illustiious families, he was
sumamed Le Grand. He was also one of those
famous romantic poets of chivalry, who in the mid-
dle ages were known by the name of Troubadours,
as were also many of his family. His gi*andfather,
Raonl I., lord of Couci, accompanied Philip Au-
gustus in the earlier crusades, to Palestine. His
nephew Renaud, Castellan de Couci, with whom
Raoul is sometimes confounded, is the hero of the
old French ballad of * The Knight of Cuitesy and
the Lady of FagucL' Having gone to the Holy
Land with Richard Cocur de Lion, ho was mor-
tally wounded in defending a castle in 1191, and
desired his squire, after his death to cany his
heart to his misti-ess Gabrielle de Vergy, wife of
the loi-d of Fayel. The squire was intercepted by
the husband, and the heait of the unfortunate
Castellan was by his orders di-essed for supper
and eaten by his wife, who, on being informed of
the horrible fact, refused all sustenance, and died
of voluntary starvation. The fame of the father
of his fiiture consort as a votary " of the gay
science," and one of the most esteemed Provencal
poets, as well as one of the most gallant knights
of the age, must have been well known to the
Scottish king, and no doubt had its effect, with
the attractions of the daughter, in directing the
affections of Alexander II. towards her, on the
death of Queen Joan.
The de Coucis Avere long an illustrious family in
France, and in the reign of Charles the Sixth,
the then lord de Couci, one of the greatest warriors
of his age, man-ied the daughter of the duke de
r^rraine. Our historians have universally con-
tented themselves with mentioning the name ol
the mother of Alexander the Third, without giving
any account of her lineage or her father's illus-
trious qualities both as a poet and a knight. The
propensity to verse, song, and the dance, was one
of the characteristics of the Norman chivalry, and
through the means of the Norman settlers in Scot-
land, a similar taste must have been gradually
encouraged at the Scottish court. Of this fond-
ness for mirth and the gay poetry of the trouba-
doui*s, which appears to have prevailed to some
extent at the Scottish court during the reigns of
Alexander the Second and Third, a valuable proof
seems to be furnished by the celebrated chesspiece,
of which a woodcut is piven. This chesspiece is
prcsened in tlie collection formed by Sir John
Clerk at Penicuick house, and was found by John
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ALEXANDER in.
105
ALEXANDER.
Adair, geographer for Scotland, in 1682, some-
where in the north, while engaged in making a
snnrej of the kingdom. The piece consists in all
of sereli figures, and is supposed, although not we
tliink on veiy sufficient grounds, to be of Scottish
manufacture.
In this curious and ingenious piece of art, a re-
presentation and description o^ which is given in
* Wilson's Archaoiogy and Prehistoric Annals of
Scotland,' page 579, (where it is supposed to be-
long to the fourteenth century), the queen, pro-
bably intended for Queen Mary de Couci, is re-
presented crowned and seated on her throne, with
a lapdog on her knee, and what is apparently a
book, perhaps of troubadour poetry, in her right
hand. On her left stands a knight in full armour,
with drawn sword and shield, who appears to be
reciting verses, while a trouvere or minstrel on
ner left seems to be accompanying him on the
crowde, a musical instrument then in use which
somewhat resembled the violin. The four female
figures behind have hold of each other by the hand,
while the one next the minstrel bears a palm-
^H'anch. The whole seems intended to embody
some display before the queen of the joyous science,
in which the troubadours took so much delight.
Ai^EXAHDER, ft soTDame in Scotland, probably derived ori-
ginallv from the first king of that name, bat chiefly borne by
tlio earis of Stirling and their descendants. The family of
Alexander, earis of Stirling, is traced from a remote period
by genealogists, who derive it from a branch of the Mao-
donalds. Somerled, king of the Isles, who lived in the rdgn
of Malcolm the Foorth, and was slam m battle about 1164,
had by his second wife Efl^ca, daughter of Olave the Red,
king of Man, three sons, Dogall, Reginald, and Angus.
After Somerled*s death, the Isles, with the exception of
Arran and Bute, which had come to him with his wife,
descended to DngalU his eldest son by hb second marriage.
Dugall also possessed the district of EiOm. On his death
the Isles did not immediately pass into the possession of
his children, but appear, according to the Highland law of
succession, to have been acquired by his brother Reginald,
who, in consequence, assumed the title of kmg of tho Isles.
ISkene'i Histoty qf the Highlanders, vol. iL p. 49.] Tho
portion of property which foil to Reginald*s share on his
father's death consisted of lalay among the Isles, with Kin-
tyre and part of Lorn. The genealogists of the noble family
of Stiriing have confounded this Reginald with his cousin
Reginald the Norwegian, king of Man and the Isles, who was
contemporary with him, and who was the son of Godred the
Black, king of Man, the brother of Efinca, Somerled's second
wife. Reginald, lord of Islay and South Kintyre and king of
the Isles, was the father of Donald, the progenitor of the dan
Donald, who had three sons, Roderid^ Angus, and Alexander,
Roderick's male descendants became extinct in the third gen-
eration. The second son, Angus, lord of Islay, the Angus Mohr
of the Sennachles, and the first of his race who acknowledged
himtdf a wahjtct of the King of Scotland, was ancestor of the
earis of Roes, kirds of the Isles, of the lords MaodonaJd, and
<rf'tbe earls of Antrim in Ireland. His grandson, John, lord
of the Isles, took for his second wife, the princess Margaret,
daughter of Robert 11., and his third son by her, Alexander,
Lord of Locbaber, forfeited in 1481, had two sons, Angus,
ancestor of the Macalisters of Loup, Argyleshire, and Alex-
ander Maoalister, who obtained the lands of Menstrie, Clack-
mannanshire, in fen from the family of Argyle, and was an-
cestor of the earls of Stirling. His posterity took the surname
of Alexander from bis Christian name. He had a son, Thomas,
2d baron ot Menstrie, who is mentioned as an arbiter in a
dispute between the abbot of Cambuskenneth and Sir David
Bruce of Clackmannan, 6th March 1505. Thomas* son,
Andrew, 8d baron, was father of Alexander, Alexander, 4th
baroD, who had a ton, Andrew, 5th baron. This gentleman
was father of another Alexander Alexander, 6th baron of
Menstrie, who died in 1594, leavmg an only son, Sir Willism
Alexander, 7th baron of Menstrie and first earl of Stirling, a
Memoir of whom is subjoined in Uiger ^pe.
Sir William Alexander, the first earl of Stirling, married
Janet, daughter and beu^ess of Sir William Erskine, titular
archbishop of Glasgow, parson of Campsie, chancellor of tho
cathedral of Glasgow, and commendator of Paisley, a younger
son of Erskine of Balgony, and cousin of the r^nt earl oi
Mar. By her he had seven sons and three daughters.
The eari*s ddest son, William, Viscount Canada and Lord
Alexander, was appointed an extraordinary lord of session in
SootUnd, m room of his father, 27th January 1635. He
spent a winter in Nova Scotia as deputy-lieutenant, but the
hardships he endured while there injured his constitution.
He died at London in 1638, during the lifetime of his father.
By his wife. Lady Maiy DougUs, daughter of William, fhvt
marquis of Douglas, he had a son William, the second eari of
Stirlii^, who died within six months after succeeding to the
title, under eight years of age.
Earl William was succeeded by his unde Henry, who was
the third son of the first earl, — the second son, Anthony, who
had been knighted, and was master of works in Scotland, hav-
ing, like his eldest brother Alexander, died before his father.
The third earl died in 1644, leaving an only son, also named
Henry, who became the fourth eari. He died in 1691, leav-
ing issue four sons, whereof Henry the eldest succeeded as
fiflh earl, but died without issue 4th December 1739. Hb
three younger brothers having also died without issue in his
lifetime, tlie title became dormant
The first earl of Stirling's fourth son, John, married the
daughter and heiress of John Graham of Gartmore, of which
estate the earl obtained a charter 23d January 1636. By this
hidy the Hon. John Alexander had a daughter but no sons;
and in 1644, he sold Gartmore to Graham of Donnans, pro-
genitor of the baronets of Gartmore, and the Grahams of
Gallangad.
Charies, the first earPs fifth son, had an only son Charles,
who died without issue. Ludovick the sixth son died in in-
fancy, and James the youngest died without issue male.
In 1830, a gentleman of the name of Mr. Alexander Hum-
phrys, or Alexander, came forward, and claimed the titles
and honours as descended fkx)m a younger branch of the fam-
ily by the female side, his mother Hannah, the wife of Wil-
liam Humphiys, Esq. of the Larches, Warwickshire, assuming
to be countess of Stiriing in her own right She died in Sep-
tember 1814, and in April 1825 he began to style himself
earl of Stirling and Dovan, but was in 1839, tried before the
High Court of Justidary, Edinburgh, on a charge of forging
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ALEXANDER,
106
EARL OF STIRLING.
certain doctunento on which he founded bis claim. The jury
declared the documents forgerieB ; but found the charge against
Humphrys of having forged them not proven. The result of
the trial was to put an end to his pretensions to the earl-
dom. Another supposed descendant, Major-general Alexan-
der, of the United States service, generally styled Lord Stir-
ling, distinguished himself during the revolutionary war in
Noith America, and died in 1783. See Stirling, chH of.
The noble family of Alexander, earls of Caledon in Ireknd,
IS descended from a junior branch of the house of Stirling.
ALEXANDER, Sir William, firet eail of
Stirling, an eminent poet and statesman, styled
by Drummond of Hawthoniden, " that most ex-
cellent spirit and eai-liest gem of our north," was
the son of Alexander Alexander of Menstrie, in
Stirlingshire, and was born, about 1580, in Men-
strie House, which is celebrated also as the birth-
place of Sir Ralph Abercromby, and of which a
wood-cut is given at page 5. All his patrimony
was the small estate of Menstrie, of which he was
the seventh proprietor, but he acquired both fortune
and rank for himself. After completing bis edu-
cation, he accompanied the seventh earl of Argyle
to the continent as his travelling tutor and com-
panion. On his return to Scotland, he lived for
some time in retirement, employing himself in
composing amatory verses. His first poetical ef-
fusions were inspired by a passion which he en-
tertained for a lady, whom he fancifully calls
'* Aurora." His suit was unsuccessful. The lady
of his love man-ied a much older person, and
like another Petrarch he continued to address
her in lachiymatory sonnets. These, a hundred
in number, were published in I^ondon in 1604,
imder the title of * Aurora, containing the Fii-st
Fancies of the Author's Youth.' He subsequently
married Janet, daughter and heiress of Sir Wil-
liam Erskine, cousin of the regent earl of Mar,
as stated above. He next tunicd his attention
to grave and moral subjects, with a view to the
direction of princes and rulera, in a series of tra-
gedies, foniied upon the Greek and Roman mo-
dels, at least in their chorusses between the acts.
One of these, founded upon the story of Darius,
was published in Edlnbuigh in 1603. He had
been eai'ly introduced to the royal notice, as his
residence Avas near the castle of Stirling, where
James the Sixth often held his court, and shortly
after that monarch, with whom he had ingratiated
himself by his poetry, had removed to England,
in the year stated (1603), Alexander followed him
to London. At court he distinguished himself by
his genius and accomplishments, aud soon obtain-
ed the place of gentleman of the privy chamber to
Prince Henry, the eldest son of King James. To
this youthful and amiable prince he addressed his
* Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Government,' a jx)-
em containing important and useful lessons to an
heir of royalty. After Prince Heniy's death he
published it, re-addressed to the new heir-appa-
rent. Prince Chai'les. From this poem we may
quote one short specimen :
" 0 heavenly knowledge ! which the best sort loves,
Life of the soul ! reformer of the will !
Clear light I which from the mind each cloud removes,
Pure spring of vertue, physick for each ill !
Whichf in prosperity, a bridle proves,
And, in adversity, a pillar still.
Of thee the more men get, the more they crave.
And think, the more they get, the lesse tlicy have."
In 1607 the tragedy of Darius, above referred to,
was republished with three others, namely, Cixe-
sus. The Alexandriean, and Julius Caesar, under
the title of ' Monarchic Tragedies.' They had an-
other title, ' Elegiac Dialogues for the Instruction
of the Great,' and were dedicated to the king.
None of them were adapted to the stage. The
point of these moral * Monarchic Tragedies' was
to illustrate the superiority of merit to dignity.
Thus, in Cixusus, we have the following lines :
•' More than a crowu true worth shonld be esteemed.
One Fortune gives, the other is our own ;
By which the mind from anguish is redeemed,
When Fortune's goods are by herself o'erthrown."
And in Darius there is the following sentiment :
" Who would the title of true worth were his.
Must vanquish vice, and no base thought* conceive.
The bravest trophy ever man obtained
Is that which o*er himself himself hath gained.'*
We are afraid, however, that the tragedies were
monarchic in more senses than one. Instead of
such moral truisms, had he checked the intempe-
rate spirit of kingcraft and selfish policy of James,
or pointed out, as soon as they began to display
themselves in his son Charles, the folly and danger
of that love of the prcrogat've and fatal duplicity
which aftcrwaids led him to the block, he would
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ALEXANDER,
107
EARL OF STIRLING.
have rendered a benefit to these monarchs, and
done good service to hnmanity. One of these
plays, called ' The Alcxandrsean,* gave rise to the
following Latin epigram by Anhur Johnston, edi-
tor of his » Whole Works.'
'* Confer Alexandros ; Maoedo victricibus armu
Magnus erat, Scotus carmine Miyor utcr?**
Prince Heniy died in 1612, and in 1613 Alex-
ander was appointed one of the gentlemen ushers
of the presence to Prince Charles, aftenvards
Charles L In the same year he published a ^Sup-
plement,' to complete the third part of Sir Philip
Sydney's romance of 'Arcadia,' which had been
written some years before. In 1614 he i-eccived
the honour of knighthood from king James, who
used to call him his '* philosophic poet," and was
made Master of Requests. The same year he
published at Ediubm'gh his largest work, a sacred
lK>em entitled 'Doomsday, or the Great Day of
Judgement,' of which there have been several
editions. It is supposed that Milton has copied
from this in some parts of his Pai*adise Lost, or
at least derived some of his suggestions from it.
At this period he commenced his political career.
The object which fii'st attracted his attention was
the settlement of a colony in North America, in
a part of the Council of New England's patent
from King James, which they were desirous of
Durrendering. Of this great tract of conntiy he
had a royal grant, dated at Windsor the 10th Sep-
tember 1621, by which the said extensive temtoiy
was then given to him to hold hcreditai'ily, with
the office of hereditary lieutenant, and was thence-
forth to be called Nova Scotia. The following
sketch of this proposed settlement is abridged from
Bancroft's Histoiy of the Colonization of America.
Sir Frederick Gorges, governor of Plymouth in
New England, a man of energy of chai-acter, and
zeal for disco veiy, having a few months previous,
November 8, 1620, obtained from James a patent
for the famous association, which has but one pai'-
allel in the history of the world, whereby forty
English subjects, incor|)orated as '*The Council
established at Plymouth for the planting, i*ullng,
and governing New England in America," obtained
an exclusive right to possess and rule over terri-
tory extending from the fortieth to the forty-eighth
degi-ee of north latitude, and from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, that company, nnder a grant from
whom the Pilgrim fathera about the same time
obtained the privilege of a settlement, being un-
willing to witness the Roman Catholic religion
and the French monarch in possession of the east-
em coast of North America, sought to secure the
safety of the northern frontier of the region as-
signed to them (now the present state of Maine),
by inviting the Scottish nation to become the
guardians of its frontier, and Sir William Alexan-
der, as a man of influence with King James, and
already animated with the ambition, so common
to the courtiers of that age, of engaging in colonial
adventnro, was pci*snaclod to second a design which
promised to establish his pei-sonal dignity and ad-
vance his interest. Accordingly, without difficulty
a patent was obtained by him, as alroady stated, on
the 10th September 1621, for all the tenitory lying
east of the St. Croix, and south of the St. Law-
ronce. Immediate attempts wero made to effect a
Scottish settlement. A ship was sent ont in 1622,
but it only came in sight of the shoro ; and those
on board, declining the perils of colonization, re-
tui*ned to the permanent fishing station at New-
foundland. In the following spring a second ship
anived, but the two vessels in company hardly
possessed courage to do more than survey the
coast. After making a partial survey of the har-
bours, and the adjacent lands, they postponed the
formation of a colony, and retunied with a biilliant
account of the soil, climate, and productions of
Nova Scotia, which is still to be read in Purchas
and other authors.
The territory thus ceded, however, and desig-
nated Nova Scotia, had already been included in
the French province of Acadia and New France,
which, with a better title on the ground of discov-
eiy, had been gi*anted by Henry the Fourth of
France, in 1603, and had been immediately occu-
pied by his subjects, and it was not to be sup-
posed that the reigning French monarch would
esteem his rights to his rising colonies invalidated
by a parchment under the Scottish seal, or prove
himself so forgetful of his kingly duty and honour
as to withdraw his protection from the emigrants
who had settled in America on the faith of the
crown. \BancroiYft Histon/ of the United States,
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AT.EXANDER,
108
EARL OF STIRUNG.
edition 1843, p. 134.] The accession of Charles
the First in 1625, and his marriage with Henrietta
Maria, the daaghter of the French king, might
have been expected to lead to some adjustment
between the rival claimants of the wilds of Acadia,
but England would not recognise the rights of
France ; and King Charles, by a charter dated at
Oatlands, July 12, 1625, confirmed Sir William
Alexander, and his heirs, in the office of lieuten-
ant of Nova Scotia, with all the prerogatives with
which he had been so lavishly invested by King
James, and the right of creating an order of baro-
nets of Nova Scotia. All who paid a hundred and
fifty pounds for six thousand acres were to receive
the honour of a knight baronetcy, and his majesty,
by letter to his privy council of Scotland, dated 19th
July 1625, fixed the quantity of land that Sir
William might grant to the baronets created by
him as the qualification and to sustain the title,
to be " thrie myles in breadth, and six in lenth,
of landis within New Scotland, for their sevei-al
proportions." The difficulty of infefting the new-
made baronets in their remote possessions was
overcome by a royal mandate, converting the soil
of the Castle Hill of Edinburgh, for the time be-
ing, into that of Nova Scotia, and they were ac-
cordingly invested with their honours on this spot.
Sir William Alexander was to have the prece-
dence of all the baronets. He had the same
year (1625) published a pamphlet entitled *An
Encouragement to Colonies,' the object of which
was to show the advantages which were likely to
accrue to the nation from the prosecution of the
scheme. The grants of such title of baronet,
though bestowed, in the fii*st instance, in conse-
quence of the voluntary smTender of Sir Wil-
liam, before or after he became earl of Stirling,
were aftei'wai'ds held of the crown, by charter
of Novodamus to the respective parties. No
baronet, however, obtained such grant from the
king, without having previously obtained the
portion of lands for its qualification, from Sir Wil-
liam Alexander, the lord proprietor of the coun-
tiy. Sir William was also invested with the pri-
vilege of coining small copper money. The sale
of lands proved to the poet a lucrative traffic, and
he forthwith planted and began to settle a colony
at Port Royal, where he built a fort.
The version of the Psalms of David into Scot-
tish verse, prepared by King James, had been
committed to Sir William Alexander by his ma-
jesty for revisal ; but from the following extract
of a letter to his friend Dnimmond of Hawthorn-
den, of date 28th April 1620, it would appear that
the pedantic monarch, with characteristic vanity,
thought his own translation of one of the psalms
better than those of the two first poets of his time.
" Brother," sajrs Alexander, " I received your laM
letter, with the Psalm you sent, which I think
very well done. I had done the same long before
it came; but he (meaning King James) prefers
his own to all else ; though, perchance, when yon
see it, yon will think it the worst of the three.
No man must meddle with that suly'ect, and there
fore I advise you to take no more pains therein."
On the 28th of December 1627 he received a li-
cense from Charies I. to print the late king's ver-
sion of the Psalms, with the exclusive copyright
for thirty-one years. The first edition was ac-
cordingly published at Oxford in 1631, but the
earl derived little benefit from the privilege thus
confeiTed upon him, as King James' translations
of the Psalms, although the use of them was at-
tempted to be enforced by King Charles through-
out his dominions, were rejected by the Scottish
church and people, and not encouraged by the
English, and in the civil war that followed they
were lost sight of altogether.
In 1626 Sir William Alexander was appointed
principal secretary of state for Scotland. On the
2d of February, 1628, he had another charter,
under the great seal of Scotland, in which he was
described as the king's hereditary lieutenant of
Nova Scotia, and had a grant of certain islands
and territories, the bounds of which were most
extensive; and the whole were erected into an
entire and free lordship, then, and at all times
thereafter, to be called and designated the ** Lord-
ship of Canada," from the great river then bearing
that name, on both sides of which lay the territo-
ries granted. This colony, as well as that of Nova
Scotia, was founded and established at the sole
private expense of Sir William Alexander, the
grantee ; and both grants were confirmed to him
by the parliament of Scotland in 1633.
On the 4th of September. 1630. he was created
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ALEXANDKR,
109
KARL OF STIRIJNO.
Lord Alexander of TiiUibody, aud Viscount Stirling
in the Scottish peerage. Charles the First bad, in
1627, entered into a war with France, in support
of the Huguenots of that kingdom, which contin-
ued until April 1629, when it was terminated by
articles of peace, concluded at Snsa in Piedmont.
Dunng this war. Sir David Kcrtk of Dieppe, a
Calvinist, called Kirk by the English and Ameri-
can historians, and his two brothers, Louis and
Thomas, having received the command of three
English ships, sailed in 1628 on an expedition
against Quebec, then in the hands of the French,
which they summoned to surrender. The garri-
son, though destitute alike of provisions and mili-
tary stores, returned a proud defiance ; but after
the Kertks had defeated a squadron sent to its
relief, and reduced the garrison to extreme suffer-
ing and the verge of famine, Quebec capitulated
19th July, 1629. " Thus," says Bancroft, "did
England, one hundred and thirty yeara before the
enterprise of Wolfe, make the conquest of the
capital of New France." Before, however, this
conquest had been achieved, peace had been pro-
claimed betwixt England and France, and an
article in the treaty already mentioned promised
the restitution of all acquisitions made in America
iubsequent to its date, April 14, 1629.
In consequence of & letter from his majesty,
Charles the First, to the lords of the privy council
in Scotland, on the subject of the dispute betwixt
the English and French concerning the title of
lands in America and particularly New Scotland,
their lordships, with the other estates of the realm,
being assembled in convention, 31st July 1630,
unanimously agreed that his majesty should " be
petitioned to maintain his right of New Scotland,
and to protect his subjects, undei*takers of the said
plantation, in the peaceable possession of the same,
as being a purpose higblie concerning bis majestie^s
honour, and the good aud credit of this his ancient
kingdom." The removal of the colony planted at
Port Royal was nevertheless commanded by his
majesty, together with the destruction of the fort
built for its protection, and the evacuation of Port
Royal itself, by a letter to Sir William Alexander,
chen Viscount Stirling, dated Greenwich, 10th
July 1631. This fort it seems was one which had
been erected by Lord Stirling's son, Sir William
Alexander, " on the site of the French cornfields,
previous to the treaty of St. Germains (afterwards
referred to). The remains of this fort may be
traced with great ease; the old parade, the em-
bankment and ditch have not been disturbed, aud
preserve their original form." [HalilmrUnCs His-
tory of Nova Scotia. Halifax, 1829, vol. ii. page
1 56.] The removal of the colony from Port Royal,
although it was declared to have been only for a
time, occasioned a gi-eat private loss to Ix)rcl Stir-
ling, and operated as a discouragement to the
planting and settling of Nova Scotia. At the stnne
time King Charles wrote to the lords of the coun-
cil, I2th July, 1631, "We will be verie careful to
maintain all our good subjects who do plant them-
selves there ;" and granted lettera patent, 28th of
the same month, wherein be declared, that he
agreed to give up the fort and place of Port Royal,
without prejudice nevertheless to his right or title,
or that of his subjects, for ever; and even held
out the prospect of its garrison, colonies, and in-
habitants being allowed to return in consequence
of approbation to that effect being obtained from
the French king. To their lordships he also wrote,
under date 19th February, 1682, with a warrant
in Lord Stirling's favour for £10,000 steriing, " in
no ways for quitting the title, right, or possession
of New Scotland, or of any part thereof, but only
for satisfaction of the losses that the said viscount
hath, by giving order for removing of his colonic
at our Sxpress command, for performing of an
article of the treatie betwixt the French and us."
Tills is doubtless what Sir Thomas Urquhart, in
bis * Discovery of a most Exquisite Jewel,' &c.,
(8vo, 1662,) refers to, when he charges Lord Stuling
with having sold the colony to the French " for
a matter of ^\e or six thousand pounds Eng-
lish money ;" but it so happens that this sum of
ten thousand pounds was never paid either to
Lord Stirling or any of his ^eirs.
That fanciful knight speaks very sUghtingly of
Ijord Stirling's plans of colonization, and especially
of his project of raising money by the creation and
sale of baronetcies in what he calls " that kingdom
of Nova Scotia," and says that ** the ancient gen-
try of Scotland esteemed such a whimsical dignity
to be a disparagement, rather than any addition
to their former honour." Their descendants, how-
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ALEXANDER,
110
EARL OF STIRLING.
ever, ai*c of a different opinion. The order of bar-
onets of Scotland and Nova Scotia is considered
liigiily honourable. From the beginning of tlie
reign of Charles the First, when it was first
Instituted, to the end of the reign of Queen Anne,
when the last member was created, upwards of
two hundred and eighty baronets of this order
were made in all ; and of these creations about
one hundred and seventy exist at present. The
badge of tlie order is a medal bearing the arms of
Nova Scotia, encircled by the motto, " Fax mentut
honestce gloria^^"^ suspended from the neck by an
orange tawny riband.
Owing to the capture of Quebec by Sir David
Kcrtk, the king of France detained four hundred
thousand crowns, part of his sister the queen of
England^s poi*tion. Tliis brought about a treaty
with King Charles, who empowered his ambassa-
dor, Sir Isaac Wake, to conclude the dispute 29th
June 1681, but it was not till 29th March 1632
that the treaty was signed, by which King Charles
agreed to make his subjects withdraw from all the
places occupied by them ; and for that effect gave
orders to those who commanded in Port Royal,
the fort of Quebec, and Cape Breton, to i-ender
up these places and fort into the hands of such per-
sons as the French king should please to appoint ;
which put an end to all differences, and the re-
maining half of the queen's poi-tion was paid by
the French king. [Princess Annals of New Eng-
land,'] This treaty is known in history as the
treaty of St. Germains. Although by this treaty
Nova Scotia was not ceded at all, but only Port
Royal commanded to be given up, the French
from Quebec and the surrounding district thereaf-
ter suddenly broke into the country of Nova Sco-
tia, on the unsupported pretence of a right to the
' possession of it, by the treaty just referred to.
The troubles in England, in which King Charles
was involved, prevented his breaking with the
French court, and the French availed themselves
of the opportunity of the convulsed state of Bri-
tain to take possession of Nova Scotia, and keep
it for a long time, without being molested, or any
effectual remonstrances being made against their
aggression.
In June 1633 the patents or grants to Sir Wil-
liam Alexander, vbcount of Stirling, were solemn-
ly ratified by the Scottish parliament, and at the
coronation of King Charles at Holyrood on the
14th of the same month, with a view to perpetu-
ate the name of the lordship of Canada in his
family, the king, by other letters patent, created
him viscount of Canada, and earl of Stiriing.
His salary as secretary of state for Scotland was
only one hundred pounds sterling, but the privi-
lege which, as already stated, he had received
from the king, of issuing small coins, as well as his
sale of baronetcies, added much to his fortune.
As, however, the intrinsic value of these coins
was inferior to their nominal, ^this monopoly was
unpopular. They were called "turners," from
the French town Tottmois, where this money
was first coined, and which, being a mixture of
copper and brass termed billon, was known by the
name of " turners " from this circumstance, as also
"billons" from the mixture of which they were
composed. Thus the poet Beattie, in the only
known composition of his in the Scottish language,
referring to the disposition which prevailed on the
part of the Scots to look to Englisli to the neglect
of native literature, after the death of Allan Ram-
say, thus uses the word :
" Since Allan^s death, nae body carM
For anes to speer how Scotia far'd ;
Nor plack nor thristled turner war*d
To quench her drouth ;
For, frae the cottar to the laird
We a' run south."
It was called the thristled, that is, thistled turner,
to distinguish it from the French coin, which, ow-
ing to the friendship subsisting between the Scots
and the French, circulated in Scotland even so
late as the reign of Louis the Fourteenth. The
Scottish turner, or toumois, bore the national em-
blem of the thistle. It was sometimes called a
bodle, or black farthing, value two pennies Scotch ;
being half a plack, value fourpence Scotch, or one-
third of a penny English. The motto of the eari
of Stirling was " Per Mare^ per TerraSy'' which,
with his armorial bearings, he caused to be placed
in front of a spacious mansion he bad erected at
Stirling. His motto, in allusion to his poetry and
his coinage, was thns parodied by the sarcastic
Scott of Scotstarvet, "per metres^ per turners,''^
which became current among the people. The
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ALEXANDER,
111
EARI. OF STIRLING.
honse remains, but has been long known by the
name of Argyle^s lodging ; the arms of the Alex-
anders having aft«r his death In 1640, when it
passed into that family, been removed to make
way for those of Argyle. " This baronial edifice
is a veiy excellent specimen,'^ says Billings, in his
'Baronial Architecture of Scotland,' "of that
French style which predominated in the north in
the early part of the seventeenth century. Its
characteristic features are, round towers or tur-
rets, whether at the exterior or interior angles,
with conical summits, rows of richly ornamented
dormer windows, and a prafuse distribution of
semi-classic mouldings and other decorations."
The accompanying cut represents it as t)rigina11y
constnictcd, and before the cone-topped tower
was substituted by tlie polygonai one erected in
1674. It IS taken from the highly interesting
work above referred to. Tlie original portion
bears the date of 1632. After the additions made
to it in 1674, James VII., when duke of York,
became its inmate as guest of Argyle, " an inci-
dent," says Billings, " noticed in connection with
the cmsumstancc, that the guest waa subsequently
instrumental in putting his host to death." It
was here the groat Duke John held his council of
war, when suppressing the rebellion of 1715. The
building subsequently came into possession of the
Crown, and is now used as a military hospital for
the gaiTison. INimmo's Stirlingshire^ p. 842.] Be-
sides being secretary of state, an office which he
is said to have held with no small degree of repu-
tation till his death, his lordship was by Charles
the First appointed a member of the privy coun-
cil, keeper of the signet m Scotland, conmiission-
er of exchequer, and an extraordinaiy lord ot
session; a plurality of offices doubtless sufficient
for one man.
In 1637, by a privy seal precept dated 30th
July, the earl was created earl of Dovan in Scot-
land, with precedency from June 1633. He con-
tinued to procure the creation of baronets of those
persons respectively who concurred with him in
the great enterprise of fully planting Nova Scotia,
and he made up their territorial qualifications for
receiving the dignity, by surrender of portions of
the lands in then* favour. This, we are told, he
did down to 3l8t July 1637, at which time he
ceased to make them, intelligence having reached
him that the French had overrun the country and
held it in possession. Thus, twelve years after
the commencement of this great undertaking, —
when one hundred and eleven baronets having
fulfilled the stipulated conditions of the institution,
had each received grants of sixteen thousand aci*es,
which were erected into free baronies of regality,
and two parliaments of Scotland, in 1630 and
1633, had ratified and confirmed all the privileges
of the order, — it fell to the ground.
In 1638 Lord Stiriing's eldest son and heir,
William, lord Alexander, died, when his lordship
made a suiTender of all his honours and estates
into the hands of King Charles, who, by a charter of
Novodamus, under the great seal of Scotland, dated
the 7th of December 1639, regranted them to the
earl, to hold to himself and the heirs male of his
body, whom failing to the eldest heirs female.
Shortly after this. Lord Stiriing died at London,
on the 12th of September 1640, and was inteiTcd
at Stiriing on the 12th of April thereafter. His
corpse was deposited in a leaden coffin in the fam-
ily aisle in the church of Stirling, aboveground,
and remained entire for a hundred years. He
never relinquished any of the rights vested in him
under his patents, and an assignment of them in
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ALEXANDER,
112
EARL OF STIRLING.
trust was executed by him ouly two weeks befora
his death. The accompanying portrait of his
lordship is talcen from one given in Walpolc's
Royal and Noble authors :
The province of Nova Scotia finally came un-
der the undisputed possession of Great Britain
in 1763. By the fourth article of the treaty
of Paris, of 10th February of that year, the
French king renounced all pretensions to Nova
Scotia in all its parts, and thus, with Canada, its
sovereignty was re-acquired by Great Britain, in
whose possession it now remains. The baronets
of Scotland and Nova Scotia in the year 1836,
held a meeting at Edinburgh for the purpose of
reviving the objects for which their order was
created, and a *^Case, showing their rights and
privileges, digni tonal and temtorial,'' was shortly
thereafter published by Richard Bronn, Esq., the
secretary of the order, afterwards Sir Richard Broun,
bai-onet, of Oolstonn, Dumfries-shire ; but there is
veiy little likelihood now of their ever regaining
the lands in Nova Scotia which were originally
granted with their titles. Since Queen Anne's time
no new Nova Scotia baronets have been made.
Those created are styled baronets of Great Bri-
tain, and no payment of money can now purchase
the title, although of course expenses attend the
passage of a patent, on the title being coulciTcd.
—By his countess, as already stated in the preli-
minary notice, the earl of Stirling had seven sons
and three daughters, but only three sons and two
daughters survived him.
A complete edition of Lord Stirling's works, re-
vised by himself, was published in 1637, in one
volume folio, under the title of * Recreations with
the Muses.' This work contained his four * Mo-
narchick Tragedies,' his ' Doomsday,' the ' Paras-
nesis to Prince Henry,' and the first book of an
intended heroic poem, entitled * Jonathan.' His
poems are generally of a grave and moralizing
character, and possess considerable merit. Mr.
Greorge Chalmers has remarked, that he must be
allowed to have sentiments that spai'kle, though
not " words that bum," [Apology for tfie Believers^
&c., p. 420] ; and Mr. Alexander Chalmers adds
to this remark that ^* his versification is, in general,
much superior to that of his contemporaries, and
approaches nearer to the elegance of modem times
than could have been expected fVom one who
wrote so much." His works were highly praised
by writers of his own day. The opinion of Drum*
mond of Hawthomden has been already quoted.
Michael Drayton, who commended Loi-d Slirling's
poems highly, expresses a wish to be known as
the friend of a writer ** whose muse was like his
mind ;" and John Davies of Fiereford, in a book of
epigrams, published about the year 1611, praises
the tragedies of his lordship, and says that *^ Al-
exander the Great had not gained more glory with
his sword than this Alexander had gained by his
pen." Higher approbation even than this, as
coming from a higher authority in matters of lit-
erature, is afforded in the verdict of Addison, who
said of Lord Stirling's " whole works," that " he
had read them over with the greatest satisfaction.'
Dr. Currie, in his Life of Bums, says, "Lord
Stirling and Dmmmond of Hawthomden studied
the language of England, and composed in it with
precision and elegance. They were, however, the
last of their countrymen who deserved to be con-
sidered as poets in that century." Dean Swift, in
one of his poems, has brought their names toge-
ther as
** Scottish bards of highest fame,
Wise Uawthornden and Stirling's lord.**
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ALISON.
His plajs appear to be mere dramatic poems, more
fitted for perasal in the closet than representation
on the stage, and accordingly none of them seem
ever to have been acted. Three poems by his
lordship and a few of his letters, with * Anacrisis,
or a Censure of Poets,* occnr in the folio edition
of Drnmmond's works. The latter of these pro-
dactions is considered very creditable to his lord-
ship^s talents as a critic As a proof of the an-
popalarity of Lord Stilling in hb native country
on account of his small copper money, it is stated
by Burnet, in his Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamil-
ton, that he durst not come to Scotland to attend
to the king's affairs as secretary of state. His
productions are as follows :
Darius: a Tragedy. Edia. 1603, 4ta Reprinted with the
Tragedj of Cnuaa and a Panenesii to the Prince, 1604, and
still farther augmented witl^ the Alexandrian Tragedy and
Jalhis CsBsar. Lond. 1607, 4to.
Aorora ; containing the first Fancies of the Anthor^s youth.
Inscribed to the Lady Agnes (Anne) Douglas, (afterwards
Countess of Argjle> Lond. 1604, 4to.
The Monarchicke Tragedies. Lond. 1604, 1607, 4to. 8d
edition. Lond. 1616, small 8to.
An Elegie on the Doath of Prince Henrie. Edin. 161S,
4to. Includmg an Address * To his Msjestie,* and ' A Short
Ylewe of the SUte of Man.'
Doomesday, or the Great Day of the Lord's Judgement
Edln. 1614, 4to.
A Supplement of a Defect in the third part of Sidney's
Arcadia. Dublin, 1621, fol.
An Encouragement to Colonies. Lond. 1626, 4to.
A Map and Description of New England, with a Discourse
of Plantation and the Colonies, &c Lond. 1680, 4to.
Recreations with the Muses, being his whole works, with
the exception of Aurora, and including Jonathan, an Unfin-
ished Poem. Lond. 1637, fol.
ALEXANDER, John, a painter of some emi-
nence during the earlier half of the eighteenth cen-
tury. Neither the place of his birth nor the date
is recorded, but he was a descendant of the more
celebrated Croorge Jamesone, through his lawful
daughter, Mary Jamesone. He studied his art
chiefly at Florence. On his return in 1720, to
Scotland, he resided at Grordon castle, having
found a liberal patroness in the duchess of Gor-
don, a daughter of the earl of Peterborough. He
painted poetical, allegorical, and ornamental
pieces; also portraits and historical landscapes.
Many of the portraits of Queen Mary are by Al-
exander. He had begun, it is stated, a picture of
Mary's escape from Lochleven castle, which he
did not liye to finish.
AusoH, the name of a faniilj possessing a baronetcy of
the United Kingdom, conferred 25th June, 1852, on Sir
Archibald Alison, LLD., D.C.L., and F.R.S., bom at Kin-
ley, Salop, 29th December, 1792. His father, the Rer.
Archibald Alison, author of * Essays on Taste,' of whom a
memoir follows, was a scion of the family of Alison of New-
hall, parish of Kettins, Forfarshire. By the mother's side
he is descended lineally firom Edward I. and Robert the
Bruce. Sir Archibald wss educated at the university
of Edinburgh, and admitted advocate in 1814; advocate
depute firom 1828 to 1880; sheriff of Ijmarkahuie, 1835,
author of * Principles of the Criminal Law of Scotland,'
Edinburgh, 1882 ; * Practice of the Crimmal Law ;' ' His-
tory of Europe,' 20 vols. 8vo, the first published in
1833; 'Essays,' contributed to Blackwood's Magazine;
* Principles of Popuhition,* 1845; * England in 1815 and
1845, or a Sufficient and Contracted Currency ;' * IJfe of the
Duke of Marlborough,' 1847; married, 21st March 1825,
Elizabeth Glencaim, youngest daughter of LiAitenant-colo-
nel Patrick Tytler, second son of William Tytler, Esq. of
Wo'xihouselee ; issue, Archibald, bom 21st January 1826,
Heutenant-oolonel in the army, military secretaiy to Lord
Clyde when commander-in-chief in India, lost an arm at
Lttcknow, and has a medal and clasps for his services m the
Crimea ; Frederick Montagu, bom 11th May 1835, a captain
in the army, aid-de-camp to the same commander; and one
daughter, Ellen Frances Catherine Mrs. Cutlar Fergusson
of Craigdarroch. Sur Archibald's brother, William Pulteney
Alison, M.D., LLD., F.RS., professor of practice of physic,
university of Edinburgh, and first physician to the Queen in
Scotland, retired from his chair hi 1855, and died in 1859.
ALISON, Archibald, The Rev., author of
*' Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste,*
was the second son of a magistrate of Edin
bargh, and some time lord provost of that city,
where he was bom in 1757. In 1772 he went to
the nniversity of Glasgow, and afterwards became
an exhibitioner at Baliol college, Oxford, where
he took the degrees of A.M. and LL.B. Entering
into holy orders he obtained the curacy of Brance-
petli, county of Durham, and was subsequently
made prebendary of Sarum. Having acquired
the friendship of the late Sir William Pulteney, he
was indebted to him for preferment in the church.
In 1784 he married at Edinburgh the eldest daugh-
ter of the celebrated Dr. John Gregory, by whom
he had six children. In 1800, on the invitation
of Sir William Forbes, baronet, and the vestry of
the Episcopal chapel, Cowgate, Edinburgh, he
became senior minister of that place of worship.
The congregation having removed to St. Paul's
church, York Place, in the same city, he continu-
ed to ofliciate there until a severe illness, in 1881,
compelled him to relinquish all public duties. He
was one of the early fellows of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh, and the intimate friend of many
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of its most distiDgulshed membei*s. He was also
a fellow of the Royal Society of London. His
principal work, the ^ Essays on the Nature and
Principles of Taste/ published in 1790, has
passed through several editions, and was trans-
lated into French. He died 17th May, 1839.
His works are:
EsMj on the Natare and principles of Taste. Edin. 1790,
4to. 8d. edit 1816, 2 vols. 8to. 4th edit. 1816, 2 vols. 8vo.
A Disconrse on the Fast Dar, 1809, 8vo.
A Thanksgiving Sermon, 1814, 8vo.
Sermons, chiefly on particnlar occasions. Edin. 1814, 8va
Vol. il 1816, 8vo. 6th edit 1816, 2 vols.
Life and Writings of the Hon. Alexander Fraser Tytler,
Lord Woodhooselee. Trans. Ed. R. Soo. viil 616. 1818.
Allan, a name meaning, in the British, Alan^ swift like a
greyhound ; in the Saxon, Alwia, winning all ; and in the
Celtic, Abdnn, when applied to mental qualities or conduct,
illustrious. The primazy meaning of the word, however, is
sparkling or beautiful, and it is on that account the name of
several rivers, particularly one in Perthshire, which waters
the fertile district of Stratballan. It is the opinion of Chal-
mers that the Alauna of Ptolemy and of Richard of Westmin-
ster, (in his Itmera Bomana^ a work referable to the second
century,) was situated on the Allan, about a mile above its
confluence with the Forth, so that the name has an ancient
as well as a classical origin. The popular song of * On the
banks of Allan Water,* is supposed to refer to a smaller
stream of the same name, a tributary of the Teviot Allan
b also not unfrequentlj a Christian name in Scotland, as
Allan Ramsay.
ALLAN, Dayid, an eminent historical paint-
er, the son of David Allan, shoremaster nt Alloa,
was bom there on 13th February 1744. His mo-
ther, Janet Gollan, a native of Dunfermline,
died a few days after his birth, and it is related
of him that, when a baby, his month was so small
that no nurse in his native place conid give him
suck, and a countrywoman being found, after
some inquiry, a few miles from the town, whose
breast he could take, he was, one very cold day,
after being wrapped up in a basket, amidst cotton,
to keep him warm, sent off to her nnder the charge
of a man on horseback. On the road the horse
stumbled, the man fell off, and the little Allan be-
ing thrown out of the basket among the snow
which then covered the gix)und, received a severe
cut on his head. While yet a mere child of lit-
tle more than eighteen months old, he experi-
enced another narrow escape from a premature
death. The servant girl who had the care of him,
while out with him in her arms one day in the
autumn of 1745, thoughtlessly ran in front of some
loaded cannons, at the very moment that they
were fired by way of experiment, but she and the
child were providentially not touched.
Like that of many other great painters, his ge«
nius for designing was discovered by accident
Being when a boy kept at home from school, on
account of a burnt foot, his father seeing him one
day doing nothing, reproved him for his idleness,
and giving him a bit of chalk, told him to draw
something with It on the floor. He accordin^y
attempted to delineate figures of houses, animals,
&c., and was so well pleased with his own suc-
cess, and so fond of the amusement, that the chalk
was seldom afterwards out of bis hand. His sense
of the ludicrous was great, and he could not al-
ways resist the propensity to satire. Having
when about ten years of age drawn a caricature
on his slate of his schoolmaster, a conceited old
darmnie^ who used to strut about the school attired
in a tartan nightcap and long tartan gown, and
circnlated it among the boys, it fell into the hands
of the object of it, who straightway complained to
Allan's father, and he was In conseqnence with-
drawn from his school. On being questioned by
his father as to how he had the impudence to in-
sult his master In such a way, he answered, " I
only made it like him, and it was all for fun." In
one account of his life it is stated that the first rude
efforts of his genius were formed merely by a knife,
and displayed a degree of taste and skill far above
his years ; and these having attracted the notice of
Mr. Stewart, then collector of the customs at Alloa,
that gentleman, when at Glasgow, mentioned the
merits of young Allan to Mr. Foulis, the celebrated
printer, and he was sent, on the 25th of February
1755, when eleven years of age, to the Messrs.
Foulis* academy of painting and engraving at
Glasgow, where he remained seven years. In the
year 1764 some of his performances attracted the
notice of Lord Cathcart of Shaw Park, near Alloa.
At the expense of his lordship, Mr. Abercromby
of Tullibody, and other pereons of fortune in
Clackmannanshire, to whom his talents had re-
commended him, among whom were Lady Frances
Erskine of Mar, and Lady Charlotte Erskine, he
afterwards proceeded to Italy, and studied for six-
teen years at Rome. In 1775, he received the
gold medal given by the academy of St. Luke, in
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ALLAN.
that city, for the best specimen of historical com-
positioji ; the subject being * The Origin of Paint-
ing, or the Corinthian Maid drawing the Shadow
of her Lover ;* an admirable engraving of which
was executed at Rome by Dom. Cunego in 1776,
and of which copies were published by him in
February 1777, after his return to I/>ndon. Mr.
Allan presented the medal received by him for this
painting to the Society of Antiquaries of Scot-
land, on the 7th January 17d3, and an account of
it was published in their transactions, vol. ii. pp.
75, 76. The only other Scotsman who had ever
received the gold medal of St. Luke's academy
was Mr. Gavin Hamilton. After a residence of
two years in London, he returned to E^nburgh,
in 1779, and, on the death of Alexander Run-
dman in 1786, was appointed director and master
of the academy established by the board of trus-
tees for manufactures and improvements in Scot-
land. In 1788 he published an edition of the
Gentle Shepherd, with characteristic etchings. In
* Observations on the Plot and Scenery of the
Gentle Shepherd,' from Abemethy and Walker's
edition (Edinburgh : 1808), reprinted in edition of
A. FuUarton & Co., 1848 (vol. ii. p. 25.), the fol-
lowing passage occurs : *^ In 1786, an unexpected
visit was paid at New Hall house, (the romantic
seat of Mr. John Forbes, advocate, situated in
the parish of Penicuick, Edinburghshire, the sce-
nery round which is supposed to have been that
of the Gentle Shepherd,) by Mr. David Allan,
painter in Edinburgh, accompanied by a friend,
both of whom were unknown to the family. His
object was to collect scenes and figures, where
Ramsay had copied his, for a new edition of the
pastoral. Mr. Allan was an intelligent Scottish
antiquarian, and well acquainted with everything
connected with the poetry and literature of his
country. His excellent quarto edition was pub-
lished in 1788, with aquatinta plates, in the time
spirit and humour of Ramsay. Four of the scenes
at New Hall are made use of with some figures
collected there ; and in his dedication to Hamilton
of Murdiston in Lanarkshire, the celebrated histo-
rical painter, he writes, ' I have studied the same
characters' (as those of Ramsay), * from the same
spot, and I find that he has drawn faithfully, and
with taste, from nature. This likewise has been
my model of imitation, and while I attempted, in
these sketches, to express the ideas of the poet, 1
have endeavoured to preserve the costume as near-
ly as possible, by an exact delineation of such
scenes and persons as he actually had in his eye.'"
Mr. Allan published also, some time after, a col-
lection of the most humorous old Scottish songs,
with similar drawings ; these publications, with
his illustrations of the Cottar's Saturday Night,
the Stool of Repentance, the Scottish Wedding,
the Highland Dance, and other sketches of rus-
tic character, all etched by himself in aquatinta,
procured for him the title of the Scottish Hogarth.
One of his subjects, representing a poor man re-
ceiving charity from the hand of a young woman,
is here copied.
As an instance of simple character and feeling
without caricature, it gives a tolerably good idea
of his natural manner, and illustrates the particu-
lar locality of Edinburgh of that epoch, where its
scene is laid. It, as well as the view of the Gen-
eral Assembly, which appears in another part of
this volume, was also etched by himself. He like-
wise etched and published various subjects drawn
when in Italy, exhibiting the peculiarities of the
people, and especially the devotional extrava-
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AI.LAN.
gances of the clinrch of Rome of that time, which
appear to have excited his sense of the ludicrons.
Besides these he published four engravings, done
in aquatinta by Paul Sandby, from drawings made
by himself when at Rome, where, in a vein of
quiet drollery, he holds up to ridicule the festivi-
ties of that city in connection with the sports of
the camivaL Several of the figui-es were portraits
of persons well known to the Englbh who visited
Rome during his stay there, and their truthful-
ness gave much satisfaction at the time.
His personal appearance was not in his favour.
•* His figure," says the author of his life in Brown's
Scenery edition of the Gentle Shepherd, 1808, " was
a bad resemblance of his humorous precursor of the
English metropolis. He was under the middle size ;
of a slender, feeble make; with a long, sharp, lean,
white, coarse face, much pitted by the small pox,
and fair hair. His large prominent eyes, of a light
colour, looked weak, near-sighted, and not ver}-
tnunated. His nose was long and high, his mouth
wide, and both ill-shaped. His whole exterior to
strangers appeared unengaging, trifling and mean.
His deportment was timid and obsequious. The
prejudices naturally excited by these external dis-
advantages at introduction, were soon, however,
dispelled on acquaintance; and, as he became easy
and pleased, gradually yielded to agreeable sensa-
tions; till they insensibly vanished, and were not
only overlooked, but, from the effect of contrast,
even heightened the attractions by which they
were so unexpectedly followed. When in com-
pany he esteemed, and which suited his taste, as
lestraint wore off, his eye imperceptibly became
active, bright and penetrating; his manner and
address quick, lively, and interesting — alwajrs
kind, polite, and respectful ; his conversation open
and gay, humorous without satire, and playfully
replete with benevolence, observation, and anec-
dote.*' He resided in Dickson's close, High street,
Edinburgh, where he received private pupils in
his art. One of the most celebrated of his pupils
was the late Mr. H. W. Williams, commonly called
Grecian Williams. * * The satiric humour and drol-
lery," says Mr. Wilson, in his Memorials of Edin-
burgh, (vol. ii. page 40), " of his well-known * rebuke
scene' in a country church, and the lively expres-
sion and spirit of the * General Assembly,' and
others of his own etchings, amply justify the
character he enjoyed among his contemporaries as
a truthful and humorous delineator of nature.**
^* As a painter," says the author of his life already
quoted, ** at least in his own country, he neither
excelled in drawing, composition, colouring, nor
effect. Like Hogarth, too, beauty, grace, and
grandeur, either of individual outline and form, or
of style, constitute no part of his merit. He was no
Corregio, Raphael, or Michael Angelo. He paint-
ed portraits, as well as Hogarth, below the size
of life ; but they are recommended by nothing save
a strong homely resemblance. As an artist and a
man of genius, his characteristic talent lay in ex-
pression, in the imitation of nature with truth and
humour, especially in the representation of ludi-
crons scenes in low life. His vigilant eye was ever
on the watch for every eccentric figure, every
motley group, or ridiculous incident, out of which
his pencil or his needle could draw innocent enter-
tainment and mirth." He died at Edinburgh on
the 6th of August 1796, in the 5dd year of his
age, and was interred in the High Calton burying-
ground. He had married in 1788 Shirley Welsh,
the youngest daughter of Thomas Welsh, a carver
and gilder in Edinburgh. He had five children,
three of whom died in infancy. His surviving son,
David, went out as a cadet to India in 1806.
He also left a daughter named Barbara. — Brown's
Scenery edition of the Gentle Shepherd, appendix.
ALLAN, Robert, a minor poet, some of whose
lyrics and songs have long been popular in Scot-
land, was bom at Kilbarchan, in Renfrewshire,
4th November, 1774. He was a handloom weaver,
and all his life in humble circumstances. To re-
lieve the tedium of his occupation he occasionally
had recourse to poetry. In 1836, a volume of his
poems was published by subscription, but made no
great impression. The principal poem in the vol-
ume, entitled ^ An Address to the Robin,' is writ-
ten in the Scottish dialect. His most popular
pieces are *The bonny built wheiTy;' 'The Cove-
nanter's Lament;' 'Woman's wai*k will ne'er be
dune;' ' Hand awa' firae me, Donald ;' and the bal-
lad ' O speed, Lord Nithsdalo.' He had a nume-
rous family, all of whom were married except his
youngest son, a portrait painter of great promise,
who emigrated to the United States. Desirous of
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Sl|{ VVll.I.IAM AI.I.A \
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ALLAN,
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Sm WILLIAM.
joining his son, AUan sailed for New York, where
be arriired Ist June 1841, bnl died there on the
7th, six days after his arrival, from the effects of a
cold caught on the banks of Newfoundland. He
is represented as having been a most single-hearted
and unaffected being, and much of the simplicity
of his character is reflected in his poems.
ALLAN, Sib William, an eminent historical
planter, was bom at Edinburgh, in 1782, <^ humble
parentage, his father being one of the doorkeepers
of the Court of Exchequer. He was educated partly
at the High School of his native city, under William
Nicol, the friend of Bums, and served his appren-
ticeship to a coach-painter, George Sanders the
celebrated miniature-painter bemg in the same
employment. All his spare hours were devoted
to drawing. He studied for several years at the
Trustees' Academy, having Wilkie as a fellow-
student. These two great painters began draw-
ing from the same example, and thus continued
for months, using the same copy, and sitting on the
same form. The fiiendship thus commenced in their
youth increased with their years, and ceased but
with the life of Wilkie, who died nine years before
him. One of his first pieces engraved was *' Flora
parting with Ascanius,' in Home's *• Adventures of
the young Ascanius,' 1804. After the close of his
studies in Edinburgh, Allan removed to London,
and was admitted to the school of the Royal Aca-
demy, where he remained some time. Not ulti-
mately finding professional employment in London,
he determined upon proceeding to Russia, to try
whether encouragement could not be obtained in
that eoimtry, and that he might study the mde and
picturesque aspects there presented, and find suit-
able and striking materials for his pencil. Hasti-
ly communicating his intention to his friends in
Scotland, with one or two letters of introduction
to some of his countrymen at St. Petersburg, he
embarked in 1805 in a vessel bound f(H- Riga.
Owing to adverse winds the ship, almost a wreck,
was driven into Memel in Prussia, where, though
ignorant of the Grerman language, he took up his
abode at an inn, and at once commenced portrait-
painting. He began with the portrait of the
Danish consul, to whom he had been introduced
by the captain of the vessel. Having, ia this
way, recruited his nearly empty purse, he pro-
ceeded overland to St. Petersburg, encountering
on the road various romantic inddents, and pass-
ing through a great portion of the Russian army
on their way to the battle of Austerlitc. On his
arrival at the Russian capital, he was introduced
to many valuable friends, through the kindness of
Sir Alexander Crichton, then physician to the
Imperial family; and was soon enabled to pursue
his art diligently and successfhlly. Having at-
tained a knowledge of the Russian language, he
travelled into the interior, and remained for sev-
eral years in the L^kraine, making excursions at
various times to Turkey, Tartary, the shores of
the Black Sea, the Sea of Azoph, and the banks
of the Kuban, amongst Cossacks, Circassians,
Turks, and Tartars ; visiting their huts and tents,
studying theur history, character, and costume,
and forming a collection of their arms and armoui,
for his future labours in art, as he had resolved to
devote his great powers to historical painting.
In 1812, Mr. Allan began to think of returning
to Scotland, but was prevented by the French in-
vasion of Russia of that year. The whole country
was thrown into confusion and alarm by the Em
peror Napoleon*s advance to Moscow, and thus
was Allan forced to remain, when he witnessed
not a few heart - rending miseries iL^dent to that
eventful period. In 1814, however, he was en-
abled to set out on his return home, and, after a
lapse of ten years, he once more trod the streets
of Edinburgh. His improvement had been so
rapid and so remarkable, that the most eminent of
his countrymen in literature and art visited, and
were in daily intercourse with, the young and en-
terprising artist, and he numbered among his
friends Scott, Wilson, Lockhart, and other dis-
tinguished literati of the day in E^uburgh, which
city he resolved to make his future residence. His
first efforts, after his return, were directed to em-
bodying on the canvass, some of those romantic
and striking scenes which had been suggested by
his travels and adventures in the strange countries
he had visited. His 'Circassian Captives,' a
work Ml of novel and original matter, character,
and expression, and remarkable for the complete-
ness of its design, and the masterly arrangement of
its parts, was exhibited at Somerset House, Lon-
don, in 1815, and immediately made his name
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SIR WILLIAM.
generally known. To this great picture succeeded
* Tartar Banditti ;' * Haslan Gheray crossing the
Kuban;' 'A Jewish Wedding in Poland;* and
* Prisoners Conveyed to Siberia by Cossacks,'
which, with many others, he brought together, and
exhibited in Edinburgh, along with the armour and
costumes he had collected in his travels. The exhi-
bition proved highly attractive, and the artist rose
higher in the estimation of his countrymen. £Us
picture of *The Circassians' was purchased by
Sur Walter Scott, John Wilson, the poet, his bro-
ther, James, the naturalist, Lockhart, and a num-
ber of the artist's other friends, and it was resolved
to raffle it in Edinburgh. In a letter to the Duke
of Buccleuch, dated 15th April, 1819, Sir Walter
Scott, who took a great interest in Allan, thus
gives an account of the circumstance, and of the
artist himself; — "A hundred persons subscribed
ten guineas apiece to raffle for his fine picture of
the Circassian chief selling slaves to the Turkish
pacha — a beautiful and highly poetical picture.
There was another small picture added by way of
second prize, and, what is curious enough, the
only two peers on the list, Lord Wemyss and
Loi-d Fife, both got prizes. Allan has made a
sketch, which I shall take to town with me when
I can go, in hopes Lord Stafford, or some other
picture-buyer, may fancy it, and order a picture.
The subject is the murder of Archbishop Sharpe
on Magus Moor, prodigiously well treated. The
savage ferocity of the assassins, crowding on one
another to strike at the old prelate on his knees,
contrasted with the old man's figure, and that of
his daughter endeavouring to interpose for his pro-
tection, and withheld by a ruffian of milder mood
than his fellows — the dogged, fanatical severity of
Rathillet's countenance, who remained on horse-
back, witnessing, with stem fanaticism, the mur-
der he did not choose to be active in, lest it should
be said that he struck out of private revenge — are
all amazingly well combined." The picture which
Allan executed from the sketch here described by
Sir Walter Scott, was worthy of his genius. It
was afterwards engraved, and is well known.
The painting itself is in the possession of Mr.
lAKjkhart, of Milton-Lockhart. Sir Walter add-
ed : — " Constable (the eminent publisher) has of-
fered Alian three hundred pounds to make sketches
for an edition of the * Tales of my Landlord,' and
other novels of that cycle, and says he will give
him the same sum next yeai*, so, fix)m being
pinched enough, this very deserving artist sud-
denly finds^ himself at his ease. He waa long at
Odessa with the Duke of Richelieu, and is a very
entertaining person."
During the visit of the Grrand Duke Nicholas,
afterwai'ds Czar of Russia, to Edinburgh, about
this time, he purchased several of Allan's pictures;
one, the * Siberian Exiles,' and another, * Haslan
Cheray,' both already mentioned. Allan's works
were now readily bought. His most affecting pic-
ture, 'The Press-Gang,' was purchased by Mr.
Horrocks of Tillyheeran ; his ' Knox admonishing
Mary, Queen of Scots,' a work full of character, by
Mr. Trotter of Ballendean ; and his ' Death of the
Regent Moray,' by the then duke of Bedford. A
serious malady in his eyes, which was a souree of
suffering for several years, caused a cessation from
all professional labours. A change of climate being
advised by his physician, he went to Italy, and
after spending a winter at Rome, he proceeded to
Naples, and thence made a journey to Constanti-
nople. He afterwards, with restored health, visit-
ed Morocco, Greece, Spain, and the wild range of
country from Gibraltar to Persia, and from Persia
to the Baltic, for the purpose of studying the scen-
ery and manners of the various nations through
which he passed. These he faithfully embodied
on his canvass, and among his greatest pictures in
this style may be noticed, * The Discovery of the
Cup in the Sack of Bei\jamin ;' ' The Polish Cap-
tives;' *The Slave Market at Constantinople,'
which was purchased by Alexander Hill, Esq.,
print-publisher; 'Tartar Banditti Dividing thefr
Spoil;' 'The Moorish Love-Letter;' 'Byron in
the Fisherman's Hut, after Swimming the Helles-
pont,' which was bought by his friend Robert
Nasmyth, Esq., who was also the purehaser of his
whole-length cabinet portraits of ' Scott and Bums.'
The eastern pieces named were executed after his
return to Edinburgh, with numerous others, de-
scriptive of oriental scenery, persons, and man-
ners. The history of his own land also furnished
him with subjects for his powerful and graphic pen-
cil. Besides ' The Murder of Archbishop Sharpe,
and 'The Death of the Regent Moray,' he devoted
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ALLAN,
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SIR WILLLAM.
his genius to many other scenes illustrative of onr
Scottish annals, so fhiitM in remarkable and
strildng events. His painting of Mary and Rizzio
is one of the best of these historic pictnres.
In his famous picture of ^The Ettrick Shep-
herd's House-heating/ executed in 1819, he intro-
duced a portrait of his Mend Sir TViJUsr Scott,
who had always a great regard for him. His
figure of * The Author of Waverley in his Study,'
done shortly before Sir Walter's death, is consid-
ered one of his most successful efforts in this de-
partment of art. He also finished an admirable
painting of Sir Walter's eldest son, when comet
of dragoons, holding his horse, which bangs over
the mantelpiece of the great library at Abbotsford.
He was there during the last melancholy scenes of
Scott's life. Mr. Lockhart says, " Perceiving, to-
wards the close of August 1832, that the end was
near, and thinking it very likely that Abbotsford
might soon undergo many changes, and myself, at
all events, never see it again, I felt a desire to
have some image preserved of the interior apart-
ments as occupied by their founder, and invited
from Edmburgh, for that purpose. Sir Walter's
dear friend, William Allan, whose presence, I well
knew, would, even under the circumstances of that
time, be nowise troublesome to any of the family,
but the contrary in all respects. Mr. Allan will-
ingly complied, and executed a series of beautiful
drawings. He also shared our watchings, and
witnessed all but the last moments."
In 1884 he visited Spain, with the object of col-
lecting fresh materials for the subjects of his art.
He sailed for Cadiz and Gibraltar, proceeded into
West Barbary, and crossing again into Spain, tra-
velled over the greater part of Andalusia, intend-
ing to go on to Madrid, but was recalled to Scot-
land, by news from home.
In 1836 Mr. Allan was elected a member of the
Royal Academy, and in 1838 he was chosen pre-
sident of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting,
Sculpture, and Architecture, on the death and in
the room of Mr. Watson, the original president.
In 1841, on the death of Sir David Wilkie, he was
appointed her Majesty's limner for Scotland, and
in the following year he was km'ghted. He was
an honorary member of the Academies of New
York and Philadelphia.
Having long intended to paint a picture of the
Battle of Waterloo, he several times visited France
and Belgium to make sketches of the memorable
field, and to collect the requisite materials for his
purpose. The view he chose was from the French
side. Napoleon and his staff being the foreground
figures. This picture was, in 1843, exhibited at
the Royal Academy, London, and purchased by
the Duke of WellingtoQ, wno expressed his high
satisfaction at the truthfulness of the arrangement
and detail in his work. He was subsequently in-
duced, by the success of the first, to paint another
great picture of Waterloo, from the British side,
with the view of entering the lists of the West
minster Hall competition of 1846. This piece alst
gained the approbation of the Duke of Wellington,
and was much praised by the public, out though
voted for by W. Etty, R.A., one of the best judges
in the committee, as worthy of public reward, it
was not judged deserving of a prize.
In 1844 Allan revisited Russia, and had an op-
portunity of again seeing his early patron, the
Emperor Nicholas. While there he painted a
picture of * Peter the Great teaching his subjects
the art of shipbuilding,' which is now in the winter
palace of St. Petersburgh.
After his return to his native city, he continued
his professional labours, with the enthusiasm that
ever marked his character. His last energies were
expended on a national piece, and one commemor-
ative of the most remarkalde event in the history
of Scotland's independence, namely, *The Battle
of Bannockbum,' on the same extensive scale as
bis latter picture of Waterloo. On this picture
he worked with as much diligence as his weak-
ened condition would admit, for already his last
illness was upon him. So eager was he to com-
plete the work in time for the ensuing exhibition
of the Royal Academy, that, it is stated, he had
his bed earned into his painting room that he
might sleep near his work. When the pencil at
length fell from his hand he was too far gone in
illness to be removed, and he died in his painting
room, in front of his latest picture. He was never
married, his niece having kept house for him.
Sir William died at his residence, 72 Great
King Street, Edinburgh, on the 23d February,
1850, in the 69th year of his age. He had for
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ALPIN.
many years been afflicted with chronic disease of
the windwipe, and had latterly become much en-
feebled. His genius as an artist was of the highest
order, and he possessed singularly unassuming
manners and an amiable disposition. As an in-
stance of his kindly feeling, it may be stated that
on a few of the scholars of Mr. John Robertson,
the first teacher in Gillespie's hospital, Edinburgh,
who had been educated in that institution under
his charge, wishing to have the portrait taken of
their old master, two of them waited on Sir Wil-
liam Allan to ascertain if his engagements would
permit him to do it, and on what terms, when,
appreciating their motives, he at once generously
agreed to paint Mr. Robertson^s portrait without
remuneration, and it is now in the hall of the
hospital. Sir William was much esteemed, not
only by his brother artists, but by an extensive
circle of friends. A picture of his commemora-
tive of the Ettrick Shepherd's birthday, at Hogg's
house at Altrive, after a day's sport in trouting
and rambling on the mountains, contains nineteen
portraits <^ the Shepherd's intimate friends and
his own, in rural costumes, among whom, besides
Hogg and himself, are Sir Walter Scott ; his son-
in-law John Gibson Lockhart; the two Ballan-
t3mes, James and John ; Professor Wilson and his
brother James; Captain Thomas Hamilton, au-
thor of * Cyril Thornton ;' Alexander Nasmyth,
the celebrated landscape painter; David Brydges ;
Constable the publisher ; James Russell, the co-
median; and James Bruce, piper to Sir Walter
Scott; a list of names calculated to make the
painting interesting, although not among the most
finished of the artist's perfonnances. It is now
the property of Mrs. Gott of Armsly House.
Sir William Allan was for a long period the
only resident historical painter of his country,
and for seventeen years master of the Trustees'
academy, at Edinburgh, where he and Wilkie
first began their career. His excellence as a
painter consisted in his dramatic power of por-
traying a story, and his general skill in com-
position, rather than in character or in colour.
He will be remembered in the history of Scottish
art by the impulse which he gave to historical
composition ; whUe his name will always be en-
deared to the admirers of Sir Walter Scott by the
strong partiality which the latter evinced on all
occasions for his friend "Willie Allan," With
the office of limner to the queen for Scotland,
which Allan received in 1842, the honour of
knighthood is always conveyed to its holder. A
small salary also^ accompanies it. The office was
revived by George the Fourth, and given to Sir
Henry Raeburu, and at Raebum's death it was
conferred on Sir David Wilkie, who was succeeded
by Sir William Allan. At the death of the latter,
Sir James Watson Gordon, R.A., president and
trustee of the Royal Scottish Academy, was
appointed in his place. A portrait of Sir
William Allan is given separately. Besides
WUkie, John Burnet the engraver, Alexander
Eraser the painter, and others eminent in art, were
bis fellow students at the Trustees' Academy,
Edinburgh. When he firat went to London, Opie,
the Cornish painter, was then at the height of his
reputation, and in the first picture which Allan
sent to the Ro^'al Academy, be imitated Ople's
style, so far as colour went, with something like
servility. This picture, called * A Gipsy and
Ass,' was exhibited in 1805. His * Russian Pea-
sants Keeping Holiday,' was exhibited in 1809.
Besides the pictures above mentioned, he also
painted the following : — * Circassian Prince on
Horseback selling two boys of his own nation to a
Cossack chief of the Black Sea ;' * Circassian
Chief selling to a Turkish Pasha Captives of a
neighbouring tribe taken in war;' *The parting
between Prince Charles Stuart and Flora Mac-
donald ai Portree ;' and ' Jeauie Deans' fii-st inter-
view with her father after her return from London.*
AiJJUiDiCB, rarname of, see Barclat-Allardick.
ALPIN, king of the Dahiadic Scots, reigned
contemporary with his cousin, Drust IX., king of
the Picts. He is usually said to have been the
son of Achaius, or Eoganan, that is, in the Celtic,
Eochy-annuine (the poisonous), but Pinkerton
thinks that the name of his father is lost beyond
all recovery, and, indeed, the history of the coun-
try at a period so remote is so enveloped in dark-
ness as to be considered in many respects fabu-
lous. He succeeded his brother, Dungal the Brown,
in 884. His kingdom comprehended the moun-
tainous country of Argyleshire, as far as the mouth
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ALPIN.
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ALSTON.
of the Clyde, but, anxioas to extend his territo-
ries, he sailed firom Kintjre, and landed in the
bay of Ayr, with a powerful force. After laying
waste the district between the rivers Ayr and
Doon, following the course of these rivers, he
penetrated to the ridge which separates Kyle from
Galloway, destruction for a time marking his pro-
gress. He soon, however, received a check. The
chiefe, recovered from their first alarm, and thirst-
ing for revenge, collected their followers, and com-
ing up with the invading army, in the parish of
Dalmellington, in Ayrshire, a furious conflict en-
suedf when Alpin was numbered among the slain.
This event happened about 837. The battle was
fought near the site of Laicht castle, which de-
rived its name from the stone of Alpin, a grave-
stone known and recognised nearly four centuries
after this last of the Dalriad kings had been slain
on the spot. The word hickt signifies a grave or
stone, and there are still the remains of an old
castle in the parish of Dalmellington, at a place
called Laicht, which was demolished by the pro-
prietor in 1771, to enclose some ground. Two
farms in the parish are still called Over and Ne-
ther Laicht, and several cairns are found which
indicate the scene of the battle. It is also re-
markable that the foundation charter of the town
of Ayr, granted by William the Lion in 1197,
when describing the limits of its exclusive trade,
names Laicht Alpin, the stone or grave of Alpin,
as one of its distinguishing boundaries. Alpin
left two sons, Kenneth MacAlpin, under whom
the Scots and Southern Picts were united, and
Donald IT., who succeeded Kenneth. Alpines at-
tempt to extend his territories appears, says Skene,
from the register of St. Andrews, to have been
confined to Galloway, the province of which in
■those days comprehended Ayrshire, and belonged
to the Southern Picts, and it is said by that chroni-
cle, that it was his conquest of that territory which
transferred the kingdom of the Picts to the Scots.
The latter event is called the Scottish Conquest.
Kenneth his son apparently fought but one battle,
and that, according to the same chronicle, at For-
ceviot, in the very heart of the territory of the
Southern Picts. [^Skene's History of the Highland-
ersy vol. i. p. 65.] This Alpin is not to be con-
founded with another Alpin or Elpin, who was
king of the Picts, and who reigned from 776 to 779
— Chalmers^ Cakdoma. — Ritson^s AnndU^ vol. ii.
ALSTON, Charles, an eminent physician and
lecturer on botany, was bom in Lanarkshire in
1683, and first studied at the university of Glas-
gow. Willie a student there, he had the good
fortune to be taken under the patronage of the
duchess of Hamilton, and spent his early years at
Hamilton palace. By the assistance of her grace
he was enabled to accomplish the design of devot-
ing himself to the medical profession, and in the
year 1716 he went, with the celebrated Dr. Alex-
ander Monro, to Leyden; where, after studying
for three years under the celebrated Boerhaave,
he took his degree of M.D. On his return he
conunenced practice in Edinburgh, and, by the
interest of the duke of Hamilton, heritable keep^T
of Holyrood house, he obtained the sinecure ofSce
of king's botanist. He began his lectures on bo-
tany in 1720, in the king's garden at Holyrood
house, which he enriched by large collections he
had made in Holland. In 1738 he was chosen to
succeed Professor Preston, in the chair of Botany
and Materia Medica united, in the university of
Edinburgh ; and in conjunction with Dr. Monro,
Dr. Rutherford, Dr. Sinclaur, and Dr. Plnmmer,
laid the foundation of the high character since
enjoyed by Edinburgh as a school of medical sci-
ence. In 1740, for the assistance of his pupils, he
published an Index of the plants demonstrated to
them in the fklinburgh medical garden. He con-
tinued to lecture till his death on the 22d of No-
vember 1760. In the fifth volume of the Edin-
burgh Medical Essays he published a short paper
on the efficacy of the powder of tin in destroying
or expelling worms from the bowels. He was the
author of several botanical works, the principal of
which is entitled ^ Tirocinium Botanicum Edinbur-
gense,' 1753. In the same year one of his papei-s,
in which he endeavoured to overturn the Linniean
doctrine of the sexual system of plants, was pub-
lished in the first volume of the * Edinburgh Phy-
sical and Literary Essays.' He also engaged in a
controversy with Dr. Whytt about quicklime ; but
the most valuable of all his works are his * Lectures
on the Materia Medica,' which appeared in two
volumes 4to in 1770, edited by his friend and suc-
cessor in the professor's chair. Dr. John Hope.
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ALTRIE.
122
ANCRUM.
In botany a genus of the Polyandria monogynia
class and order is called Alstonia after Dr. Alston.
The following is a list of Dr. Alston's works :
Index Plantarom in Horto Medico EdinburgensL Edin.
1740, 8vo.
Index Medicamentomm simplidom triplex. Edin. 1752,
12mo.
Dissertations on Quick Lime and lime Water. Edin. 1752,
12mo. The 2d edition, with additions. 1754, 8vo.
Tjrodniam Botanicam Edinboi^nse. Edin. 1753, 8ro.
1765, 8ro.
Dissertation on Botany, translated from the Latin by a
Physician. Edin. 1754, 8to, perhaps a translation of the
Tyrocinium.
A second Dissertation on Qnick Lime and Lime Water.
Edm. 1755, 12mo.
A third Dissertation on Qoick lime and lime Water.
Edin. 1757, 8vo.
Lectores on the Materia Medica, containing the Natural
History of Drugs, their Virtues and Doses; also Directions
for the Study of the Materia Medica, and an Appendix on
the Method of Preecribmg. Lond. 1770, 2 vols. 4to, edited
by Dr. Hope.
Powder of Tin, an Anthelmentic Medicine. Med. Ess. v.
p. 89, 1736.
Dissertation «i Opium. lb. p. 110, 1736.
Case of Extravasated Blood in the Pericardium. lb. ▼. p.
609.
A Dissertation on the Sexes of Plants. Ess. Phys. and
Lit p. 205, 1754.
Two Letters on lime and lime Water. Phil. Trans.
1751, Abr. X. p. 204.
Altrie, in the peerage of Scotland, an extinct barony
originally conferred on Robert Keith, the second son of Wil-
liam fourth earl Marischal, who was oommendator of the
Gistertian Abbey of Deer in Aberdeenshire, and had the whole
lands belonging to that monastery erected into a temporal
lordship, with the title of Lord Altrie, 29th July 1587. His
lordship was selected by Elng James VI., to go to Denmark
to negotiate his marriage with the princess Anne in 1589,
but excused himself on account of his age and infirmities,
when his nephew George, fifth earl Marischal, was ap-
I pointed in his stead. The first Lord Altrie is supposed to
have been dead before 1606. He was succeeded by his said
I nephew, the fiflh earl Marischal, the founder of Marischal
' College, Aberdeen, when the title of Lord Altrie merged in
the superior title, and became extinct on the death of Geoige
the tenth earl Marischal. See Mabischal, earl, and Keith,
surname of.
Alvks, a surname derived firom a parish in Elginshu« of
that name.
ALVES, Robert, a minor poet, was bom at
Elgin in 1745, and studied at Aberdeen, where
he took his degrees of philosophy in 1766. His
poetical talents gained him the friendship of Dr.
Beattie and other gentlemen of literary tastes. He
afterwards became parish schoolmaster at Desk-
ford, and in 1773 removed to Banff. In 1779 he
went to Edinburgh, where he maintained himself
by teaching the classics. He is said to have left
Banff on account of a disappointment in love. In
1782 he published a volume of poems, which
attracted little notice. In 1789 appeared another
of his works, entitled 'Edinburgh, a poem, in two
parts, and the Weeping Bard, in sixteen cantos,*
which were not without merit. He died on the
Ist of January 1794, leaving a laborious work
in the press, entitled * Sketches of a History of
Literature,' which was afterwards published.
ICampbdts History of Scottish Poetry. "^ The
works of Alves are :
Poems. Edin. 1782, 8vo.
Edinburgh, a Poem; «l8o the Weeping Bard. Edin. 1789,
8vo.
Sketches of the History of Literature, containing Lives and
Characters of the most eminent writers in different Langnafi;e8,
ancient and modem, with Critical Remarks on their works,
together with several literaiy Essays ; to which is prefixed, a
short biographical account of the Author. Edin. 1794, 8to.
Edin. 1796, 8vo.
Banks of Esk, and other Poems. Edin. 1801, 12mo.
Ancrum, earl of, one of the titles of the marquis of Lo>
thian, conferred m 1638, on Sir Robert Keir, of Ancrum, an
accomplished poet and courtier, the descendant of Sir Andrew
Kerr of Femihirst, a border chief who acted a prominent part iv
the reigns of James IV. and James V., particularly in reasting
the inroads of the English. The title derolved on Robert fourth
eari and first marquis of Lothian, on the death of Charles,
second earl of Ancrum, and is now by courtesy borne by tin
eldest son of the marquis of Lothian. [See Lothian, mar>
quia of, and Kkrr, surname of.] The name of Ancrum is de-
rived from Alncromb or Alncrumb, signifying the crook of the
Ale or Aln, and is exactly descriptive of the situation of the
village of Ancrum, which stands on a rising ground on the
south side of the Ale, where that stream fetches a cmre be-
fore falling into the Teviot A ridge in the sequestered parish
of Ancrum in Boxbuighshire is called Lilliard*s edge, from a
battle fought there in 1544, on an invasion of the English
under Sir Ralph Evers and Sir Brian Latoon, in which a
young Scottish woman named Lilliard who had foDowed
her lover, on seeing him fall, rushed forward, and fighting
bravely, by her gallantry aided to turn the fight in favour of
her countrymen. The heroine was slain in the engagement,
and an old broken and defaced stone is still pointed out to
mark the spot where she fell. It is said to have once borne
the following inscription, recast from the well-known lines on
Sir Thomas Widdrington in the ballad of Chevy Chase:
** Fair maiden Lyliard lies under this stane;
Little was her stature, bat great was her fame ;
Upon the English loons she laid many thninps.
And when her legs were cutted off she fought upon her
stumps.**
The leaders of the Scotch were the regent earl of Arran and
the earl of Angus. (See vol. ii. p. 46.)
ANCRUM, earl of, sec Kerr, Sir Robert.
Andersoit, a surname meaning literally the son of
Andrew, but as held by families of Lowland origin, denoting
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ANDERSON.
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ANDERSON.
:nore proper.j a son of St Andrew, that it, a natire Scota-
tnan, as indicated bj the Gross of St Andrew, the patron
saint of Sootland, in their shield. The Mid Lothian Andersons,
to one branch of which belongs the family of the anthor
of this work, have for crest a crosslet above the creecent;
motto, '* Gradatiro." The crest evidentlj has reference to
the cmsades.
The Gaelic sept of Anderson are said to be an offshoot of
the old potent stem of Clan Annas, from which spring the
Mac Andrews, the Mac Gilanders, and the Gilhinder8es(/S:(«iMi,
vol. ii. p. 228). The chief of the sept is Anderson of Candacraig,
Aberdeenshire.
ANDERSON, Adam, author of the largest
British compilation upon commercial history, was
bom abont the year 1692. He left Scotland early
in life, and obtained the situation of clerk in the
Sonth Sea House, London, in which he remained
for forty years, and rose to be chief clerk of the
Stock and New Annuities in that establishment.
He retained that post till his death, which hap-
pened on the 10th January 1765. He was one of
the trustees for the Settlement of Georgia, and
also a member of the court of assistants of the
Scots Corporation in Ix>ndon. In 1764, a year
before his death, was published his elaborate work,
entitled ^ An Historical and Chronological Deduc-
tion of the Origin of Commerce, from the Earliest
Accounts to the Present Time ; containing a His-
tory of the large Commercial Interests of the
British Empire,* &c. London, two volumes folio.
An improved edition of this work was subsequent-
ly published by David MTherson, in four vol-
umes. Mr. Anderson was twice married. By his
first wife he had a daughter. His second wife
survived him till 1781. He was her third hus-
band.— Chahners^ Biog. Diet.
ANDERSON, Alexander, an eminent mathe-
matician, was bom at Aberdeen, near the close of
the sixteenth century. Having at an early period
of his life proceeded to Paris, he settled there as a
private teacher or professor of mathematics. Be-
tween the years 1612 and 1619 he published vari-
ous treatises on geometrical and algebraic science.
His pure taste and skill in mathematical investi-
gation pointed him out to the executors of the
celebrated geometrician Yieta, Master of Requests
at Paris, who died in 1603, as the fittest person
to revise and publish his valuable MSS., which he
did with learned comments, and neat demonstra-
tions of propositions left imperfect. He subse-
quently produced a specimen of the application of
geometrical analysis, distinguished for its clearness
and classic elegance. His works are now scarce.
They consist of six thin quarto volumes, including
the edition of the works of Vieta, The date of
his death, as of his birth, has not been ascertained.
{Huttm's Mathematical Dictionary "] The follow-
ing is a list of his works :
Sapplemontum Apollonii Redivivi; sire Analysts Prob-
lematis ad Apollonii Doctrinam desiderati, a Maiino Ghe-
taldo relicti. Hoic subnexa est, yariomm problematum
practice. Paris, 1612, 4to.
Air<«X«7<«, pro Zetetioo Apolloniani Problematis a so jam
pridem edito in Sopplemento Apollonii Redivivi, &c Paris,
1615, 4to.
Francisd VietsB de Eqnationnm Recognitione et Emenda-
tione Tractatos duo. Paris, 1615, 4to.
VindidsB Archimedis, sive Elenchos Cyclometrias Laq*-
bexgil Paris, 1616.
Diacrisis Animadrersionis in Franc Vietam a Clem. Cj-
riaoo. Paris, 1617.
Exerdtationam Mathematicarum Decas prima. Paris,
1619.
ANDERSON, David, of Finshaugh, a citizen
and merchant of Aberdeen, the brother, or, as
another account says, the cousin of the preceding,
and uncle of George Jamesone the Scottish Van-
dyke, had likewise a strong turn for mathematics
and mechanics, and from his being able to apply
his knowledge to so many practical and useful
purposes, he was popularly known at Aberdeen by
the familiar name of Davie Do-a*-things. He re-
moved a large rock which obstructed the entrance
to Aberdeen harbour. He left three daughters,
yet *' his widow," we are informed by Mr. David
Laing, in the information supplied to Allan Cun-
ningham for his Memoir of Jamesone the painter,
*^ was rich enough and generous enough to found
and endow an hospital in Aberdeen for the main-
tenance and education of ten poor orphans." One
of his daughters was married to the Rev. John
Gregory, minister of Drumoak, and their son was
the celebrated James Gregory, inventor of the re-
flecting telescope. From her is supposed to have
been derived that taste for mathematical science
which afterwards distinguished the Gregorys. A
portrait of him by his nephew, the celebrated
painter above referred to, is still extant in Aber-
deen.
ANDERSON, Andrew, a printer at Edin-
burgh, who, in the reign of Charles H., obtained
a patent for printing everything in Scotland for 41
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ANDERSON.
124
ANDERSON.
years, thus monopolizing the whole trade to him-
Bclf-— -a thing that would not be tolerated in our
more enlightened days. He was the son of George
Anderson, who, in 1638, introduced the art of
letter-press printing into Glasgow, having been
invited from Edinburgh by the magistrates for that
purpose, and it appears from the council records
of the former city that he was to be allowed £100
for the liquidation of his expenses, " in transport-
ing of his gear to that burgh,^' and in full of his
bygone salaries from Whitsunday 1638 till Mar-
tinmas 1639. His son Andrew succeeded him in
Glasgow, but afterwards removed to Edinbnrgh,
and was made king's printer for Scotland, in 1671.
For many years after this period the art of print-
ing remained in the very lowest state in Scotland,
owing mainly to the exclusive nature of the royal
grant to Anderson. This privilege was after-
wards restricted to Bibles and Acts of parliament,
which continued exclusively in the hands of the
king's printers for Scotland, till 1839, when the
license was thrown open, under certain condi-
tions and restrictions, to the printing trade gen-
erally.
ANDERSON, Andrew, lieutenant-general in
the East India Company's service, founder of an
institution at Elgin for the support of old age and
the education of youth, was the son of a private
soldier and a poor half-witted woman of the name
of Marjory GUzean, belonging to the town of El-
gin, to whom he was privately married. Andrew,
who was born about the year 1746, was brought
up by his mother in a state of great misery, in
what had been the sacristy of Elgin cathedral,
where she led a wretched and lonely life, support-
ed by charity; her infant's bed being a hollow
sculptured stone, which had formerly been used as
i^font. He was educated at the grammar school
of that town as a pauper, doing all the drudgery
of the school in return for his education. After-
wards he was bound apprentice to his father's
brother, a staymaker in the adjoining parish of St.
Andrews Lhanbryd, whose harsh treatment in-
duced him, while yet very young, to run away
from home. Having contrived to reach London,
he was taken in by a tailor, who afterwards em-
ployed him as his clerk. Being sent with a suit of
clothes to an officer in the East India Company's
service, a countryman of his own, then about to
proceed to India, that gentleman, pleased with his
appearance, and satisfying himself that he had
obtained a good education, advised him to enlist
in his regiment, and offered to take him as his
servant. Anderson accordingly went out as a
drummer, and from his steadiness and good con-
duct, and singular facility in the acquirement of
languages, soon obtained promotion. He had
early made himself master of the Hindostanee,
and was frequently employed as interpreter. His
conduct at the taking of Seringapatam, in 1799,
was honourably noticed at the time in the public
papers. Having amassed a large fortune, he ulti-
mately retired with the rank of lieutenant-general
in the Bombay army. In 1811 he returned to
Elgin, and resided for several summers there, or
in the neighbourhood, passing the winter in Lon-
don, where, on the 23d November 1815, he exe-
cuted a trust-disposition and deed of settlement,
assigning his whole property, after the payment
of a few minor legacies, for the purposes of found-
ing and endowing an Hospital, a School of Indus-
try, and a Free School it Elgin, to be called the
Elgin Institution for the support of old age and
education of youth. He died in London on the
16th of December 1824.
The funds left by General Anderson amounted
to £70,000, and the Elgin Institution, which stands
at the east end of Elgin, was founded in 1832,
for the maintenance of aged men and women, and
the maintenance and education of poor or orphan
boys and girls. The philanthropic and splendid
monument which he may be said to have thus
raised to his own memory is a beautiful and ap-
propriate piece of architecture. Built of native
sandstone, it is a quadrangular structure of two
stories, surmounted by a circular tower and dome.
The institution for the children contains a school
of indnstry. The children are apprenticed also to
some trade or useful occupation. The house gov-
ernor and teacher of the school of industry has a
salary of £55 per annum, with board and lodging
in the institution. A public school, on the I^an-
casterian system, is attached to the institution as
a free school, for the education of male and female
children whose parents, though in narrow circum-
stances, are still able to maintain and clothe them
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ANDERSON.
ANDERSON, James, the author of the * Di-
plomata ScoUs,' was the son of the Rev. Patrick
Anderson, one of the persecuted presbyterian min-
isters, who at the Restoration was ejected from his
living and afterwards suffered imprisonment in the
Bass, and was bom at Edinburgh, August 5, 1662,
and graduated at the university there. It appears
from the registers of the university of Edinburgh
that he was a student under Mr. William Paterson,
the professor of philosophy in 1667, and took his
degree in the class of Mr. James Wishart, on the
27th of Afay 1680. Having chosen the law for his
profession, he served an apprenticeship with Sii*
Hugh Paterson of Bannockbum, writer to the sig-
net, and on the 6th of June 1691 he was admitted
a member of that society. In 1704, an English
lawyer, of the name of Atwood, having published a
pamphlet claiming for England a direct superiority
over Scotland, Mr. Anderson was led to publish
an *' Historical Essay, showing that the Crown and
Kingdom of Scotland is imperial and Independent,'
which appeared in 1705. This work procui*ed for
him not only a reward, but the thanks of the Scot-
tish parliament, which ordered Atwood's pamphlet
as well as theHistoria Anglo-Scotica of Drake, to be
burnt by the common hangman. Having projected
a series of engravings of fac-similes of the charters
and seals, medals and coins, of the Scottish mon-
archs from the earliest times, in November 1706,
he obtained from the Scottish parliament a vote of
three hundred pounds sterling towards this object.
By this aid he was enabled to make great progress
in his arduous work ; but before March 1707 he
had not only expended this sum, but five hundred
and ninety pounds sterling of his own on the un-
dertaking, and was forced again to apply to par-
liament, now about to expire. A committee re-
ported the facts, and the parliament, while they
approved of his conduct, voted him an additional
grant of one thousand and fifty pounds steriing ;
and recommended him to the queen * as a person
meriting her gracious favour.* One of the last
acts of the union parliament was ^ a recommenda-
tion in favour of Mr. James Anderson.' This in-
duced him to remove to London, to superintend
the progress of the work, though the money Is &aid
never to have been paid. In June 1715 he was
appointed postmaster-general for Scotland, a situ-
ation which he held only for two yeai-s, havhig
been superseded on the 29th of November 1717,
for some cause which does not appear, by Sir
John Inglis of Cramond. When he lost this ap-
pointment he issued proposals for publishing his
*Diplomata.' The following advertisement ap-
peared in Watson*s Scots Courant of the 25th of
February 1718: *' Proposals being printed for
publishing a book, which will consist of above one
hundred copperplates, containing the ancient char-
ters and seals of the kings of Scotland, and the
alphabets and abbreviations made use of in an-
cient writings, collected pursuant to an order of
the parliament of Scotland, by Mr. Anderson,
writer to the signet: any who encourage that
book may have copies of the proposals at Mr. An-
derson's house above the general post office, Edin-
burgh, and may also see specimens of the work at
any time between the hours of two and five in the
afternoon.'' In 1727 appeared the first and second
volumes of his ^ Collections relating to the History
of Mary Queen of Scotland ;' to which he soon
after added two more volumes, 4to. This work
was intended as a counter publication to Jebb's
Vita et Rebus Gestis Marim Scotorum RegiruBy
published at I-ondon, in 1725, in two folio vol-
umes, which represented Mary and her cause in
a favourable light. In preparing his work on
Queen Mary, Mr. Anderson, through the infiuence
of the Duke of Devonshire, obtained admission
to the state paper office, " whence," says Chal-
mers, ^'he drew some documents that lost their
efficacy from suspicions of his candour.'' Mr. Chal-
mers, in his life of Rnddiman, makes the following
very just remark: "That such an antiquary as
Andei*son is represented to have been should enti-
tle Mary, queen^of Scotland^ is astonishing, when
the charters and seals of hfs own Diplomata would
have shown him that she was Scotorum Regina^
as her predecessors had been Scotorum Reges.
Rnddiman, with his usual acuteness, remarks,
^ That it is a sure indication of forgery when an
old charter speaks of the king as Scotiee Rex.^ "
[Chalmers' Ruddiman^ p. 156, note, ed. 1794.] An-
derson was one of a society of the critics of Edin-
burgh, which was formed for publishing a correct
edition of Buchanan's works, with the declared
aim of vindicating "that incomparably learned
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JAMES, LL.D.
and pious author from the calumnies of Mr. Tho-
mas Ruddiman/* It does not appear that they
ever carried their design into execution, farther
than preparing a series of " Notts" upon the an-
notations of Ruddiman, which are still in manu-
script. He died at London of an apoplectic stroke,
on the 2d of April 1728, at the age of sixty-six,
leaving unfinished his great work, on which he had
been engaged for so many years. He had married
m his youth a daughter of John Ellis of Elliston,
an advocate in Edinburgh, by whom he had sev-
eral sons, who survived him, and a daughter Mar-
garet who married George Crawford, the author
of the Peerage. One of his sons, Patrick Ander-
son, was comptroller of the stamps at Edinburgh.
In his latter years, Anderson found himself in em-
barrassed curcumstances, from the poverty which
had gradually fallen upon him from his ill-directed
projects, arising fi'om his want of prudence and over
sanguine temperament. In his distress he pledged
his ancient charters and his copperplates to Tho-
mas Paterson of Conduit Street, London, a fiiend
who had patronized his labours and relieved his
necessities. In 1729 the plates were sold by auc-
tion, and brought £530. It was at the request of
Mr. Paterson that Ruddiman was induced to finish
what Anderson with less erudition and diligence
had begun. At last in 1739, eleven years after his
death, the work was published in one volume folio,
under the title of * Selectus Diplomatum et Nu-
mismatum Scotin Thesaurus,* with an elaborate
preface by Thomas Ruddiman. It was printed,
in one large folio volume, by Thomas and Walter
Ruddiman, for Thomas Paterson in Conduit
Street, Andrew Millar in the Strand, London, and
Gawin Hamilton at Edinburgh.
The following is a list of Anderson's works :
An Historical Essaj, sbowbg that the Crown of Scotland
is Imperial and Independent^ in answer to Mr. Atwood.
Edin. 1705, 8vo.
Collections relating to the History of Maiy Queen of Soot-
land. Edin. 1727-28, 4 vols. 4to.
Selectus Diplomatnm et Namismatnm Scotie Thesanms :
de Mandate Parliamenti in snbjidontar ad fadlioram Rei
AntiqnarisB cognitionem Characteres et AbbreriatnraD, in
dnas partes distributus: 1. Sjllogen complectuntur veterum
diplomatmn, tare Chartamm regam et procerum ScotiiBf una
cum eonun SigOliSf a Dnncano II. ad Jacobnm I. i. e. ab anno
1094 ad 1412. 2. Continet Nomismata turn aarea quam ar-
gentea singulorum Scotise regnm ab Alexandro L ad supra
dictam regnorum coalitionem perpetna serie deducta Qiue
open consammando deerant snpplevit et prefatione, Taba-
lanun explicatione, aliisqae Appendidbns; rem ScotisB diplo-
maticam nommariam, et genealogicam baud parom illustran'
t'onibus, anxit et locupletavit Thomas Ruddimanns. Edin.
1739, foL This splendid work is enriched with fac-similes o<
charters, &c beautifully engraved by Sturt. The original
price was 4 guineas common paper, and 6 fine. Mr. Ruddi-
man's Introduction was afterwards translated, and published
by itself. Edin. 1778, 12mo. It is a work of extreme rarity,
and great value. In the fifth division it exhibits the char-
acters and abbreviations used in ancient MSS.
ANDERSON, James, D.D., the brother of
Adam Anderson, author of the Commercial His-
tory, whose life is given at page 123, was bom at
Aberdeen, and having gone to London in 1710,
was for many years minister of the Scotch church,
in Swallow street, Piccadilly. In 1 734 he removed
to another chapel in Leicester Fields, and died
May 23, 1739. He wrote a treatise on *The
Constitutions of the Free Masons,' and an elabo-
rate folio volume, entitled *• Royal Crenealogies, or
the Grenealogical Tables of Emperors, Kings, and
Princes, from Adam to these Times,* London, 1732.
ANDERSON, Jambs, LL.D., an eminent wri-
ter, the son of a farmer, was born at Hermiston,
near Edinburgh, in 1739. His ancestors were
farmers, and for many generations had occupied
the same land. His parents died when he was
very young, and at the age of fifteen he entered
upon the management of the farm which they had
possessed. Early perceiving the great advantage
of a scientific acquaintance with agriculture, he
attended the chemistry class of Dr. Cullen, in the
univei-sity of Edinburgh, studying at the same
time several collateral branches of science. He
adopted a number of improvements on his farm,
and was among the first to use the small twc
horse plough on its introduction into Scotland. In
the midst of his agricultural labours, so great was
his desire for knowledge and so unwearied his
application, that he contrived to acquire a consid-
erable stock of general information. In 1771,
under the signature of Agricola, he contributed to
Ruddiman's Edinburgh Weekly Magazine a series
of * Essays on Planting,' which in 1777 were col-
lected into a volume. In 1773 he furnished the
article Monsoon to the fii-st edition of the Encyclo-
piedia Britannica, in which he predicted the fail-
ure of Captain Cook's first expedition in search o/
a southern polar continent. In 1776 appeared his
Essay on Chimneys.
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ANDERSON.
Previotis to the year 1777, Mr. Anderson had
remoyed to a large uncultivated farm of 1,800 acres,
named Monkhill, which he rented in Aberdeen-
shire, and which, oy his skill and care, he brought
into excellent condition. In that year appeared
' Observations on the Means of Exciting a Spirit
of National Industry,* with regard to agriculture,
commerce, manufactures, and fisheries; and, be-
sides his Essays on Planting, various pamphlets on
agricultural subjects, which raised his reputation
very high as a practical agriculturist. In 1780, the
university of Aberdeen conferred on him the degree
of LL.D. He had married in 1768, Miss Seton
of Mounie; by whom he had thirteen children;
and with the twofold object of educating his
family, and enjoying literary society, m 1783
he went to reside in the neighbourhood of Edin-
burgh. His place of residence was situated within
the parish of Leith, and when the magistrates and
heritors attempted to levy an assessment upon
householders for the maintenance of the poor, he
brought the measure before the court of session,
and succeeded in persuading the judges that the
laws of Scotland did not authorise the establish-
ment of a poor's rate. He considered himself as
having rendered an essential service to his country,
by his resistance in this case, and several editions
of his papers during the process, though never
published, were printed for the use of his friends.
Having, in a tract privately circulated, projected
the establishment of the North British Fisheries,
ne was requested by the Lords of the Treasury in
1784 to survey the western coast of Scotland, and
in 1785 he published the result of his inquiries,
under the title of ^ An Account of the present state
of the Hebrides and Western Coast of Scotland,
being the Substance of a Report to the Lords of
the Treasury.' In the Report of a committee
appointed May 11, 1785, to inquire into the state
of the British fisheries, very honourable mention
is made of his labours. On the 22d December
1790 he commenced a weekly publication of a
literary and scientific nature, called ^The Bee,'
which continued till the 1st January 1794. He
wrote a great part of the work himself, and be-
sides many of the principal papers without signa-
ture, all those which were signed Senex, Alcibi-
adcs, and Timothy Haurbrain, were from his pen.
When the Board of agriculture applied to par-
liament for a reward to Mr. Elkington, on account
of his mode of draining by boring. Dr. Anderson
addressed several letters to the president of that
Board. These letters were published, and though
the language he used in them was considered as
rather mtemperate, yet it afterwards appeared that
his assertions were well founded, and that Elking-
ton's plan contained nothing but what had been
fully explained by Dr. Anderson more than twenty
years before in his Agricultural Essays. About
this time, also, he read an Essay on Moss before
the Royal Society of Edinburgh, which was soon
after published. In it he first advanced the very
singular idea that moss, contrary to the mode of
all other plants, vegetates below, while its upper
stratum b undergoing putrefaction by exposure to
the air.
About the year 1797 he removed with his family
to London, and for several years wrote the agri-
cultural articles in the Monthly Review. From
1799 to 1802 he conducted another journal called
* Recreations in Agriculture, Natural History,
Arts, and Miscellaneous Literature,' which ended
with the sixth volume. Although the work con-
tains a number of communications from others, the
greater part of it was written by himself It met
with the greatest encouragement from the public,
but the irregularity of his printers and booksellers
caused him to discontinue it. The thurty-seventh
number of his * Recreations' was his last publica-
tion in March 1802. After this period he published
nothing more, except his correspondence with
General Washington and a pamphlet on scarcity,
but devoted himself almost entirely to the relaxa-
tion of a quiet Ufe, and particularly to the cultiva-
tion of his garden at Isleworth ; in which he had
constructed a model of his patent hothouse, to act
by the rays of the sun, without the application of
artificial heat. With this he amused himself by
making experiments, in order to ascertain what
degree of heat and moisture was most salutary to
different plants. As an instance of his unwearied
attention to every department of rural economy,
may be mentioned a discovery which he made
about this time, respecting the most effectual mode
of exterminating wasps. Having observed that
in the district where he resided these insects were
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ANDERSON.
very destructive to every species of fruit, he re-
solved to study their natural history. He soon
ascertained, by his inquiries and observations,
that the whole hive, like that of bees, was propa-
gated from one female or queen, and that the
whole i-ace, except a few queens, peiished during
winter, and he naturally concluded that to destroy
the queens, in the months of May and June, before
they began to drop their eggs, was the sui-est way
of diminishing their number. With this view he
even procured an association to be formed, which
circulated handbills with directions, and offered a
reward for every queen wasp that should be
brought in, within a specified period.
Dr. Anderson died at Westham, near London, on
15th October 1808, of a gradual decline. Having
been some time a widower, in 1801 he had married
a second wife, a lady belonging to Isleworth, who
smrived him ; ss did also five sons and a daugh-
ter. In his younger days, and while engaged in the
active pursuits of agriculture, Dr. Anderson was
remarkably handsome in his person, of middle
stature, and of robust constitution. Extremely
moderate in his living, the country exercise ani-
mated his countenance with the glow of health ;
but the overstrained exertion of his mental pow-
ers afterwards impaired his strength, ultimately
wasted his faculties, and brought on premature
old age. He possessed a very independent mind,
and his manners were agreeable and unconstrain-
ed. In the relative duties of a husband and a fa-
ther, he displayed the greatest prudence and affec-
tion ; and in the social circle he was distinguished
by his humorous pleasantry, and abounded in
anecdote. In conversation he entered with zeal
and spirit into any favourite subject, and his re-
marks were generally full of interest. He was
among the first of that long list of practical writers
of which the present century has produced so
many who directed the public attention to the im-
provement of agriculture, and there was no agri-
cultural subject of which he treated without throw-
uig upon it new light. Besides the works men-
tioned, he wrote also many papers in the periodi-
cals, and an Account of Ancient Fortifications in
the Highlands, which was read to the Society of
Scottish Antiquaries.— &oti Moff, 1809.— -Bt/m.
Ency.
The following is a list of his works :
A Practical Treatiae on GhimneTs ; containing fiill direo-
tions for oonstmcting them in all cases, so as to draw weU,
and for removing Smoke in houses. Lond. 1776, 12mo.
Free Thoughts on the American Contest. Edin. 1776, 8vo.
Essays relating to Agricolture and Rural Affairs. Edin.
1776, 8vo. 1777, Svo. Lond. 1796, 8 toIs. 8vo. Fifth *dit.
with additions and corrections. Lond. 1800, 8 toIs. Svo.
Miscellaneous llioughts on Planting and Training Timber
Trees, by Agrioohi. Edin. 1777, Svo.
Observations on the Means of exciting a Spirit of Nationa]
Industry, chiefly intended to promote the Agriculture, Com-
merce, Fisheries, and Manufactures of Scotland. Edm. 1777
4to.
An Inquiry into the Nature of the Com Laws, with a view
to the new Com Bill proposed for SooUand. Edin. 1777, Sva
An Enquiry into the Causes that have hitherto retarded
the advancement of Agriculture in Europe, with Hints for
removing the circumstances that have chiefly obstructed its
progress. Edin. 1779, 4to.
The Interest of Great Britain with regard to her American
Colonies oonsidored. 1782, 8vo.
The Tme Interest of Great Britain considered, or a Pro-
posal for establishing the Northern British Fisheries. 1783,
12mo.
An Account of the present State of the Hebrides, and
Western Coasts of Scotland, with Hints for encouraging the
Fbheriee, and promoting other Improvements in these coun-
tries; being the Substance of a Report to the Lords of the
Treasuiy. Edin. 1785, 8vo, illustrated with a geographical
map.
Obserrations on Slavery, particularly with a view to lit
effects on the British Colonies in the West Indies. Man-
chester, 1789, 4to.
Papers drawn up by him and Sir John Sinclair, in reference
to a Report by a Committee of the Highland Society on Sbet-
hmd Wool 1790, 8vo.
The Bee, consisting of Essays Philosophical and Miscella-
neous. Edin. 1791-94, 6 vols. 8vo.
Observations on the Effects of Coal Duty upon the remote
and thinly peopled coasts of Britain. Edin. 1792, 8vo.
Thoughts on the Privileges and Power of Juries, with Ob-
servations on the present State of the Country with regard ta
Credit Edm. 1793, 8vo.
Remarks on the Poor Law in ScotUnd. Edin. 1793, 4to.
A Practical Treatise on Peat Moss, considered as in itk
natural state fitted for affording fuel, or as susceptible of
being converted into mould, capable of yielding abundant
crops of useful produce, with full directions for converting and
cultivating it as a soil Edin. 1794, 8vo.
A Genotd View of the Agriculture and Rural Economy of
the County of Aberdeen, with Observations on the means of
its improvement. Chiefly drawn up for the Board of Agri-
culture, in two parts. Edin. 1794, 8vo.
An Account of the differeut kinds of Sheep found in the
Russian dominions, and among the Tartar Hordes of Asia, by
Dr. Pallas, illustrated with six plates, to which are added flvr
appendixes, tending to illustrate the natural and OBOonomica.
histoiy of sheep, and other domestic animals. Edin. 1794,
8vo.
On an Universal Character, in two letters to Edward
Home, Esq. . Edm. 1795, 8vo.
A Practical Treatise on Draining Bogs and Swampy Grounds,
with cursory remarks on the originality of Elkington's mode
of draining. Also disquisitions concerning the different breedi
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ANDERSON.
of sheep and other doraestio wiiinBls, beiog the principal ad-
ditions made in the foniih edition of his EaaajE on Agricul-
ture. Lond. 1794, 1798, 8vo.
Becreations in Agriculture, Natural Histoiy, Arts, and
MisoeHaneons literature. Lond. 179^1802, 6 vols. 8vo.
Selections from his Correspondence with General Washing-
ton, in which the causes of the present scarcity are fuUj in-
restigated. Lond. 1800, 8yo.
A Calm Investigation of the Circumstances that have led
to the present scarcity of Grain in Britain ; suggesting the
means of alleviating that evil, and of preventing the recurrence
of SQchacalamitjin future. Lond. 1801, 8vo.
A Description of a patent Hot-house, which operates chiefly
by the heat of the Sun, and other subjects ; without the aid
of Fines, or Tan-bark, or Steam, for tiie purpose of heating
it,&c. Lond. 1804. 12mo.
The Antiquity of Woollen Manufactures in EngUnd. —
Gents. Mag. August 1778, and other papers in that work.
A Disquisition on Wool-bearing Animids. American Trans,
iv. 149. 1799.
On Cast Iron. Trans. Ed. R Soc. L 26. 1788.
A further Description of ancient Fortifications in the North
ofSootland. ArchaeoL vl 87. 1782.
ANDERSON, John, M.A., author of the
celebrated Defence of Presbyterianism, was bom
in the reign of Charles the Second, bnt the
precise year has not been ascertained. All that
is known of his early life is, that, after receiving
a nniversity education, he was for some time the
preceptor of the celebrated John duke of Argyle
and Greenwich; and that he subsequently re-
sided for twenty-five years in Edinburgh, where
he kept a school. Having been educated for the
church, he was, about the beginning of the eigh-
teenth century, minister of the parish of Dum-
barton, and afterwards was transported to Glas-
gow. The general use of the English liturgy
in the Episcopalian congregations, as we learn
from Wodrow's correspondence, was exciting,
about this period, the utmost alarm in the minds
of the Presbyterian clergy and people, and a vio-
lent controversy on the subject was carried on
for some time between the ministers of the rival
churches. Into this controversy Mr. Anderson
entered with much zeal. The first of his publica-
tions known is styled *A Dialogue between a
Curat and a Countreyman concerning the Eng-
lish Service, or Common Prayer Book of Eng-
land,' 4to, printed at Glasgow about 1710. In
this work, in opposition to the statements in Sage^
* Fundamental Charter of Presbytery Examined,'
he proved that the liturgy which had been used
by the first Scottish reformers for at least seven
years after the overthrow of popery, was not the
English liturgy, but that used by the English
church at Geneva, since known by the name of
John Knox's liturgy, or the old Scottish liturgy.
In 1711 appeared a ^Second Dialogue,' in which
he set himself to oppose the sentiments of South,
Hammond, Beveridge, and Burnet. These works
were followed by 'A Letter from a Countrey-
man to a Curat,' which called forth several an-
swers, particularly one by Robert Calder, an
Episcopalian clergyman, the friend of Dr. Arch-
ibald Pitcaim, to which he speedily i*eplied in a
pamphlet entitled 'Curat Calder Whipt.' Soon
after he published * A Sermon preached at Ayr, at
the opening of the Synod, on April 1, 1712.' In
1714 appeared his famous work, under the title of
* A Defence of the Church Government, Faith,
Worship, and Spirit of the Presbyterians, in
Answer to a Book entitled " An Apology for
Mr. Thomas Rhind," ' &c., 4to. In 1717 he re-
ceived a call from the congregation of the North-
West church, Glasgow, but was not settled there
till 1720, after his case had been before both
the sjmod and the Assembly, some of the mem-
bers of his presb3rtery having objected to his
removal. His colleagues, it seems, had taken
offence at a letter addressed by him to Walter
Stewart of Pardonan, published by him in 1717,
in which he says, " I confess I was under a great
temptation of being eager for a settlement in Glas-
gow, for what minister would not be fond of a
larger stipend and a double charge?" In the lat-
ter year (1720) he published, in 12mo, six ' Let-
ters upon the Overtures concerning Kirk Sessions
and Presbyteries,' which, like all his controversial
writings, abound in curious historical information,
interspersed with severe satirical remark. He
wrote several other political and theological tracts
besides those mentioned, now gone into oblivion.
The precise year of his death is not known, but
as his successor was appointed in 1723, his de-
cease must have taken place before that year
His grandson. Professor Anderson, the founder of
the Andersonian Institution, Glasgow, caused the
following memorial to his memory to be inscribed
upon the family tombstone erected over his grave,
on the front of the North-West church, Glasgow:
^* Near this place ly the remains of the Rev. John
Anderson, who was preceptor to the famous John
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Duke of Argyle and Greenwich, and minister of
the gospel in Dumbarton in the beginning of the
eighteenth century, and in this church in 1720.
He was the author of * The Defence of the Church
Groyemment, Faith, Worship, and Spirit of the
Presbyterians,' and of several other ecclesiastical
and political tracts. As a pious minister and an
eloquent preacher, a defender of civil and religious
liberty, and a man of wit and learning, he was
much esteemed; he lived in the reign of Charles
n., James 11., William m., Anne, and George L
Such times, and such a man, forget not, reader,
while thy country, liberty, and religion are dear
to thee." — Wodrow's History.
ANDERSON, John, F.R.S., founder of the
Andersonian Institution, Glasgow, and grandson
of the subject of the preceding article, was the
eldest son of the Rev. James Anderson, minis-
ter of Roseneath, Dumbartonshire, in the manse
of which parish he was bom in the year 1726.
His father died when he was yet young, and
he went to live at Stirling with his aunt, Mrs.
Turner, widow of one of the ministers of the High
church of that town, where he received the first
part of his education. At the age of twenty he
was one of the officers of the Burgher corps of
Stu-ling, raised for the defence of the town against
the forces of the Pretender, and the carabine he
canied on that occasion is preserved in the Muse-
um of the university founded by him. He after-
wards studied at the college of Glasgow. In 1756
he was appointed professor of oriental languages
in that university. In 1760 he was removed to
the chair of natural philosophy. Embued with an
ardent zeal for the diffusion of useful knowledge,
he instituted a class, in addition to his usual one,
for the instruction of the working classes and
others, who were unable to attend the regular
course of academical study, which he continued
to teach twice a-week, during session, till his
death. In 1786 he published ' Institutes of Phy-
sics,' which in ten years went through five edi-
tions. Having, like many other good men, hailed
the first burst of the French Revolution in 1789,
as calculated to promote the cause of liberty,
he went to Paris in 1791 with the model of a gun
he had invented, the peculiar advantage of which
consisted in the recoil being stopped by the con-
densation of common air within the body of tht
carriage. To this ingenious invention he had un-
successfully endeavoured to obtain the attention
of our own government. This model he presented
to the national convention, who hung it up in
their hall, with the superscription, " The Gift of
Science to Liberty 1" A six-pounder being made
from his model, he tried numerous experiments
with it, in presence, among others, of the celebrat-
ed Paul Jones, then in Paris, who expressed his
approbation of the new species of gun. While
Professor Anderson remained in the capital of
France, he witnessed many of those stirring and
momentous scenes, which at that period attracted
the notice of all Europe, and he was one of those
who, on the 14th July, from the top of the altar
of liberty, sung Te Deum with the bishop of Paris,
when the ill-fated Louis XVI. took the oath to
the Constitution ! An expedient of his for fur-
nishing the people of Germany with French news-
papers and manifestoes, after the emperor Leopold
had drawn a cordon of troops round the frontiers, to
prevent their introduction, was tried, and found
very useful. It consisted of small balloons of pa-
per, varnished with boiled oil, and filled with in-
flammable air, and the newspapers being tied to
them, they were sent off when the wind was fa-
vourable, and picked up by the people. A small
flag which these paper balloons carried, bore an
inscription in German to the following purport :
" 0*er hills anl dales and lines of hostile troops, I float ma-
jestic,
Bearing the laws of God and Nature to oppressed men,
And bidding them with arms their rights maintain.**
On his return to Glasgow, Profl^ssor Anderson
resumed his college duties with his usual fervour.
He died on the ISth January 1796, in the 70th
year of his age, and 41st of his professorship. By
his will, dated 7th May 1795, he bequeathed all
his money and effects for the establishment at
Glasgow of an institution, to be called Anderson^s
University, for the education of the unacademical
classes.
The institution was endowed by the founder
with a valuable philosophical apparatus, museum,
and library, valued at three thousand pounds ster-
ling ; and it was incorporated by charter fipom the
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magistrates and council of Glasgow, on the 9th
June following the testator's death. The plan of
Professor Anderson contemplated fonr colleges,
for arts, medicine, law, and theology, each college
to consist of nine professors, the senior professor
being president or dean, bnt the funds not allow-
ing of this at the ontset, the managers wisely be-
gan on a small scale, and the institution has gra-
dnally grown in influence and importance, and is
oow in a state more corresponding with the origi-
nal design of the founder. The first teacher was
Dr. Thomas Garnet, professor of natural philoso-
phy, and author of a ' Tour through the High-
lands,* as well as various scientific works, who
commenced on 21st September 1796, by reading
in the Trades* Hall, Glasgow, popular and scien-
tific lectures on natural philosophy and chemistry,
addressed to persons of both sexes, and illustrated
by experiments. With the view that the institu-
tion should be permanently established the trus-
tees purchased, in 1798, extensive buildmgs in
John Street, and in the same year a professor of
mathematics and geography was appointed. After
a successful period of tuition of fonr years. Dr.
Garnet, on the foundation of the Royal Institu-
tion of Great Britain in 1800, was chosen its first
professor of chemistry, and accordingly removed
to London in October of that year, but was obliged
to resign the situation on account of ill health, and
died in 1802, aged 86. He was succeeded in An-
derson's Institution, Glasgow, by the celebrated
Dr. Geoi-ge Birkbeck, the founder of Mechanic's
Institutes, who, at the age of twenty-one, was
appointed professor of natural history, and in ad-
dition to what had formerly been taught, intro-
duced a familiar system of instruction, which he
conducted gratis, chiefly for the benefit of opera-
tives. One of the great benefits of this institution
from the commencement, indeed, has been that
instruction is communicated to students of ail
classes, divested of those technicalities by which
it is frequently overlaid and obscured by educa-
tional institutions of greater name. Dr. Bkkbeck
resigned in August 1804, and was succeeded in
the following month by Dr. Andrew Ure, the
well-known chemist. Dr. Ure continued to dis-
charge the duties of his office with great success
for the long period of twenty-five years, when he
removed to London. In the meantime the insti-
tution had grown itt public estimation, and sever-
al professors had been appointed. The original
buildings too had become insufficient, and the
trustees finally purchased from the city the Gram-
mar school buildings, situated in George Street,
which, with extensive additions and alterations,
were rendered fit for a complete college establish-
ment, containing halls for the professors, the mu-
seum, library, &c. The new buildings were opened
m November 1828, and continue to be used with
marked success. There ai'e now thirteen profes-
sors, and the subjects taught are natural philoso-
phy, chemistry, natural history, logic and ethics,
mathematics and geography, oriental languages,
drawing and painting, anatomy, theory and prac-
tice of medicine, surgery, materia medica, medica^
jorisprudence, veterinary medicine, and German
and modem literature. The Institution, or as it
is called, the Andersonian University, is placed
under the inspection of the Lord Provost and
other officials as ordinary visitors, but it is more
immediately superintended by eighty-one trustees,
who are elected by ballot, and remain in office
for life, unless disqualified by non-attendance.
They are chosen from nine classes of citizens,
namely, tradesmen, agriculturists, artists, manu-
facturers, physicians and surgeons, lawyers, di-
vines, philosophers, and kinsmen or namesakes.
Nine of their number are annually elected by the
trustees as managers of the establishment for the
year, and they in turn elect from their number, by
ballot, the president, secretary, and treasurer.
A posthumous work of Professor Anderson, en-
titled ^Observations on Roman Antiquities dis-
covered between the Forth and the Clyde,' was
published at Edinburgh in 1800. — Glasgow Me-
chanic's Magazine^ 1825. — ClelancPs Annals of
Glasgow,
ANDERSON, John, historian of the Hamil-
tons, was bom June 6, 1789, at Gilmerton House,
in the county of Mid-Lothian. He was the eld-
est son of James Anderson, supervisor of excise,
Oban, whose father, William Andei-son, was a
farmer at Upper Liberton, and a burgess and
guild-brother of the city of Edinburgh. His mo-
ther was Elizabeth, daughter of John Williams,
the well-known author of the *• Mineral Kingdom/
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who then resided at Gibnerton. After receiving
the proper education, and attending the university
of Edinburgh, he was in 1818 admitted a licentiate
of the Edinburgh Royal Ck)llege of Surgeons, and
had scarcely passed his college examinations, when
he was appointed, by the Marquis of Douglas,
afterwards, on the death of his father in 1819,
Duke of Hamilton, first Surgeon of the Royal
Lanarkshire Militia, and he retained that situation,
and the patronage and confidence of his grace,
until his death. He settled at Hamilton, and ob-
tained an extensive practice. In 1825, he pub-
lished, in quarto, a large and elaborate work, en-
titled * Historical and Genealogical Memoirs of the
House of Hamilton,' to' which, in 1827, he added
a supplement. For more than two years previous
to his death, he had been engaged collecting ma-
terials for a Statistical Account of Lanarkshire;
and he also contemplated writing a Genealogical
History of the Robertsons of Struan. In the pe-
culiar line of literature which he selected for him-
self, he was distinguished by sound and pertinent
information, deep research, untiring perseverance,
and a ready and perspicuous style. He died 24th
December 1832, his last illness being caused by
extraordinary fatigue in attending patients under
the cholera morbus. He was (says a writer in the
New Monthly Magcuine) universally known in the
neighbourhood of his residence; and from his un-
assuming manners, his social disposition, and ex-
tensive benevolence, was as generally respected.
His maternal grandfather, John Williams, F.S.A.,
Scotland, was, though a native of Wales, long
connected with Scotland, and in his lifetime emi-
nent both as an antiquarian and a geologist. He
was a mineral surveyor by profession, and on his
first coming to Scotland he took the coal-mines of
Brora, in the parish of Golspie, from the Earl of
Sutherland, and a fai*m near them named Water-
ford. His daughter, Elizabeth, the mother of Dr.
Anderson, (and of the author of the * Scottish Na-
tion,') was bora at Brora, 13th April 1765, just a fort-
night before the late Duchess-Countess of Suther-
land. The farm proved a bad speculation, as Mr.
Williams lost a large sum of money in improving
it to no purpose. After he had put up an engine
at the coal-mine, the latter took fire, by which he
lost a considerable sum, indeed nearly all that he
At that time the earl and countess
were at Bath, on account of the health of the earl,
who died there. The young countess, theur daugh-
ter, on succeeding to the Sutherland title and
estates, was an infant scarcely a year old. The
factor, a Mr. Campbell Combie, was a very harsh
and arbitrary person, and wonid not do anything
for Mr. Williams. He refttsed even to entertain
his claim either for the loss he had sustained b>
the coal-mines, or for the money he had expended
in improvements on the farm. Fortunately, at
this juncture Mr. Williams was appointed by gov-
ernment one of the persons to survey the forfeited
estates in Scotland, and in this employment he
was engaged for eighteen months. He afterwards
took a coal -mine at West Calder, and subse-
quently went to Gilmerton about 1775. In 1777
he published 'An Account of some remarkable
ancient Ruins lately discovered in the Highlands
and Northern parts of Scotland,' being the vitri-
fied forts found in various parts of the country.
He was one of the first to direct attention to
these remains, and his theory regarding them has
genei-ally been adopted by subsequent writers
on the subject. In 17^9 appeared, in 2 vols. 8vo.,
his most celebrated work, *Tho Natural His-
tory of the Mineral Kmgdom.' Of this last work
he sent a copy to George the Third, one to the
unfortunate Louis the Sixteenth of France, and
one to the Empress Catherine of Russia. The two
former never acknowledged receipt. The Empress
was the only one of these potentates who took any
notice of the gift. Whatever was her character
otherwise, it is worthy of note that she patronized
literary and scientific men, and invited them to her
court. Ml". Williams received a communication
from St. Petersburg, requesting him to proceed to
Russia, to survey for minerals in that empire, and
he accordingly left Scotland for that purpose about
the end of 1792, or early in 1793. On his way
home, after fulfilling his mission, he was seized
with a fever and died at Verona in Italy, May 29,
1795. He was one of the twelve original members
of the Scotch Antiquarian Society, and his portrait
is in that Institution in Edinburgh. In the Trans-
actions of that society there appeared from his
pen, a paper entitled ^ A Plan for a Royal Forest
of Oak in the Highlands of Scotland.' An edition
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of * the Mineral Kingdom,' edited by a Dr. Millar
of Edinburgh was published in 1810, containing a
Life of Mr. Williams, which was incorrect in many
respects, and not sanctioned by his family.
ANDERSON, John, an enterprising character,
founder of the town of Fermoy, in Ireland, son of
David Anderson of Portland, was bora in lowly
circumstances in the West of Scotland. While
very young he learaed to read and write, and hav-
ing made a few pounds in some humble employ-
ment, he settled in Glasgow about 1784. By a
speculation in herrings he acquired five hundred
pounds, and with this sum he went to Cork, and
became an export mei'chant, dealing in provisions,
the staple trade of the place. In a few years he
realized twenty-five thousand pounds. This sum
he laid out in the purchase of four-sixths of the
Fermoy estate, in the province of Munster. With
characteristic energy he resolved to make a town
at Fermoy, which at that period was no more than
a dirty hamlet, consisting of a few hovels, and a
carman's public house, at the end of a narrow old
bridge. He began by building a good hotel, and
next erected a few houses, and a square. At bis
own expense he rebuilt the ruinous bridge over
the Blackwater, on which the town is situated.
Having learned that government intended to erect
large barracks in Munster, he offered, in 1797, a
most eligible site for them, rent free. The offer
was accepted, and two very large and handsome
barracks were built. He next erected a theatre,
and a handsome residence for himself. He invited
various families, having more or less capital, to
settle at Fermoy, and placed himself at the head
of the little community. As his manners were
pleasing, his society was courted by the nobility
and gentry of the neighbourhood. He was never
ashamed of his origin, and often spoke of his suc-
cess in the world with laudable pride. On one
occasion, in the very height of his prosperity, he
was entertaining a large company at his residence
i in Fermoy. Amongst the party were the late
Earls of Kmgston and Shannon, and Lord Rivers-
dale. The conversation turned on their host's
great success in life, and Lord Kingston asked him
to what he chiefly attributed it. " To education,
my lord," he replied, " every child in Scotland can
easily get the means of learning to read and write.
When I was a little boy my parents sent me to
school every day, and I had to walk three miles
to the village school. Many a cold walk I had in
the bitter winter mornings; and I assure you, my
lords," he added, smiling, ^* that shoes and stock-
ings were extremely scarce in those days." Still
continuing his attention to business, he established
a bank, an agricultural society, and a mail coach
company. The first coach which ran between
Cork and Dublin was set a-going by hinu He
also built a large schoolhouse and a military col-
lege; the latter afterwards became a public school.
For the erection of a Protestant church he gave
three thousand pounds, and five hundred pounds
and a site rent free for a Catholic chapel. The
government offered him a baronetcy, which he de-
clined. It was, however, conferred, in 1813, by
George IV., when Prince Regent, upon his son,
Su* James Caleb Anderson, the well-known ex-
perimentalist in steam-coaching, as a mai'k of his
Royal Highnesses gracious approbation of the ser-
vices rendered to Ireland by his father. Having
embarked in some dangerous speculations, Mr.
Anderson, in his latter years, sustained great re-
verses. In Welsh mining alone he lost £30,000.
On the sale of the Barrymore estates, he was a
heavy purchaser, by which, owing to the fall in
the price of land in Ireland, after the close of the
war, he became a considerable loser; while his
banking operations were affected by the changes
in the currency. He left behind him, however, a
noble monument in the handsome town of Fermoy,
which has now 7,000 inhabitants. Mr. Madden,
in his ^Revelations of Ireland,' has devoted a
chapter to the enterprise of this "Scotchman in
Munster," to which we are mainly indebted for
the materials of this sketch. Mr. Anderson mar-
ried a Miss Semple, by whom he had two sons and
two daughters.
ANDERSON, Robert, M.D., editor and bio-
grapher of the British Poets, born at Carawath in
Lanarkshire on 7th January 1750, was the fourth
son of William Anderson, feuar there, and Mar-
garet Melrose, his wife. After receiving the rudi-
ments of his education at his native village, he
was sent to the grammar school at Lanark, the
master of which was Robert Thomson, who had
married a sister of the poet Thomson. T\f o of his
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schoolfellows at this school were Pinkerton the
historian, and James Grseme, who died young, and
whose poems were afterwards included in his edi-
tion of the British poets. When only ten years
old his father died in his fortieth year, leaving liis
widow with four sons very slenderly provided for.
Robert, the youngest, showed very early a taate
for reading and study, and being destined for the
chui-ch, he was sent, in the year 1767, to the uni-
versity of Edinburgh, where he became a stu-
dent of divinity. Subsequently changing his views,
he entered upon the study of medicine ; and after
finishing his medical studies he went to England,
and was for a short time employed as surgeon to
the Dispensary at Bamborough castle, Northum-
berland. On the 25th September 1777 he mar-
ried Anne, daughter of John Grey, Esq. of Aln-
wick, a relative of the noble family of that name.
He took his degree of doctor of medicine at Edin-
burgh, in May 1778. He afterwards practised as
a physician at Alnwick, but his wife's health fail-
ing, and having by his marriage secured a mode-
rate independence, he finally retmned to Edin-
burgh in 1784, where, in December 1785, his wife
died of consumption, leaving him with three
daughters, the youngest of whom soon followed
her mother to the grave. In 1793 he married
Margaret, daughter of Mr. David Dale, master of
Tester school, Haddingtonshire. He now devoted
himself to literary pursuits, and produced various
works, chiefly in the department of criticism and
biography. The principal of these is * The Works
of the British Poets, with prefaces Biographical
and Critical,' in fourteen large octavo volumes,
the earliest of which was published in 1792-8;
the thuteenth in 1795, and the fourteenth m 1807.
His correspondence with literary men of eminence
was extensive. He was the fi-iend and patron of
all who evinced any literary talent. In particu-
lar he was the friend of Thomas Campbell the
poet, who through his influence procured literary
employment on his flrst coming to Edinburgh;
and to Dr. Anderson Mr. Campbell dedicated his
* Pleasures of Hope,' as it was chiefly owing to him
that that most beautiful poem was flrst brought
before the world. It was in the year 1797, when
Campbell was only nineteen years of age, that
his acquaintance with Dr. Anderson commenced.
which forms such an important epoch in the his-
tory of both. The following account of it by Dr.
Irving is extracted from Beattie's Life of Camp-
bell : ^* Campbell's introduction to Dr. Anderson,
which had no small influence on his brilliant ca-
reer, was in a great measure accidental. He had
come to Edinburgh in search of employment, when
he met Mr. Hagh Park, then a teacher in Glas-
gow, and afterwards second master of Stirling
school. Park, who was a frank and warmhearted
man, was deeply interested in the fortunes of the
youthful poet, which were then at their lowest
ebb. His own character was held in much esteem
by the doctor ; and he was one day coming to pay
him a visit, when the young ladies (Dr. Anderson's
daughters) observed from the window that he was
accompanied by a handsome lad, with whom he
was engaged in earnest conversation, and who
seemed reluctant to take leave. Their curiosity
was naturally excited, and Campbell's story was
soon told — ^being merely the short and simple an-
nals of a poor scholar, not unconscious of his own
powers, but placed in the most unfavourable dr-
camstances for the development of poetical genius.
Park knew that he had obtained distinction in the
university of Glasgow; and he fortunately had
in his pocket a poem [an Elegy written in Mull
the previous year] which his young friend had
written in one of the Hebrides. Dr. Anderson
was struck with the turn and spirit of the verses;
nor did he hesitate to declare his opinion that they
exhibited a fair promise of poetical excellence.
The talents, the character, and the prospects of so
interesting a youth formed the chief subject of
conversation during the afternoon. He expi-essed
a cordial wish to see the author without delay,
and Park's kindness was too active to neglect a
commission so agreeable to himself. Campbell
was accordingly introduced, and his first appear-
ance produced a most favourable impression."
[Beattie's Life of Ccanpbellj vol. i. p. 194.] As
Campbell was anxious to obtain some literaiy
employment. Dr. Anderson, with his characteristic
zeal and sympathy in the cause of friendless me-
rit, did not rest until the object had been attained.
He warmly reconnnended the young poet to Mr.
Mundell, the publisher, who made Campbell an
offer of twenty pounds for an abridged edition of
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Bryan Edwards's * West Indies,' which Campbell
accepted, and which was his first undertaking for
the public press. He afterwards consulted Dr.
Anderson as to the publication of his *• Pleasures
of Hope,' as his experience as an author gave pe-
culiar weight to his opinions on this point. The
manuscript, we are told, was then shown to Mr.
Mundell, and after some discussion between Dr.
Anderson and the publisher, the copyright was
sold to him on the terms mentioned in the life of
Campbell. "In the literary society," says Dr.
Beattie, " which Dr. Anderson drew around him,
the poem was a*familiar topic in conversation,
and he had soon the pleasure of finding that the
opinion of other judicious critics, respecting its
merits, was in harmony with his own." At that
period, says Dr. Irving, " the editor of the British
Poets had a very extensive acquaintance ; and it
was through him that Campbell formed his earli-
est connexions with men of letters. His house at
Heriot's Green was frequented by individuals who
had then risen, or who afterwards rose to great
eminence. As he had relinquished all professional
pursuits, his time was very much at the disposal
of his friends, whatever might be their denomina-
tion. He was visitA by men of learning and men
of genius, and perhaps in the course of the same
day by some rustic rhymer, who was anxious to
consult him about publishing his works by Mper-
scription, I remember finding him in consulta-
tion with a little deformed student of physic, from
the north of Ireland ; who, in detailing his lite-
rary history, took occasion to mention that at
some particular crisis he had no intention of per^
secuting the study of poetry." \Ihid, vol. i. p.
241.] Before committing it to press, the manu-
script of the * Pleasures of Hope,' by the advice of
Dr. Anderson, underwent a careful revisal, and at
his suggestion the opening of the poem was en-
tirely rewritten.
In 1796 Dr. Anderson published *The mis-
cellaneous works of Tobias Smollett, M.D., with
memoirs of his life and writings,' six volumes
octavo ; which passed through six editions. His
life of Smollett was also published separately,
the eighth edition of which appeared in 1818,
under the title of *The Life of Tobias Smol-
lett, M.D., with critical observations on his
Works.' He also published an elaborate * Life of
Samuel Johnson, LL.D., with critical observa-
tions on his Works,' the third edition <^ which
appeared in 1815. In 1820 he published an edi-
tion of Dr. Moore's Works, with memoirs of his
life and writings. Among hLa other publications
may be mentioned * The Poetical Works of Robert
Blair,' with a Life, 1794. His latest production
was a new edition of Blair's Grave and other po-
ems, with his life and critical observations, Edin-
burgh, 1826. He was for several years editor of
the Edinburgh Magazine, afterwards incorporated
with the Scots Magazine, and a contributor to
various periodicals. Dr. Anderson died of dropsy
in the chest on the 20th February 1830, in the
81st year of his age, and was buried, by his own
desure, in Camwath churchyard. In the year
1810 his eldest daughter was married to David
Irving, LL.D., author of the Life of George Bu-
chanan, the*Lives of Scottish Writers, and other
works. Mrs. Irving died suddenly in 1812, leav-
ing a son. Dr. Anderson's habits were so regu-
lar, and his disposition so cheerftd and animated,
that old age stole on him imperceptibly. As an
instance of the strong interest which he ever took
m the cause of civil and religious liberty, it may
be mentioned, that, on the evening before his
death, he asked for a map of Greece, that he
might, to use his own words, form some notion
of the general elements of this new state, which
had then worked out its independence. As a
literary critic he was distinguished by a warm
sensibility to the beauties of poetry and by ex-
treme candour. His personal character was mark-
ed by the most urbane manners, the most hon-
ourable probity, and by unshaken constancy in
friendship. — New Monthly Magazine for July 1880.
— Annual ObUuary, — Encyclopedia BriUmmca^ 7th
edition.
ANDERSON, Walter, D.D., a respectable
clergyman of mediocre talents, who was afilicted
with an incurable yitror scribendi^ which exposed
him to the ridicule of his acquaintances, was up-
wards of fifty years mlnbter of Chimside. The
date and place of his birth are unknown. His
first work was a *• Life of Crocus, Ejng of Lydla,'
in four parts, 12mo, 1755, which owed its origin,
it is said, to a joke of David Hume. One day,
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being at the house of Nine wells, which stood with-
in his parish, and was the propeity of Hume^s
brother, and conversing with the great historian
on his success as an author, he is said to have thus
addressed him : ** Mr. David, I daresay other
people might write books too; but you clever
folks have taken up all the good subjects. When
I look about me, I cannot find one unoccupied."
Hume waggishly replied, " What would you
think, Mr. Anderson, of a history of Croesus, king
of Lydia? That has never yet been wiitten."
He caught at the idea, and hence the life of the
Lydian king. This singular work was honoured
with a serio-bnrlesque notice in the second number
of the first Edinburgh Review, started by Hume,
Smith, Carlyle, and others ; and received rather a
severe critique in the second number of the Criti-
cal Review, then first established in London by
Smollett. In 1769, undeterred by the ill success
of his first attempt, he published a Ilistory of the
Reigns of Francis IV. and Charles IX. of France,
two volumes quarto. In 1775 appeared a contin-
uation, being *The History of France, from the
beginning of the reign of Henry III. down to the
period of the edict of Nantes,^ one volume quarto.
In 1783 he published two additional volumes,
bringing the history down to the peace of Mun-
ster. Not one of these works ever sold, and as
he published at his own risk, it is related that the
cost of print and paper was defrayed by the sale,
one by one, as each successive heavy quarto ap-
peared, of some houses which he possessed in the
town of Dunse, until they had all ceased to be his
property. He also produced an essay, in quarto,
on the philosophy of ancient Greece, which dis-
played considerable erudition, though sadly defi-
cient in style, and may be said to have been the
only production of his which merited or received
any praise. He subsequently published a pam-
phlet against the principles of the first French
Revolution, which fell still-bom from the press.
With the view of drawing attention to the work,
and thereby promoting its sale, he wrote an addi-
tion or appendix to the pamphlet, of much greater
extent than the pamphlet itself, with which he went
to Edinburgh to get it printed. Having called
upon Principal Robertson he informed him of his
plan, which caused him to exclaim in surprise:
^^ Really, this is the maddest of all your schemes
— what! a small pamphlet is found heavy, and
you propose to lighten it by making it ten times
heavier! Never was such madness heard of!"
" Why, why," answered Dr. Anderson, " did you
never see a kite raised by boys?" "I have,"
answered the principal. "Then you must have
remarked that, when you try to raise the kite by
itself, there is no getting it up : but only add a
long string of papers to its tail, and up it goes
like a laverock!" The venerable historian was
highly amused by this ingenious argument, but
succeeded in dissuading the infatuated author
from his design. Dr. Anderson died at an ad-
vanced age in July 1800, at the manse of Chlrn-
side.
His works may be enumerated as follows :
The Hist^ny of Ctgbsus, king of Lydia, in fonr parts; con-
taining Observations on the Ancient Notion of Destinj or
Dreams, on the Origin and Credit of the Oracles, and the
principles npon which their Oracles were defended against
any attack. £din. 1755, 4to.
The History of France, during the reigns of Francis II.
and Charles IX. To which is prefixed, a Review of the Gen-
eral Histoiy of the Monarchy, from its origin to that period ;
comprehending an Acooont of the various Revolutions, Poli-
tical Government, I^ws, and Customs of the Nation. Lond.
1769, 2 vols. 4to. ^
The History of France, from the commencement of the
reign of Henry III. and the rise of the Catholic League, to
the peace of Vervins, and the establishment of the ikmous
Edict of Nantz, in the reign of Henry IV., and from the
commencement of the reign of Lewis XIII. to the general
peace of Mnnster. Lond. 1775-1783, 8 vols. 4to.
The Philosophy of Andent Greece investigated, in its ori-
^ and progress to the aaras of its greatest celebrity in the
Ionian, Italic, and Athenian schools; with Remarks on the
Delineated Systems of their Founders, and some Account of
their Lives and Characters, and those of their most eminent
Disciples. Edin. 1791, 4to.
Angus, a very ancient name m Scothind ; the first on re-
cord who bore it being the brother of Loam and Fei^gus, the
earliest kuigs of the Dahriadic Scot4. Pinkerton says: ** The
Irish accounts bear that Loam, Angus, and Fergus, three
sons of Ere, led the Scots back to Britain m 503, [after
having been compelled to retreat to Ireland about fifty years
before — that is, about the middle of the fifth century, or about
two hundred years after their first arrival in Argyleshire,] and
that Loam was the first king and was succeeded by Fergus.
What became of Angus we are not told. It would seem that,
either from incapacity or preference of private life, he aspired
not to any share of the power of his brothers. But though
Loam be left out of the regal list in the Scottish accounts,
yet neither he nor Angus is unknown to them. Fordun, lib.
iiL ca^. i., says that Fergus, son of Ere, came to Scotland
cvm duobus frainbm Loam et Tenegus^ * with his brothers
Loam and Tenegus,* which last word is a not uncommon
cormption of Angus with Fordun. Tlie register of the priory
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mmnt KsrrMms fd §Mmh.
n.
mia m
2
Dubican, son of
Indcchtraig.
Died 939.
MaoIbrid«,
hisioD,
Canecliat,
Cruchne,or
Conqahare, father
of FlMlIa, lady of
Fettercalm,
miirdereaa of
Kenneth Ut
(I) SOOTTUH LiNS.
1&2 8.4.5
1. Gikbrist,
Earl of Angus,
uUveaft^
1120.
2. GQib^c,
his son,
died about
1180.
3. Gilchrist
4. Duncan,
ft. Malcolm.
MaUldia,
daugliter of
Makolui.
#ri{imil jTme. irf Cadi of
(S) Coxn
John Comyn,
in right of Uis
wife,
Countess
Mattldl&
Died 1243.
No issue.
Gilbert de Urn.
fraviile, tmx^nd
husband of
Countess
MaUldis, In her
right, 1243.
Died 124$.
(8) UiinArtLLB.
8ft9
GUberr.
tlieir son,
died 1307.
Robert, his
son, died 1326,
under forfeiture.
10
GOtart,
■tflBobwt^a
DtodTtliJM
vm
11. fine of Sltbnt of ^oitbilL
2 8
Sir Johs Stewart
of BonkllU
greaUgrandHon of
Alexander,
High Steward of
Scotland.
Croated 1327.
Died 1331.
Thomas, his son.
By Margaret,
heiress of
Abcmethy. his
Countess.
Died 1361.
Thomas, his
died 1877.
Mol
Margaret,
sister Of 3d onri,
wireorWiliiMni,
1st earl of
Donglaa,
resigned In
fAvbur of her son,
1389.
1 &2
William, son of
10th earl,
create Marquis
of DfMiff las,
1633.
DIod 1660.
Quarterhigf:— '
8&4
III. J^istt of ^oixjlaf .
5 6
-T
8. James, his son.
No issue.
4. Oecn-ge, 2d son
' of first earl,
died 1462.
Archibald, 1
his grandson, 1
Archibald,
(husband of 1
(Bell the Cat)
Queen Marjraret) 1
his son.
died lft66. 1
died 1614.
No sunriving |
, Issue. 1
$xnt of ^oaglas tontrntttl^.
D.ivid, nephew
of 6th carl,
son of Sir George
Douglas of
Plltciidriech,
diodl5i>8.
Archibald,
hb 8iin,
styled " The Good
Earl," died 1568.
No surviving
issue.
eldest wm, or, on
bis dMSh, bvtbe
ntxt ArchUMU,
third marqaifl, end
thirteenth «ul of
Angoa, waa, fan
ITra, created doke
of DouglM,
1701,
titlet
of
hi
bis
of maf^uis
Angna,
de-
dokea of Hamil-
ton, who are now
the holders of the
tiUe of Earl of
Angna
ABMOKUL BKARINOS OP DOUOLAS,
EARL OP AVGUS,.
1 for Qilohrlst 3. for Alwmethr. t. for Wishart of Rrcchln. a daagliter of this bouse having manlad OM of
old Earls of Aagus, 4. for Stewart of Bookill Cseutfheon orer all for Douglas. '-'
©Ogle
A^'GUS.
187
ANGUS.
of St Andrews, written abont 1250, also says of Kenneth, son
of Alpin, aepuUtu m 7<ma mtula^ tibi Ires JUU Ere, 9ciHoet
Fergm, Loam, et Enegua, tepuki fiurmU ; *he was buried
in lona, where the three sons of Ero, namely Fergns, Loam,
and Enegoa were bnried.* ** [_Enqvify tnto the History <^
SooUandj toL iL p. 92.] It wonld appear that Cantjre, (from
the Gaelic word Cecmtirt Headland), was the portion of Fer-
gus, Loam poneseed the district called after him Lorn, and
Angns is sappoeed to have colonized Islay, aa it waa eigoyed
by Mmedach his son, after his decease. See Lobn, marquis
of, and Arotlb, duke of; also Dalbiada.
Akous, styled by the annalists Angns MacFeiigns, was
also the name of the moet powerful king the Picts ever had.
He reigned between 781 and 761, in which latter year he
died. Belonging ori^nally to the southern Picts, he had, in
729, raised Mmoelf to the command of that portion of the
Pictish tribes, and in the year 781, by the conquest of Talor-
gan MaeCongnsa, his last opponent, he obtained the throne
of the whole Pictish nation. In consequence of his success a
league was entered into between the principal tribes of the
northern Picts and the Dahiads or Soots of Aigyle, who were
ever ready for war with their Pictish enemies. Angus, how-
ever, crushed this formidable union, and almost annihilated
the Scots of Dalriada; "and yet,** says Skene, "it was his
power and his victories which laid the germ of that revolu-
tion that resulted in the overthrow of the Pictish influence in
Sootlard." [JEKrtory of Highkmdera, vol. L p. 55 ]
Akoub, was also the name of a king of the Dalriads, who
began to reign in 804 and died in 811. At a very eariy
period the district of oountiy lying between the North Esk on
the north, and the Tay and Ida on the south, was called An-
gus, which it still retains, though also called Forfarshire from
the county town. Its more ancient name is commonly sup-
posed to have been so named from Angus, a brother of Ken-
neth the Second, to whom this territory was granted by Ken-
neth, after the union of the Picts and Scots. Gaelic scholars,
however, think that the name denotes a hill of a particular de-
scription, or which waa applied to a special use ; and it is
auppoaed to have been derived from the Hill of Angus, a lit-
tle to the eastward of the church of Aberlemno, in ancient
timea the usual place of rendezvous for the inhabitants of
the surrounding oountry, during the predatory incursions of
the Danes and Norwegians. It seems more probable that
the bill itself took its name from the district
AicoDS, earidom of, one of the most ancient titles in
Scotland. According to Chalmers, Dubican, the son of
Indechtraig, and maormor or eari of Angus, died in 989.
Maolbride his son died during the reign of Culen, who was
murdered by Rohard, thane of Fife, in 970. His successor
Cnnediat, Cruchne, or Conquhare, maormor of Angus, had a
dau^ter FSnella, styled the lady of Fettercaim, to whose
name an historical interest is attached as being the murderess
of Kenneth the Third, king of Scots, in consequence of having
caused her son Crathilinthus to be put to death as related
b the life of that monarch. See Kenneth IIL This event
happened in the year 994, and the Lady Finella was after-
wards put to death for her crime, in the romantic ravine
called Den FlneUa. Her memory is still preserved in the
names of various other places in the county of Kincardine.
In the reign of Maloolm Canmore flourished Gilchrist, eari
of Angus, who was living after the year 1120. He married
Finella or Fynbella, the sister of the thane of Meams, by
whom he had a son Giiibrede, the seoond eari of Angus, pro-
periy so called mstead of maonnor, who succeeded him, and
was engaged in the battle of the Standard, under King David
the First, in 1188. Eari Giiibrede waa one of the twenty
barons who were given up to Henry as hostages for the per-
formanoe of the disgraceful conditions entered into by King
William the Lion, in 1174, when imprisoned at Falaise in
Normandy, in order to obtain his release. He died about
1180. He married a daughter of Cospatrick, the thh^ earl of
March, by whom he had six sona, namely, Gilchrist, third
eari of Angus ; Magnus, earl of Caithness, [see Caithnkss,
earldom of] ; Gilbert, ancestor of the Ogilvys, earls of Airlie,
[see OoiLVT, surname of, and Airlib, eari of]; Adam,
William, and Anegus.
Gilchrist, third earl of Angus, mairied a sister of William
the Lion. He waa the father of Duncan the fourth earl,
whose son, Malcolm the fifth earl, married Mary, daughter
and heiress of Sir Humphrey Berkeley, knight, by whom he
had a daughter, Matildia, countess of Angus in her own right.
She married first John Curain who, in her right, became eari
He died in France in 1242. She married, secondly, in 1243,
Gilbert de Urafraville, lord of Redesdale, Prudhow, and Her-
bottle in Northumberland, who in consequence also became
earl of Angua. He died in 1245. He waa one of the most
famous barons of that age and guardian of the northern parts
of England. [Dugdoit** Baronage^ vol L p. 504.]
His only son by the oountess, also bore the name of Gil-
bert de Umfraville. He succeeded as the eighth earl He
was governor of the castles of Dundee and Forfar, and of the
whole territory of Angus, in 1291, when the regents of Scot-
land, during tJie competition for the crown, agreed to deliver
up the kingdom and its fortresses to Edward I. of England.
On this occasion the eari declared that he had received his
castles in charge from the Scottish nation, and that he would
not surrender them to England, unless Edward and all the
competitors joined in an obligation to indemnify him. The
English monarch and the competitors submitted to these con-
ditions of Angus, who was the only person in Scotland who
acted with integrity and spirit at this national crisis. [/>»-
cfero, vol. il p. 581.] He married the third daughter of Al-
exander Cumin, eari of Buchan, and died in 1807. He bad
three sona. The eldest, Gilbert, having died before his father,
he waa succeeded by Robert his second son, who was the
ninth eari of Angus. By Edward the Second, Earl Robert was
appdnted joint-guardian of Scotland, 21st July 1808, and had
a commission to be sole guardian 20th August 1809, but did
not act upon it, as Robert de CUflcnx] waa constituted to that
office. Robert de Umfraville, eari of Angus, waa forfeited by
King Robert the ilrst, for his adherence to the English inter-
est In 1819, he was one of the commisnoners of England
to treat with those of Scotland for peace between the two
nations. He f^pears to have died about 1826. By hia
first wife Luda, daughter of Philip de Kyme, he had a son
Gilbert, who succeeded him, and a daughter, Elizabeth,
married to Gilbert de Burden. His second wife, Alianore,
who waa afterwards the wife of Roger Mauduit, brought
him two sons, Sir Robert, and Thomaa.
Gilbert de Umfraville, the tenth earl of Angus, waa among
the disinherited barons who invaded Scotland in 1882. He
claimed the earldom of Angus, of which his father had been
deprived by foifeiture in the reign of Robert the First He
had a like right to the superiority of the barony of Dunipaoe
in Stirlingshire, which Bruce had granted to William de
lindesay. He had a share in the decisive victoiy obtained by
Edward Baliol over the forces of King David L at Dupplin
Moor, 12th August 1882. He was much engaged in the
wars of Scotland, and in tha fourteenth year of Edward the
Third he was joined in commission with Lord Percy and
Lord NevDle, to conclude a truce with the Scots. At the
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ANGUS.
188
ANNAND.
battle of Dnrham, 20th Aogost 1846, when David the Second
wag defeated and made prisoner, he was one of the chief
oonimandera of the English aiiny, and ten years afterwards
he was one of the commisaoners for treating of the liberation
of that monarch. He was also frequently a commissioner for
guarding the marches. He died 7th January 1881, possessed
of great estates in the counties of Northumberland, Oumber-
Und, York, Lincoln, and Suffolk, leaving his niece his next
heir, his son. Sir Robert de Umfraville, having predeceased
him. This lady was Alianore, the daughter of his sister,
Elizabeth, and Gilbert de Burden, and the wife of Heniy
Talboys.
The title of earl of Angus after the forfeiture, came into the
possession of the Stewart family, having been bestowed before
1329 upon Sir John Stewart of Bonkil, great-grandson of Sir
John Stewart of Bonkil, second son of Alexander, high steward
of Scotiand. He died in Decemlfer 1331. He had married
Margaret^ eldest daughter of Sir Alexander de Abemethy,
and had an only son Thomas, the second earl of Angus of
the Stewart family. The hitter took to wife Maigaret,
daughter of Su> William St Clair of Roelm, by whom he
had one son Thomas, the third earl, and two daughters,
Lady Margaret, married first to Thomas the thirteenth eai)
of Marr, who died without issue in 1377, and secondly to
William, first eari of Douglas, by whom she was the mother
of George de Douglas, the first eari of Angus of the Douglas
family. The second daughter. Lady Elizabeth, married Sir
Alexander Hamilton of Innerwick, and had issue.
Thomas, the third eari of Angus, of the Stewart family,
succeeded his father in 1361, bong tiien an infant He died
without issue in 1377, when the title devolved on his sister
Lady Margaret On her resignation of it in parliament in
1389, King Robert the Second granted the earldom of Angus,
with the lordships of Abemethy in Perthshire, and of Bonkil
in the ooxmty of Berwick, m favour of George de Douglas her
son and the heirs of his body, whom failmg to Sbr Alexander
de Hamilton and his wife Elizabeth, the sister of the said
countess, and thdr heirs. The earldom being afterwards re-
stricted to heirs male, is now vested in the Duke of Hamilton,
the representative in the male line of the above named George
earl of Angus. See Douglas, earl of, (page 45, vol. iL) ; and
Hamilton, duke of, (page 422, voL iiL)
Angus, styled Angui Mokr^ the great, lord of Islay, was
son and successor of Donald, (from whom the Maodonalds
take thdr name) second son of Reginald, son of Somerled, king
of the Isles, whose youngest son was also named Angus.
During the life of Angus Mohr the expedition of Haoo, king
of Norway, to the Isles took place, as reUted in the life of
Alexander the Third, [see onto, page 88.] Angus joined Haoo
with his fleet, but in consequence of the treaty which was
afterwards entered into between the kings of Norway and
Scotland he was allowed to retain his possessions undisturbed,
[see page 98.] His son, Angus Oig, or the younger, was
faithfiil to Robert the Bruce, and when the ktter, with the
few followers who adhered to him, after taking refuge in the
Lennox, proceeded to Kintyre, he was hospitably received by
Angus, and entertained for three days in his castie of Duna-
verty, the ruins of which still remain ; and this at a time
when he had been denied an asylum everywhere else. At
the head of two thousand men, whom he had raised, Angus
Oig engaged on Bruce*s side at the battie of Bannockbum,
where he displayed great valour. On the forfeiture of Alex-
ander lord of Lorn, and his son and heir, John, who were
opposed to the claims of Bruce, a portion of theur territories
was bestowed on Angus Oig, and in this way the Isles of
Mull, (the possession of which had, for some time, been dis-
puted betwixt the lords of Islay and Lorn,) Jura, Coll, and
Tiree, with the districts of Duror and Glenooe, fell to the
share of Angus Oig. He also received a portion of Lochaber,
and the lands of Morvem and Ardnamurchan. As a measure
of precaution, however, Bruce procured from Angus Oig the
resignation of his lands m Kintyre, and bestowed them upon
Robert, the son and heir of Walter, the high steward and the
princess Marjory Bruce, to whom he also gave the keeping ol
Tarbert castie, tiien the most important position on tiie Ar-
gyle coast Before King Robert's death, Angus Oig was the
most powerful chieftain in Argyle or the Isles. He and the
Bruce died about the same time, that is about 1329. Under
David the Seoond the lands of Kintyre reverted to the de-
scendants of Angus Oig. \GregonfM Western Sighlamb
and Isles, pages 22— 27.J
ANGUS, earl of, see Douglas, (Jeorge, Wil-
liam, and Archibald.
ANNAND, William, dean of Edinburgh, was
born at Ayr in 1633. His father, who bore the
same name, was rector of that town under the
episcopacy, and rendered himself very unpopulai
by his strong attachment to the episcopal form of
worship. Having in August 1637 been appointed
to preach at the opening of the synod of Glasgow,
be chose for his text 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2, and, says
Baillie, ^'in the last half of his sermon, from the
making of prayers, ran out upon the liturgy, and
spake for defence of it in whole, and sundry most
plausible parts of it, as well, in my poor judgment,
as any in the isle of Britain could have done, con-
sidering all circumstances ; howsoever, he did
maintain to the dislike of all in an unfit time, that
which was hanging in saspense betwixt the king
and the country. Of his sermon among us in the
synod, not a word ; but in the town, among the
women, a great din." On the following day Mr.
Lindsay, minister of I.«anaric, preached, and as be
was entering the pulpit, **some of the women
in his ear assured him that If he should twitch
(touch) the service-book in his sermon, he should
be rent out of his pulpit : he took the advice, and
let the matter alone." During the day the wo-
men contented themselves with railing and invec-
tives, and " about thirty or forty of our honestest
women, in one voice, before the bishop and magis-
trates, did fall, in railing, cursing, scolding, with
clamours on Mr. Annand : some two of the mean-
est were taken to the tolbooth." Late in the
evening Mr. Annand went out with three or four
of the clergy, when he was immediately assaulted
by some hundi*eds of enraged women, "of aU
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ANN AND.
139
ANNANDALE.
qualities," who with fists and staves **beat him
sore ; his doake, niff, hatt were rent. However,
npon his cries, and candles set oat from manj
windows (it was a dark night), he escaped all
bloody wonnds ; yet he was in great danger even
of killing." The following day the magistrates
accompanied him to the outskirts of the town, to
prevent (iEUther molestation. IBaiUie's Letters and
Journals, ed. 1841, vol. i. pp. 20, 21.] In 1638,
five years after his son's birth, he was obliged to
remove to England, on account of his adherence
to the king and his zeal in the cause of episcopa-
cy. In 1651 the younger Annand was admitted
a student of University college, Oxford. In 1656,
being then Bachelor of Arts, he received holy or-
ders from Dr. Thomas Fulwar, bishop of Ardfert,
or Kerry, in Ireland, and was (^pointed preacher
at Weston on the Green, near Bicester, in Ox-
fordshire. He was afterwards presented to the
vicarage of Leighton-Buzzard, in Bedfordshure.
In 1662 he returned to Scotland, in the capacity
of ch]q)lain to John, eari of Middleton, high com-
missioner from the king to the Estates. In the
end of 1663 he was inducted to the Tolbooth
church at Edmburgh, and some years after trans-
ferred to the Tron church. In April 1676 he was
appointed by the king dean of Edinburgh. In
1685 he acted as professor of divinity in the uni-
versity of St. Andrews, and on the 80th of June
of that year he attended, by order of government,
the earl of Argyle at his execution. He was the
author of seven theological treatises, principally in
favour of the episcopal worship and government,
all published in London but the last, which came
out at Edinburgh in 1674. He died on 13th June
1689, and was interred in the Greyfriars* church-
yard, Edinburgh. — Biographia Britanmca.
The titles of Dean Annand's works, which, not-
withstanding their Latin names, were all written
in English, are as follows:
Fidee Calliolica; or the doctrine of the Catholic Church,
b dghteen gre«t ordinances, &c Lond. 1661-2, 4to.
A Sermon in Defence of the Litnigy, on Hoeea sir. S.
1661, 4ta
Pannm Qnotidiannm ; or Duly Bread, in defence of set
forms of prayer. Lond. 1662, 4to.
Pater Noster; or Oor Father, an ezplanati<m of the Lord's
Prayer. Lond. 1670, 8vo.
Mysterinm Pietatis; or the Mysteiy of Godliness. Lond.
1672, Svo.
Doxolof^ Lond. 1672, 8to.
Dnalitas; mdoding Lex Loqnens; or the Honoor of lla-
gistraoy; and Duorum Unitas; or The Agreement of Magis-
tracy and Ministry, &o. Edin. 1664.
Aknandalb, lord of; a title possessed by the de Bmses,
the ancestors of Bobert the Bkdce; the lordship of A nn-
andale in Dumfries-shire, barmg been bestowed by David the
Fbvt, soon after his accession to the throne, m 1124, on Ro-
bert de Bms, the son of a Norman knight who came mto
England with William the Conqueror. Besides his Urge
estates m Yorkshire, be thus became possessed of an exten-
sive property in SooUand, which he held by the tenure of
military service. [See Bruce, surname of.] Afler the
battle of Bannockbum, the lordship of Annandale was be-
stowed by Bobert the Bruce on his nephew, Sir Thomas Ran-
doI{^, earl of Moray. With the hand of his daughter Agnes,
who married Patrick, ninth earl of Dunbar and March, it
went, afier the death of her brother John, third eari of Mo-
ray, to the Dnnbars, earis of March. On their attainder, it
came into possession, in 1409, of Archibald, fourth earl of
Dougba, and on the forfeiture, m 1455, of James, ninth and
last earl of Doufj^Ias, it was lost to that family. Annandale
now belongs chiefly to the earl of Hopetoun.
Annahdalb, earldom of, an extinct title, formerly in the
poesessicii of a family of the name of Murray. Sir William
Murray, the first of this noble fiunily, is said to have been de-
scended from the house of Dufihs [see Duffus]. He mar-
ried Isabel, the sister of Thomas Randolph, eari of Moray, and
daughter of Sir Thomas Randolph, great chamberlain of Scot-
Und, by Isabel, sister of King Robert Bruce, and by her had
two sons, William and Patrick. His great grandson, Sir Adam
Murray of Cockpool, made a considerable figure in Scotland
in thereignsof^ng Robert the Second and Robert the Third.
A descendant of his, Mungo Miuray of Brougfaton, the second
son of Cuthbert Murray of Cockpool, was the ancestor of the
Munrays of Brougfaton in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright Sir
James Murray of Cockpool, the twelilh designed of Cockpool,
who died in 1620, married Janet, second daughter of Sir Wil-
liam Douglas of Drumlanrig, ancestor of the dukes of Queens-
berry, by whom he had three daughters, the eldest of whom,
Margaret, was married to Sir Robert Orierson, younger of
Lag, by whom she luul an only son. Sir John Giierson of Lag,
who had no sons. His eldest daughter, Nicholas, married
David Scot of Sootstarvet, and had one daughter, Marjory,
by whose marriage with David fifth viscount Stormcmt, the
Murrays of Cockpool, earls of Annandale, are lineally repre-
sented by the present eari of Mansfield [see Stormokt,
viscount of].
Sir James Mnrray*s brother, John, who succeeded to the
estates of the fiimUy on the death, in 1686, of an intermediate
brother, Richard, was raised to the peerage by James the
Sixth, with whom he was a great favourite, and whom, on
his migesty's accession to the throne of England, he accom-
panied to London, as one of the gentlemen of the privy cham-
ber, by the titles of Visooant of Annand, and Lord Murray of
Lochmaben. The date of his creation does not appear; but
he had a charter ** to John Viscount of Annand," of the pa-
lace in Dumfries, and the lands of Haikheuch and Caerlaver-
ock, 20th February 1628. He was created earl of Annan-
dale by patent dated at Whitehall, 13th March 1624. His
lordship married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Shaw,
knight, and died at London m September 1640. He was
succeeded by his son James, second eari of Annandale, who
in March 1642 succeeded as Ihird viscount of Stormont He
died at London 2Sth December 1658, leaving no issue. The
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ANNANDALE.
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ANNANDALE.
titles of earl of Annandale, Tisooant of Aimand, and Lord
Morraj of Lochmaben, in oonseqnence became extinct, and
those of Viscount Stormont and Lord Scoon devolved on
David, second Lord Balvaird [see Murray, snmame of].
The title of Marquis of Annandalu (now doroiant) was
formerly possessed bj a brave and powerful Border family of
the name of Johnstone, which, as far back as can be traced,
were in possession of most extensive estates in the upper
district of Annandale; and of the numerous famiUee beaiing
that name the Johnstones of Lochwood were acknowledged the
chiefs. This distinguished family maintained their ground,
not only against the English borderers, but also against the
lords of Sanquhar, whose descendants became earls of Dumfries,
and against the powerful and ancient family of the Maxwells,
lords of Nithsdale.
In the reign of King Robert the Second, Sir John de John-
stone, the ancestor of the Annandale family of that name,
made a conspicuous figure. In 1871, he was one of the
guardians of the west marches, and frequently had an oppor-
tunity of exerting himself against the English borderers, par-
ticularly in 1378,
*• When at the wattyr of Sulway.
Schyr Ihon of Ihonystown on a day
Of In^ men wenontt a grete dele.
He bare byro at that tyme sa welle
That be and the Lord of Gordowne,
Had a sowerane gud renown
Of ony that wai of thar degre
For ftaU thftl war of gret bownte.**
Wpnioun, b. IL p 811.
He died about 1883, leaving a son Sir John Johnstone of John-
stone. A lineal descendant of his in the eleventh degree, James
Johnstone of that ilk, was by Charles the First created Lord
Johnstone of Lochwood, by patent dated at Holyroodhouse, 20th
June 1633. In March 1648 he was created eaxi of Hartfell.
In 1644 he was imprisoned by order of the committee of
estates, as a favourer of the marquis of Montrose. After the
battle of Kilsyth, August 1645, he joined Montrose, and being
taken at PhUiphaugh, 18th September of the same year, he
was carried to St. Andrews, where, with several others, he
was sentenced to death, 26th November 1646, and ordered to
be executed first of all, with Lord Ogilvy. But the night
before tiie time fixed for the execution. Lord Ogilvy escaped
out of the oastle of St. Andrews, and the marquis of Aigyle,
suspecting it to have been done by means of the Hamiltons,
obtained a pardon for the eari of Hartfell, who was as ob-
noxious to the Hamiltons as Lord Ogilvy was to Argyle. He
died in March 1653.
His only son, James the second earl of Hartfisll, was, on
the restoration of Charies the Second, sworn a privy council-
lor. The title of earl of Annandale having become extinct
by the death of James Murray, the second earl, in 1658, the
oari of Hartfell made a resignation of his peerage into the
hands of his mijesty, who, Idth February 1661, granted a
new patent to him as earl of Annandale and Hartfell, viscount
of Annand, Lord Johnstone of Lochwood, Loohmaben, Mofiat-
dale, and Evandale. He died 17th July 1672. His son Wil-
liam, who succeeded as second earl of Annandale and third of
Hartfell, was appointed an extraordinary lord of session, 23d
November 1698. He was also constituted one of the lords of
the Treasury, and president of the parliament of Scotland,
which assembled at Edinburgh 9th May 1695, and sat till
17th July following. On the 24th of June 1701 he was cre-
ated marquis of Annandale, and on the accession of Queen
Anne was appointed lord privy seal In 1703 he was ap-
pointed president of the privy oounciL In 1704 he was in-
vested with the order of the Thistle. In 1705 he represented
her majesty as high commissioner to tho General Assembly
of the church of Scotland, as he had already done King Wil-
liam in 1701. He was also constituted in 1705 one of the
principal secretaries of state, but not approving of the Union,
he was dismissed from that office in the following year, and
strenuously opposed the Union treaty in pariiament. He
was afterwards on several occasions elected a representative
peer. In 1711 he was again lord high conmiissioner to the
General Assembly. On the accession of George the First he
was, 24th September 1714, appointed keeper of the privy
seal, and a few days after sworn a privy councillor. He died
at Bath on the 14 th January 1721. His lordship married,
first, Sophia, only daughter and heiress of John Fairholm of
Craigiehall, in the county of Linlithgow, by whom he had
James, second marquis of Annandale, two other sons, who
both died unmarried, and two daughters, of whom the eldest,
Lady Henrietta, married, in 1699, Charles Hope of Hopetonn,
created earl of Hopetonn in 1703, and had issue. His first
wife having died in 1716, the marquis married secondly, in
1718, Charlotte Van Lore, only child of John Vanden Bempde
of Pall Mall, London; by whom he had George, third mar-
quis of Annandale, and another son named John, who died
young.
James, the second marquis of Annandale, resided much
abroad, and dying unmarried at Naples, 21st February 1730,
was buried in Westminster Abbey. The estate of Craigie-
hall went to his nephew, the Hon. Charles Hope, and hi«
titles and the other estates to his half brother George, third
marquis of Annandale, who was bom 29th May 1720. The
loss of his brother, Lord John, m 1742, occasioned a depres-
sion of spirits, which finally derai\ged his mind. In 1745
David Hume, the historian, went to live with him, the friends
and fiunily of the marquis being denrous of putting his lordship
under his care and direction. He resided with him a year. On
5th March 1748 an inquest from the court of Chancery found
the marquis a lunatic since 12th December 1744. He died
24th April 1792, when the title of Marquis of Annandale be-
came dormant ; claimed by Sir Frederic John William John-
stone of Westerhall, baronet ; and by Mr. Goodinge Johnstone.
It is understood that the titles of earl of Annandale and Hart-
fell devolved upon James, third earl of Hopetonn, who, how-
ever, did not assume them, but took the name of Johnstone
in addition to that of Hope.
In the parish of Johnstone, Dumfries-shire, are the ruins of the
castle or tower of Lochwood, said to have been built during the
fourteenth oentuiy, and which, from the thickness of its walls
and its insulated situation amidst bogs and marshes, must
have been a place of great strength. It was in allusion to
this circumstance that James the Sixth is said to have re-
marked, ^*that the man who built Lochwood, thou^ he
might have the outward appearance of an honest man, must
have been a knave at heart.** In 1593, it was burnt by Ro-
bert, the natural brother of Lord Maxwell, who, with savage
glee, exclaimed while it was in flames, " Til give Dame John-
stone light enough to show her to set her silken hood " In
revenge for the destruction of Lochwood*s "lofty towers,
where dwelt the lords of Annandale," the Johnstones, aided
by the bold Bucdeuch, the Elliott, the Armstrongs, and the
Grahams, attacked and cut to pieces a party of the Maxwells
near Lochmaben, and among the slain fell Robert the incendiary.
The surviving few then took refuge in the church of Loch-
maben, but the church with all that was in it was bunit to
ashes by the Johnstones, and it was this sacrilegious act
which in its turn occasioned the memorable battle of Dryfe
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ANSTRUTHER.
Hands, 7th December 1593, in which the Johnstones finally
prerailed. Lord Maxwell, while engaged in single combat
with the laird of Johnstone, was slain behind his back by the
cowardly hands of Will of Kirkhill. The Maxwells lort, on
the field and in the retreat, about 700 men. Many of those
who perished or were wounded in the retreat, wert cut down
in the streets of Lockerby; and hence the i^rase currently
used in Annandale to denote a severe wound, — ** A Lockerby
lick.** Sir James Johnstone of Johnstone, warden of the west
marches, was murdered, 6th April 1608, by John, ssTenth
Lord Maxwell, the son of the Lord Maxwell slain on Dryfe
Sands, at a meeting betwixt them, in presence of Sir Robert
Maxwell of Orchardton, brother-in-law of Sir James, to
which meeting each of them came with one attendant Their
attendants quarrelling, Sir James Johnstone turned about to
separate them, when he was treacherously shot in the back
with two bullets by Lord Maxwell, who, being taken at
Caithness some years afterwards, was beheaded for the same,
at the cross of Edinburgh^ 2l8t May 1613.
AxsTRUTHBR, a sumame derived from the lands of An-
stmther, in the county of Fife, on a portion of which the
burgh of Anstmther-easter, of which the lurd of Anstruther
is superior, is built. The family of Anstruther of Anstruther
is Tery ancient, having been settled in Fife in the very early
periods of Scottish history. During the reign of David the
First, William de Candela, obviously of Norman origin, pos-
sessed the hmds of Anstruther, as appears from a charter
granted in favour of the monks of Balmerinoch, by his eon
William, wherdn he is designated " Fllius Williehni de Can-
dela, domini de Anstruther.** Henry his son first assumed the
name of his lands, and in a charter of confirmation of his fa-
ther's grant, dated in 1221, he is styled *' Henricus de Ayni-
strother, dominus ejusdem, Filins Willielmi,** &o. From
these early proprietors the family of Anstruther are lineally
descended.
About the year 1515 Robert Anstruther and David his
brother, younger sons of Robert de Anstruther, the sixth in
descent from the original William de Candela, having gone
to France, were promoted to be officers of the Soots guards in
the service of the French king. David married a lady of dis-
tinction in France, and his descendant, Francis CsDsar An-
struther, contracted into Anstrude, was by Louis the Fif-
teenth, in 1737, raised to the dignity of a French baron, by
tlie title of Baros de Anstrude of the seigniory of Barry.
Sir James Anstruther, the twelfth in direct descent from
William de Candela, was, in 1585, appointed heritable carver
to James the Sixth. In 1592, he had the honour of knight-
hood conferred upon him, and was appointed one of the mas-
ters of the household to his majesty. He died in 1606.
His son. Sir William, succeeded to his father's offices, and
was, besides, appointed one of the gentlemen of the bed-
chamber. On James* accession to the English throne, he
accompanied his rn^esty to London, and at his coronation
was created a knight of the Bath. He was also in great fa-
vour with Charles the First, by whom he was appointed gen-
tleman usher of his majesty's privy chamber. He died in
1649 ; and was succeeded by his younger brother. Sir Robert,
who was, by Charles the Furst, appointed one of the members
of the privy council, and one of the gentlemen of his majesty*8
bed-chamber. He was an able diplomatist, and frequently
employed in negodations of state, both by James the Sixth
and Charles the rirst. In 1620, he was sent ambassador
extraordinary to the court of Denmark, to borrow money
from King Christian, with power to grant security for it in
the king's name. At this time he got from the Danish king,
in a compliment, a Bhip*8 load of timber for building his house
in Scotland. In April 1627, he was commissioned as mini-
ster plenipotentiary, to treat with the emperor and the states
of Germany, at Nuremberg, about the concerns of the elector
palatine, and other afiairs of Europe. He was also appomted
by Charles the First, and Frederick, king of Bohemia, elector
palatine, their plenipotentiaiy to the diet at Ratisbon, for set-
tling all differences between the Roman emperor Ferdinand
and the elector palatine. His commission for this purpose is
dated at Westminster 2d June 1680, and is signed by King
Charles and Frederick, and has both their seals appeuaod.
He went also as ambassador to the meeting of the princes of
Germany at Hailburi.
His second son. Sir Philip, succeeded to the Anstmthv
estates. He was a zealous and gallant cavalier, and had a
command in the royal army at the battle of Worcester, where
he was taken prisoner. He was fined in a thousand merks
by Cromwell, and his estates were sequestrated till the Res-
toration in 1660. He married Christian, daughter of Major-
general Lumsden of Innergelly, and had five sons, two of
whom wero created baronets, and the other three knights.
He died in 1702.
Sir William Anstruther, the eldest son, represented the
county of Fife in the Scottish parliament, in 1681, when
James duke of York was his maje6ty*s high oommissioner in
Scotland, and strongly oppoeed the measures of the oourt.
He sat in parliament for the county of Fife till 1709, and
took an active part in the prooeedhigs, those more particu-
larly for securing and establishing the Protestant reli^on,
and the government, laws, and liberties of the kingdom. In
1689 he was appointed by William the Thkd one of the or-
dinary lords of Session, and soon after was made one of his
mijesty's privy council and of Exchequer. In 1694 he was
created a baronet of Nova Scotia. From Queen Anne, he
received a charter dated at Kensington, 20th April 1704, of
the baronies of Anstruther and Ardross, and many other
lands, and of the heritable bailiaiy of the lordship and regal-
ity of Pittenweem ; and of the office of searoher, and giver
of coquets for the ports of Anstruther and Elie. The same
diarter constitutes him heritably, one of the cibi cuics, or car-
vers, and one of the mastere of the household to her miyesty
and her successors within the kingdom of Scotland ; offices
which belonged to his predecessors, and which his descend-
ant, the present baronet, continues to hold. On the 9th No-
vember of the same year he was nominated one of the lords
of Justiciary, in the room of Lord AberuchQ. He married
Lady Helen Hamilton, daughter of John, fourth earl of Had-
dington, and died at Edinburgh in January 1711. He was
the author of a volume, entitled * Essays, Moral and Divine,*
interspersed with poetry, published at Edinburgh in 1701, in
4to. Its contents are, 1st, Against Atheism. 2d, Of Provi-
dence. 8d, Of Learning and Religion. 4th, Of trifling stu-
dies, stage plays, and romances ; and 5th, Upon the incarna-
tion of Jesus Christ, and redemption of mankind. The work
does not seem to have done much credit to his literary pow-
ers, as his firicnds did all they could to dissuade him from
publishing it ; and after his death, his son bought up every
copy that could be found, for the purpose of suppressing it
ICcmpbeffs History of Scottish Poetry, page 141.] He was
succeeded by his son Sir John, after mentioned.
Sir James Anstruther of Akdrie, the second son of Sir
Philip, was an advocate, and principal clerk of the BUls.
His son, Philip, adopted a military life, and rose to the rank
of lieutenant-general in the army, but dying unmarried, his
estates went to his cousin. Sir John Anstruther of Anstru-
ther.
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ANSTRUTHER.
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ARBUCKLE.
Sir Robert Anstrather of Balcaskief the third son of Sir
Philip, acquired the estate of Balcaskief and was created a
baronet of Nova Sootia in 1694, the same year as his elder
brother, Sir William.
Sir Philip Anstrather, the fourth brother, was made a
knight He was designed of Anstnither-field, from hmds he
BO named near Inverkeithing.
Sir Alexander Anstrather, knight, the fifth brother, mar-
ried in 1694, Jean Leslie, Baroness Newark, daughter and
heiress of David second lord Newark, and was father of Wil-
liam, thud lord Newark, and Alexander, fourth lord. The
title of Lord Newark, which became dormant on the death of
the latter in 1791, was daimed in 1793, by his eldest eon,
but unsuocessfullj. [See Newabk, Lord.]
Sir John Anstruther of Anstruther, the son of Sir William,
married, in 1717, the lady Margaret Carmichaol, eldest daugh-
ter of James second eari of Hyndford, and on the failure in
the male line of that noble house, and the title becoming ex-
tinct in 1817, their descendant. Sir John Anstruth^* of An-
stnither, succeeded to the entailed estates of the earldom,
and assumed the name of Carmichael. [See HTin>FOBD,
Eari of, and Garmicuael, surname of.] Sir John died in
1746, and was succeeded by his son, also named John.
Sir John, the third baronet of this branch of the family,
was the author of a work on drill husbandry, published in
1796, which is understood to have been usefrd at the time of
its publication, but is chiefly remembered from a bon mot
connected with it On its appearance one of Sir John's
friends jocularly remarked that no one could be better quali-
fied to write on the subject, as there was not a better drilled
husband in the county of Fife. Sir John married, m 1750,
Janet, daughter of James Fall, Esq. of Dunbar. She was a
very superior woman, and seems to have had a considerable
influence with her brd. Sir John died in July 1799.
His eldest son. Sir Philip, succeeded. He married in 1778,
Anne, only child of Sir John Paterson, of Eccles, baronet,
and assumed in consequence the additional surname of Pater-
son. He died without issue in 1808.
He was succeeded by his brother, the Right Hon. Sir John
Anstrather, of Cassis in Staffordshire, a distingtushed kwyer,
who had been created a baronet of Great Britain, 18th May
1798, when appointed chief justice of the supreme court of
Judicature in Bengal. He married Maria, daughter of Ed-
ward Brice, Esq. of Bemer's Street, London, and had issue
two sons and a daughter. He retired firom the Bench in
1806, and died in 1811.
Sir John, his eldest son, died in 1817. Hb only son, a
posthumous child, bom 6th February 1818, and named John
after his father, inherited the titles and estates at his birth.
He was accidentally killed while on a shootmg excursion in
November 1831, and the baronetcies and posseaaions of the
fHinily reverted to his uncle. Sir Windham Carmichael An-
struther of Elie and Ansiruther, the eighth baronet of Nova
Scotia, and fourth of Great Britain.
Sir Robert Anstruther, above mentioned, the founder of
the Balcaskie branch, was thrice married. His first wife,
whose name was Kinnear, an heiress, died without issue.
His second wife, Jean Monteith Wrea, also an heiress, brought
him six sons and two daughters; and by his third wife,
Marion, daughter of Sir William Preston of Valleyfield, he
had one son and two daughters. He was succeeded by his
eldest son. Sir Philip, whose eldest son, Sir Robert, bom 2l8t
April 1733, married Lady Janet Erskine, youngest daughter
of Alexander, fifth eari of Kellie, and had three sons and
three daughters. Robert, the eldest, was the celebrated Gen-
eral Anstrather. He was bora 8d March 1768, and entered
at a very early period of life into the army. In 1798 he ao-
companied his regiment to Holland. In 1796 he joined the
Austrian army in the Brisgau, under the Archduke Charles
then at war with France; and received a wound in the left
side in one of the conflicts. In 1797 he purdiased a company
in the 8d Guards, and was appointed deputy quarter-mat>ter-
general. In 1798 he was on a diplomatic mission to Ger-
many; and in the autumn of 1799 with the expedition to the
Holder. In 1800 Captain A. went to Egypt as quarter-
master-general to the army under the command of Sir Ralph
Abercromby, at which time the order of the Crescent was
confinrred upon him. In 1802 he was acljutant-general in
Ireland. In 1808 he went to Portugal as brigadier-general,
and distinguished himself at the battie of Vimiera. Jn the
suBsequeut campaign in Spain, under Sir John Moore,
General A. commanded the rear-guard of the army, whidi he
brought safely into Coninna on tiie night of Xhe 12th January
1809; but survived only one day the exertions he had made,
and the fatigue he had endured during the retreat He died
14 til January 1809, and lies interred in the north-east bastion
of the citadel of Corunna. Sir John Moore by his own desire
was buried by the side of General Anstrather. He married
16th March, 1799, Charlotte Luc^, only daughter of CoL
J:imes Hamilton, grandson of James, fourth duke of Hamil-
ton, and hiid issue Sir Ralph Abercromby Anstrather, Bart,
who succeeded his grandfather in August 1818, one other son
and three daughters. Sir Ralph married, 7th Sept 1881,
Mary Jane, eldest daughter of Sir Henry Torrens, K.C.B.,
and has issue 8 sons and 2 daughters. His second sou Henry
fell at the battie of the Ahna, September 20, 1864, in his
18th year.
ARBUCKLE, James, A.M., a minor poet, was
born in Glasgow, in 1700. He studied at the uni-
versity of that city, where he took his degrees.
He afterwards kept an academy in the north of
Ireland, hence he is called an Irishman by Camp-
bell, in his Introduction to the History of Poetry
in Scotland. He was the friend of Allan Ramsay.
He published a volume of poems, and had begun
a translation of Horace, but died before it was
finished, in 1734. Some of his translations and
imitations of Horace are among his best pieces.
He wrote * Snuff, a Poem,' which, according to
the advertisement, was ** printed at Edinburgh
by Mr. James M*Ewen and Company for the au-
thor, and sold by Mr. James M^Ewen, bookseller
in Edinburgh, and by the booksellers in Glasgow,"
1719. This poem waa dedicated to " His Grace,
John, Duke of Roxburgh,** and contained some
pleasing enough conceits, very prettily turned
As an instance the following may be quoted :
t* Thou^^ in some solitary pathless wild
Where mortal never trod, nor nature smiled,
My cmel fote should doom my endless stay,
To saunter all my ling'ring life away,
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ARBUTHNOT.
Tet stni 1*11 here sodetj enough,
While blest with Tirtae, and a Pinch of SnofT,
Enough for me the conadoos joys to hud,
And silent raptures of an honest min^ **
ARBUTHiroTr, viaooont o^ a title possessed by a family of
ancient descent, bearing that snmame, in Kincardineshire;
the first of whom, Hngp de Aberbothenoth, flourished in the
reign of King William the Lion, and deriyed his name, in
1105, from lands which came to him by nurriags with a
daughter of Osbertus Oliphard, sheriff of Meams. Those
lands now form the greater part of the pariah of Arbuthnott,
and haye passed to the present viscount through no less than
twenty-two generations. Previous to the twelfth century
the name was Abeibothenothe ; about 1385, it had become
Aberbuthnot, and about 1443, Arbuthnott.
The name of Aberbothenothe is understood to mean " the
confluence of the water below the baron's house,** being de-
rived from Aber^ the influx of a river into the sea, or of a
smaller stream into a larger Both, or Botkaui, a dwellmg, a
baronial residence; and AeA or Neoth-ta, the stream that
descends or is lower than something else in the nd^bour-
hood; a derivation which is peiiectly applicable to the site of
the ancient castle, and to the present residence of the noble
fiunOy of Arinithnott [See StaHstioal Acoomt, voL xL]
In the reign of Alexander the Second, Duncan de Aber-
bothenothe was witness to a donation of that sovereign in
1242. His son, Hn^ is witness, along with his father, de-
signed Dnncanus Dominns de Aberbothenoth, to a charter of
Bobert, the son of Wamebald, to the monasteiy of Aberbroth-
wick. His son and suooessor, Hu^, called from the flaxen
colour of his hair, Hugo Blundus or le Blond, to distinguish
him from two predecessors of the same name, was laird of
Arimthnott in 1282, in whidi year he bestowed the patron-
age of the church of Garvock, in pure alms, on the monasteiy
of Arbroath, **fbr the saiisty of his soul,** which patronage,
with many others, at the Reformation, fell into the hands of
the king. Along with the patronage he gave one ox-gang of
land, lying adjacent to the church of Garvock, with pasturage
for 100 sheep, 4 horses, 10 oxen, and 20 cows. Hugo le
Blond died about the end of the thuteenth centniy, and was
buried at Arbuthnott, where there is an ancient full-length
stone statue of him, in a reclining posture, with the face look-
ing iqiwarda, and the feet resting on the figure of a dog. His
own and his wife's arms, the latter being the same with those
of the once powerful famOy of the Morevilles, constables of
ScoUand, are cut on the stone on which the statue lies.
In 1355 Philip de Arbuthnott, fourth direct descendant from
Hugh le Blond, was a benefactor to the church of the Carme-
lite friars, Abodeen. His son and heir, Hugh Arbuthnott,
was accessary with several other gentlemen of the Meams,
upon great provocation, to the slaughter of John Melville, of
Glenbervie, sheriff of that county, about 14^. According to
tradition, Melville had, by a strict exerdse of his authority as
sheriff^ rendered himself obnoxious to the surrounding barons,
who teased the regent, Murdoch, duke of Albany, by repeated
complaints against him. At last, in a fit of impatience, the
regent mcantiously exclaimed to Barday, laird of Mathers
(anceetor of Captain Barclay Allardice of Urie), who had
eome to him with another complaint against Mehille, ** Sor-
row ^ that sheriff were sodden, and supped in broo.** Most
of those who have reUted this stoiy sti^ that it was the
king, James the First, who made this exclamation, but his
miyesty was then a prisoner in EngUnd. Barday, immedi-
ately returning home, assembled his ndgfabours, the lairds of
Lauriston, Arbuthnott, Pitairow and Halkerton, who a|^
pointed a great hunting party in the forest of Garvock, to
which they invited the devoted Melville ; and having prepared
a large fire and cauldron of boiling water in a retired place,
they decoyed the unsuspecting Mdville to the fatal spot,
knocked him down, stripped him, and aen threw him into
the cauldron. After he was boiled or todden for some time,
they each took a spoonful of the soup. To screen himself
from justice, Barday built a fortress m the parish of St.
Cyrus, called the Kaim of Mathers, on a perpendicular and
peninsular rock, sixty feet above the sea, where, in those
days, he lived quite secure. The laird of Arbuthnott clauned
and obtained the benefit of the law o^dan Macduff, which,
in case of homidde, allowed a pardon to any one within the
ninth degree of kindred to Maodufi; Thane of Fife, who
should flee to his cross, which then stood near Lindores, oL
the march between Fife and Strathem, and pay a fine. The
pardon is still extant in Arbuthnott House. The rest were
outlawed. He died in 1446.
His descendant. Sir Robert Arbuthnott of Arbuthnott, was
knitted by King Charies the First, and for his enduring
loyalty ennobled in 1641, by being created Viscount Arbuth-
nott and Lord Inverbervie. Robert the second viscount of
Arbuthnott succeeded his father in 1655, and died in June
1682. By his first wife. Lady Elizabeth Keith, second
dang^iter of William seventh earl Marischal, he had a son
Robert, thvd viscount, and a daughter, and by his second
wifia, Catherine, daughter of Robert Gordon of Pitlurg and
Stndoch, he had three sons and three daughters. The Hon.
Alexander Arbuthnott, the second son by the second marrittge,
who was appointed one of the barons of the Court of Exche-
quer in Scotland at the union of 1707, married Jean, eldest
daughter of Sir Charles Maitland of Pitrichie in Aberdeen-
shire, hdr to her brother, Sir Charles, who died in 1704, and
he in consequence assumed the name and arms of Maitland.
John, the seventh viscount of Arbuthnott, married in De-
oember 1775, Isabella, 2d daughter of William Graham, Esq.
of Morphia. Kincardineshire, and by her, who died in 1818,
he had John, 8th viscount, General Hugh Arbuthnott, long
M.P. for Kincardineshire, 5 other sons, and 2 daugliters.
The 8th viscount succeeded on his fatlier*s death, Feb. 27,
1800, and in June 1805 he married Margaret, daughter of
the Hon. Walter Ogilvy of Clova, sister of the ninth earl of
Airlie, with issue, 6 sons and 7 dau^ters. He died Jan. 10,
1860, when his eldest son, John, became 9th viscount. His
lofdship married, m 1887, the ddest daughter of the 8th earl
of Airiie ; issue, 8 sons and a daughter.
ARBUTHNOT, Alexander, an eminent di-
vine, and zealoos promoter of the Reformation
in Scotland, was the second son of Andi-ew Ar-
bnthnot of Pitcarles, the fourth son of Sir Robert
Arbuthnott of Arbnthnott, and the brother of the
baron or proprietor of Arbuthnott, in Kincardine-
shire, and not the baron himself, as generally
stated by his biographers. His mother was Eliza-
beth, daughter of James Strachan of Monboddo,
and sister of Alexander Strachan of Thornton.
He was bom in 1538. According to Archbishop
Spottidwood, he studied at the university of St.
Andrews, but Dr. Mackenzie says that he received
his education at King's college, Aberdeen. [Mac*
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kenzie^s Lives of Scots Writers^ vol. iii. p. 186.]
Hie former is likely to be correct, as in the year
1560 his name appears the ninth in a list of yonng
men at St. Andrews best qualified for the minis-
try and teachiujg, given in to the first General As-
sembly. [CaMervxHxTs History of the Church of
Scotland^ vol. ii. p. 46.] In 1661 he went to France,
and for the space of five years prosecuted the study
of the civil law at Bourges, under the famous Cu-
jacius. This has led his biogi'aphers to state that
it was with the view of following the profession
of an advocate in his native country ; but it was
then usual for students of divinity to make dvil
law a branch of their studies. He returned to
Scotland in 1566, and was soon after licensed as a
minister of the Reformed church. On the 15th
July 1568 he received a presentation to the church
of Logic Buchan, one of the common kirks of the
cathedral of Aberdeen. He was a member of the
General Assembly which met at Edinburgh on
the first of July of that yeai*, and was intrusted
with the charge of revising a book entitled ' The
Fall of the Roman Church,' published by one Tho-
mas Bassenden, a printer of that city, which had
given great offence and incurred the censure of
the Assembly, chiefly on account of an assertion
contained in it, that the king was the supreme
head of the church. For this, and for having
printed at the end of the Psalm-Book, an indecent
song called ' Welcome Fortune,* the Assembly or-
dained Bassenden to call in all the copies of these
books which he had sold, and to sell no more of
them, and to abstain for the future from printing
anything without the license of the magisti*ates,
and the revisal by a committee of the church of
such books as pertain to religion. [Booke of the
I UniversaU Kirk of Scotland, p. 100.]
' In the year 1569, Mr. Alexander Anderson, the
principal of King's college, Aberdeen, with the
sub-principal and three of the regents of that uni-
versity, having been ejected from their ofiSces, on
account of their adherence to popery, and refusal
to sign the Confession of Faith, Mr. Arbnthnot
was promoted to the vacant principalship on the
3d July of that year, and three weeks afterwards
he was presented to the church of Arbuthnott in
Kincardineshire, ^^provyding he administrat the
sacraments of Jesus Christ, or ellis travell [that
is, labour] in some others als necessar vocation
to the utility of the kirk, and approvit by the
samen.*' The emoluments of his two parochial
charges were probably his only support as princi-
pal, the funds of the college having been greatly
dilapidated by his predecessor, Principal Anderson,
when he found that he was likely to be deprived
for his adherence to popery. To the university
Principal Arbuthnot rendei*ed the most important
services, both in the augmentation of its funds,
and by his assiduity and success in teaching.
** By his diligent teaching and dexterous govern-
ment," says Archbishop Spottiswood, '* he not
only revived the study of good letters, but gained
many from the superstitions whereunto they were
given." In 1572 he was a member of the Gen-
eral Assembly held at St. Andrews, which strenu-
ously opposed a scheme of church government
called 'The Book of policy,' proposed by the
regent Morton and his party, for the purpose of
restoring the old titles in the church, and retaining
among themselves all the temporalities annexed
to them. The same year he established his char-
acter as a man of learning, by the publication at
Edinburgh, in quarto, of his * Orationes de Ori-
gine et Dignitate Juris,* a production which was
honoured with an encomiastic poem by Thomas
Maitland, who represents Arbuthnot as one of the
brightest ornaments of his native country. [De-
liti€B Poetarum Scotorum, tom. ii. p. 163.] "To
enhance the value of this eulogium," says Dr.
Irving, " it must be recollected that Maitland was
a zealous Catholic."
From this time Arbuthnot began to take a lead
in the General Assembly, and during the minority
of James the Sixth, he appeai-s to have been much
employed on the pai-t of the church, in its tedious
contest with the regency, concerning the plan of
ecclesiastical government to be adopted. Of the
General Assembly which met at Edinburgh 6th
August, 1573, he was chosen moderator. In that
of Edinburgh March 6th, 1574, he was appointed,
with three others, to summon before them the
chapter of Murray, accused of giving their letters
testimonial in favour of George Douglas, bishop
of that see, " without just trial and due exami-
nation of his life, and qualification in literature.'*
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vol. iii. p. 304.] Tliis assembly alsQ authorized
him, with Mr. John Row and others, to draw
up a plan of ecclesiastical polity for the appro-
val of the members. He was at the Assem-
bly which met at Edinburgh m August, 1575.
^^Efter the Assemblie," (says James MelviUe,)
^^ we passed to Anguss in companle with Mr. Al-
exander Arbuthnot, a man of singular gifts of
leming, wesdome, godliness, and sweitness of na-
ture, then principall of the collage of Aberdein;
whom withe Mr. Andro [Melville] communicat
anent the haiU oi-dour of his collage in doctrine and
discipline, and aggreit as therefter was sett dovm in
the new reformation of the said collages of Glasgow
and Aberdein." IMehnUe^s Diary , p. 41.] He was
again chosen moderator of the General Assembly
which met at Edinburgh 1st April 1577. In the
Assembly which met in that city in October of
the same year he was appointed, with Andi'ew
Melville and George Hay, to attend a council
which was expected to meet at Magdeburg for
the purpose of establishing the Augsburg Confes-
sion. [Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland^
page 169.] The council, however, was not con-
vened. A copy of the heads of the policy and
jurisdiction of the church having been, by^rder
of that General Assembly, presented to the earl
of Morton as regent of the kingdom; for the so-
lution of doubts and the removal of difficulties,
he Wits referred to Principal Arbuthnot, Patrick
Adamson, and Andrew Melville, and nine other
commissioners of inferior eminence. [Ibid, p. 171.]
In the General Assembly which met at Edinburgh
24th April 1578, it was resolved that a copy of
the same should be presented to the king, and
another to his council; and thai if a conference
should be 'demanded, they, on their part, would
nominate Arbuthnot, Andrew Melville, and ten
others, to attend at any appointed time, llbid.
p. 175.] In the Assembly which convened at
Stirling, 11th June of the same year, Aibuthnot,
with some others, was empowered to confer with
several of the nobility, prelates, and gentry, rela-
tive to the polity of the church. In the General
Assembly which met at Edinburgh on the 24th
April 1583, Arbuthnot, with David Ferguson and
John Durie, was directed to wait upon the king
and council, to request, in name of the Assembly,
the dismissal of M. Manuingville, the Fi*ench am-
bassador, whose popish practices had excited much
alarm, as well as to complain of sundiy other
grievances. He was also named in a commission,
with Mr. Robert Pont and five others, or any four
of them, to visit the university of St. Andrews,
for the purpose of inquiring how the rents thereof
were bestowed, what order and diligence were
used by the regents or professoi-s in teaching, and
how order was kept among the students. With
Messrs. Andrew and George Hay he was also em-
powei'ed to present to the king and council such
heads, articles, and complaints as the Assembly
might determine, and to confer, treat, and reason
thereupon, and to receive his majesty's answer to
the same. [Caiderwood^ vol. iii. pp. 707, 708.]
The leading part which he took in ecclesiastical
matters seems to have rendered him an object of
suspicion and displeasure to James the Sixth ; for
when, in the same year (1588), he was appointed
by the Assembly minister of St. Andrews, the king
commanded him to remain in his college, under
pain of homing. The Assembly saw in this arbi-
trary exertion of the royal prerogative, an in-
fringement of their rights. They therefore re-
monstrated against it, but his majesty answered
generally that he and his council had good grounds
and reasons for what had been done. Arbuthnot
is said to have had some bias towards the episcopal
form of ecclesiastical polity, but whatever might be
his private sentiments, he adhered with steadiness
to the presbyterian party. It is thought, and in-
deed Dr. Mackenzie confidently asserts, that he
had given offence to the king by printing Buch-
airan's History of Scotland, in the year 1582,
[Lives of Scots Writers^ vol. iii. p. 192,] and other
authors have also supposed that he was the iden-
tical Alexander Arbuthnot who at that period
held the office of king's printer. On this point
Dr. Irving particularly quotes James Man, who,
in his * Censure of Ruddiman's Philological Notes
on Buchanan,' (p. 99. Aberdeen, 1753, 12mo,)
maintained, ** with ridiculous pertinacity," as
Chalmers in his Life of Ruddiman says, that
Principal Arbuthnot was indeed the printer of
Buchanan's History. The mistake has been cor-
rected by Chalmers, who, on refen-ing to the writ
of privy seal, found that the Alexander Arbuth-
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not therein mentioned as king^s printer waa deno-
minated a burgess of Edinburgh, and therefore was
a different person firom the principal of King's col-
lege, Aberdeen. [Xi/e of Ruddiman^ p. 72.]
The restriction placed on him by King James
is supposed to have seriously affected his health
and spirits. He fell into a decline, and died un-
married, at Aberdeen, on the 10th of October
1583, before he had completed the age of forty-
five. On the 20th of the same month his remains
were interred in the chapel of King's college.
Principal Arbuthnot appears to have possessed
a degree of good sense and moderation which em-
inently qualified him for the conduct of public
business, and his death was regarded as a severe
calamity to the national church and to the nation-
al literature. Andrew Melville honoured his mem-
ory by an elegant epitaph in Latin, which will be
found in Irving's Life of Arbuthnot {Lines ofScoU
PoetSy vol. ii. p. 177), quoted from the Delitus
Poetarum Scotorum^ /(tom. ii. p. 120). James
Melville, in his Diary, has pronounced Arbuthnot
one of the most learned men of whom Europe
could at that time boast. His character has been
thus delineated by Archbishop Spottiswood : ^^ He
was greatly loved of all men, hated of none, and
in such account for his moderation with the chief
men of these parts, that without his advice they
could almost do nothing; which put him in a great
fashrie, whereof he did oft complain; pleasant
and jocund in conversation, and in all sciences
expert ; a good poet, mathematician, philosopher,
theologue, lawyer, and in medicine skilful ; so as
in every subject he could promptly discourse, and
to good purpose." Notwithstanding the violence
of the times in which he lived, the name of Prin-
cipal Arbuthnot has never been found subjected
to censure. Even the papists themselves appear
to have revered his viitnes. Nicol Bume, in his
* Admonition to the Antichrlstian Ministers of the
Deformit Kirk of Scotland,' written in 1581, while
he has treated the rest of the Protestant clergy
with the utmost contempt, thus respectinlly speaks
of Arbuthnot:
** Bot yit, gade Lord, qnha anis thj Dune hes kend.
May, or thaj de, find for tliair sanliB remeid :
» With thy elect Arbuthnot I commend,
Althocht the kve to Geneve haist with speed.**
Three Scottish poems, published in Pinkerton*8
'• Ancient Scottish Poems,' have been attributed to
Principal Arbuthnot. Dr. Irving in his Life of
Arbuthnot gives extracts from two of these, * The
Miseries of a Pure [poor] Scholar,' and 'The
Praises of Wemen,' which show the author to have
been an ingenious and pleasing poet. The Mait-
land MSS. preserve several of his pieces not hith-
erto published. [See Irving^s Lives of Scottish
Poets^ vol. ii. p. 169.] Principal Arbuthnot left
in manuscript an account of the Arbuthnott fa-
mily, entitled ' Originis et incrementi Arbutbno-
ticad familiie descriptio historica,' which is still
preserved. It was afterwards translated by George
Morrison, minister of Benholme, and continued
to the period of the Restoration by Alexander
Arbuthnott, episcopalian minister of Arbuthnott,
the father of the celebrated wit, the subject of the
succeeding notice.
ARBUTHNOT, John, M.D., one of the most
conspicuous, and certainly the most learned, of
the wits of Queen Anne's reign, was the son of
Alexander Arbuthnott, episcopalian clergyman at
Arbuthnott in Kincardineshire, and a near rela-
tive of the noble family of that name, and his wife,
Margaret Lamy, from the parish of Maryton, near
Montrose. He was bom in the parish of Arbuth-
nott in April 1667, and received the elementary
part of his education at the parish school. About
the year 1680 he and his elder brother Robert, af-
terwards a banker in Paris, went to Marischal
college, Aberdeen, where he applied himself dili-
gently to all the academical branches of instruc-
tion, and after finishing his medical studies, he
took his doctor's degree. At the revolution his
father, not conrplying with the new order of
things, was deprived of his living, and in conse-
quence retired to the castle of Hallgreen near
Bervie, in the neighbourhood of which he pos-
sessed, by inheritance, a small property called
Eingomey ; and his two sons wei-e compelled to
trust to their own exertions for getting forward in
the world. The subject of this memoir accord-
ingly resolved to push his fortune in London, and
on his arrival there, he was hospitably received
into the house of a Mr. William Pate, a woollen-
draper. For some time he supported himself by
teaching the mathematics, and soon distinguished
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himself by his writings. Uls first work appeai-ed
in 1697, entitled an * Examination of Dr. Wood-
ward's Account of the Deluge,* being an answer
to a work of that gentleman bearing the title of
an * Essay towards a Natural History of the
Earth,* which had appeared two years before.
This laid the foundation of Arbnthnot's fame,
which was much extended by an able treatise
published by hun in 1700, * On the usefulness of
the Mathematics to young students in the univer-
sities.* In 1704, in consequence of a curious and
instructive dissertation * On the Regularity of the
Bii'ths of both sexes,* communicated to the Royal
Society, and published in the Philosophical Trans-
actions of that year, No. 328, he was elected a
member of that learned body. It would appear
from the signature to his letters, that on first
going to London he himself continued to spell his
name with the two t's at the end of it, as is the
correct way, but in process of time one of the t*s
was dropped as unnecessary.
In 1705 Prince Creorge of Denmark, the consort
of Queen Anne, was suddenly taken ill at Epsom.
Dr. Arbnthnot, happening to be on the spot, was
called to his assistance, and, under his care, his
royal highness soon recovered. Arbuthnot was,
in consequence, appointed physician extraordinary
to the queen, and in the month of November,
1709, he was promoted to be fourth physician in
ordinary to her majesty; that is, one of her do-
mestic physicians. His skill having been the
means of recovering her majesty from a dan-
gerous illness, drew from his fnend Gay the follow-
ing elegant pastoral compliment:
** WhUe thus we stood, as in a stonnd,
And wet with tears, like dew, the ground,
Full soon, by bonfire and by bell,
We learnt our liege was passing well:
A skilful leech, so God him speed,
They say had wrought this blessed deed
This leech Arbuthnotf was yclept;
Who many a nigbt not once had slept,
But watchM our gracious sovereign still.
For who could rest when she was ill ?
Oh! niay*st thou henceforth sweetly sleep !
Sheer, swains! oh, sheer your softest sheep,
To swell his couch, for well I ween
He saved the realm who saved the queen.^
In the month of April, 1710, he was admitted
a Fellow of the Royal college of physicians. The
confidence reposed in him by his royal mistress
appears by the terms in which he is spoken of by
Dean Swift, who calls him ** the queen*s favourite
physician," and again, *Uhe queen^s favourite."
Being thus distinguished by his professional ab*-
llties, his influence at court, and his literary at-
tainments, Arbuthnot acquired the friendsliip not
only of the leading men of the Tory party, to
which he belonged, such as Harley and Boling-
broke, but that of all the wits and scbolai-s of
his time. On Swift's visit to London in 1710, a
strict intimacy was formed between them, and
soon after Pope was added to the number of his
friends, as were also Prior and Gay.
In the year 1712, appeared the first part of
* The History of John Bull,* of which it has been
justly said, that ** never was a political allegor}*
managed with more exquiscte humour, or a more
skilful adaptation of characters and circumstances."
The doubt entertained respecting the author of
this satire has been dispelled by Swift and Pope,
who both distinctly attribute it to Dr. Arbuthnot.
Pope declared that Arbuthnot was the *^sole
author." The object of this highly humorous pro-
duction was to throw ridicule upon the splendid
achievements of Marlborough, and to render the
country discontented with the war then raging
with France. Arbuthnot, who was one of the
literary phalanx attached to the fortunes of Harley
and the Tories, was aware how entirely that min-
ister's power depended on a peace with France,
and, therefore, he applied all the vigour of his wit
to the accomplishment of that end. The ingenuity
of the story contained in the * History of John
Bull,' united to its intelligible, straightforward,
comic humour, procured for it a favourable recep-
tion everywhere; but to politicians, the exquisite
skill of its satire gave it a peculiar relish. After
the accession of the house of Hanover, a supple-
ment to the * History ' appeared ; but it has been
doubted whether this is a genuine production of
Arbuthnot's pen. Some are of opinion that the
first two parts as printed in Swift's works, are all
that proceeded from Arbuthnot.
Early in the year 1714 he entered into an en-
gagement with Pope and Swift, jointly to write a
satire on the abuses of human learning, in the style
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of Cervantes. The name by which the intended
hero was to be called was assigned to that assem-
blage of wits and learned men of which these
three formed the nucleus, and it was called the
'Scriblerus' Club.* Harley, Atterbury, Con-
greve, and Gay, were members; and of them all no
one was better qualified than Arbutlmot, both in
Doint of wit and erudition, to promote the object
of the society, which was to ridicule the absuixlities
of false taste in learning, under the character of a
man of capacity enough, but no judgment, who
had industiiously dipped into every art and science.
But the prosecution of this noble design was pre-
vented by the queen^s death, which deeply affected
Pope, S>vift, and Arbuthnot, who were all warmly
attached to Lord Oxford^s ministry; and a final
period was aflerwai-ds put to the project, by the
separation and growing infirmities of Dean Swift,
by the bad health of Dr. Arbuthnot, and other
concurring causes. The work in consequence was
never completed, the fii-st book of ' the Memoirs of
Martinus Scriblerus ' being only a part of it. " Polite
letters," says Warbui-ton, the editor of Pope's works,
*^ never lost more than in the defeat of this scheme;
in the execution of whicli work each of this illustii-
ous triumvirate would have found exercise for his
own peculiar talents, besides constant employment
for those they had all in common. Dr. Arbuthnot
was skilled in everything which related to science;
Mr. Pope was a master in the fine arts; and Dr.
Swift excelled in the knowledge of the world.
Wit they hod all in equal measure; and this so
large that no age perhaps ever produced three men
to whom natm*e had more bountifully bestowed it,
or in whom art had brought it to higher perfection.*'
Tlio first book of * Martinus Scriblerus* was pub-
lished after the death of Dr. Ai-buthnot in 1741,
in the quarto edition of Pope's prose works, and
there seems to be every reason to believe that
Arbuthnot was the sole author. It has, it is trae,
oecn printed in the collected editions of the works
both of Swift and Pope; yet the internal evi-
dence is sufficient to prove it the entire production
of Arbuthnot, to whom Warton has attributed the
fifth, six,th, seventh, eighth, tenth, and twelfth
chaptei-s, whatever may be determined of the other
parts of the memoirs. The medical and antiqua-
rian knowledge displayed in the other chapters,
and the ridicule on Dr. Woodwai*d in the third,
afford strong presumption of their ha\ing had the
same authorship as the rest. The humorous essay
concerning the origin of the sciences, usually ap-
pended to the ' Memoii-s of Martinus Scriblerus,*
appears from Spence to have been a joint pro-
duction of Arbuthnot, Pope, and Pamcll.
The death of Queen Anne in July 1714 put an
end to Arbuthnot*s connexion with the court, and
completely destroyed the hopes of the Tory party.
He felt severely the change in his ciroumstanceB,
but his satirical humour and spirit of wit enabled
him to derive some relief even fi'om his altered
prospects. In a letter to Swift, dated 12th August,
he thus writes: " I have an opportunity cahmly and
philosophically to consider that treasure of vile-
ness and baseness that I always believed to be in
the heart of man, and to behold them exert their
insolence and baseness; every new instance, in-
stead of surprising and grieving me, as it does
some of my fiiends, really diverts me,— and in a
manner proves my theoiy.** In a subsequent let-
ter, alluding to the dispersion of the queen's cour-
tiers on her death, he says, "The queen's poor
servants are like so many poor orphans exposed
in the very streets.** To divert his chagiin ho
paid a visit to his brother Robert at Paris, under
whose care he left two of his daughters. On his
return, in the beginning of September, having been
deprived of his apartments in St. James* palace,
he took a house in Dover Street, where he assidu-
ously devoted himself to the practice of his pro-
fession and to literary occupation. His spirits
appear to have suffered considerably at this time,
for, in a letter to Pope, dated September 7th,
1714, he says, " I am extremely obliged to you
for taking notice of a poor, old, distressed courtier,
confmonly the mobt despisable thing in the worid.
This blow has so roused Scriblerus that he has re-
covered his senses, and thinks and talks like other
men. From being fi-olicsome and gay, he is tura-
ed grave and morose.*' This depression of spirits,
however, had not given him a distaste for the so-
ciety of his fi-iends : " Martin's oflSce," he adds, in
allusion to his * Martinus Scribleinis,' "is now the
second door on the left hand in Dover Street,
where he will be glad to see Dr. Pamell, Mr.
Pope, and his old friends, to whom he can still
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afford a half pint of claret." He is said, with
Pope, to have assisted Gay in the fai-ce of ' Three
Hoars after Marriage,' which was brought out in
1716, but met with no success.
lu the autumn of 1722, Arbuthnot visited Bath,
for the benefit of hir health. He was accompa-
nied by his brother, who had shortly before ar-
rived in England. Mr. Robert Arbuthnot was a
person of a singularly benevolent character, and
is thus commemorated in a letter from Pope to the
Hon. Robert Digby, " Dr. Arbuthnot is going to
Bath, — his brother, who is lately come to Eng-
land, goes also to the Bath, and is a more extra-
ordinary man than he, and worth your going thi-
ther on purpose to know him. The spirit of
philanthropy, so long dead to our world, is revived
in him. He is a philosopher all of fire ; so warm-
ly, nay so wildly in the right, that he forces all
others about him to be so too, and draws them
into his own vortex. He is a star that looks as if
it were all fire, but is all benignity, all gentle and
beneficial influence. If there be other men in the
world that would serve a friend, yet he is the
only one, I believe, that could make even an ene-
my serve a fiiend."
On the 30th September 1723, Arbuthnot was
chosen second censor of the College of Physicians.
In the autumn of 1725 he had a dangerous illness.
On this occasion he was visited by Pope, who
thus communicated the intelligence of his illness
to Dean Swift : ^^ Dr. Arbuthnot is, at this time,
ill of a very dangerous distemper, an imposthume
in the bowels, which is broke ; but the event is
very uncertain. Whatever that be (he bids me
tell you, and I write this by him) he lives and
dies your faithful friend, and one reason he has to
desire a little longer life is, the wish to see you
once more." In 1727 he was chosen an elect of
the Royal college of Physicians, when he pro-
nounced the Harveian oration for that year. In
the same year he published his great work, en-
titled * Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights, and
Measures, explained and exemplified in several
dissertations,^ 4to. This volume, which does great
honour to the antiquarian knowledge and indus-
try of the writer, though not wholly free from in-
accuracies, has ever since been considered a stand-
ard work. In 1732 he published a professional
treatise ' On the nature and choice of Aliments ;'
and in the following year an essay * On the effect
of Air on Human Bodies ;' both founded on the
doctrine of Boerhaave, the prevailing system of
the time. He is supposed to have been led to
write these works from the consideration of his own
malady, an asthmatic affection, which gradually
increasing with his years, became at last incura-
ble. A little before the appearance of the latter
publication he sustained a severe loss in the death
of his son Charles, a clergjrman of the Church of
England, " whose life," he says, " if it had so
pleased God, he would willingly have redeemed
with his own." Another son had died previously
in the year 1730.
In his latter yeai-s Dr. Arbuthnot was grievously
afilicted with asthma, and in 1732 he retired to
Hampstead, a village situated on the declivity of
a high hill in the neighbourhood of London, for
the benefit of the pure air of that elevated spot.
'*■ I came out to this place," he says, in an affect-
ing letter to his friend Swift, dated October 4,
**so reduced by dropsy and an asthma, that 1
could neither sleep, breathe, eat, nor move. 1
most earnestly desired and begged of God that he
would take me." His attachment to Swift is
strongly and tenderly manifested at the conclusion
of this letter. *' I am afraid, my dear fnend, we
shall never see one another more in this world. I
shall to the last moment preserve my love and
esteem for you, being well assured you will never
leave the paths of virtue and honour; for all that
is in this world is not worth the least deviation
from that way." In the same strain of earnest
friendship he had a little while previously ad-
dressed a letter to Pope. " As for you, my good
friend, I think, since our first acquaintance, there
have not been any of those little suspicions or
jealousies that often affect the sincerest friend-
ships; I am sure not on my side. I must be so
sincere as to own, that though I could not help
valuing you for those talents which the world
prizes, yet they were not the foundation of my
friendship; they were quite of another sort; nor
shall I at present offend yon by enumerating them ;
and I make it my last request that you will con-
tinue that noble disdain and abhorrence of vice
which you seem naturally endued with ; but stiD
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with a regard to your own safety ; and study more
to reform than chastise, though the one cannot be
effected without the other. A recovery in my case,
and at my age, is impossible; the kindest wish of
my friends is euthanasia [meaning a happy and
easy death]. Living or dying I shall always be
yours."
Finding no relief from the change of air, Arbuth-
not left Hampstead, and returned to his bouse in
London, situated in Cork Street, Burlington-gar-
dens, where he died, on the 27th February, 1735.
His only surviving son, George, filled the lucrative
post of secondary in the Exchequer-office, under
Lord Masham, and was one of the executors of
Pope. He died 8th September 1779, aged 76.
He also left two daughters, one named Anne, who
both died unmarried. The subjoined portrait of
Dr. Arbuthnot is taken from an engraving from a
scarce print formerly in the collection of Sir Wil-
liam Musgrave, Bart.
Among Ai-buthnot's more humorous pieces, be-
sides the ' History of John Bull' already mention-
ed, ' A Treatise concerning the Altercations or
Scoldings of the Ancients,' and ' The Art of Poli-
tical Lying,' arc the most celebrated. He did not
excel in poetry, and seldom attempted it. Li
Dodsley's Collection there is a didactic poem writ-
ten by him, remarkable for its philosophical senti-
ment, with the title of * Know Thyself I ' His well
known epitaph on Colonel Chartres, a noted usurer
of the time, beginning " Here continues to ix)t," &c.
is a masterly specimen of his powers of satire. He
was also skilled in music; and Sir John Hawkins
mentions an anthem and a burlesque song of his
composition. [Hist, of Music^ vol. v. p. 126.]
In 1751 two 12mo volumes were published, en-
titled * The Miscellaneous Works of the late Dr.
Arbuthnot,' containing some of his genuine pro-
ductions, but the greater portion of the contents
were declared by his son to be spurious.
By his brother wits Dr. Arbuthnot was held in
high estimation. Pope dedicated to him his * Pro-
logue to the Satures,' and Swift haa more than
once mentioned him with praise in his poems, for
instance when he feelingly laments that he was
^* Far from his kind Arbnthnofs aid.
Who knows his art, but not bis trade.**
"His good morals," Pope used to say, "were
equal to any man's ; but his wit and humour su-
perior to all mankind." " He has more wit than
we all have," said Swift to a lady, who desired
his opinion of him, " and his humanity is equal to
his wit." His character is thus given by Dr.
Johnson : " Arbuthnot was a man of great com-
prehension, skilful in his profession, versed in the
sciences, acquainted with ancient literature, and
able to animate his mass of knowledge by a bright
and active imagination ; a scholar, with great
brilliance of wit ; a wit, who, in the crowd of life,
retained and discovered a noble ardour of religi-
ous zeal ; a man estimable for his learning, amia-
ble for his life, and venerable for his piety." He
was distinguished in an eminent degree for genu-
ine benevolence and goodness, while his warmth
of heart and cheerfulness of temper rendered him
much beloved by his family and friends, towards
whom he displayed the most constant affection
and attachment. Notwithstanding his powers of
satire, all his contemporaries seem to have united
in his praise. " His very sarcasms," says Lord
Orrery, " are the satirical sarcasms of good na-
ture ; they are like slaps on the face given in jest,
the effects of which will raise a blush, but no
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ARBUTHNOT.
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ARGYLE.
blacluiess will appear after the blows. He laagbs
aa jovially as an attendant upon Bacchus, but
continues as sober and considerate as a disciple
of Socrates. He is seldom serious, except in his
attacks upon vice, and there his spirit rises with
a manly strength, and a noble indignation. No
man exceeded him in the moral duties of life, a
merit still more to his honour, as the united powers
of wit and genius are seldom submissive enough
to confine themselves within the limitations of
morality.^* In the Biographia Britannica Arbuth-
not is said, but at what particular period we are
not informed, to have been for some time steward
to the corporation of the Sons of the Clergy. He
was in the habit of writing essays on the current
events of the day in a great folio paper book,
which used to lie in his parlour, and such was his
good nature and indulgence to his children, that
he suffered them to tear out his manuscript at one
end for their kites, while he was writing them at
the other.
No correct list of his productions has ever been
given. The following is as near as can be ascer-
tained :
Esamiiuition of Dr. Woodward*8 Aooocmt of the Deluge,
&C., with a Comparison between Steno's PhUoeophy And the
Doctor's, in the case of Marine Bodies dog np oat of the
Earth. By J. A., M.D. With a Letter to the Author, con-
cerning an Abstract of Agostino Scilla's Book on the same
subject, by W. W. Lond. 1695, 1697, 8vo.
Essay on the UseMness of Mathematica] Knowledge.
Lond. 1700.
Sermon preached to the People at the Mercat-croas of Ed-
inburgh, on the subject of the Union. Lond. 1707, 8vo. A
Satire supposed to have been written by Arbuthnot.
Law is a Bottomless Pit, or the History of John Bull, ex-
emplified in the case of the Lord Strutt, John Bull, Nichohis
Frog, and Louis Baboon, who spent all they had in a law-
suit, in 4 parts; with an appen£z. Lond. 1712, 8vo.
Tables of the Qredan, Rbman, and Jewish Measures,
Weights, and Coins, reduced to the English Standard, and
Explained and Exemplified in sereral Dissertations. Lond.
1705, 8to. The same, by his son, with a Poem to the King.
Lond. 1727, 4to.
Miscellaneous Pieces by him. Swift, Pope, and Gay. Lond.
1727, 8 vols. 8vo.
Essay, concerning the Nature of Aliments, the Choice of
them, &c Lond. 1781. Another edition, with Practical
Rules of Diet in the various Constitutions and Diseases of
Human Bodies. Lond. 1782, 8vo. 1751, 1756, 8vo. In
German. Hamb. 1744, 4to.
An Essay on the Effects of Air on Human Bodies. Lond.
1733, 1751, 1756, 8vo. In Frendi. Paris, 1742, 12mo.
Miscellaneous Works of the bkte Dr. Arbuthnot Glasg.
1750, 2 vols. 8vo. These volumes, now veiy scarce, were
disclaimed in an advertisement by the author's son, dated,
London, Sept. 25, 1750.
Oratio Anniversaria Harvejana, Anni 1727, in his miscel-
laneous works. 1751, 8vo.
Argument for Divine Providence, drawn from the eqna*
number of Urths of both sexes. Phil. Trans. 1700, Abr. v.
p. 606.
Arotlb, duke of, a title belonging to the ancient family
of Campbell of Lochawe. [See Campbell, surname of.]
The name of Argyle is derived from two Gaelic words, Earra
Ghmdhealy " the country of the western Gael ;** or, according to
Skene, from Okirgael, as the ancient district of Argyle (which
comprehended also Lochaber and Wester Ross) was called by
the Highlanders. By the historians the whole of this extensive
district is included under the term of Ergadia. {^History of the
BighhmderSn vol iL p. 88.] In the middle ages the Mac-
dongalls of Lorn held sway over Argyle and Mull; while the
Macdonalds, lords of the Isles, were supreme m IsUy, Kin-
tyre, and the Southern Islands. The power of the Macdon^
slds was broken by Robert the Bruce, and their estates be-
stowed on the Campbells, who originally belonged to the
ancient earidom of Giurmoran, which comprehended Moydcrt,
Arasaig, Morar, and Knoydert. Argyle was erected mto an
earldom in 1457, and into a dukedom m 1701.
ARGYLE, earl, marquis, and duke of, see
Campbell, Archibald, and John.
Armstroito, the name of a famous border family, which
with its various branches, chiefly inhabited Liddesdale. Ac-
cording to tradition, the original surname was Fairbaim, and
belonged to the armour-bearer of an ancient king of Scotland,
who, having his horse killed under him in battle, was straight-
way remounted by Fairbaim on his own horse. For this
timely assistance, the king amply rewarded him with lands
on the borders, and in allumon to the manner in which ss
important a service was performed, Fairbaim having taken
the king by the thigh, and set him at once on the saddle, his
royal master gave him the name of Armstromo, and assigned
him for crest, ** an armed hand and arm, m the hand a leg
and foot hi armour, couped at the thigh, all proper.** Amongst
the dans on the Scottish side of the border, the Armstrongs
were formerly one of the most numerous. They possessed the
greater part of Liddesdale, which forms the southern district
of Rozburghshhe and of the debateable hmd. All along the
banks of the liddel, the ruins of their andent fortresses may
still be traced. The habitual depredations of this border-
race had rendered them so active and daring, and at the same
time so cautious and drcumspect, that they seldom failed
dther in then* attacks or in securing their prey. £ven when
assailed by superior numbers, they baffled every assault by
abandoning their dwellings, and retiring with thdr families
into thick woods and deep morasses, accessible by paths only
known to themselves. One of their most noted places of re-
frige was the Tarras-moss, a frightful and desolate marsh, so
deep that two spears tied together could not reach the bot-
tom. Although several of the Scottish monarchs had at-
tempted to break the chain which united these powerful and
turbulent chieftains, none ever had greater occasion to lower
their fower, and lessen their influence, than James the Fifth.
The hostile and turbulent spirit of the Armstrongs, however,
was never entirely broken or suppressed, until the reign of
James Che Sixth, when their leaders were brought to the
seafibld, their strongholds razed to the ground, and their
estates forfeited and transferred to strangers; so that through-
out the extensive districts formerly possessed by this once
powerful and andent dan, there is scarcely left, at this day
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ARMSTRONG.
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ARMSTRONG.
a single landholder of the name. Their descendants have
been long scattered, some of them having settled in England,
and others in Ireland. The most celehrated of these border
chiefs was ' Johnie Armstrang* of Gilnockie, who lived in the
earlj part of the sixteenth centoiy, and is the hero of one of
oar best historical ballads. A notice of him follows. * Jock
o' the Sjde,* the hero of another balhid, was also an Arm-
strong, and a noted moss-trooper in the reign of Maiy, qneen
of Scots. The site of his residence, the Syde, is pointed out
on a heathy upland, about two miles to the west of New Cas-
tletown, in Liddesdale, while the ruins of Mangerton Tower,
the seat of his maternal unde, are still visible, on the bangh
below. Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, in a poetical
complaint which he wrote " agains the Thievis of Liddis-
dailV* thus speaks of this famous border reaver:
** He is wcel kenned, Johne of the Syde;
A greater thief did never ryde;
He never tyres,
For to break byres;
Ower tnuirs and rayres
Ower gode ane guyde.*
A lineal descendant of Johnie Armstrong, in the reign of
Charles the First, kidnapped the person of Lord Dune, the
president of the Court of Session, and kept him upwards of
three months in secret confinement in an old castle in Annan-
dale, called Graham*H tower. The motive for this extraordi-
nary and daring stratagem was to promote the interests of
Lord Traquair, who had a lawsuit of importance before the
court, in which there was reason to believe that the judgment
would be unfavourable and decided by the casting vote of
the president [See Gibson, Sir Alexander, Lord Dune.]
Near Penton Linns, a ronumtic spot on the Uddel, was
another border stronghold, called Harelaw tower, once the
residence of Hector Armstrong, who betrayed his guest, the
earl of Northumberland, to the regent Murray.
ARMSTRONG, John, a celebrated border chief
of the early part of the sixteenth centuiy, was a
native of the parish of Canonbie, in the county of
Dumfries, and the brother of Christopher Arm-
strong, laird of Mangerton, chief of the clan or
sept of the Armstrongs. His stronghold was Gil-
nockie Tower, now a roofless ruin, situated a few
miles from Langholm, at a place called the Hol-
lows, on the banks of the river Esk. The ten'or
of his name was spread far and wide, and at the
head of a band of bi*ave and faithful followei*s, he
levied black maily or protection money, for many
miles within the English border. All who refused
were sure of being plundered and harassed to the
utmost. The marauding system on the borders
had, during the long minority of King James V.,
been carried to a formidable extent, especially
uuder the connivance of the earl of Angus, the
warden of the marches, who had bound the border
chiefs to his interests by those feudal confederacies,
named * bands of manrent,' which compelled the
parties to defend each other against the authority
of the law. Having resolved to suppress the fo-
raying chieftains, the king raised a powerful arm> .
chiefly composed of horsemen, "to danton the
thieves" of Teviotdale, Annandale, Liddesdale, and
other psurts of the countiy, and about the begin-
ning of June 1529, he set out, at the head of eight
thousand men, on an expedition through the bor-
der districts. To prevent the mosstroopers and
their chiefs from taking alarm, be ordered all the
gentlemen of the borders to bring with them their
best dogs, as if his only purpose was to hunt the
deer. The leaders thus thrown off their guard,
were not apprehensive of any danger, and to in-
sure their destruction the more readily, the princi-
pal border nobles who were known to be their
protectors and secret encouragers, namely the
earl of Bothwell, lord of Teviotdale, Lords Home
and Maxwell, Scott of Buccleuch, Ker of Faimie-
hurst, with the lairds of Johnstone, Polwarth,
Dolphington, and other powerful chiefe, were
seized and imprisoned in separate fortresses in
different parts of the kingdom. This being done,
the king, accompanied by some of the borderers
who had secured their pardon, marched rapidly
through Ettrick Forest and Ewesdale, and seized
Piers Cockbnrn of Henderland and Adam Scott
of Tushielaw, commonly called the king of the
border, and ordered both to be hanged before the ^
gates of their own castles. So little did they ex-
pect the fate that awaited them that, it is re-
corded, when James approached the castle o£
Cockbum of Henderland, the latter was in the
act of providing a great entertainment to welcome
him. Armstrong, on his part, came to meet the
king at a place about ten miles from Hawick
called Carlinrigg chapel, at the head of thirty- six
attendants, his usual retinue, he and his followers
arrayed in all the pomp of border chivahry. As
the ballad says.
The Elliots and Armstrongs did convene,
They were a gallant companie : —
*' We*ll ride and meet our lawful king.
And bring him safe to Gilnockie.
Make kinnen and capon ready then,
And venison in great plentie ;
We'll welcome here our noble king;
I hope hell dine at Gilnockie 1 "
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ARMSTRONG.
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ARMSTRONG.
Tliej ran their horse on the Langholm holm,
And hrak their spears wi* roickle main ;
The ladies lookit frae their loft windows : —
** God bring our men weel hame again !**
We are told by Pitscottie that Armstrong was the
most redoabted chieftain that had been for a long
time on the borders of Scotland or England. He
always rode with twenty-fonr able gentlemen, well
horsed, and from the borders to Newcastle every
Englishman, of whatever state, paid him tribute.
Armstrong is said to have incantioosly made this
display, by the crafty advice of some of the cour-
tiers, who knew that it would only the more ex-
asperate the king against him; and the effect was
precisely so, for James, seeing this bold border
chief so gallantly equipped, on his approach,
fiercely ordered the tyrant, as he styled Arm-
strong, to be removed out of his sight and instantly
executed, exclaiming, ** What wants that knave
that a king should have?**
There hang nine targats at Johnie*s hat,
And ilk ane worth three hundred pound, —
** What wants that knave that a king should hare,
But the sword of honour and the oronn ?**
Armstrong saw at once the snare into which he
had fallen, and made every effort to preserve his
life. He offered, if James would pardon him, to
maintain at his own expense, forty men, ready at
a moment's notice, to serve the king, and engaged
never to injure any Scottish subject.
** Grant me my Hfe, mj liege, my king,
And a honnie gift TU gie to thee,—
Full four-and-twenty milk white steeds,
Were a* foaled in ae year to me.
1*11 gie thee a* thae milk white steeds,
That prance and nicher at a speir,
And as mnckle gude English gold
As four 0* their braid backs can bear.**
He further undertook to produce to his majesty,
within a certain day, any man in England, of
whatever degree, duke, earl, or baron, either alive
or dead. But James was inexoi-able.
"Away, away, thou traitor Strang!
Out 0* ray sight sune may*st thou be '
I grantit never a traitor*s life.
And now VU not begin wi* thee ' **
Seeing his death resolved noon, Armstrong haugh-
tily exclaimed, ** It is folly to ask grace at a grace-
less face, but had I guessed you would have used
me thus, I would have kept the Border-side, in
despite of the king of England and you both ; for I
well know that King Henry would give the weight
of my best horse in gold to know that I am sen-
tenced to die this day.**
* To seik het water aneath cauid ice
Surely it is a great foUie ! —
I have asked grace at a graceless face^
But there is nane for my men and me.
But had I kenn'd ere I cam frae hame
How thou unkind wadst been to me .
I wad hae keepid the border syde
In spite of all thy force and thee.
Wist England^s kmg that I was ta*«h.
O then a blythe man he wad be'
For anes I slew his sist«r*s son,
And on his breast bane brak a tree.**
He and all his followers, some accounts make
them forty-eight, were hanged on the trees of a
little grove at Carlinrigg chapel, two miles north of
Moss Paul, on the road between Hawick and Lang-
holm, and tradition still points out their graves in
the solitary churchyard of the place. He left a son
Christopher who succeeded as laird of Gilnockie.
On the borders Armstrong was long missed and
mourned as a brave warrior, and a stout defender
of his country against England. It is said by
Buchanan that James executed Armstrong and
his retinue, in direct violation of his solemn pro-
mise of safety. We are told that this bold chief
never molested any of his own countryTuen, and it
appears from his own statement that his plunder-
ings were chiefly committed on the English ; yet
the Armstrongs are accused of having, in the
course of a few years, destroyed not less than
fifty-two parish churches in Scotland, and they
openly boasted that their chieftain, Johnny Arm-
strong, would be subject neither to James nor to
Henry, but would continue his excesses in defi-
ance of both. The fate of this renowned border
leader has been commemorated in many of the
rade ballads of the border districts. The cele-
brated ballad of ' Johnie Armstrang,' some of the
verses of which have been quoted, was firet pub-
lished by Allan Ramsay, in his * Evergreen,' in
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ARMSTRONG.
1724, having been copied, as he tells as, by him-
self from the month of a gentleman of the name of
Armstrong, who was the sixth generation from the
renowned borderer. The tower of the Hollows,
or Holehonse, once the residence of this famoos
border chieftain, was a place of considerable
strength in its day ; its niins are now used as a
cowhouse to a neighboaring farmer. The jonnger
son of Christopher Armstrong of Mangerton, the
brother of this Armstrong of Gilnockie, went to
Ireland, some years after the death of Qneen
Elizabeth, and settling in county Fermanagh,
became the foander of a numerous family, whose
descendants now possess extensive estates in Fer-
managh, Eing^s county and Wicklow; and one of
whom was created a baronet of Gi-eat Britain in
1841.
ARMSTRONG, John, M.D., poet and miscel-
laneous writer, was bom about 1709 at Gastleton,
a parish forming the southern extremity of Rox-
burghshire, of which his father and afterwards his
brother were ministers. In history and poetry,
and very frequently still in conversation, its name
is Liddesdale, from the river Liddel which runs
through it from east to west. Dr. Armstrong has
sung the beauties of his native vale, in his highly-
finished poem on ' The Art of Preserving Health,'
Book m. :
-" Such the stream,
On whose Arcadian banks I first drew air.
Liddal, till now — except in Doric lajs,
Toned to her ronrmtirs by her love-sick 8wain»—
Unknown in song; though not a pnrer stream
Throngh meads more floweiy,— more roman^ grores,
Rolls toward the westward main. Hail, sacred flood!
May still thj hospitable swains be blest
In raral innocence ; thy monntains still
Teem with the fleecy race ; thy tuneful woods
For ever flourish, and thy vales look gay,
With painted meadows, and the golden gram !**
After receiving the rudiments of his education at
home, he was sent to the university of Edinburgh,
where he distinguished himself before his twentieth
year, by gaining a prize medal for a prose com-
position, prescribed by a literary society in that
city, and by other promising marks of genius during
his studies. Having chosen the medical profession,
he took his degree as physician February 4, 1732.
His inaugural dissertation, De Tabe Pundenta^
gained him some reputation, as being superior to
the general run of such essays. Soon after he went
to London, where he commenced practice as a phy-
sician. In 1735 he published anonymously * An
Essay for abridging the study of Physic,' being a
humorous attack on quacks and quackery, in the
style of Lucian. This work gained him credit as
a wit, but did not advance his practice as a phy-
sician. In 1737 he published a work on the vene-
real disease. This was followed by ^The Economy
of Love ;' for which poem he received fifty pounds
from Andrew Millar, the bookseller, but which
greatly injured his reputation. In a subsequent
edition, published in 1768, he cai-efiiUy expunged
many of the youthful luxuriances with which the
first abounded. In 1744 appeared his principal
work, entitled ' The Art of Preserving Health,' in
blank verse, one of the best didactic poems in the
language. This valuable work established at once
his reputation both as a physician and a poet. In
1746 he was appointed one of the physicians to
the hospital for sick and lame soldiers. In 1751
he published his poem on Benevolence, and in
1753 his Epistle on Taste, addressed to a Young
Critic. In 1758 he produced his prose ' Sketches
or Essays on various subjects, by Lancelot Tem-
ple, Esq.,' in two parts, which evinced considera-
ble humour and knowledge of the world, and in
which he is said to have been assisted by Mr.
Wilkes, whose acquaintance he had made soon
after his first arrival in London. In 1760 he
received the appointment of physician to the
army, then in Germany, where, in 1761, he wrote
* Day, a Poem, an Epistle to John Wilkes, Esq. ;'
his friendship with whom was not of long con-
tinuance, the subject of politics having divided
them; Wilkes's continued attacks upon Scotland
being the cause of their quarrel. Having in that
epistle hazarded a reflection on Churchill, the
satirist retorted severely in his poem of 'The
Journey.'
At the peace of Paris in 1763 Armstrong re-
turned to London, and resigning his connec-
tion with the army, resumed his practice, but
not with his former success. In 1770 he pub-
lished a Collection of his Miscellanies, containing
amongst others, the Universal Almanack, a new
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ARMSTRONG.
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ARMSTRONG.
prose piece, and the Forced Marriage, a tragedj,
which had been refosed bj Garrick. In 1771
he made the tour of France and Italy, in com-
pany with the celebrated artist Foseli, who snr-
Yived him for half a centary. In his jonmey
he met his Mend Dr. Smollett, to whom he was
mnch attached. On his return he published an
account of it under the name of * A short Ramble,
by Lancelot Temple.'
Wilkes, his former friend, joined Churchill in
assailing Dr. Armstrong, having published a scur-
rilous attack upon him in the Public Advertiser,
contained in a series of three letters, commencing
with one signed Dies^ in which, to cloak his purpose,
WillLes reflected on himself. That letter appeared
March 23, 1778, and was followed by one signed
Truths March 24, and by another signed iVor,
April 1. In the Gentleman's Magazine for Janu-
ary 1792, the following substance of a conversa-
tion which took place between Armstrong and
Wilkes on the appearance of these letters, is in-
serted. It was taken down at the time by Mr.
Wilkes, and is quite characteristic of both par-
ties.
On Wednesday, April 7, 1773, Dr. Armstrong
called on Mr. Wilkes in Prince's Court, about two
in the afternoon, and without the least ceremony
or compliment, began —
Dr. ArvutroTtg, Did you, Sir, write the letters in
the Public Adrertiser?
Mr, Wilkes. What letters do yoa mean, Doctor?
There are many letters almost every day in the Public
Advertiser.
Dr. A'. Sir, I mean the three letters about me, and
Day, Day, Sir.
Mr. W. Ton may ask the printer, Mr. Woodfall.
He has my orders to name me, whenever he thinks it
proper, as the author of every thing I write in Bis
paper.
Dr. A. I believe you wrote all those letters.
Mr. W. What all three, Doctor? I am veiy
roughly treated in one of them, in the first signed
Dies.
Dr. A. I believe you wrote that on purpose to
begin the controversy. I am almost sure of it.
Mr. W. I hope you are more truly informed in
other things. I know better than to abuse myself in
that manner, and I pity the author of such wretched
stufE
Dr. A. Did you write the other letters, Sir?
Mr. W. The proper person to inquire of, is Mr.
WoodfaU. I will not answer interrogatories. My time
would pass in a strange manner* if I was to answer
every question which any gentleman chc«e to put to
me about anonymous letters.
Dr, A. Whoever has abused me, Sir, is a villain ;
and your endeavours, Sir, to set Scotland and England
together are very bad.
Mr. W, The Scots have done that thoroughly,
Doctor, by their conduct here, particnlarly by their
own nationality, and the outrages of Lord Bute to so
many English families. Whenever you think proper
to call upon me in particular as a gentleman, you will
find me most ready to answer the call.
Dr. A. D ^n Lord Bute! It had been better
for Scotland he had never been bom. He has done
y* infinite mischief.
Mr. W. And usytoo; but I suppose we are not met
for a dish of politics?
Dr. A. No; but I wish there had been no Unum.
I am sure England is the gainer by it.
Mr. W, I will not make an essay on the advan-
tages and disadvantages of the Union.
Dr, A, I hate politics; but I have been ill used by
you, Mr. Wilkes, on the occasion.
Mr. W, On the contrary, Doctor, I was the injured
friend.
Dr. A, I thought you for many years the most
amiable friend in the world, and loved your company
the most; but you distinguished yourself by grossly
abusing my countrymen in the North Briton— although
I never read much of that paper.
Mr. W. Ton passed your time, I am satisfied, much
better. Who told you. Doctor, what particular num-
bers I wrote? It is droll, but the bitterest of those
papers, which was attributed to me, was a description
of Scotland, first printed in the last centuiy, on Charles
I.'s return from thence in 1633. Were you ever, Doc-
tor, personally attacked by me? Were you not, al-
though a Scotsman, at the very time of the North
Britons, complimented by me, in conjunction with
Churchill, in the best thing I wrote, the mock * Dedi-
cation to Mortimer.'
Dr, A, To be praised along with such a writer, I
think an abuse.
Mr, W, The world thinks far otherwise of that
wonderful genius, Churchill; but you, Doctor, have
sacrificed private friendship at the altar of politics.
After many years' mutual intercourse of good c^ces,
you broke every tie of friendship with me on no pre-
tence but ^ suspicion, for you did not ask for proof, of
my having abused your country, that country I have
for years together heard you inveigh against, in the
bitterest terms, for nastiness and nationality,
Dr, A, I only did it in joke, Sir; you did it with
bitterness; but it was my country.
Mr, W, No man has abused England so much as
Shakspeare, or France so much as Voltaire; yet they
remain the favourites of two great nations, conscious
of their own superiority. Were you, Doctor, attacked
by me in any one instance? Was not the most friendly
correspondence carried on with you the whole time,
till you broke it off by a letter, in 1763, in which you
declared to me, that you could not with honour asso-
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ciatc with one who had distinguished himself bj abus-
ing your country, and that you remained with all due
iinc&ityt I remember thai was the strange phrase.
Dr, A. You never answered that letter, Sir.
Mr. W, What answer could I give, Doctor? You
had put a period to the intercourse between us, I
still continued to our common friends to 8j»eak of
you in terms of respect, while you were grossly abusing
mo. You said to Boswell, Millar, and others, '* I hope
there is a hell, that Wilkes may lie in it.**
Dr. A, In a passion I might say so. People do
not often speak their minds in a passion.
Mr. W* I thought they generally did, Doctor.
Dr. A. I was thoroughly provoked, although I still
acknowledge my great pecuniary obligations to you —
although, I dare say, I could have got the money
elsewhere.
Mr, W. I was always happy to render you every
service in my power ; and I little imagined a liberal
mind, like yours, could have been worked up by de-
signing men to write me such a letter in answer to an
affectionate one I sent you, on the prospect of your
return.
Dr. A. I was happier with you than any man in
the world for a great many years, and complimented
yon not a little in the Day, and yon did not write to
me for a year and a half after that.
Mr. W. Your memory does not serve you faith-
fully, Doctor. In three or four months at farthest,
yon had two or three letters from me together, on your
return to the head-quarters of the army. I am abused
in Dies for that publication, and the manner, both of
which you approved.
Dr. A. I did so.
Mr. W. I was abused at first, I am told, in the
manuscript of Dies for having sold the copy, and put
the money in my pocket; but that charge was sup-
pressed in the printed letter.
Dr. A. I know nothing of that, and will do you
justice.
Mr. W. Will you call upon Mr. D ^ our com-
mon friend, your countryman, and ask him what he
thinks of your conduct to me, if it has not been wholly
unjustifiable?
Dr. A. Have I your leave to ask Mr. Woodfall in
your name about the letters?
Mr. W. I have already told you. Doctor, what
directions he has from me. Take four-and- twenty
hours to consider what you have to do, and let me
know the result.
Dr. A. I am sony to have taken up so much of
your time. Sir.
Mr. W. It stands in no need of an apology. Doctor.
I am glad to see you. Good morrow.
N.B. — ^These minutes were taken down the same
afternoon, and sent to a friend.
Dr. Armstrong's last publication was his * Me-
dical Essays,' which appeared in 1773. In this
he complains of the little attention that had
been paid to him, while so many other physi-
cians of inferior abilities had risen to fame and
fortune, forgetting that his own indolence and ler-
ity, and not the fickleness or want of discern-
ment of the public, occasioned the neglect. A
large poi-tion of his time was spent at Slaughter's
coffee-house, in St. Martin's lane, where he took
his meals, and where messages for him were ordi-
narily directed to be addressed. He died on 7th
September, 1779, and left, it is said, three thou-
sand pounds, which his prudence and good man-
.igement had enabled him to collect. He left his
fortune by his will to his three nieces, the daugh-
ters of his brother Dr. George Armstrong ; who,
after having been an apothecary for several years
at Hampstead, at length obtained a diploma con-
stituting him doctor in medicine. Settling in Lon-
don, he was appointed physician to a dispensary
for the benefit of poor infants, opened at a house
taken for him by the subscribers in Soho square.
To aid the design, he published a small treatise on
the diseases of children, in which he was supposed
to have been assisted by his brother John. The
dispensary, however, did not succeed, and the
doctor died some years after in obscurity. Arm-
strong possessed a glowing imagination and a
lively fancy, chastened, at times, by the guidance
of a sound judgment, and a well regulated taste.
Of his * Art of Preserving Health,' Dr. Aikin,
in his Critical Essay prefixed to Cadell and
Davis' edition of his works published in 1796,
says, ** The manner of Armstrong is distingm'shed
by its simplicity, by a free use of words which
owe their strength to their plainness, by the re-
jection of ambitious ornaments, and a near ap-
proach to common phraseology. His sentences
are generally short and easy, his sense clear and
obvious. The full extent of his conceptions is
taken in at the first glance, and there are no lofty
mysteries to be unravelled by repeated perusal.
What keeps his language from being altogether
prosaic, is the vigour of his sentiments. He thinks
boldly, feels strongly, and therefore expresses him-
self poetically. Where the subject sinks, his style
sinks with it; but he has for the most part exclud-
ed topics incapable cither of vivid description or
of the oratory of sentiment. He had from nature
a musical ear, whence his lines are never harsh,
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ARMSTRONG.
and are usually melodious, though apparently with-
out much study to render them smooth. Perhaps
be has not been careful enough to avoid the mono-
tony of making several successive lines close with
a rest or pause in the sense. On the whole, it may
not be too much to assert, that no writer in blank
verse can be found more free from stiffness and
affectation, more energetic without harshness, and
more dignified without formality.*' In Thomson's
* Castle of Indolence,' to which he contributed
four stanzas, at the conclusion of the first part,
describing the diseases incidental to sloth, he is
depicted as the shy and splenetic personage who
*' quite detested talk." The following is the stanza :
" With him was sometimes joined in silent walk,
(Profoundlj silent, for they never spoke)
One shyer still, who quite detested talk ;
Oft stung bj spleen, at once awaj he broke.
To groves of pine and broad overshadowing oak.
There, inlj thrilled, he wandered all alone,
And on himself his pensive fary wroke :
Nor never uttered word, save, when first shone
The glittering star of eve — * Thank heaven ! the daj is
doner-
A portrait of Dr. Armstrong is here given, taken
from an engraving by Fisher from a painting by
Sir Joshua Reynolds.
A list of Dr. Armstrong's works is subjoined. |
An Essay for abridging the study of Medicine ; to which is
added, A Dialogue between Uygeia, Mercury, and Pluto ; re-
lating to the Practice of Physic, as it is managed by a certain
illustrious Society, as also an Epistle from Usbech, the Per-
sian, to Joshua Ward, Esq. Lond. 1735, 8vo, (anon).
Synopsis of the history and cure of the Venereal Disease.
Lond. 1787, 8vo.
The Economy of Love. Lond- 1737, 8vo.
Art of preserving Health, a poem. Lond. 1744, 4to, 1745,
8vo., numerous editions, with a critical essay, by Dr. Aikin,
12mo.
Benevolence, a poenL 1751, fbl. An excellen^ production.
Taste, an epistle to a young Critic. 1753. A pretty
successful imitation of Pope.
Sketches, or Essays on various subjects. 1758.
Day, a poenL 1761.
Miscellanies, containing the art of preserving Health.
Lond. 1770, 2 vols, 12nio.
A short ramble through some parts of France and Italy, by
Lancelot Temple. Lond. 1771, 8vo.
Medical Essays. Lond. 1773. 4to. These treat of Theoiy,
Medicine, Instruments of Physic, Fevers, Blisterings, Cordials,
Ventilation, Bathing, Lodging, &c, and, lastly, Gout and
Rheumatism.
An Essay on Topic Medicines. Ed. Med. Ess. il p. 36.
1788.
ARMSTRONG, John, a miscellaneous writer,
was bom at Leith in 1771, and educated at tiie
coUege of Edinburgh, where he took the degree of
M.A. During his attendance at the university he
published a volume of * Juvenile Poems,' some of
which possessed considerable merit. The same
yolame contained an * Essay on tlie
Means of Punishing and Preventing
Crimes.' For this essay he had, in Jan-
uary 1789, a few months before, i*eceived
the gold prize medal, given by the Edin-
burgh Pantheon Society for the best
specimen of prose composition. Some
time previous to this he had entered him-
self at the divinity hall, and had gone
through the greater part of the exercises
necessaiy to qualify him to become a
preacher in the Church of Scotland. In
1790 he repaired to London, and sup-
ported himself by writing for the daily
papers. In 1791 he published a collec-
tion of ^ Sonnets from Shakspeare.' He
also preached occasionally, and was lisiug
in reputation, when he was cut otf, in
1797, in the 26th year of his age.
The following is a list of his works :
Juvenile Poems ; with remarks on Poetiy, and
a dissertation on the hest method of Punishing and Prevent-
mg Grimes. Lond. 1780, 12mo.
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ARNOT.
GoDfi4ential Lettets from the Sorrows of Werter. Lond.
1799, 12mo.
Sonnets from Shakspeare. Lond. 1791, 8to.
Abnot, a surname derived from the lands of Arnot in the
connty of Fife. In Sibbald's list of the heritors of Fifeshire,
published in 1710, we find the names, as landholders of that
county, of Amot of that ilk, Arnot of Woodmiln, Arnot of
Balkaithlie, Amot of Balcormo, Amot of Chapel-Kettle, Ar-
not of Freeland, Amot of Lumwhat, and Amot of Benyhole.
Sir John Amot of Berwick, of the family of Amot, was pro-
vost of Edmburgh, and treasurer depute to King James the
Sixth. The lands of Chapel, in the pariah of Kettle, have
long belonged to a family of the name of Amot Upon the
last day of Deoember 1558, James, oonmiendator of the priozy
of St Andrews, disponed the church lands called Chapel-
Kettle to John Amot and his hehrs, declaring that he and his
progenitors had been possessors of these lands past the me-
mory of man. [SibbakPi History ofFffey p. 885.]
Sir Michael Amot of Amot, in the county of Perth, the
descendant of a very ancient fifeshire family, designated of
that ilk so early as the 12th century, was created a baronet
by Charles the Fuvt, 27th Jaly 1629. His son and heir. Sir
David Amot, second baronet, was member of the Scots par-
liament for Kinross, in 1689. He was the father of Sir John
Amot the third baronet, who, having devoted himself eariy
to a military life, was appointed, in 1727, adjutant-general
of Scotland. In 1735 he was promoted to the rank of briga-
dier-general, and in 1739 to that of migor-generaL He died
June 4, 1750, a lieut -general. His eldest son, Sir John Ar-
not, 4th hart., wms succeeded by his son. Sir William Amot,
5th bart, lieut-oolonel of the Queen's regiment of dragoon
guards, who died in 1782, leaving a son, Sir William Amot,
6th and last baronet-[fiMrJbe*« Extisict and Dormant Baron-
etaffetJ] Title dormant See Supplemknt.
In Perthshire there was a family of the name of Amot of
Benchill, who for a long time were provosts of Perth.
ARNOT, Hugo, an antiquarian writer and
local historian, was the son of a merchant and
shipowner in Leith, where he was bom on the 8tb
December 1749. His own name was Pollock, but
on the death of his mother, December 5, 1778, at
her house in Fifeshire, he changed it to Amot, on
obtaining, through her right, the estate of Balcor-
mo in Fife. He was educated for the law, and in
December 1772 he was admitted a member of the
I facultj of advocates, under the name of * Hugo
! Amot, Esq. of Balcormo.* Having in his fifteenth
year caught a severe cold, he was ever after
afflicted with painful asthma, which reduced him
almost to a skeleton, and which any exertion al-
ways aggravated. In 1776 he published at Lon-
don in 12mo, ^ An Essay on Nothing,' a discourse
delivered in the Edinburgh Speculative Society,
which was favourably received. Of that society
Mr. Amot was admitted a member January 8,
1770, and, besides the Essay on Nothing, he deliv-
ered others on the following subjects: The Com-
parative Happiness of the Polished and Barbarous
State; Whether a man would be most happy io
retiring from or continuing in business after mak-
ing a competent fortune ; Foundation of the In-
equality among Mankind ; Literary Property ;
Nature and end of Punishments ; and the Neces-
sity of Mankind living in Society, and the advan-
tages of it, which was his valedictory essay. [Hist,
of Speculative Society^ p. 99.] In 1779 appeared
his ^ History of Edinburgh,' one vol. 4to, a work
of much research. He was prevented, however,
from deriving much pecuniary benefit from it, by
a piratical edition having been printed at Dublin,
and sent over to Edinburgh and sold at a cheap
rate. Taking a strong interest in local matters,
he afterwards published various pamphlets and
essays of a temporary nature ; and his exertion*
in promoting the improvements then in progress in
Edinburgh, were rewarded by the fi-eedom of the
city being conferred upon him by the magistrates.
From his great local influence he is said to have
been able to protract the erection of the South
Bridge of Edinburgh for ten years, by his opposi-
tion to the proposed tax upon carts to defray the
expense. He was also instrumental in preventing
the formation of the spacious road called Leith Walk
for some years, on account of the putting on a toll,
which, however, was done, and not removed till
about 1837. In 1785 came out his ^ Collection of
celebrated Criminal Trials in Scotland, from 1536
to 1784, with Historical and Critical Remarks,' one
vol. 4to, published by subscription. In Decem-
ber 1784 be issued an advertisement of the work,
with the following notice appended to it, from
which it would appear that he and the Edinburgh
booksellers were not on the best of terms : " Mr.
Arnot printed, a few days ago, a prospectus of the
work that the public might form some idea of its
nature, and he sent it to be hung up in the princi-
pal booksellers in town ; but they have thought
proper to refrtse, in a body, to allow the prospec-
tus and subscription papers to hang in their shops.
The prospectus will, therefore, be seen at the Koy-
al Exchange Coffee house. Exchange Cofiee house,
Princes street Coffee house, and Messrs. Corri and
Sutherland's Music shop, Edinburgh, and Gibb's
Coffee house, Leith." The work is curious of its
kind, but is not so fUll nor so valuable as Pitcaim's
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ARNOT.
ooUection of Criminal Trials, a more recent publi-
cation. Mr. Amot died on 20th November 1786,
aged 37, and was interred in Soath Leith chnrch-
yard, in a piece of ground presented to him before
tiis death by the magistrates of his native town.
For several weeks previous to his death he regu-
larly visited his appointed burial-place, to observe
the progress of some masons whom he had em-
ployed to wall it in, and frequently expressed a
fear that he would die before they should have
completed his work. Mr. Arnot was of great
height, and extraoi*dinary thinness. The follow-
ing is a full-length portrait of him as he appeared
in the dress of his time taken by Kay. He is re-
presented giving alms to a beggar, a sly piece of
satire on the part of the artist.
His person altogether was so remarkable that it
was the source of many jests and witticisms. It
is related that the Honourable Henry £rsklne
meeting him once while engaged eating a dried
haddock'or spelding, complimented him ^^ on look-
ing so like his meat ! " Discussing with the same
wit on tlie disposition of the Deity to pardon the
sins of the flesh, and on Hugo expressing his hope
of forgiveness, Erskine impromptued, —
'* Pre searched the whole Scriptom, and texts I fiiid none
Extending God*8 meroj to Am and to hone.'"
He himself was reputed to be a humorist in
his way. One day, when suffering severely firom
his complaint, he was annoyed by the bawling ot
a man selling sand on the street. ** The rascal,**
said the unhappy asthmatic, " he spends as much
breath in a minute as would serve me for a month !'*
In his professional character he was no less singu-
lar. He would not undeitake a case, unless thor-
oughly convinced of its justice. Once when a
cause was offered him, of the merits of which he
had a very bad opinion, he asked the person em-
ploying him, " Pray, Sir, what do you suppose me
to be?" " Why," answered the client, " I under-
stand you to be a lawyer I" "I thought," said
Amot, sternly, *^you took me for a scoundrel 1"
and dismissed the litigant with indignation. Va-
rious stories are told of his intrepidity of mind
in early life. One of these was his riding to the
end of the pier of Leith on a spirited horse, on a
stormy day, when the waves were dashing over
the pier so furiously as to impress every on-
looker with the belief that he could not fail to be
swept into the sea. Leith pier, it must be re-
marked, was then neither so extended nor so well
bulwarked as it Is now, and consequently this feat
was one of great danger. Another was his accept-
ing the challenge of an anonymous enemy who
took offence at one of his political pamphlets, and
wrote to him to meet him in the King's Paj'k at a
particular time and place, to answer for his state-
ments. Mr. Amot repaired to the spot at the ap-
pointed hour, and waited for some time, but no
antagonist came forward. His purpose in going
might not have been to expose his person in a
duel, but to ascertain who was his unknown chal-
lenger. Though recorded as a proof of his intre-
pidity, we do not see in this occurrence any strik-
mg mark of moral courage. A sensible man would
have paid no attention to such a letter, which
appears to have been intended merely as a hoax.
Of a nervous and irritable disposition, he was guilty
of many eccentiicities which rendered him one of
the most remarkable local characters of his time.
Among other anecdotes the following is related of
him, which does not say much for his urbanity or
neighbourly feeling. He was in the habit of ring-
ing his bell with a violence which much annoyed
an old maiden lady, in a weak state of health, who
resided on the floor above him. Of this annoy-
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ARTHUR.
ance she fi-equently complained, but without effect.
At leugth, wearied with her constant messages, he
gave her to understand that he should cease to
use it in future ; but in the belief that her impor-
tunities proceeded from mere queralousness, in-
stead of ringing the bell 83 usual, he fired off a
loaded pistol, whenever he desired the attendance
of Ills servant, to the great alarm of the invalid
upstairs, who now as earnestly besought the res-
titution of the bell, as she had before requested
its discontinuance. He left eight children. His
grandson, Dr. David Boswell Reid, the author
of ^Elements of Chemistry,' acquired a high
character as teacher of practical chemistry in the
university of Edinburgh. Hugo Arnot figures as
a principal personage in Kay's Edinburgh Por-
traits, in which some amusing anecdotes of his
peculiarities may be found.
Arran, earl of, one of the secondaiy titles of the duke of
Hamilton, [see Hamilton, dnke of,] derived from the island
of that name in the frith of Clyde. In Gaelic it ia pronounced
Arrinn, that is, * the island of sharp pinnacles,* frt>m, accord-
ing to Dr. Macleod, Ar^ *a land' or 'oonntiy,* and rmn,
* sharp points ;* an etymobgj far more satisfactoiy than that
of Ar-fhin, * the Und,' or * the field of Ron,' (Fingal) ; or fh>m
Aratiy * bread,' as denoting extraordinaiy fertility, which is
by no means ft characteristio of this island. The title of earl
of Arran was first conferred on Sir Thomas Boyd, eldest son
of Robert lord Boyd, [see Kilmarnock, earl of,] in April
1467, on his marriage with the Princess Mary, eldest daugh-
ter of James the Second. He was attainted and forfeited in
1469, and died soon after. The princess married, a second
time, in 1474, James, first lord Hamilton, to whom she bad
been betrothed in 1454, and their son James was, in August
1503, created earl of Arran. The title was afterwards be-
stowed on Captain James Stewart of Bothwellmuir, the se-
cond son of Andrew, lord Ochiltree, [see Ochiltreb, lord,]
whose mother Lady Margaret Hamilton, was the only child
of James first earl of Arran, by his first wife Beatrice Drum-
mond. He entered the army of the states of Holland, and
served some years against the Spaniards. On his return to
Scotland in 1579, he obtained the fayour of James the Sixth,
wbo, a few days ailer his appearance at court, appointed him
a gentleman of his bedchamber, a privy councillor, captain of
his guard, and tutor to the third earl of Arran of the Hamil-
ton family, who by a shameful abuse of law had been impri-
soned by order of the regent Morton, and was afterwards
cognosced as an idiot. It was on the accusation of the king's
new favourite, Capt Stewart, that the earl of Morton was
tried, convicted, and beheaded, for being accessary to the death
of Lord Damley. For five years he possessed the whole power
of the government, and in 1684 was appointed lord high chan-
cellor and lieutenant of the kingdom. In 1581 he obtained
frt)m the king a grant of the baronies of Hamilton and Kin-
niel, and the other estates of the Hamilton family. In Octo-
ber of the same year, under the pretence that he was the
lawful heir of the family, and that the children of the third
marriage of the first earl of Arran were illegitimate, he was
created earl of A. Tan, which dignity he held, along with the
estates, until his disgrace in 1585, when they were restored
to the true owner. About the end of 1596, as he was riding
homeward through Symington, near Douglas in Lanarkshire,
he was unexpectedly attacked by Sir James Douglas of Park-
head, nephew of the regent Morton, who, in revenge for the
death of his uncle, killed him on the spot His body was
exposed to dogs and swine,' and his head being cut off was
carried on the point of a lance, in triumph through the coun-
try. He married, 6th July 1581, Lady Elizabeth Stewart,
eldest daughter of John, fourth earl of Athol, who had been
twice previously married, and by her had Sir James Stewart
of Killeith, Ijord OchUtree, [see Ochiltree, Lord,] and ano-
ther son.
Arran, eari of, is also an Irish title, created in 1762, and
possessed by a family of the name of Gore, properiy earl of
the Arran Islands in Qalway.
AERAN, Earl of, see Hamilton, James.
Arthur, a surname derived from ArUuir^ agnifying the
chief or great man ; hence the renowned Welsh prince, King
Arthur, whose achievements have formed the subject of m
much romantic fiction, and whose name has been traditional-
ly given to various places in Scotland, as well as in England
and Wales. ** It cannot easily be discovered,** says Stoddart,
** why several mountains in Scotland take their name from
the Welsh prince, Arthur, of whom no other traces remun in
this country ; but it appears that they have been traditionally
considered as places of sovereignty. Thus it is said that Ben
Aitliur (a lofty mountain-crag in the wilds of Glencroe, Ar-
gyleshire), being, at one period, the most elevated and con-
spicuous of the mountains in the domain of the Campbells,
the heir to that chieftainship was obliged to seat hunself on
its loftiest peak, a task of some difficulty and danger, which,
if he neglected, his lands went to the next relation sufficiently
adventurous.'* Arthur*s Seat in the immediate neighbourhood
of Edinburgh is said to have taken its name from King Ar-
thur having surveyed the country from its summit, previous
to the eleventh battle which he fought against the Saxons, in
the sixth century, and which, according to Whittaker, was
decided on the castle -hill of Edinburgh. Pinkerton says
that the name arose from the tournaments held near it, as
did Arthiu^s round-table at Stirling, Arthur being quite popu-
lar in the centuries of chivalry and romance, [^Enqmry into
the History qf Scotland^ vol. L p. 77, noit]*^ but there cannot
be a question that the name of Arthur's Seat, as applied to
the height immediately beside the palace of Holyrood, the
residence of Scotland's later kings, meant no more than the
hill of the chief or sovereign of the whole country, without
any reference at all to King Arthur of Welsh history. The
same may be said of all the other places in Scotland to which
his name has oeen given, and of which Chalmers in his Cale-
donia [voL i p. 244] has collected many notices. Arthur's
fountain in the parish of Crawford, Clydesdale, is referred to
in a grant made in 1239 by David de Lindsey to the monks
of Newbottle, of the lands of Brother-alwyn in that district,
as being bounded on the west, " a fonte Artfutri tuque ad
trnmitatem mantia,'* [Cart Newbottle^ No.' 148.] This,
however, may only mean the fountain of the chief or great
man of the district. The Welsh poets assign a palace to Ar-
thur among the northern Britons at Penryn ryoneth, oorre
sponding to Dumbarton castle, which, as appears from a par-
liamentary record of the rdgn of David the Second in 1367,
was, long before, named Caatrttm AtihurL But this might
mean only the castle or fort of the chief or sovereign. Thf!
romantic castle of Stirling was equally, during the middle
ages, supposed to have been the festive scene of Artbnr's
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mf §^jC0tkiiitr.
II.
(Bmhm of %i\ak drttttb bj pig (%ar.
(1) DoKJU^D BAinc.
1
L Jpnx of ^mccBJi |., j|tng of jKcotlsnk.
1st, MALE DESCENDANTS.
(2) Limb of Dwoajk IL
8 8 4
2d, line of HENRT, 4tb EARL
(1) Gbahdoaughtsbs.
L Madach, hojx
of Donald
Bane and
prandson of
Duncan I.,
died in reign
of David I.
No issue.
2. Malcolm,
son of
Duncan IL,
prandson of
Malcolm III.
and
^reat- grandson
of Duncan I.
(1) Gbahddauohtebs.
3 4
6. Henry de
Londoniis.
{Oitiaritis liegU)
in right of
his wife,
eldest daujthter
of deceased son
of Henrj'.
No issue.
2d, LINE OF HENRT, 4th EARL.
(2) Limb op Stbaxhbooib ahd Hismros
1 2&3 4
6. Thomas de
Galloway,
In right of
Isabel his wife,
her ftister. died
in 1231.
No issue
5&6
8. David do
7. Patrick,
Ron of
6th earl ;
' Hastings,
1 in right of
1 Fcmelith, hla
murdered at
Haddinpion in
1242.
V J
1 wife,
; third grand-
daughUr, died
' at Tunis, 1269.
9. John de
Strathhofrio,
(grandson of
Macdutf. 6th
earl of Fife.)
In right of
hiB wife, Adda,
daughter of
David, 8th eaxL
10. David,
their son.
11. John, his
son,
executed In
I^ondon,
Jth Nov. 1306.
12. David, hla
son,
died under
forfeiture,
1327.
TiUilar BorU.
is. Dayid, Md
OflSthMTl,
■Uin in batUe,
aoth Not. 1335.
14. DftTid, hto
n. CRmplrtlL ni. ^oitfto.
I 2
r'
Sir John Camp-
bell of Moulin,
nephew of
Robert Bruce,
created In reign
of David II.,
killed 1833.
at HalidonhilL
No ijtaue.
William Doug-
las, Lord of Lld-
disdale, created
by David II.,
resigned 1341,
In favour of
Robert the
Great Steward.
1. Robert tho
Steward of
Scotland.
Merged in the
crown on hig
acceasioiL
2. W*»Uer, hla
second son.
by Eu}ih Ross.
about 1403,
beheaded for
murdering
James 1 , 1437.
Forfeited
L John, son of
Sir James
Stewart of
Lorn, and
of widow of
James I..
created 1457,
died 1612.
V. Stefawtjjtmeofyow.
2&3 4
2. John, hb
eldest son,
killed at
Flodden, 1513.
3 John, his
son,
died in 1542.
4. John, hig
eon,
Lord High
Chancellor of
Scotland,
died in 1579.
5. John, his
son, died
without
male Issue,
1595, leaving
4 daughters.
YL Stcfosrt ^mt of |mttrmeBl)i
1 s
L John, Lord
Innermeath,
3. James,
married
their son,
widowed
died
Countess of
without issue*
Athole,
16^5
created 1596. ;
Wrniam Momy,
SdMriof
TaUllMrdliM.
ftir ttldcr Mridom,
nrlwd in Tislit
orbbwlA.
L John, their son*
got earldom
confirmed to
him in /ight of
mother 1629
Died 1642.
LiMl;
Vn. Pnrras %m of CnllilrarMnf . anb Siebaxt of %om.
rDoroUiM
Itewait,
t daughter
of JohnistEMri
ofAtbole.bat
diedbefore
2. John, bis son.
Justice General
of Scotland,
succeeded to earl-
dom ofTulli-
bardine. 1670.
(Marquis of Athole,
1676.)
Died 17(
8. John, his son,
(2d Marquis.)
created Duke,
1708.
One of tho
Commissioners of
the Union, 1707.
Died 1724.
6. John, his
nephew,
8d Duke,
(son of Ld. Oca
Murray. 1745.)
By his wife and
cousin. Lord
of Man.
Died 1774.
AftMORUL BBARING8 OF MURRAT, EABL,
MABQUIS, AMD DUKB OF ATHOLB.
QiMrterings:— LibrMmrray. i. Lord oTlCiin. S. G A 4) for Stanley. (2 ft 3) for
4. Jamee, hb 8d
son, and (by at-
talntment of hi<
brother) 2d Duke.
By his grand-
mother, (heiress
of Stanley, Eatl
Derby,) Lord
Strange.
Tied 17f
Diaitized by
6. John, his eldest
son, 4th Duke.
(H^arl Strange and
Baron Murray,
in United King-
dom, 1786.)
DiedlSaOL
Google
ARTHUR.
161
ATHOLE.
Toond table. ''Bex ArAurut,'* sajs WiUUun of Worcester,
in his Itinenuy, p. 311, ** euttodiAai le ro9md-4able m cattro
de Siyr^, aiiim', Snmedon^ioutrCcaieU, " Sir David lind-
saj, in his *• Complaint* of the Papingo, makes her take leave
of Stirling castle thus :
** Adew, ftdr Snawdoon, with thy toorli hte,
Thy chapeU royall, parii, and tabfll roand.**
In Neilston parish, Renfinewshire, there are three places of the
name of Arthnr-lee. The ancient monnment of Arthur's Oven,
or * Oon,* on the Carron, which was demolished many years ago,
was known by that name as early as the reign of Alexander
the Third, if not earlier. Arthur's Seat near Edinbuigfa is
not the only hiD which bears the name. Not far from the top
of Loch Long, that separates Argyle and Dumbarton, there
is a conical hiD also called Arthur's Seat, which is likewise
the name given to a rock, on the north side of the hiD of
Dunbarrow in the parish of Dunnichen, Forfmrshire. In the
parish of Cupar-Angus, Perthshire, there is a standing stone
called the Stone of Arthur; near it is a gentleman's seat called
Arthur-stone, and not ht from it is a £urm named Arthur's
fold. At Mdgle, in the same vicinity, some antique and cu-
rious monuments in the churchyard are associated by tradition
with the name of the fabulous King Arthur's faithless queen,
Vanora, Guenevra, or Ginevra. Arthur is, besides, the appa-
rent founder of a numerous dan, whose antiquity is proverbial
among the Highlanders.
ARTHUR, Archibald, professor of moral phi-
loBopbj in the university of Glasgow, eldest son
of Andrew Arthur, a farmer, was bom at Abbot's-
Inch, Renfrewshire, September 6, 1744. He was
taught Latin at the grammar school of Paislej,
and studied for the ministry at Glasgow college,
where, when yet a student, he lectured on church
history for a whole session, during the absence of
the professor, to the great satisfaction and im-
provement of the class. In October 1767 he was
licensed as a preacher of the Church of Scotland,
and soon after became chaplain to the university
of Glasgow, and assistant to the Rev. Dr. Craig,
one of the clei*gymen of that city. Becoming also
Jibrarian to the university, he compiled the cata-
logue of that library. In 1780 he was appointed
assistant and successor to the venerable Dr. Reid,
professor of moral philosophy, who died in 1796.
Mr. Arthur taught the class fifteen years as assist-
ant, and only held the chair as professor for one
session, as he died on 14th June 1797. In 1803,
Professor Richardson, of the same university, pub-
lished a part of Arthur's lectures, under the title
of ^Discourses on Theological and Literary Sub-
iects,' 8vo, with a sketch of his life and character
AsTON, krd, a title m the peerage of Soothmd, now ex-
tinct, possessed by a noble family of the same name, which
originally belonged to the county of Stafford in England, the
progenitor of which was Randal or Ranulpli de Astona, who
lived in the reign of Edward the First His descendant, Sii
Edward Aston of Tlxall, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
possessed estates of the value of ten thousand a-year, m the
counties of Staffintl, Derby, Leicester, and Warwick. He
married Anne, only daughter of Sir Thomas Lucy of Gharle-
oot, and died in 1598. His eldest son. Sir Walter Aston, at
the coronation of James the First of England, was honoured
with the order of the Bath, and in 1611 he was created a
baronet In 1622 he was employed to negodate a marriage
between Charies, prince of Wales, afterwards Charlo the
First, and the Infanta of Spain ; and, in requital for hu ser-
vices upon that occasion, he was elevated to the peerage 28th
November 1627, as Lord Aston of Forfar. He nuuried Ger-
trude, only daughter of Sur Thomas Sadler of Standon, son
of the celebrated Sir Ralph Sadler, and died m 1689. He
supported Michael Drayton the poet for many years, and his
seat of Tizall is noticed m his * Polyolbion.* At his investi-
ture as knight of the Bath in 1603, Drayton; who has dedi-
cated several of his poems to this Lord Aston, acted as one of
his esquires. The tiUe became extinct on 2l8t January
1845, on the death without issue of the Rev. Walter Hut-
chinson-Aston, ninth baron Aston, a clergyman of the church
of England, vicar of Tardebigg, Worcestershire, and of Tam-
worth, Warwickshire. The motto of the family was " Nwnim
et Patria A»to.** The title does not appear on the Union
Roll ; but the eighth baron Aston, the father of the last lord,
was recognised as a peer by George the Third.
Athol, Atholl, or Atholk, earis of, an ancient title,
formerly possessed by the royal family of Scotland, subse-
quently in right of marriaee by Thomas de Galloway and his
son, and after him by David de Hastings, afterwax^ by the
Strathbogie family, then after being held by a Campbell and
a Douglas, it was conferred on a sdon of the royal house of
Stewart, and through a second creation in the house of Stew-
art, it came latterly to be possessed by a branch of thi
noble family of Murray. It is the name of a moxmtainous
and romantic district in the north of Perthshire, which, from
a remote period, has preserved its boundaries unaltered. It
was the origmal patrimony of the family which gave kings to
Scotiand from Duncan to Alexander the Third; and it is the
earliest district in Scotland mentioned in history. The name
signifies * pleasant land,' and Blair of Athol, its principal
valley, *the field or vale of AthoL' '' Its chief interest,**
says Skene, ** arises from the strong presumption which ex-
ists that the family which gave a long line of kings to Scot-
land, firom the eleventh to the fourteenth centuiy, took their
ongoi firom this district, to which they can be traced before
the marriage of their ancestor with the daughter of Malcolm
the Second raised them to the throne." ^History qf the
Highhnden, voL ii. p. 127.] When Thorfinn, the Norwe-
gian eari of Orkney* conquered the north of Scotland, in the
eariy part of the eleventh century, the only portion of the
territory of the Northern Picts which remained unsubdued
was the district of Athol and part of Argyle. The lord of
the Isles had been slain in an unsuccessful attempt to pre-
serve his insular dominions, and the king of the Soots, with
the whole of his nobility, had also fiillen in the short but
bloody campaign which preceded the Norwegian conquest.
In their disastrous condition the Scots had recourse to Dun-
can, the son of Crinan, abbot of Dunkeld, by Beatrice, the
daughter of Malcolm the Second, the last Scottish king.
Duncan came to the vacant throne in 1034, but after a reign
of six years, he was slain in an attempt to recover the nor-
thern districts from the Norwegians, and his sons were driven
out by Macbeth, who for a tima ruled over the south, whilst
L
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ATHOLE.
162
ATHOLE.
the Norwegians possessed the north of Scotland. After the
orerthrow of Macbeth, 5th December, 1056, and the estab-
lishment of Malcolm Ganmore on the throne, the Lowlands
of Scotland were, according to the Saxon polity, diyided into
earldoms, all of which were granted to the different members
of the royal family. These earldoms consisted of the comitry
inhabited by the Scots, with the addition of the district of
Athol ; and from this drtnmstance it has, not onreasonably,
been presumed that Athol was the original possession of this
royal race. Tliis is further coniirmed by the de^gnation
which early Scottish historians apply to Crinan, the father of
Duncan. Besides being abbot of Dunkeld, he is styled by
Fordun, ^*Abdumut de DuU ac SeneachaUus Iruularum"
(Abthane of Dull and steward of the Isles). Pinkerton has
denied that such a title as Abthane was ever known or heard
of; but Mr. Skene has most conclnsively shown, not only
that there was such a title as Abthane in Scotland, but that
the veiy title of Abthane of Dull, which is the name of a dis-
trict in Athol, existed until oomparativelj^a late period.
ISkene^t History of the Highlanders^ vol. il part 2, chap. 5.]
See Abthakb, ofite, p. 16.
By King Edgar, the whole of Athol, except Breadalbane,
was erected into an earldom, and conferred upon his cousin
Madach, the son of King Donald Bane. Madach married a
daughter of Haco, earl of Orkney. He was a witness to the
foundation charter of Alexander the First, of the monastery of
Scone, in 1114^ and he was himself afterwards a benefactor
to the abbey. On the death of Madach towards the end of
the reign of David the First, the earldom of Athol was ob-
tained by Malcolm the son of Duncan, the eldest son of Mal-
colm Caumore, by Ingioborge, the widow of Thorfinn, eari of
Orkney, whose descendants were excluded from the throne
by that king's younger sons. The earldom was thus bestow-
ed on Malcolm, " either, ** Skene says, " because the exclusion
of that family from the throne could not deprive them of the
original property tX the family, to which they were entitled to
succeed, or as a compensation for the loss of the crown.**
[UisL of Highlanderij vol. il p. 189.] His son Malcolm,
the third earl of Athol, gave in pure alms to the monks of
Scone the church of L(^n Mabed, with four chapels there-
unto belonging, and to the abbey of Dunfermline the tithes
of the church of Moulin. He also made a donation to the
priory of St. Andrews of the patronage of the church of Dull.
His son Henry succeeded to the earldom, and on his death,
in the beginning of the tlurteenth century, his granddaugh-
ters, by his eldest son who predeceased him, carried it into
the famOies of Galloway and Hastings.
The eldest of these granddaughters (erroneously stated by
Douglas in his Peerage to have been the daughters of Earl
Henry) married Alan de Lundin, Ostiarius Regis, who in her
right became fifth earl of Athol, and who died without is-
sue. • Her next sister, Isabel, married Thomas de Gallovidia,
the brother of Alan lord of Galloway, and in her right be-
came sixth earl of AthoL He died in 1281. His son Pa-
trick, seventh earl of Athol, was the youth who overthrew W.
Bisset at a tournament on the English borders, and was mur-
dered at Haddmgton in 1242 (see ante, life of Alexander II.,
p. 75). Femelith, the youngest of Earl Henry's grand-
daughters, succeeded her nephew. Earl Patrick, as countess
of Athol. She married David de Hastings, an Anglo-Norman,
descended from the steward of William the Conqueror, and he,
in her right, became the eighth earl. He was one of the
guarantees of the treaty of peace between Alexander the Sec-
ond and Henry the Thuxl in 1244. [See ante, p. 77.] In
1268 he accompanied other Scottish barons in an expedition
to the Holy Land, and died at Tunis the following year. His
daughter Adda married John de Strathbogie, who in hei
right became ninth earl of Athol. The grandfather of this
John of Strathbogie, Duncan earl of fife, had obt^ed the
lands of Strathbogie, in Aberdeenshire, from King William
the Lion. He settled them on his tlurd son, David, who as-
sumed his name from these lands, and was the father of the
eighth eari of AthoL The son of the latter, David de Strath-
bogie, became the tenth earl of Athoi, and was the father of
John, eleventh earl, who was one of the chief associates of Ro-
bert the Bruce, and assisted at his coronation at Scone, 27th
March, 1806. He fought on Bruce's side at Methven, and
on his discomfiture accompanied him during his disastrous
flight. After the surrender of the castle of Kildrummy the
same year, he was seized by the forces of Edward in at-
tempting to escape by sea, and conducted to London. Being
condemned to death in Westminster Hall, 7th Novembet
1306, he was executed the same day, on a gaUows thirty feet
higher than ordinary, in consequence of his royal descent.
The earldom of Athol was then forfeited and bestowed on
Ralph de Monthermer, styled earl of Gloucester, who, how-
ever, relinquished his title to it for 5,000 merks, in favour of
David de Strathbogie, son of the deceased earL This David,
the twelfth earl, had from King Robert the Bruce, the office
of high constable of Scotland, as appears from a charter ot
that monarch 26th February 1812, where he is so designat-
ed. Two years alter, however, he revolted against Bruce,
whereupon his office of high constable was ^ven to Gilbert
de la Haye, and Athol's estates in Scotland were forfeited.
He married Joan, daughter of John Cumyn of Badenoch,
killed by Brace at Dumfries in 1306, with whom he got
great estates in England. He died in 1827, leaving a son,
David, who was styled thirteenth earl of AthoL
Along with other forfeited Scottish barons this David ac-
companied Edward Baliol into Scotland in 1332, and had a
considerable share in achieving the victoiy over the Scota at
Dupplin, 12th August of that year. He was now restored
to bis paternal inheritance and title. In 1334 Edward Ba-
liol bestowed on him the whole estates of the steward of Scot-
land ; but the same year, the earl of Moray, regent of Scot-
land, compelled him to surrender, when he swore allegiance
to David the Second, the lawful king. Beuig in consequence
denounced as a rebel by Edward the Third, he was frin, on
the invanon of Scotland by that monarch in July 1385, to
agree to a treaty of peace, and make his submission to Ed-
ward, on which he was again received into favour with the
English king, and had the office of governor of Scotland con-
ferred upon him under Baliol, when he acted very insolently
and tyrannically towards all the adherents of the family of
Brace. Having been appointed commander of the English
forces in the north, with three thousand men he proceeded to
lay siege to the castie of Kildrummy, the asylum of the roy-
alists ; but was surprised in the forest of Kilblane by the earl
of March, Sir William Douglas of liddesdale, and Sir An-
drew Moray of Bothwell, at the head of eleven hundred men.
AthoVs troops, panic-strack, fled and dispersed; the earl,
finding himself abandoned, disdained quarter, and was slain
80th November, 1885, in the 28th year of his age. He left a
son, David, styled fourteenth eari of Athol, who was only
three years of age at the time of his father's death. He ac-
companied Edward the Black Prince into France in 1356,
and was in the subsequent expeditions into Gascony. He
died 10th October 1376, leaving two daughters.
When the Celtic earls of Athol became extinct, says
Skene, and, in consequenoe, the subordinate dans in the di»>
trict of Athol assumed independence, the principal part of
that district was in the possession of the dan Donnachie or
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ATHOLE.
168
ATHOLE.
the Kobertsons. IHistorif of the Highianders^ voL iL pp
139, 140.] Skene states in a not« that the peerage writere
have been more than usaallj inaoenn^ in their account of
the earldom of Athol. From its origin down to the fourteenth
century, ** there is,"* he says, *^ scarcelj a single step in the
genealogy correctly giTen.**
On the forfeiture of David, the twelfth earl, his estates
were granted to Sir Niel Campbell of Lochow, and Mary his
^)ouse, sister to King Robert the Bruce, and Sir John
Campbell of Moulin, their second son; and the latter was
created earl of AthoL This appears from a charter of Kmg
David the Second to Robert Lord Erakine, of the customs of
Dundee and third part of Pettarache in Forfarshire, which
some time pertfdn^ to John Campbell, eari of Athol, as
well as from a charter granted by the latter to Roger de
Mortuner of the lands of Billandre. He was killed in the
baUle of Halidon-hill, 19th July 1333, without issue, where-
by the title reverted to the crown.
The next possessor of the title of earl of Athol was William
Douglas, eldest son of Sir James Douglas of Loudon, ances-
tor of the earls of Morton. Not long after the death of the
above-mentioned John Campbell he had the earldom confer-
red upon him, but the precise date is unknown. On the 16th
February 1341 he resigned his title by charter in favour of
Robert, great steward of Scotland, and on the 1atter*s aooes-
rion to the throne in February 1371, under the name of Ro-
bert the Second, it became vested in the royal family. Wal-
ter Stewart, the second son of that monarch by his second
wife, Euphemia Ross, was the next earL He was at first
earl of Caithness, but afterwards had the earldom of Athol,
being so designed, 5th June, 1403, in letters of safe-conduct
by King Henry the Fourth, allowing him to pass into his do-
minbns as far as St. Thomas of Canterbury, with a retinue of
a hundred persons. He had a charter from his brother Ro-
bert duke of Albany, governor of Scotland, of the barony of
Cortachy in Forfarshire 22d September 1409. On the 10th
April 1421 he obtained a safe-conduct to England, to arrange
as to the restoration to hberty of his nephew James the First,
which he was very mstmmental in accomplishing. He sat
as one of the jury on the trial of his nephew Murdoch, duke
of Albany, and his sons, m 1424. [See ante, p. 41.] The
king conferred upon him the oflBce of great justiciary of
Scotland, and also gave him the county palatine of Strathem
for his life, 22d July 1427. Nearly ten years after this he
engaged in the oonspinuy of his kinsman Sir Robert Graham
against James the First, one of the objects of which was the
placing of the crown on the head of Sir Robert Stewart of
Athol, the earVs grandson. The king was cruelly assassi-
nated in the Blackfriars monastery at Perth by the three
conspirators, 20th Febmaiy 1437. The murderers were ap-
prehended, and put to death at Edinburgh with horrible tor-
tures, in the following April. Before being beheaded, Athol
was set upon the pillory, and his head encircled with a red-
hot iron crown, on which was inscribed " The king of traitors.**
His titles and extensive estates were forfeited.
The title of earl of Athol was conferred, about 1457, on
Sir John Stewart of Balveny, the eldest son of Sir James
Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn, and the queen Joanna,
dowager of James the First, who had chosen him for her sec-
ond husband. The earl of AthoFs father, the Bhick Knight
of Lorn, was the thu^ son of Sir John Stewart of Lorn and
Innermeath, descended from Sir James Stewart, fourth son
of Sir John Stewart of Bonkill, who was second son of Alex-
ander, high steward of Scotland. This earl of Athol was,
with the earl of Crawford, appointed in 1475 to the command
of the armament emploved in sunoressine the rebellion of the
earl of Ross, on which occasion he assumed the motto, stiB
borne by the Athol family, of " Fiirth fortune and fill the fet-
ters,** and had a grant of many lands that had belonged to
that nobleman, on his resignation of the earidom of Ross and
the lands of Kintyre and Knapdale. He also acted a promi-
nent part in the attempt made in 1480 to reduce to obedience
Angus of the Isles, the illegitimate son of the Lord of the
Isles, the new title of the earl of Ross. Some time after the
battle of the Bloody Bay, fought in that year in the Isle of
MuQ between the Island factions, in which Angus was victor-
ious, oooorred the event known in history as the * Raid of
Athol.* The earl crossing privately to Islay had carried off
the infant son of Angus, called Donald DubK, or the Bkck,
whom he placed in the hands of his maternal grandfather the
earl df Argyle. Angus immediately summoned his adherents
and sailed to the neighbourhood of Inverlochy, where he left
his galleys, and with a chosen body of Island warriors made a
rapid and secret march into the district of Athol, which he
ravaged with fire and sword. The earl and his countess took
refuge in the chapel of St Bride, to which sanctuaiy many of
the country people likewise fled with their roost valuable
effects. The chapel, however, was violated by Angus and his
followers, who, loaded with plunder, returned to Lochaber,
carrying with them the' earl and countess of Athol as prisoners.
In the voyage from Lochaber many of his galleys sunk, and
much of his plunder was lost in a dreadful storm which he
encountered. Believing this to be a judgment from heaven
for the violation of the chapel of St. Bride, he was touched
with fear and remorse, and voluntarily liberated his prisoners,
without procuring what seems to have been the principal ob-
ject of his raid into Athol, the recovery of his son. He even
performed an ignominious penance in the chapel which he had
so lately desecrated.
In 1488 the earl of Athol had a principal command in the
army of James III. against his son and the rebel lords, for
which, on the death of that monarch, he was imprisoned in
the castle of Dunbar. He died 19th September 1512. By
his first wife. Lady Mai^garet Douglas, only daughter of
Archibald, fifth earl of Douglas, duke of Touraine, the widow
of the eighth earl of Douglas and the wife of the ninth eari,
her marriage with whom after his rebellion in 1455 was an-
nulled, he had two daughters. By his second wife, Lady
Eleonora Sinclair, daughter of William earl of Oricney and
Caithness, he had two sons and nine daughters. John, the
elder son, second earl of Athol, of this new creation, did not
enjoy the title one year, being killed at Flodden 9th Septem-
ber, 1513. His son John, the third earl, was famous for his
great hospitality and princely style of living. Pitsoottie mi-
nutely describes a grand hunting match and sumptuous en-
tertainment ghren by him to King James the Fifth and his
mother and the French ambassador, m 1529. He died in 1542,
and was succeeded by his son John, fourth earl of Athol. In
the parliament of 1560, with the Lords Borthwick and Som-
crville he strongly opposed the Reformation, saying they
would believe as their fathers had done before them. Being
afterwards constituted lord high chancellor of Scotland, he was
sworn into office at Sturling, 29th March 1577. He opposed the
measures of the regent Morton, and took up arms to rescue
the king from his power, but by the mediation of Bowes the
English ambassador, an accommodation took place, in Au-
gust 1578. At a grand entertainment given by Morton, at
Stirling, to the leaders of the opposite party, in token of reo-
ondlement^ 20th April 1579, Athol, the chancellor, was taken
ill, and died four days afterwards, not without strong suspi-
cions of his having been poisoned. He was twice married ;
the second time to Margaret, third dauj^hter of Malcolm
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third lord Fleming, great chamberlain of Scotland, widow of
Robert master of Montrose, killed at Pinkie, 1547, and of
1 homas master of Erskine, son of John earl of Mar. During
her lifetime it was the general belief that this countess of
Athol possessed the powers of sorcery, and it is said that
when Queen Mary was confined with James the Sixth, the
countess cast all the pains of childbirth upon Lady Rires. If
so, it must have been by some unknown species of mesmer-
ism. Their son, John, fifth earl of Athol, was sworn a privy
ooundllor in 1590, and died at Perth, 28th August 1595,
without issue male, when the title reverted to the crown. He
married Lady Mary Ruthven, second daughter of William
first earl of Gowrie, by whom he had four daughters. His
countess afterwards became the second wife of John lord In-
nermeath, created earl of Athol by James the Sixth, in 1596.
Lady Dorothea Stewart, the eldest daughter of John the
fifth earl and this lady, married William, second earl of Tul-
libardine, and was the mother of John, created earl of Athol,
the first of the Murray family who possessed that title, as
afterwards mentioned. Lady Mary, the second daughter,
married James, earl of Athol, the son of her stepfather. Lord
Innermeath, and he dying without male issue, the earldom
again reverted to the crown. [See Intibrmrath, Lord.]
Athoi<, duke of, a title possessed by a branch of the an-
cient family of Murray. The progenitor of the Murray fam-
ily in Scotland was a Flemish settler in the reign of David
the First, of the name of Freskin, who obtained the lands of
Strathbrock in Linlithgowshire, now called Brocks or Brox-
burn. A rebellion having broken out in Moray in the year
1130, he is supposed to have assisted in quelling it, and was
rewarded with a large tract of land in the lowlands of Moray,
where his descendants settled, and in consequence assumed
the name of de Moravia. From Walter de Moravia de-
scended the Morays, lords of Bothwell, the Morays of Aber-
caimey (see Murray, surname of), and Sir William de
Moravia, who acquired the lands of Tullibardine, an estate in
the lower part of Perthshire, with his wife Adda, daughter of
Malise, seneschal of Strathem, as appears by charters dated
in 1282 and 1284.
His son, Sir Andrew Murray of Tullibardine, who suc-
ceeded him, was an adherent of Edward Baliol, and contri-
buted greatly to the decisive victory gained by the latter at
Dupplin in August 1332, by fixing a stake in a ford in the
river Earn, through which his army marched and attacked the
Soots. He was taken prisoner at Perth about two months
afterwards, and immediately put to death for his adherence to
Baliol. His descendant. Sir William Murray of Tullibai-dine,
succeeded to the estates of his family in 1446. He was sher-
iff of Perthshire, and in 1458, one of the lords named for the
administration of justice, who were of the king's daily coun-
cil. He married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Colquhoun
of Luss, great chamberlain of Scotland, by whom he had a
numerous issue. According to tradition they had seventeen
sons, from whom a great many families of the name of Mur-
ray are descended. In a curious document entitled "The
Declaration of George Halley, in Ochterarder, concerning the
Laird of Tullibardine*s seventeen sons~1710," it is stated
that they ** lived all to be men, and that they waited all one
day upon their father at Stirling, to attend the king, with
each of them one servMit, and their father two. This hap-
pening shortly after an act was made by King James the
Fifth, discharging any persons to travel with great numbers
of attendants besides their own family, and having challenged
the laird of Tullibardine for breaking the said act, he answered
he brought only his own sons, with theur necessary attcnd-
«nts ; with which the king was so well pleased that he gave
them small lands in heritage." The ancient Scottish song,
" Cromlet*8 lilt,** was written on the supposed inconstancy
of Miss Helen Murray, commonly called **Fair Helen of Ar-
doch,** granddaughter of Murray of Strewan, one of the sev-
enteen sons of Tullibardine. She was courted by young
Chisholm of Gromleck who, during his absence in France^
impoeed upon by the fabe representations of a treacherouf
friend, believed that she was faithless to him, and wrote the
affecting ballad called Gromlet*s or Cromleck*8 lilt The Itdfa
father, Stiriing of Ardoch, had by his wife, Margaret Murra}
a family of no less than thirty-one children, of whom fair
Helen was one. It is said that James the Sixth, when pass-
ing finm Perth to Sturling in 1617, paid a visit to Helenas
mother, the Lady Ardoch, who was then a widow. Her chil-
dren were all dressed and drawn up on the lawn to receive
his migesty. On seeing them the king said, * Madam, how
many are there of them ?' * Sire,* she jocosely answered, * 1
only want your help to make out the twa chalders !* a ohaldcr
contains sixteen bolls. The king laughed heartily at the joke,
and afterwards ate a ooUop sitting on a stone in the dose.
The youngest son of this extraordinary femily, commonly
called the Tutor of Ardoch, died, in 1715, at the advanced age
of one hundred and eleven.
The eldest of Tullibardine*8 seventeen sons. Sir William
Murray of Tullibardine, had, with other issue, William, his
successor, and Sir Andrew Murray, ancestor of the viscounts
Stormont (See Stormont.) His great-grandson, Sir Wil-
liam Murray of Tullibardine, was a zealous promoter of the
Reformation in Scotland; and in 1567, at Oarbeny-hill, be
accepted the gauntlet of defiance to smgle combat thrown
down by the earl of Bothwell, but the latter objected to him
as being of inferior rank, as he did also to Tullibardine*s
brother, James Murray of Purdorvis, for the same reason. His
sister Annabella married the earl of Mar, afterwards regent,
and was the governess of the infant king, James the Sixth.
He himself married in 1547 Lady Agues Graham, third
daughter of William second earl of Montrose. On the death
of his brother-in-law, the earl of Mar, in 1572, he and Sir
Alexander Erskine of Gogar were appointed governors of the
young king and joint keepers of the castle of Stirling, where
his mi\je8ty resided, and he discharged the office with the ap-
plause of the whole kmgdom till 1578. George Halley, in
the curious document ahready quoted, says that ** Sir William
Murray of Tullibardine havmg broke Argyle*s face with the
hilt of his sword, in king James the Sixth*8 presence, was
obliged to leave the kingdom. Afterwards, the king's mails
and slaughter cows were not paid, neither could any subject
in the realm be able to compel those who were bound to pay
them ; upon which the king cried out — ' 0, if I had Will.
Murray again, he would soon get my mails and slaughter
cows ; * to which one standing by replied — * That if his ma-
jesty would not take Sir William Murray's life, he might re-
turn shortly.' The king answered, *■ He would be loath to
take his life, for he had not another subject like him V Upon
which promise Sir William Murray returned, and got a com-
mission from the king to go to the north, and lift up the
mails and the cows, which he speedily did, to the great satis-
faction of the king, so that immediately after he was made
lord comptroller." This office he obtained in 1565.
His eldest son, Sir John Murray, the twelfth feudal
baron of Tullibardine, was brought up with King Jamea,
who, in 1592, constituted him his master of the household.
He was afterwards sworn a member of his privy council, and
knighted, and on 25th April 1604 King James raised him to
the peerage by the title of Lord Murray of Tullibardine. On
10th July 1606 he was created earl of Tullibardme. His
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kmlship married CatherLne, fourth daughter of David second
lord Dnunmond, and died in 1609.
His eldest son, William, second earl of Tullibardine, was
the means of rescuing James the Sixth from the earl of
Gowrie and hia brother at Perth on the 5th August 1600,
for which service the hereditary sheriibhip of Perth, which
had belonged to the earl of Gowrie, was bestowed on him.
He married, as has been stated, the ladj Dorothea Stewart,
daughter of the 6th earl of Athol of the Stewart family, who
died in 1595, and on the death in 1625 of James, second eari
of Athol, son of John sixth lord Innermeath, created earl of
Athol by James the Sixth, he petitioned King Charles the
First for the earldom of Athol, as his countess was the eldest
daughter and heir of line of Earl John, of the family of In-
nermeath, which had become extinct in the male line. The
king received the petition graciously, and gave his royal word
that it should be done, — ^thereby a recognition on the part of
the Grown of the right of the heir female to an ancient peer-
age, of which the constitution was unknown. The eari ac-
cordingly surrendered the title of earl of Tullibardine into the
king's hands, Ist April 1626, to be confiBrred on his brother
Sir Patrick Murray, as a separate dignity, but before the pa-
tents could be expeded, his lordship died the same year. Hid
son John, however, obtained in February 1629 the title of
earl of Athol, and thus became the first earl of the Murray
branch, and the earldom of Tullibardine was at the same
time granted to Sir Patrick. This earl of Athol was a zeal-
ous royalist, and joined the association formed by the eari of
Montrose for the king, at Cumbernauld, in January 1641.
He died in June 1642. His eldest son John, second earl of
Athol of the Murray family, also faithfully adhered to Charles
the First, and was excepted by Cromwell out of his act of
grace and indemnity, 12th April 1654, when he was only
about nineteen years of age. At the restoration, he was
sworn a privy councillor, obtained a charter of the hereditary
office of sheriff of Fife, and in 1663 was appointed justice-
general of Scotland. In 1670 he was constituted captain of
the king's guards, in 1672 keeper of the privy seal, and 14th
January 1673, an extraordinary lord of session. In 1670 he
succeeded to the earldom of Tullibardine on the death of
James fourth earl of the new creation, and was created mar-
quis of Athol in 1676. He increased the power of his fam-
ily by his marriage with Lady Amelia Sophia Stanley, third
daughter of the seventh earl of Derby, beheaded for his loy-
alty 16th October 1651. Through her mother, Chariottn de
la Tremouille, daughter of Claude
de U Tremouille, duke of Thouars
and prince of Palmont, she was re-
lated in blood to the emperor of
Germany, the kmgs of France and
Spain, the prince of Orange, the
duke of Savoy, and most of the prin-
cipal families of Europe; and by
her the family of Athol acquired
the seignory of the Isle of Man,
and also large property in that
island.
In 1678, on the irruption into the
western shues of the Highland host,
the marquis of Athol joined the duke
of Hamilton in opposition to the
duke of Lauderdale, in consequence
of which he was deprived of his
office of justice - general, but re-
tained his other places. He was
instrumental in suppressing Ar*
gyle's inva«on in 1685. Notwithstanding his oonsptcn-
ous loyalty in the reigns of Charles the Second and his
brother James, he promoted the Revolution, and went to
London in 1689, to wait on the prince of Orange, but was
disappointed in his expectations of preferment under the new
government. William, though related to the marchioness,
did not receive him cordially, and in consequence he joined
the Jacobite party. At the convention of the Scottish
estates, 14th March 1689, he was put in nomination as pres-
ident by the adherents of King James. The Whigs on the
other hand proposed the duke of Hamilton, and the Utter
was elected by a majority of fifteen votes. When the vis-
count of Dundee proceeded into the Highlands for the pur-
pose of trying the chance of a battle, the defence of the castle
of Blair Athol, belonging to the marquis, was the means of
occasioning the battle of KiUiecrankie, in the same year.
This strong fortress, which commands the most important
pass in the Northern Highlands, had already been the scene
of remarkable events in the previous dvil wars. In 1644 the
marquis of Montrose had possessed himself of it, and was
here joined by a large body of the Athol Highlanders, to
whose bravery he was indebted for the victory at Tippermuir.
In the troubles of 1653 it was taken by storm by Colonel
Daniel, one of Cromwell's officers, who, unable to remove a
magazine of provisions lodged there, destroyed it by powder.
In 1689 it had been taken possession of by Stewart of Ballechan,
the marquis of Athol's chamberlain, who refused to deliver it
up to Lord Murray, the marquis's son, as he was supposed to
favour the Revolution party, Stewart declaring that he held
it for King James, by order of his Ueutenant-generaL Lord
Murray had summoned his father's vassals to join him, and
about twelve hundred^ assembled, but no entreaties could pre-
vail on them to declare in favour of the government of King
William. They intimated that if he would join Dundee they
would follow him to a man, but if he refused they all would
leave him. His lordship remonstrated with them, and even
threatened them with his vengeance if they abandoned him,
when, setting his threats at defiance, they ran to the river
Banovy in the neighbourhood of Blair castle, and filling their
bonnes with water, drank King Jajnes's health, and left his
standard. Dundee knew the importance of preserving Blair
castle, and with his usual expedition he joined the garrison.
A fSew days afterwards, however, the battle of KiUiecrankie
took place, when he was slain in the moment of victory
The following is a view of Blair castle:
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ATHOLE.
The last siege which Blair castle sustained was in Marcli
1746, when it was gallantly defended by Sir Andrew Agnew-
against a party of the Pretender's forces, who retired from
before it a few weeks preceding the battle of Gulloden. Ai^
soon as peace was restored, a considerable part of the castle
was reduced in height, and the inside most magnificentK
furnished. The marquis continued in the opposition for the
remainder of his life. He died 6th May 1703 His second
son, Lord Charles, was created first earl of Dun more, and his
fourth son, Lord William, was created first Lord Nairn.
His eldest son John, the second marquis, and first duke,
of Athol, designated Lord John Murray, was one of the com-
missioners for inquiring into the massacre of Glencoe in
1693. By King William he was appointed in 1696 one of thf
prindpal secretaries of state for Scotland. He was created
a peer in his father*8 lifetime, by the title of earl of Tullibar-
dine, viscount of Glenalmond, and Lord Murray, for life, by
patent dated 27th July 1696, and in April 1703 he wa.v
appointed lord privy seal On the 80th July of that year,
immediately after his iVither*s death, he was created duke or
Athol, by Queen Anne, and invested vrith the order of the
Thistle. Having, the same year, introduced the act of secu-
rity into the Scottbh parliament, the duke of Queensben^*
and the other ministers, greatly displeased, formed a plan to
ruin hiro, by means of Simon Fraser of Beaufort. Fraser
had fied to France some years before, to elude a sentence of
death pronounced against him in absence, by the court of
jusdciiiry, for an alleged rape on the person of Lady Amelia
Murray, dowager Lady Lovat, and sister of the duke of Athol,
but returning to Scotland in 1703, as the agent of the exiled
family, he, after intriguing with the duke of Queensberry, then
at the head of the government party in Scotland, revealed the
existence of « Jacobite conspiracy, iif which the dukes of
Hamilton and Athol, as well as others, were deeply involved.
Fraser was Athol's bitter enemy [see Fraser, Simon, twelfth
Lord Lovati, and the whole pretended plot having been brought
to light by Ferguson, celebrated as the plotter [see Ferqusos,
Robert], with whom Fraser bad had some communication in
London, he immediately acquainted the duke with the discovery
he had made. Athol at once laid the matter before the queen,
who had been previously apprised of the alleged conspuracy
by the duke of Queensberry. The latter being called upon
for an explanation, excused himself by saying that when Fra-
ser came to Scotland he had received a written communica-
tion from him, to the effect that he could make important dis-
coveries, relative to designs against the queen*s government,
in proof of which he delivered him a letter from the queen
dowager, the widow of James the Seventh, at St Germains,
addressed to L M , which initials Fraser stated were
meant for Lord Murray, the former title of the duke of Athol,
and that, after seeing him, he (Queensberry) had given him a
protectbn in Scotland, and procured a pass for him in Eng-
land, to enable him to follow out further discoveries. The Eng-
lish house of peers took the subject up warmly, and passed
strong resolutions regarding the supposed conspiracy, for the
purpose of clearing Queensberry; but nothing farther was
done in the matter. The effect, however, was to incense
Athol against the government, and so zealous was he against
the Union that he is said to have had six thousand Highland
followers ready to oppose it. This did not prevent hiro,
however, from pocketing one thousand pounds of the equiva-
lent money sent down, nominally to satisfy such claims of
damage as might arise out of the Union, but in reality given
in many instances as a bribe. At the beginning of the
session of the Scots parliament in which the Union was car-
ried, the duke was appointed commissioner, as Lockart in-
forms us, in place of the duke of Queensberry, the lattei
wishing to ascertain the state of public feeling before he ven-
tured himself to face the difficulties of the time, *' and there-
fore he sent the duke of Athol down as commissioner ; using
him as the monkey did the cat, m pulling out the hot ronst«d
chestnuts.** [^Lockarfs Memoirs^ p. 139.] His grace died
14th November, 1724. He was twice married ; first to Ca-
therine, daughter of the duke of Hamilton, by whom he had
six sons and a daughter, and secondly to Mary, daughter of
William lord Ross, by whom he had three sons and a daughter.
His eldest son, John marquis of Tullibardine, died in 1709.
His second son William, who succeeded his brother,, was the
marquis of Tullibardine who acted the prominent part in
both the Scottish rebellions of last century, which is recorded
in history. He was one of the first that joined the earl of Mar
in 1715, for ^hich he was attainted for high treason, and
the family honours were settled by parliament on his next
brother James. Another brother. Lord Charles Murray, a
comet of horse, also engaged in the rebellion of 1716, and
had the command of a regiment Upon the march into Eng-
hmd he kept at the head of his men on foot in the High-
land dress. After the surrender of Preston, hb lordship be-
ing amongst the prisoners, was tried by a court martial as
a deserter, and sentenced to be shot, but received a pardon
through the interest of his friends, and died in 1720. The
marquis of Tullibardine had ^scaped to the continent, but re-
turned to Scotland vrith the Spanish forces, in 1719, and
with a younger brother. Lord George Murray, afterwards com-
mander-in-chief of the Pretender's army, was in the battle of
the pass of Glcnshiel, in the district of Kintail, Ross-shure, in
June of that year, where Lord George was wounded. After
the defeat at Glenshiel, the marquis escaped a second time
to the continent, and lived twenty-six years in exile, in
1745 he accompanied Prince Charles Edward to Scotland,
and landed with him at Borodoile 25th July. He was styled
duke of Athol by the Jacobites. On the 19th August he
unfurled the prince's standard at Glenfinnan, and supported
by a man on each side, held the staff while he prodaimed the
Chevalier de St George as king, and read tJie commission
appointing his son Charles prince regent After the battle
of Culloden he fied to the westward, intending to embark for
the isle of Mull, but being unable, from the bad state of his
health, to bear the fatigue of travelling under concealment,
he surrendered, on the 27th April, 1746, to Mr. Buchanan of
Drummaldll, a Stirlingshire gentleman. Being conveyed to
London, he was committed to the Tower, where he died on
the 9th July following.
James the second duke of Athol was the third son of the
first duke. He succeeded to the dukedom on the death of his
father, in November 1724, in the lifetime of his elder brother
William, attainted by parliament Being maternal great-
grandson of James seventh earl of Derby, upon the death of
the tenth earl of that line, he claimed and was allowed the
English barony of Strange, which had been oonfeired on Lord
Derby, by writ of summons, in 1628. His grace was married,
first to Jean, sister of Sir John Frederick, hart by whom he
bad a son and two daughters ; secondly to Jane, daughter of
John Dmmmond of Megginch, who had no issue. The latter
was the herome of Dr. Austen*s song of * Fw lack of gold she's
left me, 0 !* She was betrothed to that gentleman, a physician
in Edinburgh, when the Duke of Athol saw her, and falling
in love with her made proposals of marriage, which were ac-
cepted; and, as Bums says, she jOted the doctor. Having
survived her first husband, she married a second time. Lord
Adam Gordon. Dr. Austen, on his port, although m his song
he says
-I !
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ATKINS.
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ATKINSON.
** No cruel (Ur shall ever move
My li\)ored heart again to love,**
married, in 17M, the Hon. Anne Sempill, by whom he had a
numeroos famUj.
The son and the eldest dmnghter of the second doke of
Athol died jonng. Chariotte, his yoongest daoghter, suc-
ceeded on his death, which took place in 1764, to the baronj
of Strange and the sovereignty of the Isle of Man. She mar-
ried her cousm, John Morray, Esq., eldest son of Lord Geoi^
Murray, fifth son of the first duke, and the celebrated gener-
alissimo of the forces of the Pretender in 1745, [see Murray,
Lord George.] Though Lord George was attamted by par-
liament for his share in the rebellion, his son was allowed to
succeed his uncle and father-in-law as third duke, and in
1765 he and his duchess disposed of their sovereignty of the
Isle of Man to the British govemment| for seventy thousand
pounds, reserving, however, theur landed interest in the is-
land, with the patronage of the bishopric and other ecdesiaa-
tical benefices, on payment of the annual sum of one hun-
dred and one pounds fifteen shillings and eleven pence, and
rendering two falcons to the kings and queens of England
upon the days of their coronation. His grace, who had five
sons and two daughters, died 5th November, 1774, and was
succeeded by his eldest son John, fourth duke, who in 1786
was created Earl Strange and Baron Murray of Stanley, in
the peerage of the United kingdom. He died in 1830. His
second son. Lord George Murray, was bbhop of St. David's,
whose eldest son became Inshop of Rochester. His fifth son,
Lord Charies Murray, dean of Becking in Essex, having mar-
ried Alice, daughter of George Mitford, Esq., and heiress of
her great uncle, Gawen Aynsley, assumed the surname of
Aynsley. The fourth duke was succeeded by hia eldest son
John, who was for many yean a rechise, and died single
14th September, 1846. His next brother James, a miyor-
genenl in the army, was created a peer of the United king-
dom, as baron Glenlyon of Glen^ron, m the county of Perth,
9th July, 1821. He married, in May 1810, EmUy Frances,
second daughter of the duke of Northumberland, and by her
he had two sons and two daughters. He died in 1887. His
eldest son, George Augustus Frederick John, Lord Glenlyon,
became, on the death of his unde in 1846, sixth duke of
Athol. In 1853, knight of the Thistle ; married, with Issne.
ATKINS, Etkins, Aitkens, or Aiken, James,
bishop of Galloway, was born at Kirkwall, aboat
the year 1618. He was the son of Henry Atkens
or Aiken, sheriff and commissary of Orkney. He
commenced his studies at the university of Edin-
burgh, and completed them at Oxford in 1638.
On his return to Scotland, that year, he was ap-
pointed chaplain to James, marquis of Hamilton,
his majesty's high commissioner to the Geneml
Assembly, in which situation he behaved so well
that on the marquis' return to England he ob-
tained for him from the king a presentation to the
church of Birsa in Orkney. In the beginning of
1650, on the landing of the marquis of Montrose
in that stewartry. Dr. Atkins was appointed by
the presbytery to draw np a declaration of loyalty
and allegiance to Charles the Second, which, with
their consent and approbation, was published.
For this step the whole presbytery was deposed
by the General Assembly, while Atkins was ex-
communicated for holding correspondence with
the marquis. An act of council was also passed
for his apprehension ; but receiving private notice
thereof from his relative. Sir Archibald Primrose,
derk of council, afterwards lord register, he fled
into Holland. In 1653 he returned to Scotland,
and quietly resided with his family in Edinburgh,
till the king's restoration in 1660, when he accom-
panied Dr. Sydserf, bishop of Galloway, the only
surviving prelate in Scotland, to Loudon to con-
gratulate his majesty ; at which time, he was pre-
sented by the bishop of Winchester to the rectory
of Winfrith in Dorsetshire. In 1677 he was con-
secrated bishop of Moray; and in 1680 he was
translated to the see of Galloway, when, on ac*
count of his age, he received a dispensation to
reside in Edinburgh, where he died of an apo-
plectic stroke, 28th October 1687, aged 74 years,
and was buried in the church of the Greyfriars in
that city. He showed himself very zealous in op-
posing the taking off the penal laws. — Ketth^s Scot-
tish Bishops.
ATKJNSON, Thomas, a pleasing poet and mis-
cellaneous writer, was bom at Glasgow about the
year 1801. He is said to have been the illegiti-
mate son of a butcher of that city. After receiving
his education, he was apprenticed to Mr. Turn-
bull, bookseller, Trongate, on whose death he
entered into business, in partnership with Mr.
David Robertson. From boyhood he was a
writer of poetry, prose sketches, and essays;
and among other things brought out by him
were, *The Sextuple Alliance,' and *The Cha-
meleon.' Three successive volumes of the lat-
ter were published annually, containing his own
pieces exclusively. He was also sole editor and
author of * The Ant,' a weekly periodical, and an
extensive contributor to * The Western Luminary,'
* The Emmet,' and other local publications. His
writings are distinguished by taste and fancy, and
he was indefatigable in producing them. His tal-
ents for speaking were also of a superior order,
and he took every opportunity of displaying his
powers of oratory. At the general election, after
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AUCHINLECK.
168
AUCHMUTY.
tlie passing of the Reform Bill, Mr. AtkiDSon, who
was a keen reformer, started as a candidate for the
Stirling burglis, in opposition to Lord Dalmeny,
who was returned. Being naturally of a delicate
constitution, his exertions on this occasion brought
on a decline; and when seized with advanced
symptoms of consumption, he disposed of his busi-
ness, his books, and his furniture, and sailed for
Barbadoes, but died on the passage on the 10th
October 1833, in the 32d year of his age. He was
buried at sea in an oaken coffin, which he had
taken with him ! He left an annuity to his mother,
and a sum, after accumulation, to be applied in
building an Atkinsonian Hall in Glasgow for scien-
tific purposes. His relatives erected a monument
to his memory in the necropolis of his native city.
AucHTNLEd., a sorname derived from lands of that name.
Aacli, aometimes acb, its diminntive anchin and augmenta-
tive avooh, occnrt freqaentlj alone, as also in composition,
in names of lands. It implies an elevation, bot in a relative
sense only. In valley lands near the months of rivers, where
the plane is intersected by channels of deep waterooorses, the
anchin or haughs are the separated and higher portions of
tliAt plane; as the Hanghs of Cromdale in the valley of the
Spey ; and being heavy clays, are generally very fertile On
hill-slopes anchin or haughs are more level portions or banks;
as Anchinross or Rosehnugh in Avoch, Ross -shire. The
augmentative avoch refers to continuity as well as elevation ;
as in the parish of that name, where a deep alluvial soil is
furrowed into m high parallel flat ridge of some miles long by
dividing streams. The plural is Auchen, frequently corrupt-
ed into Auchens. These and their genitives Aachie —
I ttugh-i and Auchenie, occur as surnames, from lands so called.
I They both enter into topographical combinations, as Auchen-
I denny, Auchen-dlsn-t, haughs of the den, — abbreviated into
Denny, also a simame, — whose undulating lands are
cut through by deep dens or stream beds; Craig-al-achie,
the rock of tlie haugh or aoh, through which the Spey
has cleft m passage for itself; and others of similar
formation. Aughter, augh-ter, is applied to the up-
per and higher portions of river basins where the affluents
are numerous and their bed valleys wide and deep worn. It
means high landt^ but in a sense not identical with moun-
tainous. The aughter in Aughienrdw is derived from the
dividing ridge, or plane of the original bed of the basin, lying
between the valleys of the Ruthven and the Earn. Aughter,
sometimes Ochter, having in composition given names to bar^
onies, has, again, become a part of various surnames. Augh,
or och, is the Gothic root of the Qerman Hoch, and under
this form is found in Continental topography wherever the
Qothio races held rule. It becomes Hock in English topo-
graphy. It has been claimed as Gaelic, and is certainly used
by a Gaelic-speaking population as a descriptive name in re-
gions now inhabited by them. But their explanations of its
meaning are unsatisfactory, and having been introduced into
the parochial statistical accounts, are followed in works on
topography, so that auch is rendered a field, a height, or
a ridge, as appears to suit the locality. Leek or Lyke is the
Gothic word for dead, as in Lykewake, the watcli of the dead.
Cromlech, the circle of the dead, and in this word is applied
in the sense of barren, sterile, as in the dsad sea. The barony
of that name in Ayrshire is an upland flat lying between the
valleys of the waters of Ayr and Lugar, which flow in parallel
directions so closely approximating to each other tliat in six-
teen miles of length it has never more than two of breadth,
with m moss in a great part of its centre. Leoh, Lach, or
Lake, is sometimes duplicated with the Latin mort, as Mort-
lech, in Aboyne, the sterile land; Mortlaeb, in Moray, the
place of battle ; and its genitive Leckie is also a surname.
The Gaelic definition, ** field of the flagstones,** is simply
absurd. There is not a flagstone in the parish or barony ;
and the name was bestowed before the subdivision of land into
fields was known. The name is often pronounced and some-
times written Affleck.
The lands of Auchinleck in the parish of Monikie, Forfar-
shire, appear to have given origin to the surname at an eariy
period. Two rivulets running parallel in deep dens through
a valley at a level of 800 feet, yet near the sea, leave between
them a flat anchin or elevated stripe on which stands the old
tower or castle of Affleck, somewhat more than a mile from
the parish churcli, a beautiful specimen of its class, entire al-
though long uninhabited, and since 1746 has been used for
purposes connected with agriculture. It still serves as m mark
for mariners. These lands were bestowed by charter from Da-
vid I. The office of armour-bearer to the Lindsays, earls o(
Crawford, was hereditary in the family of Auchinleck of that
ilk. [^LiveiqfiheLmdsays.YolA.p.llAjnote.'] They became
the property of a family of the name of Reid, which wai
attainted for being engaged in the rebellion of 1746. The
castle and a large part of the estates were then purchased by
Mr. James Yeaman, one of the bailies of Dundee, from thf
representatives of whose descendant, they were acquired b}
Mr. Graham of Kincaldrum, in whose possession they still
remain. In the year 17SS, Thomas Reid of Auchinleck, pre-
sented a silver communion cup to the kiik-session of Dundee,
as recorded in letters of gold on the session-house wall of
that time.
The lands of Auchinleck, in Ayrshire, are known to have
given a surname to their proprietors so eariy as the 18th
century. In 1800, the laird of Auchinleck accompanied
Sir William Wallace to Glasgow from Ayr, when he attacked
and slew Eari Percy. [See Wallace, Sir William.] The
Chartulary of Paisley records a donation firom Sur John
de Auchinleck, in 1886, of twenty shillings yearly to the
abbot and convent of that house, as a compensation for
having mutilated the person of one of the monks.
Thomas Boswell, m younger son of Boswell of Balmnto in
Fife, having married one of the daughters and co-heiress of
Sir John Auchinleck of that ilk, received in 1604 m grant of
these lands from James the Fourth. This Thomas Boswell,
who fell at Flodden, was the ancestor of the present possessor.
The family of Boswell of Auchinleck has acquired celebrity
in several of its members. [See Boswell, surname of]
There was another family of Auchinleck in Perthshire, de-
signed of Balmanno, an Auchinleck having married the
heiress of Balmanno of that ilk.
AucuMUTY, or auch-moo<-i, augh or haugh of moot or
judgment, a surname derived from lands in the parish
of Newbnm, anciently called Drumeldry, {Drum, hill, ebhy
elderi or alderi, of the wise men or elders) Fifeshire, onoe be-
longing to an old family styled Auchmoutie of that ilk. The
estate of Drumeldry, now the property of Thomas Calderwood
Durham, Esq. of Largo, and Lawhill, now called Hallhill, the
residence of Cbaries Halket Craigie, Esq., at one time formed
part of the barony of Auchmoutie. In 1 600 Capt Auchmuty, a
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AUCHTERLONY
169
AVANDALE.
dMoeadant of the ancient Fifeshire hoose of Anchmaty, set-
tled at Brianatown, county of Longford, Ireland, and hia
posterity, now named Adimnty, still possess that estate. A
branch of the Brianstown fiunily, who oondnne to spell their
name Anchmnty, are the proprietors of Kilmore House in the
oonnty of Bosoommon. The name is not a very common
one, but uncouth as it may sound in the ears of our English
nd^bouxB, it has been rendered iamiliar by the deeds of
M^jor-general Sur Samuel B. Auchrouty, 0. B., who in 1807
distinguisbed himself m the reduction of Monte Video, on
the river Plate.
AucirrBSLOifT, the surname of an ancient Forfarshire
fisnuly, who formerly possessed the barony of Kelly in the
parish of Arbirlot. Bather more than two mUes west of Ar-
broath, on the edge of a preapioe, at the side of the river
Elliot, are the ndns of the castle of Kelly, otherwise Auch-
texlony. The first proprietor of Kelly noticed in history was
Roger de Monbray, an adherent of Edward the First of Eng-
bnd, who, in the distribution of the estates of the Scottish
barons opposed to his pretensions as lord paramount of Scot-
land, bestowed these lands upon him. In 1321, Moubray was
declared a traitor, and his barony forfeited. Kelly was then
conferred on the steward of Scotland, the son-in-law of Bruce.
In the reign of Bobert the Second we find Alexander Auch-
terlony designed of Kelly. This Alexander Auchterlony mar-
ried Janet, daughter of Sir William Manle of Panmure,
knight, and got with her the lands of Greenford, in the same
parish. It would seem that the barony oi Kelly had passed
from him or his successor, for it is recorded that William
Aucbteriony acquired Kelly in the year 1444, and from that
date till 1630 it remained in possession of the family of Auch-
terlony. At the Reformation the chief of the Anchterlonies,
acoOTding to tradition, was veiy active in the destruction of
the abbey of Arbroath. Being indebted to the abbey stew-
ard, at the head of three hundred men he attacked the abbey,
and setting fire to it, burnt all evidence of a daim against
him. Among the witnesses to a charter of a donation to the
hospital at Dundee, dated 2d May 1587, appears the name of
David Auchterlony dam. ae Kelfy^ who is supposed to have
been either the incendiary or his son. Kelly now belongs to
Lord Panmure, and the ancient family of Auchterlony is re-
preseifted by John Auchterlony of Guynd, Esq.— See Och-
Ayandale, Lord, a title conferred by James the Second
on Andrew Stewart, the eldest of the seven illegitimate sons
of Sir James Stewart, called James the Gross, fourth son of
Murdoch, duke of Albany, and the only one who escaped the
vengeance of James the First, when his father and three bro-
thers were ruthlessly cut ofi* by that monarch. On thdr im-
prisonment he had fiown to arms, assaulted and burnt the
town of Dumbarton, and killed Sir John Stewart, the king*s
uncle, who held the castle with thirty-two men. He after-
wards took refuge in Ireland, where he formed a connection
with a lady of the family of Macdonald, by whom he had
seven sons, and a daughter, Matilda, married to Sir William
Edmonstone of Duntreath. These children are supposed on
their father*s death to have been adopted by Murdoch*s wi-
dow, the duchess Isabella, countess of Lennox, to bear her
company in her castle on the small island of Inchmurrin on
Lochlomond, where her latter years were spent in retire-
ment ; as his name and that of three of his brothers, Mur-
doch, Arthur, and Robert Stewarts of Albany, appear as wit-
nesses, to charters granted by the duchess Isabella as countess
of Lennox, betwixt 1440 and 1451. [Nigner'i History of
the PartUion o/the Lemox^ pp. 18—20.] Kmg James the
Second, touched perhaps with regret for the ruin which his
father had caused Duke Murdoch's fiimily, honoured the eld-
est of his illegitimate grandsons with peculiar marks of re-
gard and affection. He placed him at one of the English
universities, and on his return to Scotiand, after his educa-
tion had been completed, appointed him a genUeman of his
bedchamber, and Jmighted him. In 1456 he bestowed on
him the barony of Avandale or Evandale in Lanarkshire,
which had been forfeited by the hut earl of Douglas in 1455,
and in 1457 created him Lord Avandale [Ibid^ p. 45J. Be-
fore the 1st of March, 1459, the new peer had superseded
George fourth earl of Angus, as warden of the marciies, and
in 1460, on the acoesdon of James the Third, he was chosen
lord-chancellor of Scotland, an office which he held for twen-
ty-two years, with the high distinction of precedence next to
the princes of royal blood. He was one of the lords of the
regency, and in a charter of King James the lliird, in 1465,
he is styled guardian of the king. In 1468 he was sent am-
bassador to Denmark to treat of a marriage between James
the Third and the princess Maigaret of Denmaric, which was
happily accomplished. On the 4th May 1471, he had a life-
rent grant, under the great seal, of the whole earldom of Len-
nox, which had been in non-entry from the year 1425, when
Earl Duncan, the Either of the duchess Isabella, was be-
headed, though it had never been forfeited, as erroneously
stated by Douglas in his Peerage, and other writers. To for-
tify himself in this grant, he obtained letters of legitimation
under the great seal, of date 28th August 1472, to himself
and two of his brothers, Arthur and Walter, by which a right
of general succession was thrown open to theoL These let-
ters were repeated on the 17th April 1479, and on the 18th
of the same month he had a charter of the lordship ot Avan-
dale. In 1482, when the king's brother, the duke of Albany,
with the assistance of Edward the Fourth of England, invad-
ed Scotland, Lord Avandale and many other noblemen who
bad been till then the most loyal supporters of the crown,
abandoned the sovereign who had heaped upon him wealth
and honours, and after the king had been conveyed prisoner
to Edinburgh castie, he as chancellor, with the ardibishop of
St Andrews, the bishop of Dnnkeld, and the earl of Argyle,
entered into a bond, dated 2d August of that year, for the
protection and indemnity of Albany. The noblemen who
sign this deed declare that they and the other nobles of the
realm ** sail cause our soverane lord frely to gif and grant **
to the duke of Albany " all his landis, heritagis, strenthis,
houses, and offices quhilk he poesessit the day of his last part-
ing furth of the realm of Scotiand.** [Food&ra^ b. xiL p. 160.]
To punisn his ingratituae, the xmg, oefore tne 25th of the
same month of August, deprived him of the chancellorship,
which he had held so long, and bestowed it on John Lauig,
bishop of Glasgow. This took place before the siege of Edin-
burgh castle, which occurred 29th September 1482, and not
after that event, as Mr. Tytier, in his histoiy, records it, and
could not therefore have been in consequence of Albany's par-
tial success, as Tytier says it was. [Set Napier's History of
the Partition of the Lennox^ p. 68, note.'] Albany was soon
received into favour, and in the following December appointed
lieutenant-general of the kingdom, but in 1484 the Albany
party was completely crushed. Although not restored to
the chancellorship, Lord Avandale appears to have regained
the confidence of the king, and in 1484 he was one of the
commissioners sent to France to renew the andent league
with that crown. He was also one of the plenipotentiaries
who conduded the padfication with King Richard the Third
at Nottingham, 21st September of that year. H'm namo ap-
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AVENEL.
170
AYTON.
|teiin BH one of the witnesaes to a charter of James the Tbirdf
dated Uth March 1487. He continued to possess the lands
of the earldom of Lennox till his death in 1488. He left no
issne, wherebj the title for the time became extinct
The title of Lord Avandale was next bestowed on his ne-
phew, Andrew Stewart, second son of his yonnger brother,
Walter Stewart of Morphie, m the county of Kincardine,
sixth son of Sir James the Gross. The mother of the second
Lord Avandale was Elizabeth, daughter of Amot of Amot,
in the county of Fife. Crawford {Officers of State, p. 89)
says that Alexander Stewart, the eldest son of Walter Stew-
art of Morphie, was, in 1503, created Lord Avandale by so-
lemn investiture in parliament, but this is a mistake, as it
would appear that the sidd Alexander Stewart died before
1500, and that he was succeeded in the estate of Avandale
and other lands by his immediate younger brother Andrew
above mentioned, second Lord Avandale. {^Doughs.'] By
his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir John Kennedy of Blair-
qnhan in Ayrshire, had three sons and three daughters. An-
drew, the eldest son, succeeded as third Lord Avandale.
Henry, the second son, on marrying the queen dowager, was
created Lord Methven. [See Methvkn, Lord.] The third
son. Sir James Stewart of Heath, was the ancestor of the earl
of Moray. [See Moray, earl of.]
The third Lord Avandale was governor of the castle of
Dumbarton, and held the office of groom of the stole to King
James the Fourth. In 1584, he transferred the barony of
Avandale and the lands of Coldstream to Sir James Hamilton
of Fynnart, in exchange for the barony of Ochiltree in Ayr-
shire, and in consequence of this exchange, on the 15th March
1543, the earl of Arran, governor of the kingdom, with con-
sent of parliament, ordained that Andrew lord Avandale
should in future be styled Lord Stewart of Ochiltree. By his
wife. Lady Margaret Hamilton, only child of James, first
earl of Arran, he had a son, Andrew Stewart, who became
second lord Ochiltree. [See Ochiltree, Lord.]
AviENEL, m surname now scarcely known, except in the
pages of romance. Like UmfraviUe, de Morville, and others,
it was once borne by high and powerful barons, whose de-
scendants, if any now exist, have long ceased to be called by
the name of their progenitors. Among the Anglo-Norman
knights introduced into Scotland by David the first, was
Robert Avenel, who, in reward of mUitary services, received
Upper and Lower Eskdale, and flourished during the reigns
of Malcolm the Fourth and William the lion, whose charters
he witnessed. He officiated as Justiciary of Lothian for a
short time after the accession of William, in 1165. His lat-
ter years were spent in the monastery of Mekose, to which
he granted m large portion of his estates, and where he died
in 1185. His son and heir, Gervase, confirmed the grant.
Roger Avenel, the successor of Gervase, had a serious dispute
with the monks regarding the game on the lands. The
king, Alexander the Second, at his request interfered, and
"found that the monks were entitled to the soil, but not
to the game, which belonged to the Avenels, as lords of
the manor.** For several generations the Avenels continued
among the most powerful families on the Borders; and in
the Tales of the * Monastery,* and the * Abbot,* they have
been introduced with angular success by Sir Walter Scott
The family of Avenel merged, like many others, in an
heiress, who married Henry, the son of Henry de Graham
of Abercom and Dalkeith, and the property of the Avenels
thus passed into other families.
Aymoihh. baron of, in the Scottish peerage, a title be-
stowed on the great duke of Marlborough m 1682, as Baron
Churchill of Aymouth, or Eyemouth, in Berwickshirp, al-
though he had no connexion with that place. The titie be-
came extinct on his death in 1722.
Atton, or ArroN , a surname derived from the village oi
Eytown, now called Ayton, in Berwickshire, which seema to
have taken its name, ancientiy written Eytun and Eitun,
from the water of Eye, that, rising among the Lammermuir
hills, flows into the sea at Eyemouth. The etymology of the
word is * the town on the river.'
The family of Ayton were descended firom Gilbert de Vesd,
an Anglo-Norman knight, who, settling in Scotland shortiy
after the Conquest, obtained the lands of Ayton in Berwick-
shire, and adopted the name of the lands as his family name.
About the year 1166 Hellas and Dolfinus de Eitun attested a
charter of Waldeve, earl of Dunbar. Stephanus de Eyton
appears as witness to a charter " de quieta clamatione de terra
de Swintona,'" granted by his son. Earl Patrick, who died in
1232. In the reign of William the lion, Helias, Manridus,
and Adam de Eitun are among the witnesses to a donation
of David de Quixwood to the lazaret or hospital of lepers at
Auldcambus. In 1250 Adam de Eiton granted to Heniy de
Lamberton three tofts of land with houses in Eyemouth. In
1331, Adam, the prior of Coldingham, acknowledged a grant
made to him of land for the site of a mill near the bridge of
Ayton, by Adam, the son of William de Ayton. Robert de
Ayton was among the number of the Scots slain at the battle
of Nesbit-moor, 22d June 1402.
The principal family ended in an heiress, who, in the reign
of James the Third, married George Home, a son of the house
of Home, who thus acquired the original lands of Ayton. By
charter of date 29th November 1472, the greater part of the
lands of Ayton, with those of Whitfield, were granted to
George Home, son of Sir Alexander Home of Dunglass, who
thus became ancestor of the Homes of Ayton.
History mentions the ^aronial castle of Ayton, on the
banks of the Eye, founded by the Norman baron de Vesd,
which was taken by the earl of Surrey in 1498, but no veo«
tigee of it now remun. The modem mansion-house of Ayton,
built upon its site, was destroyed by fire in 1834.
A branch of the Berwickshire Ay tons settled in the county
of Fife, and Skene imputes a Gaelic origin to the name.
**The Pictish Chronide,** he says, <* in mentioning the foun-
dation of the church of Abcmethy, describes the boundaries
of the territory ceded to the Culdees by the Pictish kmg as
having been * a lapide in ApurfeU usque ad lapidemjuxta
Cairfuly id est Leth/oss^ et inde mi aUum usque ad Alhan.*
It is a remarkable fact that the same places are still known
by these names, although slightly corrupted into those of
Apurfarg, Carpow, and AyUm^ and that the words are un-
questionably Gaelic** {Skene^s Bighkmders of Scotland^
vol. L p. 76.]
In 1507, James the Fourth disponed the west half of the
lands of Denmuir, or Nether Denmuir, in the pariah of Abdie,
Fifeshire, to Andrew Ayton, captain of the castle of Stirling,
a son of the family of Ayton of Ayton, in Berwickshire, "pro
bono et fideli servitio.** He was the undo of the heiress of
Ayton above mentioned, and in consequence of the original
lands of Ayton having passed, by her marriage, to the house
of Home, he obtained a new charter of the lands of Nether
Denmuir, in which they were named Ayton, and the nfeshire
branch of the family were afterwards styled Ayton of Ayton.
Sir John Ayton of that ilk left two sons, Robert and An-
drew. Robert, the eldest, succeeded to the estates of hit
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AYTON.
171
AYTON.
ande Robert, Lord Colville of Ochiltree, and in oonaequence,
assumed the name of Colville, being styled Robert Colville of
Craigflower. The second son, Andrew, was a merchant in
Glasgow, of which city he became lord provost He built a
laige house, surrounded by a garden, near the High Street of
Glasgow, the site of which, now occnpied by public worics, is
still called Ayton court.
About the commencement of the eighteenth century the
lands of Ayton in Fife were acquired by Patrick Murray,
Esq., second son of Sir Patrick Murray, the second baronet
of Ochtertyre, and they still continue in the possession of his
descendant
The Aytons of Inchdaimie, in the parish of Kinglassie, are
understood to be the lineal descendants of the Anglo-Norman
de Vesds, who settled in Berwickshire. Inchdaimie has, for a
long period, been the property of the Aytons. Of this family
was Major-general Roger Ayton of Inchdaimie, who died
about 1810. His eldest son, John Ayton, was served Ayton
of Ayton in 1829. Another eon, James Ayton, Esq., advo-
cate, stood candidate for the representation of the city of £d-
mburgh, some years ago.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century the lands of
Kippoo, in the parish of Kingsbaros, were sold by the repre-
sentative of the family of John Philp, burgess in Cupar, to
whom they belonged, to Sir John Ayton, younger son oi Ay-
ton of Ayton, who was gentleman of the bed-chamber and
usher of the black rod to Charles the Second. He was suc-
ceeded in them, in 1700, by his grandson, John Ayton of
Klnaldie. To the latter fiunily Sir Robert Ayton, the sub-
ject of the following notice, belonged.
AYTON, Sib Robert, an accomplished poet, ft
younger son of Andreur Ayton of Kinaldie, Fife-
sblre, was born there in 1570, and studied at St.
Leonard's college, St. Andi-ews, where he took the
degree of master of arts in 1588. He afterwards
went to France, where he resided for some time.
In 1603 he addressed from Paris an elegant pane-
gyric, in Latin verse, to Eling James the Sixth,
on his accession to the crown of England, which
was printed at Paris the same year. On his ap-
pearance at conrt he was knighted, and appointed
one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber, and pri-
vate secretary to the qneen. He was also, subse-
quently, secretary to Henrietta Maria, qneen of
Charles I. About 1609 he was sent by James as
ambassador to the emperor of Germany, with the
king's * Apology for the Oath of Allegiance,' which
he had dedicated to all the crowned heads of En-
rope. He was highly esteemed by all the men of
genius and poets of his time, and Ben Jonson took
pride in informing Drummond of Hawthomden,
that " Sir Robert Ayton loved him dearly." He
died at London in March 1638, and was buried in
the south aisle of the choir of Westminster Abbey,
where a handsome monument was erected by his
nephew, David Ayton of Klnaldie, to his memory.
A representation of it is given in Smith's Icono-
graphia Scotica^ with his bust in the centre* of
which the following is a woodcut :
The following is the inscription on his monument-
Clarissmi omnigenaq. yirtvte et ervditione, prtesertim Poesi
omatissmi eqvitis, Dommi Robert! Aitoni, ex antiqva et il-
Ivstri gente Aitona, ad Castrvm Kinnadinvm apvd Scotos,
oriTudi, qvi a Serenissmo R. Jacobo m Cvbicvla Interiora
admissvs, in Germaniam ad Imperatorem, (mperiiq. Prindpes
cvm libello Regio, Regis avthoritatis vindlce, Legatvs, ac
primTm Annse, demvm Maris, serenissmU Britanniarvm
Reginis ab eplstolis, consiliis et libellis suppUcibvs, nee non
Xenodochio Sts Catherinffi prRfectvs. AnimaCreatorisRed-
dita, hie depositis mortalibrs exrviis secvndvra Redemptoris
adventvm ezpectat
Carolvm Imqyens, repetit Parentem
Et valedicens Marias revisit
Annam et Avlai decvs, alto Oljmpi
Mvtat Honore.
Hoc devoti gratiq. animi
Testimonmm optimo Patrvo
Jo. Aitonvs M L P.
Obiit Coelebfl m Regis Albavla
Non sine mazimo Honore omnlvm
LvctT et Moerore, iiltat. svsb LXVIII.
Sain. Hvmante M.DCXXXVIII.
MyRARVM DBCVS HIC, PaTRLAQ. AVL^Q. DoMlQVB
Et Foris exemplar bed non dcitabile uonkoti.
At the top is, DecerptaB Dabvnt Odorem, the motto
of the Aytons.
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AYTON.
172
AYTON.
His Euglisli poems are few iu number. They
are remarkable for their purity of style and deli-
cacy of fancy. The following lyric is accounted
one of his best pieces :
ON WOMAN'S INCONSTANCY.
I lov*d thee once, 111 love no more.
Thine be the grief as is the blame ;
Thou art not what thou wast before,
What reason I should be the same?
He that can love unlovM again,
Hath better store of love than brain :
God send me love my debts to pay,
While unthrift* fool their love away.
Nothing could have my love overthrown,
If thou hadst still continued mine ;
Vea, if thou hadst remained thy own,
I might perchance have yet been thine.
But thou thy freedom did recall,
That it thou might elsewhere enthral ;
And then how could I but disdain
A captive*8 captive to remain ?
When new desires had conquered thee,
And changed the object of thy will,
It had been lethargy in me.
Not constancy to love thee still.
Yea, it had been a sin to go
And prostitute affection so,
Since we are taught no prayers to say
To such as must to others pray.
Yet do thou glory in thy choice,
Thy choice of his good fortune boast ;
ni neither grieve nor yet rejoice,
To see him gain what I have lost :
The height of my disdain shall be,
To laugh at him, to blush for thee ;
To love thee still, but go no more,
A begging to a beggar's door.
In a different style are the following stanzas
prefixed to his Bcisia sive Strena Cal. Jan, Lond.
1605, 4to. They are addressed "To the most
worahipful and worthy Sir James Hay, Gentleman
of his Majesty's bedchamber."
When Janus* keys unlocks the gates above.
And throws more age on our sublunar lands,
I sacrifice with flames of fervent love
These hecatombs of kisses to thy hands.
'l*heir worth is small, but thy deserts are such.
Theyll pass in worth, if once thy shrine they touch.
Laugh out on them, and then they wHI compare
With all the harvest of th' Arabian fields,
With all the pride of that perfumed air
Which winged troops of musked Zephyrs yields,
When with their breath they embalm the Elysian pbin,
And make the flow'rs reflect those scents again.
Yea, they will be more sweet in thrir conceit
Than Venus' kisses spent on Aden's wounds.
Than those wherewith pale Cynthia did entreat
The lovely shepherd of the Latmian bounds.
And more than those which Jove's ambrosial mouth
Prodigalized upon the Trojan youth.
I know they cannot such acceptance find,
If rigour censure their unoonrtly frame ;
But thou art courteous, and wilt call to mind
Th' excuse which shields both me and them finom blame
My Muse was but a novice into this,
And, being virgin, scarce well taught to kiss.
A panegyrical sonnet by Ayton occurs among
* The Poetical Essays of Alexander Craige, Scoto-
britane,' sig. F. 3. London 1604, 4to. [/rt?tm/'j
Scottish Poets, vol. ii. p. 300, note."] A beau-
tiful song, commencing, "I do confess thouVt
smooth and fair," piinted anonymously in Lawes's
^Ayres and Dialogues,* 1659, and rendered into
Scotch by Bums without improving it, has been
attributed to Sir Robert Ayton, but without any
other ground than that " in purity of language,
elegance, and tenderness, it resembles his un-
doubted lyrics." In * Watson's Collection of Scot-
tish poems,' 1706-11, several of Ayton's pieces
are inserted together with his name, but the poem
mentioned appears without it, separate from those
that are stated to be bis. John Aubrey styles
Ayton ** one of the best poets of his time." Ac-
cording to Dempster, he also wrote Greek and
French verses. Several of his Latin poems are
preserved in the *Delitiffi Poetamm Scotorum,'
printed in 1637 at Amsterdam. — Bannatyne Mis-
cdlany. — ^The following is a list of his works :
Ad Jaoobum VI. Britanniarum Re^i^em, Angliam petentem,
Pan^yris, p. 40. inter Delitias Poetamm Scotomm, edit ab
Arturo Johnstono. Amst 1687, 8vo.
Basia, nve Strena ad Jaoobum Hayum, Equitem illuskis-
simum, p. 54.
I.«88us in Funere Raphaelis Thorei, Medid, et Poetae prn-
stantissimi, Londoni peste extincti, p. 61. ibid.
Carina Caro, p. 63. ib.
De Proditione Pulverea, quse incidet in diem Martis, p. 65. ib.
Oratiamm Actio, cum In privatum Cubiculum admitteretur.
p. 66. ibid.
Epigrammata Varia, ib.
In Obitum Ducis Buckingamii, a Filtono cnltro extincti.
MDc:cxviii. p. 74. ibid.
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BADENOCH.
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BAILLIE.
B
Badesoch, II snmame derived from the district of that
name, in the soath-east ot InTernesa-shiie* anciently belong-
ing to the powerfal family of the Crnnjns. In 1230, Walter
Cumyn, Mri of MenteiUi in right of his wife, the second
son c^ William Cumyn, eari of Bnchan, acquired the lordship
df Badenoch, by a grant of Alexander the Second. IChal-
mer^ Caledonia, vol. iL p. 568.] In 1291, John Cumyn,
krrd of Badenoch, admowledged Edward the First as
superior of Scotland. His son John, called the Red Cumyn,
was the personage who was slain at Dumfries, by Robert the
Bruce, 10th February 1306. On the forfeiture of the Cu-
royns, Bruce annexed the lordship oi Badenoch to the earl-
dom of Muirmy, and the dan Chattan, whose origmal pos-
sessions were in Lochaher, appear about this period to have
settled in Badenoch. [^Gregorj/'s Bighiamd$y p. 77.] Robert
the Second granted Badenoch to his son Alexander, eari of
Buohan, commonly called, from his ferocity, " the Wolf of
Badenoch.** [See Buchan, earls of.] In 1452 the crown
bestowed Badenoch on the earl of Hnntly, who, at the head of
the dan Chattan, maintained a fierce warfare with the west-
era dans, and his neighbours of Lochaber. [See HimrLT,
eari o£] As eariy as 1440 we find one Patrick Badenoch
serving the office of baillie of Aberdeen. [Extraeta from
Abkrdekn Bmrgk Records, pp. 6, 8, &&] The name is not
onoommon in the north of Scotland.
BaiLiLIS, a surname supposed to have been originally the
same as BalioL In the account of the Baillies of Lamington
mserted in the appendix to Nisbet*s Heraldry, it is stated that
Mr. Alexander Baillie of Castlecarry, a learned antiquarian,
was of opinion that the family of Lamington were a branch
of the illustrious house of the Baliols, who were lords of Gal-
loway, and kings of Scotland. [See Baliol, surname of.]
An unde of King John Baliol, named Sir Alexander Baliol
of Cavers, was great chamberlain of Scotland in the reign of
his nephew, in 1292. By Isabel, his wife, the daughter and
hetress of Ridiard de Chillam, the widow of David de Strath-
bogie, eari of Athol, he had two sons, Alexander and William
BidioL Alexander the ddest, after the abdication of hb cou-
sin. Ring John, joined the Scottish party, for which he was,
by order of King Edward, imprisoned in the tower of London,
but upon security given by his father and two gentlemen of
the house of Lmdsay, he was enlarged. [Bymer.'] His other
son, Wilfiam, had tiie lands of Penston and Cambroe, in the
barony of Bothwell, Lanarkshire, the oldest of the possessions
of the Bainies of Lamington. After the abdication of his
cousin, he also joined the Scottish party, which rendered him
so obnoxioos to £ng Edward, that by act of the parliament
of England, he was, in 1297, fined in four years* rent of his
estate. From Robert the Bruce he got a charter of the lands
of Penston. He gave in pure alms to the monks of Newbat-
tle Heentiam /ornumdi stagman im terra de Cambrue, The
lands of Cambroe continued in the same family till they were
given over to a younger son, the ancestor of the Baliols or
BailKes of the bouse of Carphin.
In the list of captives taken with David the Second at the
battle of Durham in 1346, occurs William Baillie lJiymer\
the first time that the name is found thus written, or Eng-
lished, as it is expressed. After his release this William
Baillie was, in 1357, knighted by David the Second, who
granted him a charter, dated 27th January 1368, of the bar-
ony of Lamington, which has remained in the possession of
his descendants till the present time. Lamington had pre-
vioudy bdonged to a family of the name of Braidfoot It
is traditionally stated that the celebrated Sir William Wal-
lace aoquked the estate of Lamington by manying Marion
Braidfoot, the hebess of that family, and that it passed
to Sir William Baillie on his marriage with the ddest
daughter and heiress of Wallace. The statement, however,
is incorrect Sur William WaUace left no legitimate off-
spring, but his natural daughter b said to have married Sur
William Baillie of Hoprig, the progenitor of the Baillies of
Lamington.
This Sir William Baillie of Hoprig and Lammgton had two
sons, William his heir, and Alexander, who, according to
Baillie of Castlecarry, was the first of the famfly of Carphin.
From him descended also, besides the Baillies of Parbrotb,
the Baillies of Park, Jerviston, Dunrogal, Cambroe, Castle-
cany, and Provand. The first of the latter family was Sir
William Baillie of Provand, the cousin of the then laird of
Lamington. In 1557, he was appointed to the then benefice
of Lamington, being the first incumbent of it after the Re-
formation. At that period a certain proportion of the Lords
of Council and Session were chosen firom among the dergy,
and in 1566 he was called to the bench, when he took the
title of Lord Provand. He was lord president of the court of
session from 1565 till his death in 1595. He left a daughter,
Elizabeth, his sole hdress, who married Sir Robert Hamilton
of Oodingtoun and SilvertonhilL
Of the house of Carphin was Mr. Cuthbert Baillie, who
was rector of Cumnock, commendator of Glenluce, and lord
high treasurer of Scotland m 1512, in the reign of James the
Fourth. ILhes qfihe Lord High Treaturen.'}
The ddest son of the above mentioned Sir William Baillie
of Hoprig and Lamington, is designed Willielmus Baillie of
Hoprig, in a charter from his cousin, " Joannes de Hamilton,
Dominus de Cadiow,** ancestor of the dukes of Hamilton, ot
the lands of Hyndshaw and Watston, dated 4th Febraary
1395. He married IsabeUa, daughter of Sur William Seton
of that ilk, ancestor of the earls of Wintoun, by whom he had
Sir William, his son and heir, who was one of the hostages
sent to England for James the First, in exchange for David
Leslie of Leslie, in 1432. \_Rgmer,']
The latter Sir William Baillie of Hoprig and Lamington,
married Catharine, daughter of the above mentioned Sir
John Hamilton of Cadzow.
His son and successor, also named Sir William Baillie,
was in 1484, one of the conservators of the peace with Eng-
land, on the part of Scotland, then conduded at Not ingham,
and in the year following he was witness to a charte of the
Uinds of Cambusnethan, granted by John I/)rd Some* rille to
John Somerville, his son, by Mary Baillie his wife, daughter
of this Sir William Baillie of Lamington. His son and bro-
ther were also witnesses to the same charter. He had two
other daughters; Margaret married to John earl of Suthor-
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BAILLIE.
174
BAILLIE.
land, and had iasne, and Marion to John Lord Lindsaj of the
Bjrrcs, ancestor to the earls of Crawford.
Sir William Baillie of Hoprig and Lamington, hia son, in
1492, had a charter under the great seal to him and Marion
Home his wife, in conjunct fee and infeftment This lady
was the daughter of Sir Patrick Home of Polwarth, comp-
troller of Scotland in the rdgn of James the Fourth, and
ancestor of the earls of Marchmont, by whom he had Sir
William Baillie, his son and heir, and John Baillie, of whom
descended the Baillies of St John*s Kirk, Lanaricshlre, of
whom are come the Baillies of Jenriswood and Waiston.
Sir William Baillie, the eldest son, married his cousin Eli-
zabeth, daughter and one of the heirs of line of John Lord
Lindsaj of the B3rres, bj whom he had Sir William his son
and heir, and a daughter, Janet, married to Sir David Ham-
ilton of Preston.
Sir William Baillie of Lamington, his son and successor,
was made principal master of the wardrobe to Queen Manr,
by a gift under the privy seal, 24th January 1542. He mar-
ried Janet Hamilton, daughter of James first earl of Arran,
and duke of Chatelhcrault, by whom he had Sir William
Baillie, his successor, and a younger son, of whom descended
the Baillies of Bagbie and Hardington, and their cadets. His
son, Sir William Baillie, was a steady adherent of Maiy,
queen of Scots, and fought for her at the battle of Langside,
for which he was afterwards forfeited. He married Margaret,
daughter of John Lord Maxwell, widow of Archibald, earl of
Angus, by whom he had one daughter, Margaret, married to
her cousin, Edward Maxwell, commendator of Dundrennan,
third son of Lord Herries of Terregles, on whom and his chil-
dren by his daughter, he settled the estate, the heir of entaO
to assume the name of Baillie, a special act of parUaraent
being procured for the purpose. Subsequently he had a son
by a Mrs. Home, whom, on his wife's death, he married,
hoping thereby to legitimatize his son. He also endeavoured
to reduce the settlement which he had made of his estates,
so that this son, named William, might succeed ; but it being
proved that he was bom while his father's first wife was
alive, ne was not able to break the settlement The young
man went over to Germany, and entered mto the service of
the renowned Gustavus Adolphus, long of Sweden, in which
he attained to the rank of mtgor-general. When the troubles
began in Scotland, in 1638, he was, with other Scotch gen-
eral officers in the Swedish service, called home by the Cove-
nanters, to command theb* army. From the minutes of the
pariiament 1641, it appears that he made some faint efibrts
to reduce the settlement of the estate of Lamington, but in
vain. ^Neibifs Heraldryy Appendix, vol ii. p. 188.] He
served as lieutenant-general against the marquis of Montrose,
by whom he was defeated at Alford and Kilsyth, in 1645.
General Baillie married Janet, daughter of Sir William Bruce
of Glcnhouse, by Janet his wife, daughter and heiress of John
Baillie of Letham, with whom he got the eiCate of Letham,
in Stiriingshire. His eldest son Jamse married Joanna, the
daughter and heiress of entail of the first Lord Forrester of
Corstorphine, and in her right became in 1679 second Lord
Forrester. General Baillie's second son William, married
Lilias, another of the daughters of the first Lord Forrester,
by whom he had William, who subsequently succeeded as
Lord Forrester. [See Forrkster, lord.]
&Ir. Maxwell, who assumed the name of Baillie, grandson
and heir of entail of the laird of Lamington, succeeded to
the estate on the death of Sir William Baillie, and was knighted
by J^mes the Sixth.
Female heirs have often held this estate, but in accordance
with tlie entaiU the name of Baillie descends with it
Vice-admiral Sir Thomas John Cochrane, K.C.B., son o<
admiral the Hon. Sir Alexander Forrester Cochrane, G.C.B.,
9th son of the 8th eari of Dondonald, by his first wife, Matilda
Wbhart Ross, daughter of Lieut-Gen. Sir Charles Ross of
Balnagown castle, baronet, had, with other issue, Alexander
Baillie Cochrane, Esq. of Lamington, bora in November 1816,
married Annabella Mary Elizabeth, daughter of A. R. Dnun-
mond, Esq. of CadUnds, Hants; issue, two dnugbters.
Bailub of Jerviswoode, the name of an ancient family,
now possessors of the earldom of Haddington. Cbariea,
Lord Binuing, eldest son of the sixth earl of Haddington,
having married Rachel, youngest daughter and at length
sole heiress of George Baillie of Jerviswoode and Mellerstain,
their second son, the Hon. George Hamilton, on inheriting
the estates of his materaal grandfather, assumed the sur-
n.une and arms of Baillie, and died at Mellerstain, 16th
April, 1797, aged 74. His eldest son, George Baillie, Esq. of
Mellenttain and Jerviswoode, was father, with other iasus,
of George Baillie Hamilton, who succeeded in 1858, as tenth
earl of Haddington (see that title, and pages 177 and 179 of
this volume).
The Bailubs of Dochfour, Dunain, and others of the
name in luveraess-shire, are descended from a son of the
laird of lamington, whose gallantry at the battle of Brechin,
fought on the 18th of May 1452, between the earls of Craw^
ford and Himtly, was rewarded by the latter, on whose side
he was, with part of the Castle-lands of Inverness.
In Ross- shire are the Baillies of Tarradnle and Redcastle.
(See page 179 of this volume).
Baiijjk of Polkemmet, origmally Paukommot, the name
uf an ancient family in IJnlithgowshire. One of its modern
possessors, William Baillie, advocate, the eldest son of Tho-
mas Baillie, writer to the signet, was raised to the bench in
1792, when he took the title of I^rd Polkemmet His son.
Sir William Baillie, was in 1823, created a baronet
The surname of Baillie, in some instances, may have been
derived from the word Bailiff, or the term bailie, which latter
is in Scotland applied to a magistrate of a burgh.
BAILLIE, Robert, a learned Presbyterian
minister, was born at Glasgow in 1599. His fa-
ther, described as a citizen, was n son of Baillie
of Jerviston, of the family of Carphin, descended
from the Baillies of Lamington, while his mother
was related to the Gibsons of Durie. He was edu-
cated at the univeraity of his native city, whei-e
he took the degree of A.M. Having studied divin-
ity, in due time he was ordained by Archbishop
Law of Glasgow. Becoming tutor to the son of
tlie earl of Eglinton, that nobleman presented
him to the living of Kilwinning, in Ayrshire In
1626 he was admitted a regent at Glasgow col-
lege. About the same time he appears to have
prosecuted the study of the oriental languages,
and was anxious to promote similar studies in the
university. In 1629 he delivei*ed an oration In
I '
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BAILLIE,
175
ROBERT.
Laudem LingtuB Hthr<B4B, In 1683 he declined
the offer of a living in Ediuborgh. The attempt
of Archbishop Laud to introduce the Common
Prayer into Scotland met with his firm opposi-
tion ; and, though episcopally ordained, he joined
the Presbyterians, and was in 1638 elected, by the
presbytery of Irvine, their representative at the
Assembly held at Glasgow that year. In 1639,
as chaplain to Lord Egllnton's regiment, he was
with the army of the Covenanters, encamped on
Dunse Law, under Alexander Leslie ; on which
occasion he appears to have caught some portion
of the military ardour which then prevailed in the
cause of liberty and religion. *^It would have
done you good,** he remarks in one of his letters,
'^to have cast your eyes athort our brave and
rich hills as oft as I did, with great contentment
and joy ; for I was there among the rest, being
chosen preacher by the gentlemen of our shire,
who came late with Lord Eglinton. I furnished
to half a dozen of good fellows, muskets and pikes,
and to my boy a broadsword. I carried myself,
as the fashion was, a sword, and a couple of
Dutch pistols at my saddle ; but, I promise, for
the offence of no man, except a robber in the
way ; for it was our pai*t alone to pray and preach
tor the encouragement of our countrymen, which
1 did to my power, most chearfully." {^BcuUie^s
Letters^ vol. i. p. 174.] He afterwards states,
" Our sojours grew in experience of arms, in
courage, in favour, daily. Every one encouraged
another. The sight of the nobles, and their be-
loved pastors, daily raised their hearts. The good
sermons and prayers, morning and even, under
the roof of heaven, to which their drums did call
them for bells; the remonstrances very frequent
of the goodness of their cause ; of their conduct
hitherto, by a hand clearly divine; also Lesly's
skill and prudence and fortune, made them all as
resolute for battle as could be wished. We were
feared that emulation among our nobles might
have done harm, when they should be met in the
field ; but such was the wisdom and authority of
that old, little, crooked soldier, that all, with an
incredible submission, from the beginning to the
end, gave over themselves to be guided by him,
as if he had been great Solyman. . . Had you
lent your ear in the morning, or especially at even, |
and heard in the tents the sound of some singing
psalms, some praying, and some reading Scripture,
ye would have been refreshed. True, there was
swearing, and cursing, and brawling, in some
quarters, whereat we were grieved ; but we hoped,
if our camp had been a little settled, to have got-
ten some way for these misorders ; for all of any
fashion did regret, and all promised to do their
best endeavours for helping all abuses. For my
self, I never found my mind in better temper than
it was all that time since I came from home, till
my head was again homeward ; for I was as a man
who had taken my leave from the world, and was
resolved to die in that service without return."
[iWrf. p. 211.] llie treaty of Berwick, negotiated
with Charles in person, produced a temporary
cessation of hostilities.
In 1640, when the Covenanters again appeared
in arms, Mr. Baillie joined them, and towards the
end of that year, he was sent to London, with
other commissioners, to prefer charges against
Laud, for the innovations which that prelate had
obtruded on the Church of Scotland, lie had
previously published *The Canterburian's Self-
Conviction ;* and he also wrote various other con-
troversial pamphlets. In 1642 he was, along with
Mr. David Dickson, appointed joint professor of
divinity at Glasgow, where he took the degi'ee of
D.D., and was employed chiefly in teaching the
oriental languages, in which he was much skilled.
In January 1651, on the removal of his colleague
to the university of Edinburgh, he obtained the
sole professorahip. So great was the estimation in
which he was held, that ho had at one time the
choice of the divinity chair in the four Scottish
universities. In 1643 he was elected a member of
the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, an in-
teresting account of the proceedings at which he
has given in his CoiTcspondence. He was a lead-
ing member of all the General Assemblies from
1638 to 1653, excepting only those held while he
was with the divines at Westminster. In 1649 he
was sent to Holland as a commissioner from the
Church, for the purpose of inviting over Charles
the Second, under the limitations of the Cove-
nant. After the Restoration, on the 23d January
1661, he was admitted principal of the university
of Glasgow He was afterwards offered a bish-
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BAILLIE,
176
ROBERT.
opric, which he refused. Wheu the new arch-
bishop of Glasgow, Andrew Fau-fonl, arrived at his
metropolitan seat, he did not fail to pay his re-
spects to the learned principal. Baillie admits
that ^^he preached on the Sunday, sobei'ly and
well." " The chancellor, my noble kind scholar,"
he afterwards states, ^^ brought all in to see me in
my chamber, where I gave them sack and ale, the
best of the town. The bishop was very courteous
to me. I excused my not using of his styles, and
professed my utter difference from his way, yet
behoved to iutreat his favour for our affairs of the
college, wherein he promised liberally. What he
will perform time will try^" ILettets^ vol. ii. p.
461.] According to another account, the arch-
bishop visited him during his illness, and was ac-
costed in the following terms: "Mr. Andrew, I
will not call you my lord, King Charles would
have made me one of these lords ; but I do not
find in the New Testament that Christ has any
I lords in his house." In other respects he is said
to have trcated the prelate very courteously. Mr.
Baillie died in July 1662, at the age of sixty-three.
He was the author of several publications, in Latin
and English, one of which, entitled * Opus Histo-
ricum et Chronologicum,* published at Amsterdam
in 1663, and repnnted in 1668, is mentioned in
terms of praise by Spottiswood. Excerpts from
his *• Letters and Journals,^ in 2 volumes octavo,
were published at Edinburgh in 1755. These con-
tain some valuable and curious details of the his-
tory of those times. The Letters and Journals
themselves are preserved entire in the archives of
the Church of Scotland, and in the university of
Glasgow. Many of these letters are addressed to
the author's cousin-german, William Spang, min-
ister of the Scottish staple at Campvere, and af-
terwards of the English congregation at Middel-
bnrg in Zeeland. Mr. Baillie understood no fewer
than thirteen languages, among which were He-
brew, Chaldee, Syriac, Samaritan, Arabic, and
Ethiopic.
Mr. Baillie was twice married. His first wife
was Lilias Fleming, of the family of Cardarroch,
in the parish of Cadder, near Glasgow. Of this
marriage there were several children, but only five
survived him. His eldest son, Henry, studied for
the church, but never got a living. His posterity
inherited the estate of Cambroe, which some
years ago was sold by Grcneral Baillie. The first
wife died in June 1658, and in October 1656, he
married Mra. Wilkie, a widow, the daughter
of Dr. Strang, the former principal of Glasgow
university. By this lady he had a daughter,
Margaret, who became the wife of Walkinshaw
of Barrowfield, and grandmother of the cele-
brated Henry Home, Lord Kames. Miss Cle-
mentina Walkinshaw, the mistress of Prince
Charles Stuart, was also a descendant of Mr.
Baillie's daughter.
Mr. Wodrow extols Baillie as a prodigy of eru-
dition, and commends his Latin style as suitable
to the Augustan age. In foreign countries, says
Irving, he appears to have enjoyed some degree of
celebrity, and is mentioned by Saldenus as a
chronologer of established reputation. Although
amiable and modest in private life, in his contro-
versial writings he displayed much of the charac-
teristic violence of the times.
The following is a list of Mr. Baillie's works :
Opens ffistorid et Gbronologid libri dao, cam Tribtu Dia-
tribus Tbeologids. 1. De Hasretioomm Antocatacrisl 2.
An Qaicqnid in Deo est, Deus sit. 8. De PnedestinatioDe.
Amst 1663, fol. These three Dissertations printed separately
Amst 1664, 8vo.
A Defence of the Reformation of the Ghorch of Scotland,
against Mr. Maxwell, Bishop of Ross.
An Antidote against Arminianism. Lond. 1641, 8vo.
1652. 8vo.
The Unlawfulness and Danger of a Limited Prelade and
EpisGopade. Lond. 1641, 4to.
A Parallel or biiefe comparison of the Litorgie with the
Masse-Book, the Breviarie, the CeremoniaU, and other Ro-
ish RitoaHs. Lond. 1641, 1642, 1646, 1661, 4to.
Queries anent the Service Boolce.
A Treatise on Scotch Episcopacj.
Ladennnm Avrtxarax^t^if, the Canterbnrian*s Self-Con-
riction; or an evident Demonstration of the avowed Ar-
rainianlsme, Poperie, and TTrannie of that Faction, bj their
owne confessions: with a Postscript to the Personat Jesoite,
Lysimachos Nicanor. Lond. 1641. 4to.
Satan the I.<eader in chief to all who resist the Reparation
of Sion ; as it was deared in a Sermon to the Honourable
Honse of Commons at their late Solemn Fast, Febr. 28, 1643,
4to.
Errours and Induration are the great sins and the great
Judgments of the time; preached in a Sermon before the
Right Honourable the House of Peers in the Abbey Church
at Westmmster, July 80, 1645, the day of the monthdy Fast
Lond. 1645, 4to.
An Historical! Vindication of the GoTemment of the Chmrh
of Scotland, from the manifold base Calumnies which the
most malignant of the Prelats did invent of old, and now
lately have been published with great industry in two pam-
phlets at London ; the one mtituled /stacAmy Bmrdm, &c
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Kfitten and poblisbed at Oxford by John Maxwell, a Scottish
Prelate, Ac. Lond. 1646, 4to.
A Dissoasire from the Erroure of the Time ; wherein the
Tenets of the Prindpall Sects, espedallj of the Independents,
are drawn together in one Map, &c Lond. 1645, 4to. 1646,
4to. 1655, 4to.
Anabaptism, the true Foontaine of Independency, Brown-
lame. Antinomy, Famiiisme, &c. in a Second Part of the Dis-
soasive from the Erronrs of the Time. Lond. 1647, 4to.
A Review of Dr. Bramble, late Bishop of Londonderry, his
Fahre Warning against the Scotes Disdplin. Delf. 1649, 4to.
Baillie's Beview was reprinted at Edinburgh; and having
been translated into Dutch, it was published at Utrecht.
A Scotch Antidote against the English Infection of Armin-
lanism. Lond. 1652, 12mo.
Appendix practica ad Joannis Buxtorfii Epitomen Gram-
maticae Hebxaeae. Edin. 1653, 8vo.
A Reply to the Modest Inqnirer. Perhaps relating to tlio
dispute between the Resolutioners and Protesters.
Catechesis Elenctica Errorum qui hodie vexant Ecclesiam.
Lond. 1654, 12mo.
The Dissuasive from tlic Errours of the Time, Vindicated
from the Exceptions of Mr. Cotton and Mr. Touibes. Lond.
1655, 4to.
Letters and Journals, cont^ning an Impartial Account of
Pablio Transactions, Civil, Ecclesiastical, and Military, in
England and Scotland, from the beginning of the Civil Wars,
in 1637, to the year 1662. With an Aooount of the Author's
Life prefixed, and a Glossary annexed, by Robert Aitken.
Edin. 1775, 2 vols. 8vo. The same edited from the author's
MS. by David I.4dng, Esq. Edin. 1841-2. 8 vols. 8vo.
BAILLIE, Robert, of Jerviswood, a distin-
guished patriot of the reign of Charles the Second,
sometimes called the Scottish Sydney, was the son
of George Baillle of St. John*s Kirk, Lanai'kshire,
a cadet of the Lamington family, who bad become
proprietor of the estate of Jerviswood in the same
county. From his known attachment to the canse
of civil and religions liberty^ he had long been an
object of suspicion and dislike to the tyrannical
govemment which then ruled in Scotland. The
following circumstances first brought npon him
the persecution of the council. In June 1676, the
Reverend Mr. Kirkton, a non-conformist minister,
who had married the sister of Mr. Baillle, was
illegally arrested on the High Street of Edinburgh
by one Carstairs, an informer employed by Ai'ch-
bishop Sharp; and, not having a warrant, he en-
deavoured to extort money from his prisoner be-
fore he would let him go. Baillie being sent for
by his brother-in-law, hastened to his relief, and
succeeded in rescuing him. Kirkton had been
inveigled by Carstairs into a mean-looking honse
near the common prison, and on Mr. Baillie with
several other persons coming to the house, they
found the door locked in the inside. Baillie called
to Carstairs to open, when Kirkton, encouraged
by the voices of friends, desired Carstairs, who
after his capture had in vain attempted to procure
a warrant, either to set him free, or to produce a
warrant fbr his detention. Instead of complying
with either request, Carstairs drew a pocket pis-
tol and a struggle ensued between Kirkton and
him for its possession, lliose without bearing the
noise and cries of murder, burst open the door,
and found Kirkton on the floor and Carstairs sit-
ting on him. Mi*. Baillie di*ew his sword, and
commanded him to rise, asking at the same time
if he had any warrant to apprehend Mr. Kirkton.
Carstairs said he had a warrant for conducting
him to prison, but he i*efused to produce it, saying
he was not bound to show it. Mr. BaUlle de-
clared that if he saw any warrant against his
friend, he would assist in caiTying it into execu-
tion. He offered no violence whatever to Car-
stairs, but only threatened to sue him for the ille-
gal arrest of his brother-in-law. He then, with
Mr. Kirkton and his friends, left the house. Upon
the complaint of Carstairs, who had procured an
antedated warrant, signed by nine of the privy
council, Mr. Baillie was called before the council,
and by the influence of Sharp fined in six thou-
sand merks, (£318; Wodrow says the fine was
£500 sterling ;) to be impiisoned till paid. After
being four months in prison he was liberated, on
payment of half the fine to Carstairs. The above
mentioned Mr: Kirkton wrote a memoir of the
church during his own times, from which Wod-
row the historian derived much valuable assist-
ance.
In the year 1683, seeing no prospect of relitjf
from the tyranny of the govemment at home, Mr.
Bailee and some other gentlemen commenced a
negotiation with the patentees of South Carolina,
with the view of emigrating with their families to
that colony ; in this following the example of
Cromwell, Hampden, and othera previous to the
commencement of the Civil wars ; but in both in-
stances the attempt was fi'ustrated, and in Mr.
Baillie's case fatally for himself. About the same
time that this negotiation was begun, he and sev-
eral of his co-patriots had entered into a corre-
spondence with the heads of the Protestant paiiy
in England ; and, on the invitation of the latter.
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he and five otliei-s repaired to Loudon, to consult
with the duke of Monmouth, Sydney, Russell, and
their friends, as to the plans to be adopted to ob-
tain a change of measures in the government. On
the discovery of the Rye- House Plot,
with which he had no connection, Mr.
Baillie and several of his fi-iends were
arrested, and sent down to be tried in
Scotland. The hope of a pai'dou being
lield out to him, on condition of his giv-
ing the government some information, he
replied, "They who can make such a
proposal to me, neither know me nor my
country." Lord John Russell observes,
^' It is to the honour of Scotland, that no
witnesses came forward voluntarily to
accuse their associates, as had been done
in England." He had married, early in
life, a sister of Sir Archibald Johnston
of WaiTiston, who was executed in June
1638, and during his confinement pre-
vious to ti'ial, Mr. Baillie was not per-
mitted to have the society of his lady,
although she offered to go into irons, as
an assurance against any attempt of
facilitating his escape. He was ac-
cused of having entered into a conspiracy to
raise rebellion, and of being concerned in the
Rye-House Plot. As his prosecntore could find
no evidence agdnst him, he was ordered to free
himself by oath, which he refused, and was in
consequence fined six thousand pounds sterling.
His persecutore were not satisfied even with this,
for he was still kept shut up in prison, and denied
all attendance and assistance, which had such an
effect upon his health, as to reduce him almost to
the last extremity. Bishop Burnet, in his *JIi8-
tory of his own Times,' tells us that the ministers
of state were most earnestly set on Baillie's de-
struction, though he was now in so languishing a
condition, that if his death would have satisfied
the m&lice of the court, it seemed to be very near.
He adds, that " all the while he was in prison, he
seemed so composed and cheerful, that his beha-
viour looked like the reviving of the spirit of the
noblest of the old Greeks or Romans, or rather of
the primitive Christians, and fii*st martyrs in those
best days of the church."
The following woodcut is taken from an early
portrait of Mr. Baillie, painted in 1660. The ori-
ginal miniature is in possession of George Baillie,
Esq., of Jei-viswood and McUerstain.
On the 23d December 1684 Mr. Baillie wae
arraigned before the high court of justiciary on
the capital charge, when he appeared in a dying
condition. He was carried to the bar in his night-
gown, attended by his sister, the wife of Mr. Ker
of Gradcn, who sustained him with cordials ; and
not being able to stand he was obliged to sit. Ho
solemnly denied having been accessaiy to any
conspiracy against the king's or his brother's life,
or of being an enemy to the monarchy. Every
expedient being i-esorted to, to insure his convic-
tion, he was found guilty on the morning of De-
cember 24th, and condemned to be hanged that
afternoon at the market-cross of Edinburgh, his
head to be fixed on the Netherbow Port, and
his body to be quartered, the quarters to be ex-
hibited on the gaols of Jedburgh, Lanark, Ayr,
and Glasgow. On hearing his sentence he said,
"My lords, the time is short, the sentence is
sharp, but I thank my God who hath made me as
fit to die as you are to live." He was attended
to the scaffold by his faithful and affectionate sis-
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ter. He was so weak that he required to be
assisted in mounting the ladder. As soon as he
was Hp he said, '^ My faint zeal for the Protestant
religion hath brought me to this;'* but the drams
iutermpted him. He had prepared a speech to be
di'livered on the scaffold, but was prevented.
'*Thus," says Bishop Burnet, "a learned and
worthy gentleman, after twenty months' hard
usage, was brought to such a death, in a way so
full, in all the steps of it, of the spiiit and practice
of the courts of the Inquisition, that one is tempted
to think that the methods taken in it wei*e suggest-
ed by one well studied, if not practised in them.''
Dr. Owen, who was acquainted with Baillle, writ-
ing to a friend in Scotland before his death, said of
him, ^^ You have truly men of great spirit among
you ; there is, for a gentleman, Mr. Baillie of Jer-
viswood, a person of the greatest abilities I ever
almost met with.'* Mr. Baillie's family was for
the time completely ruined by his foifeitui*e. His
son George, after his execution, was obliged to
take refuge in Holland. He afterwards returned
with the prince of Orange, in 1688, when he was
restored to his estates. He married Grizel, the
daughter of Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth.
George BHillie, Esq. of Jerviswoode and Mellentain, (born
in 1763, died in 1841,) nephew of the seyenth eari of Had-
dington, had israe, 1. George Baillle Hamilton, who soo-
oeeded his consin as tenth earl of Haddington, (see page 174
of this volume ;) 2. Eliza, bom m 1803, married the second
maFqois of Breadalbane; 8. Charles Baillie, bom in 1804^
lord-advocate 1858, a lord of session 1869, nnder the thle
of Lord Jerviswoode, married, with issue ; 4. Robert, major
in the army ; 5. Rev. John, a canon of York ; 6. Captain
Thomas, R.N. ; 7. Mary, married George John James, Lord
Haddo, eldest son of Geoige, fourth earl of Aberdeen, with
issue; 8. Georgina, married in 1835, Lord Polwarth, with issue,
died in 1859; 9. Gatherine Charlotte, married in 1840, fourth
earl of Asbboroham, with issue; 10. Grisel, bora in 1822.
Evan Baillle, an eminent merchant of Bristol, bora in In-
veraess-shire in 1742, died at Dodifonr in that county, in
June 1835, left two sons, Colonel Hugh Baillie of Redcastle
and Tarradale, Ross-shire, and James Evan Baillie, Esq. of
Culdnthel and Glenelg.
BAILLIE, John, of I^js, a distinguished East
Indian officer, bom in Inveimess-shire in 1773, ap-
pointed acadet on the Bengal establishment in 1790.
He received the commission of ensign in Mai'ch
1793, and of lieutenant in November 1794. In
1797 he was employed by Lord Teignmouth to
translate from the Arabic language an important
work on the Mohammedan law, compiled by Sir
William Jones. On the first formation of the col-
lege of Fort- Willian^ about 1800, he was appoint-
ed professor of the Arabic and Persian languages,
and of the Mohammedan law in that institution.
Soon after the commencement of the war with the
confederated Mahratta chieftains in 1803, he of-
fered his services as a volunteer in the field, and
proceeded to join the army then employed in the
siege of Agra. His captain^s commission is dated
30th September 1803. The precarious situation of
afiairs in the province of Bundlecund requiring the
superintendence of an officer, qualified to conduct
various important and difficult negotiations, on
which depended the establishment of the British
authority in that province, he was appointed by
the commander-in-chief to the arduous and re-
sponsible office of political agent. It was neces-
sary to occupy a considerable tract of hostile conn
try, in the name of the Peishwa; to suppress a
combination of refractory chiefs, and to conciliate
others ; to superintend the operations, both of the
British troops and of their native auxiliaries ; and
to establish the British civil power and the collec-
tion of revenue, in this province, which was not
only menaced with foreign invasion, but distm-bed
with internal commotion. All these objects were,
by the zeal and activity of Captain Baillie, accom-
plished within three months. In a letter to the
court of directors, it was stated as the opinion of
the governor-general in council, that on occasion
of the invasion of the province by the troops of
Ameer Khan, in May and June 1804, ** the British
authority in Bundlecund was alone preserved by
his fortitude, ability, and influence." His services
were continued in the capacity of a member of the
commission appointed in July 1804, for the ad-
ministration of the affairs of Bundlecund; and ex-
ceptuig the short interval of the last five montns
of 1805, which he spent at the presidency, he
continued engaged in this Important service until
the summer of 1807. He thus effected the peace-
able transfer to the British dominions of a terri-
tory yielding an annual revenue of eighteen lacs
of rupees, ("£225,000 sterling,) with the sacrifice
only of a jaghire, ot little more than one lac of
rupees per annum. In July 1807, on the Beath of
Colonel Collins, he was appointed resident at
Lucknow, where he remained till the end of 1815,
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MATTHEW.
»nd in June 1818, he was placed on the retired
list. He was promoted to the rank of major in
the Bengal army in Januaiy 1811, and to that of
lieutenant-colonel in July 1815. After his i-ctum
to England, he was, in 1820, elected M.P. for
Hedon, for which he sat during two pai'liaments,
until the dissolution of 1830. In that year he was
returned for the Inverness burghs, and I'e-elected
in 1831 and 1832. He had been chosen a direc-
tor of the East India Company on the 28th of
May 1823. He died in London, on the 20th April
1833, aged sixty. — Annual Obituary,
BAILLIE, Matthew, M.D., a distinguished
anatomist and the iii*st physician of his time, was
born October 27, 1761, in the manse of Shotts,
Lanarkshii-e. He was the son of the Rev. James
Baillie, D.D., then minister of that pai-ish, subse-
quently of Both well, on the Clyde, in the same
county, and afterwai'ds professor of divinity in the
nniveraity of Glasgow, a descendant, it is sup-
posed, of the family of Baillie of Jerviswood. On
his mother's side he was also related to eminent
individuals, Dr. William Hunter and Mr. John
Hunter, the anatomists, being her bi-others ; while
his own sister was the highly gifted and celebrated
Joanna Baillie. In 1773 he was sent to Glasgow
college, where he studied for five years, and so
greatly distinguished himself, that in 1778 he was
removed, on Snell's foundation, to Baliol college,
Oxford. In 1688, Mr. John Snell, with a view
to support episcopacy in Scotland, devised to trus-
tees the estate of Uflfton, near I^amington, in
Warwickshire, for educating in that college, Scots
students from the university of Glasgow. This
fund now affords one hundi*ed and thirty -two
pounds per annum to each of ten exhibitions,
and one of these it was young Baillie's good for-
tune, in consequence of bis great attainments, to
secure. At the university of Oxford he took
his degrees in arts and medicine. In 1780, while
still keeping his teims at Oxford, he became the
pupil of his uncles, and when in London he re-
sided with Dr. William Hunter, who, childless
himself, seems to have adopted him as a son, and
to have fixed upon him as his snccessor in the lec-
ture-room, in which, at this period, he sometimes
assisted. Easy in his manners, and open in his
communications, he soon became a favounte with
the students, and greatly relieved Dr. Hunter of
the arduous task of teaching in his latter ycare.
The sudden death of the latter, in March 1783, soon
left; him, in conjunction with Mr. Craickshank, his
late uncle's assistant, to support the reputation o/
the anatomical theatre, in Great Windmill Street,
which had been founded by his uncle. [Memoirs
of Eminent Physicians and Surgeons, London,
1818, p. 37.]
Dr. Baillie began his duties as an anatomical
teacher in 1784, and he continued to lecture, with
the highest reputation, till 1799. In 1787 he was
elected physician to St. George's Hospital. In
1790, having previously taken his degree of M.D.
at Oxford, he was admitted a fellow of the Royal
college of Physicians. He was also elected a fel-
low of the Royal Society, to whose Transactions
he had contributed two anatomical papers. He
was also chosen president of the new medical so-
ciety. The subject of morbid anatomy seems to
have early attracted his attention, and the valna-
ble museum of his uncle, to which he had so full
access, opened to him an ample field for its inves-
tigation. Before his time, no regular system or
method of an-angement had been pursued by ana-
tomical writere, which could render this study u.se-
ftil. By a nice and accui-ate observation of the
morbid appearances of every part of the body, and
the peculiar circumstances which in life distinguish
them, he was enabled to place in a comprehensive
and clear compass, an extensive and valuable
mass of information, before his time in a confused
and undigested state. In 1795 he published his
valuable work, which acquired for him a Euro-
pean fame, entitled 'Tlie Morbid Anatomy of some
of the most important parts of the Human Body,'
which he subsequently enlarged, and which was
translated into French and Gennan, and has gone
through innumerable editions. In 1799 he com-
menced the publication of * A Series of Engrav-
ings to illustrate some parts of Morbid Anatomy,'
from drawings by Mr. Clift, the conservator of
the Hunterian Museum in Lincoln's-Tnn -Fields;
which splendid and useful work was completed in
1802.
In 1800 Dr. Baillie resigned his office in St.
George's Hospital, and thenceforward devoted him-
self to general practice as a physician, in which
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BAILLIE,
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MATTHEW.
he was so successful that he was known in one
year to have received ten thousand pounds in fees.
His work on the Morbid Anatomy of the Human
Body had placed his character high as a pathog-
nomic physician, and every difficult case in high
life came under his review. So fixed was bis rep-
utation in public opinion, that even his leaving
London for a period of some months at a time
made no alteration in the request for him at his
return— not usually the case with the general run
of his professional brethren. Besides publishing
* An Anatomical Description of the Gravid Ute-
rus,* he contributed many important papers to
the Philosophical Transactions and medical col-
lections of the day. Having been called in to
attend the duke of Gloucester, whose malady
however proved past cure, his mode of treatment
gave so much satisfaction to the family of his royal
highness, that it is thought to have paved the way
for his being commanded to join in consultation
the court physicians, in the case of George the
Thurd, during his mental aberration, and he con-
tinued a principal director of the royal treatment
during the protracted illness of the king. Amid
the mingled hopes and fears which agitated the
nation for so long a time, Dr. Baillie, from the
known candour of his nature, was looked up to
with confidence as one whose opinion could be re-
lied upon. The air of a court, so apt to change
the sentiments, and cause the individual to turn
with every political gale, was considered inca-
pable of bending the stubbornness of his tried in-
tegrity ; and it is even said that his opinion dif-
fered often from that of his more politic colleagues.
[Memoirs of Eminent Physicians and Surgeons^ p.
40.] His conduct seems to have given such high
satisfaction that on the first vacancy in 1810, he
was appointed one of the physicians to the king,
with the offer of a baronetcy, which he declined.
Dr. Baillie died on 23d September 1828, leav-
ing to the London College of Physicians the whole
of his extensive and valuable collection of prepar-
ations, with six hundred pounds to keep it in
order. He had married early in Ufe Sophia, sister
of Lord Denman, late lord chief justice of the
court of Queen's Bench, by whom he had one son
and one daughter. His estate of Duntisboume in
Gloucestershire went to his son. He left large
sums to medical institutions and public charities.
While yet a young man, his uncle William having
had an unfortunate misunderstanding with his
brother John Hunter, left at his death the small
family estate of Longcalderwood in Lanarkshire,
to his nephew, in prejudice of his own brother, to
whom Dr. Baillie restored it, as being of right hi.s
surviving uncle's.
The following portrait of Dr. Baillie is from a
rare print.
"^''l
The leadmg features of Dr. Baillie's character
were openness and candour. He never flattered
the prejudices of his patients, or pretended to a
knowledge which he did not possess. He knew well
the ravages and consequences of disease, and how
difficult it is to rectify derangements of structure
when once permanently formed. Li money mat-
tei*s his liberality was remarkable. He has often
been known to return fees where he conceived the
patient could not aflbrd them, and also to refuse a
larger sum than what he considered wa^ his due.
Shortly after his death an elegant tribute to his
memory was delivered to the students of anatomy
and surgery in Great Windmill Street, London,
by his eminent successor in that lecture-school. Sir
Charles Bell: "Yon, who are just entering ou
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MATTHEW.
joor studies,'* he said, ^^ cannot be aware of the
importance of one man to the character of a pro-
fession, the members of which extend over the
civilized world. Ton cannot yet estimate the
thousand chances there are against a man rising
to the degree of eminence which Dr. Baillie at-
tained; nor know how slender the hope of seeing
his place supplied in our day. It was under this
roof that Dr. Baillie formed himself, and here the
profession learned to appreciate him. He had no
desire to get rid of the national peculiarities of
language; or, if he had, he did not perfectly suc-
ceed. Not only did the language of his native
land linger on his tongue, but its recollections
clung to his heart; and to the last, amidst the
splendour of his pi-ofessional life, and the seduc-
tions of a court, he took a hearty interest in the
happiness and the eminence of his original country.
But there was a native sense and strength of mind
which more than compensated for the want of the
polish and purity of English pronunciation. He
possessed the valuable talent of making an ab-
struse and difficult subject plain; his prelections
were remarkable for that lucid order and clearness
of expression which proceed from a perfect con-
ception of the subject; and he never permitted
any vanity of display to turn him from his great
object of conveying information in the simplest
and most intelligible way, and so as to be most
useful to his pupils. It is to be regretted that his
associate in the lectureship made his duties here
unpleasant to him, and I have his own authority
for saying that, but for this, he would have conti-
nued to lecture for some years longer. Dr. Baillie
presented his collection of morbid specimens to the
College of Physicians, with a sum of money to be
expended in keeping them in order, and it is rather
remarkable that Dr. Hunter, his brother, and his
nephew, should have left to their country such
noble memorials as these. In the college of Glas-
gow may be seen the princely collection of Dr.
Hunter; the college of surgeons have assumed new
dignity, surrounded by the collection of Mr. Hun-
ter— more like the successive works of many men
enjoying royal patronage or national support, than
the work of a private surgeon; and lastly. Dr.
Baillie has given to the College of Physicians, at
least, that foundation for a museum of morbid
anatomy, which we hope to see completed by the
activity of the members of that body. Dr. Bail-
lie's success was creditable to the time. It may
be said of him, as it was said of his uncle John,
* eveiy time I hear of his increasing eminence it
appears to me like the fnlfillmg of poetical justice,
so well has he deserved success by his labours for the
advantage of humanity.' Yet I cannot say that
there was not in his manner sufficient reason for
his popularity. Those who have introduced him
to fiEunili^ from the country must have observed
in them a degree of surprise on first meeting the
physician of the court. There was no assumption
of character or warmth of interest exhibited. Ho
appeared what he really was— one come to be a
dispassionate observer, and to do that duty for
which he was called. But then, when he had to
deliver his opinion, and more especially when he
had to communicate with the family, there was a
clearness in his statement, a reasonableness in all
he said, and a convincing simplicity in his manner
that had the most soothing and happy influence
on minds, excited and almost irritated by suffer-
ing and the apprehension of impending misfortune.
After so many years spent in the cultivation of the
most severe science — for surely anatomy and pa-
thology may be so considered — and in the perfor-
mance of professional duties on the largest scale,
— ^for he was consulted not only by those who
personally knew him, but by individuals of all
nations, — he had, of late years, betaken himself to
other studies, as a pastime and recreation. Hn
attended more to the general progress of science.
He took particular pleasure in mineralogy; and
even from the natural history of the articles of
the Pharmacopoeia he appears to have derived a
new source of gratification. By a certain difficulty
which he put in the way of those who wished to
consult him, and by seeing them only in company
with other medical attendants, he procured for
himself, in the latter part of his life, that leisure
which his health required, and which suited the
maturity of his reputation ; while he intentionally
left the field of practice open to new aspirants.
When you add to what I have said of the celebrity
of the uncles William and John Hunter, the ex-
ample of Dr. Baillie, and farthci consider the
eminence of his sister Joanna Baillie, excelled by
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JOANNA.
none of her sex in any age, yon must conclade
with me that the family has exhibited a singular
extent and variety of talent. Dr. Baillie's age
was not great, if measured by length of years; he
had not completed his sixty-third year, bat bis
life was long in nsefulness. lie lived long enongh
to complete the model of a professional life. In
the stndies of youth ; in the serious and manly
occupations of the middle period of life; in the
upright, humane, and honourable character of a
physician ; and above all in that dignified conduct
which became a man mature in years and honours,
be has left a finished example to his profession.''
[Annual Reg%$terfor 1823.]
Dr. Baillie would never allow any likeness of
himself to be published. He sat to Hoppner for
his portrait, in order to make a present of it to his
sisters, but finding that this picture had been put
into the hands of an engraver, he interfered to
prevent its being used by him, as he exceedingly
disliked the idea of seeing his face in the print-
shop windows. The engraving, however, was al-
ready completed, and his sense of justice would
not allow him to deprive the engi-aver of the fruits
of his labour. He therefore purchased the cop-
perplate, and permitted only a few copies to be
taken from it, which were presented to friends.
His collected medical works were published in
1825, with a memoir of his life by James Ward-
rop, surgeon.
The following is a list of Dr. Baillie's works :
The Morbid Anatomy of some of the most Important PartK
of the Human Body. Lond. 1793, 8vo. Appendix to the
firet edition of the Morbid Anatomy. Lond. 1798, 8to. 2d
edit, corrected and greatly enlarged. 1797, 8ro. 7th edit 1807.
A Series of Engravings, tending to illustrate the Morbid Ana-
tomy of some of the most Important Parts of the Hunan
Body. Faadc be. Lond. 1799, 1802, royal 4to. 2d edit 1812.
Anatomical Description of the Gravid Uterus
Case of a Boy, seven years of age, who had Hydrocephahu,
in whom some of the Bones of the Skull, once firmly united,
were, in the progress of the disease, separated to a consider-
able distance from each other. Mod. Trans, iv. p. 1813.
Of some Uncommon Symptoms which occurred in a Case
of Hydrocephalus Intemus. lb. p. 9.'
Upon a Strong Pulsation of the Aorta, m the Epigastric
Re^on. lb. p. 271.
Upon a Case of Stricture of the Bectum, produced by a
Spasmodic Contraction of the Internal and External Spineta
of the Anus. Med. Trans, v. p. 136. 1816.
Some Observations respecting the Green Jaundice. lb. p.
143.
Some Observations on a Particular Species of Purging.
a. p. 166.
The Want of a Pericordium in the Human Body. Trans.
Med. et Chir. i. p. 91. 1793.
Of Uncommon Appearances of Disease in the Blood Ves-
sels, lb. p. 119.
Of a Remarkable Deviation from the Natural Structurp, in
the Urinary Bladder and Organs of Generation of a Male.
Trans. Med. et Chir. i. p. 189. 1793.
A Case of Emphysema not proceeding from Local Injury,
lb. p. 29
An Account of a Case of Diabetes, with an Examination of
the Appearances after Death. lb. iL p. 170. 1800.
An Account of a Singular Disease in the Great Intestines.
lb. p. 144.
An Account of the Case of a Man who had no Evacuation
in his Bowels for neariy fifteen weeks before his death. lb.
p. 179.
Of a Remarkable Transposition of the Viscera. Phil.
Trans. Abr. xii. 483. 1788.
Of a Particular Structure in the Human Ovarium. lb.
635. 1789.
BAILLIE, Joanna, an eminent poetess and
acknowledged improver of English poetic diction,
sister of Dr. Matthew Baillie, the snbject of the
preceding memoir, was bom in 1762. Her birth-
place was the manse of Bothwell, a parish on the
banks of the Clyde, in the Lower ward of Lan-
arkshire, of which her father, the Rev. James
Baillie, D.D., afterwards professor of divinit}' in
the university of Glasgow, was at that time min-
ister. She was the yonnger of his two danghtei-s.
Within earshot of the rippling of the broad watei-a
of the Clyde, she spent her early days. That
river, confined within lofty banks, makes a fine
sweep round the magnificent mins of Bothwell
Castle, and forms the semicircular declivity called
Bothwell Bank, that ^' blooms so fair,'' celebrated
in ancient song ; *^ meet nurse for a poetic child.''
In the immediate vicinity is '^Bothwell Brig,"
where the Covenanters were defeated in June
1679.
" Where Bothwell Bridge ooRnecto the margin steep.
And Cljde below runs silent, strong, and deep,
The hardy peasant, bj oppression driven
To battle, deem*d his cause the cause of Heaven ;
Unskilled in arms, with useless courage stood.
While gentle Monmouth grieved to shed his blood."
After her father's death, her mother, who was
a daughter of Mr. Hunter of Longcalderwood,
a small estate in the parish of East Kilbride, in
the same county, went there to reside, with her
two daughters, Agnes and Joanna, but when
the latter was about twenty years of age, Mrs
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Baillie removed with them to London, to be
near her son, Dr. Mathew Baillie, and ber two
brothera. Dr. William Hunter and Mr. John
Hunter, the eminent anatomists. In London or
the neighbourhood Miss Baillie resided for the re-
mainder of her life, she and her sister having for
many years kept house together at Hampstead.
The incidents of her life ai-e few, being confined
almost exclusively to the publication of her
works. Her earliest pieces appeared anonymous-
ly. Her name firet became known by her dramas
on the Passions. The first volume was published
in 1798, under the title of * A Series of Plays, in
which it is attempted to delineate the stronger
passions of the mind, each passion being the sub-
ject of a tragedy and a comedy.' In a long intro-
ductory discourse on the subject of the drama, she
explains her principal purpose to be to make each
play subservient to the development of some one
particular passion. " I^t," she says, " one simple
trait of the human heart, one expression of pas-
sion, genuine and true to nature, be introduced,
and it will stand forth alone in the boldness of
reality, whilst the false and unnatural around it
fades away upon every side, like the rising exha-
lations of the morning." In thus, however, re-
stricting her dramas to the illustration of only one
passion in each, she excluded herself fi'om the va-
ried range of character which is necessaiy to the
acting drama, and circumscribed the proper busi-
ness of the piece ; hence, her dramas are more
adapted for perusal than for representation. Nev-
ertheless, their merits were instantly acknow-
ledged, and a second edition of this her first vol-
ume was called for in a few montlis. In 1802,
she published a second volume of her plays. In
1804 she produced a volume of miscellaneous dra-
mas, and the third volume of her plays on the
Passions appeared in 1812. All these raised her
name to a proud pre-eminence in the world of
literature, and she was considered one of the most
highly gifted of British poetesses.
Like Byron, however. Miss Baillie eai-ly came
under the censure of the Edinburgh Review, but
she turned a deaf ear to its upbraidings, and halted
not in the path which she had traced out for herself,
at its bidding. Byron's spii'it was aroused, and he
retaliated in the most bitter satire in the English
language ; lyiiss Baillie placed the unjust judgment
quietly aside, and silently went on her way rejoic-
ing. On the appearance of her second volume of
Plays, a veiy unfavourable opinion was expressed
of them in the fourth number of the Edinburgh
Review, namely that for July 1803, and her theory
of the unity of passion unequivocally condemned.
In the thirty -eighth number, that for Febniary
1812, when the third volume hml appeared, the
reviewer was still more severe. Her views were
styled "narrow and peculiar," and her scheme
" singularly perverse and fantastic." Miss Bail-
lie's plan of producing twin dramas, a tragedy and
a comedy, on each of the passions, was thoroughly
disapproved of by Mr. Jeffrey, who appeared to
think that her genius was rather lyrical than dra-
matic. In his estimation her dramas combined
the faults of the French and English schools, the
poverty of incident and unifonnity of the one with
the iiTegularity and homeliness of the other, her
plots were improbable, and her language a bad
imitation of that of the elder dramatists. In this
verdict the literary public have not agreed, and
the bitter feeling in which the i-eview was written,
as in the still more memorable case of Byron,
tended to defeat its own pui-pose. It was well re-
marked by one of the impartial critics of MLss
Baillie's writings, that in her honourable pursuit of
fame, she did not " bow the knee to the idolatries
of the day ;" but strong in the confidence of native
genius, she held her undeviating course, with na-
ture for her insti'uctress and virtue for her guide.
Amongst those who, from their first appearance,
had expressed an enthusiastic admiration of her
plays on the Passions, was Mr. (afterwards Sir)
Walter Scott, who, when in London in 1806, was
introduced to Miss Baillie by Mr. Sotheby, the
translator of Oberon. The acquaintance thus be-
gun soon ripened into affectionate intunacy, and
for many years they maintained a close epistolary
con'espondence with each other. Between these
two eminent individuals, there were in fact many
striking points of i*esemblance. They had the same
lyrical fire and enthusiasm, the same love of legen-
dary lore, and the same attachment to the man-
ners and customs, to the hills and woods of their
native Scotland. Many of Scott's letters to her are
inserted in Lockhart's Life of the great novelist.
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Doling a visit which Miss Baillie paid to Scot-
land in the year 1808, she resided for a week or two
with Mr. Scott at Edinbnrgh. While in Glasgow,
previons to her proceeding to that city, she had
sought out Mr. John Stmthers, the author of the
Poor Man*s Sabbath, then a working shoemaker,
a native of the parish of East Kilbride, whom
she had known in his early years. Mr. Stmthers,
In the memoirs of his own life (published with his
poems in 2 vols, in 1850), thus commemorates
this event. ^*In the year 1808 the author had
the high honour and the singular pleasure of being
visited at his own house in the Gorbals of Glas-
gow by Joanna Baillie, then on a visit to her na-
tive Scotland, who had known him so intimately
in bis childhood. He has not forgotten, and never
can forget, how the sharp and clear tones of her
sweet voice thrilled through his heart, when at
the outer door she, inquiring for him, pronounced
his name — far less could he forget the divine glow
of benevolent pleasure that lighted up her thin and
pale, but finely expressive face, when, still hold-
ing him by the hand she had been cordially shak-
mg, she looked around his small, but clean apart-
ment, gazed upon his fahr wife and his then lovely
children, and exclaimed that he was surely the
most happy of poets.*^ Through Miss Baillie^s
recommendation, Mr. Scott brought Mr. Sti-uth-
ers' *Poor Man's Sabbath' under the notice of
Mr. Constable, the eminent publisher, who was
induced to bring out a third edition of that excel-
lent poem, consisting of a thousand copies, for
which he paid the worthy author thirty pounds,
with two dozen copies of the work for himself.
In 1810, *The Family Legend,' a tragedy by
Miss Baillie, founded on a Highland tradition, was
brought out at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh.
That theatre was then under the management of
Mr. Henry Siddons, the son of the great Mrs.
Siddons, who had married Miss Murray, the sister
of Mr. William Henry Murray, his successor as
manager and lessee, and the granddaughter of
Murray of Broughton, the secretary of the Pre-
tender during the rebellion of 1745. The Family
Legend of Joanna Baillie was the first new play
produced by Mr. Siddons, and Scott took a great
interest in its representation. We learn frum
Lockhart^s Life of Scott that he was consulted in
all the" miuutiie of the costume, attended every re-
hearsal, and supplied the prologue. The epilogue
was written by Henry Mackenzie. In a letter to
the authoress, dated January 30th, 1810, Scott
thus communicates the result :
" Mt Deab Miss Baillie, — Yon have only to ima-
gine all that you could wish to give success to a play,
and yoor conceptions will still ^1 short of the com-
plete and decided triumph of the Family Legend.
The house was crowded to a most extraordinary de-
gree ; many people had come from your native capital
of the west; everything that pretended to distinction,
whether from rank or literature, was in the boxes, and
in the pit such an aggregate mass of humanity, as I
have seldom if ever witnessed in the same space. It
was quite obvious from the beginning, that the cause
was to be very fairly tried before the public, and that if
an3rthing went wrang, no effort, even of your numerous
and zealous friends, could have had much influence in
guiding or restraining the general feeling. Some good-
natured persons bad been kind enough to propagate
reports of a strong opposition, which, though I con-
sidered them as totally groundless, did not by any
means lessen the extreme anxiety with which I waited
the rise of the curtain. But in a short time I saw tliere
was no ground whatever for apprehension, and yet I
sat the whole time shaking for fear a scene-shifter, or a
carpenter, or some of the subaltern actors, should make
some blunder, and interrupt the feeling of deep and
general interest which soon seized on the whole pit,
box, and gallery, as Mr. Bayes has it. The scene on
the rock struck the utmost possible effect into the au-
dience, and you heard nothing but sobs on all sides.
The banquet-scene was equally impressive, and so was
the combat. Of the greater scenes, that between Lorn
and Helen in the castle of Maclean, that between
Helen and her lover, and the examination of Maclean
himself in Argyle's castle, were applauded to the very
echo. Siddons announced the play ^for the rest of the
week,* which was received not only with a thunder o|
applause, but with cheering and throwing up of hats
and handkerchiefs. Mrs. Siddons supported her part
incomparably, althongh just recovered from the indis-
position mentioned in my last. Siddons himself played
Lorn very well indeed, and moved and looked with
great spirit. A Mr. Terry, who promises to be a fine
performer, went through the part of the Old Eari
with great taste and effect. For the rest I cannot say
much, excepting that from highest to lowest they were
most accurately perfect in their parts, and did their very
best. Malcolm de Gray was tolerable but stickish —
Maclean came off decently — but the conspirators were
sad hounds. You are, my dear Miss Baillie, too much
of a democrat in your writings; you allow life, soul,
and spirit to these inferior creatures of the drama, and
expect they will be the better of it Now it was ob-
vious to me, that the poor monsters, whose moutlis
are only of use to spout the vapid blank verse which
your modem playwright puts into the part of the con-
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fident and subaltum villain of his piece, did not know
what to make of the energetio and poetical diction
which even these subordinate departments abound
with in the Legend. As the play greatly exceeded
the usual length (lasting till half-past ten), we intend,
when it is repeated to-night, to omit some of the pas-
sages where the weight necessarily fell on the weakest
of onr host, although we may hereby injure the detail
of the plot. The scenery was very good, and the rock,
without appearance of pantomime, was so contrived
as to place Mrs. Siddoi^s in a very precarious situation
to all appearance. The dresses were more tawdry
than I sliould have judged proper, but expensive and
showy. I have got my brother John's Highland re-
cruiting party to reinforce the garrison of Inverary,
and as they mustered beneath the porch of the castle,
and seemed to fill the court-yard behind, the combat
scene had really the appearance of reality. Siddons
has been most attentive, anxious, assiduous, and do-
cile, and had drilled his troops so well that the promp-
ter's aid was unnecessary, and I do not believe he
gave a single hint the whole night; nor were there
any false or ridiculous accents or gestures even among
the underlings, though God knows they fell often far
short of the true spirit. Mrs. Siddons spoke the epi-
logue extremely well: the prologue, which I will send
you in its revised state, was also very well received.
Mrs. Scott sends her kindest compliments of congratu-
lation ; she had a party of thirty friends in one small
box, which she was obliged to watch like a clucking
hen till she bad gathered her whole flock, for the
crowd was insufferable. I am going to see the Legend
to-night, when I shall enjoy it quietly, for last night I
was BO much interested in its reception that I cannot
say I was at leisure to attend to the feelings arising
from the representation itself. People are dying to
read it. If you think of suffering a single edition to
be printed to gratify their curiosity, I will take care of
it. But I do not advise this, because until printed no
other theatres can have it before you give leave. My
kind respects attend Miss Agnes Baillie, and believe
me ever your obliged and faithful servant,
Walter Scott."
The Family liCgend had a mn of fonrteen nights,
and was soon after printed and published by James
and John Ballantyne. [Lochhcarfs Life of Scott,
pp. 186, 187.] It was afterwards brought out on
the Ivondon stage, and the authoress upon one oc-
casion when, in the year 1816, it was performed
at one of the London theatres, was accompanied
to the theatre by lx)rd Byron and Mr. and Mrs.
Scott, who were then in London, to witness the
representation.
In 1828 she published a * Collection of Poetical
Miscellanies,' which was well received. It con-
tained, with some pieces of her own, Scott's dra-
matic sketch of Macdnff*s Cross, besides several
poems by Mrs. Hemans, some jeux d^eiprits by
the late Catherine Fanshawe, and a ballad enti-
tled Polydore, originally published in the Edin-
burgh Annual Register for 1810, and written by
Mr. William Howison, author of an * Essay on
the Sentiments of Attraction, Adaptation, and Va-
riety.'
In 1836, Miss Baillie published three more vol-
umes of plays, all illustrative of her favourite
theory. *' Even in advanced age," says a writer
in the North American Review for October 1835,
*•*• we see Miss Baillie still tracing the fiery streams
of passion to their sources, — searching into the
hidden things of that dark mystery, the heart, —
and arranging her startling revelations in the im-
posing garb of rich and classical poetry." Among
the best of her dramatic writings are the tragedies
of Count Basil, and de Montfort. Sir Walter
Scott has eulogised ^^ Basil's love and Montfort't
hate," as something like a revival of the inspired
strain of Shakspeare.
De Montfort was brought out on the London
stage by John Philip Kemble, in 1801, soon after
its publication. The great Mrs. Siddons perform-
ed the part of Lady .Jane, and both her acting in
the piece as well as that of her brother, Mr. Kem-
ble, was so powerful that it ought to have sus-
tained the play had there been any stage vitality
in it. At that period it was acted for eleven
nights. It was then laid aside till 1821, when it
was again produced, to exliibit Kean in the prin-
cipal character ; but that great actor declared that
though a fine poem, it would never be an acting
play. Mr. Campbell, In his life of Mrs. Siddons,
records this remark, and makes the following very
just observations: Miss Baillie "brought to the
drama a wonderful union of many precious requi-
sites for a perfect tragic writer ; deep feeling, a
picturesque imagination, and, except where the-
ory and system misled her, a correct taste, that
made her diction equally remote fipom the stifiiiess
of the French, and the flaccid flatness of the Ger-
man school ; a better stage style than any that
we have heard since the time of Shakspeare, or,
at least, since that of his immediate disciples.
But to compose a tragedy that shall at once de-
light the lovere of poetry and the populace is a
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prize in the lottery of fame, which has literally
been only once drawn during the whole of the last
century, and that was by the author of Douglas.
If Joanna Baillie had known the stage practically,
she would never have attached the importance
which she does to the development of single pas-
sions in single tragedies ; and she would have in-
vented more stirring incidents to justify the pas-
sion of her characters, and to give them that air
of fatality which, though peculiarly predominant
in the Greek drama, will also be found to a certain
extent, in all successful tragedies. Instead of
this, she contrives to make all the passions of her
main characters proceed from the wilful natures of
the beings themselves. Their feelings are not pre-
cipitated by circumstances, like the stream down
a declivity, that leaps from rock to rock ; but for
want of incident, they seem often like water on a
level, without a propelling impulse." ILife of
Mrs. Siddonsy vol. ii. p. 254.] The style of her
dramas, however, is regular and vigorous; her
plots, though simple, exhibit both originality and
carefulness of construction ; and altogether her
plays display a deep and thorough knowledge of
the workings of the human heart. The following
is a portrait of Joanna Baillie iirom a painting by
Sir W. Newton •
As an authoress, the leading feature of her ge-
nius was simple greatness. She had no airs, arti-
fice, or pretension. Profound subtlety, a deep
penetration into character, and a wonderful fer-
tility of invention, mark all her dramas. Her
touches of natural description, the wild legendaiy
grandeur which at times floats aix>und her, the
candour, charity, and womanliness of her natm'e,
and the strong yet delicate imagery in which she/
enshrines her thoughts, with her sound morality
and the simplicity and force of her language,
impart a pleasing charm to her writings, and dis-
tinguish them from those of all her contempora-
ries.
Besides her dramas, Miss Baillie was the au-
thoress of various poems and songs, on miscellan-
eous subjects, which were collected and published
in one volume in 1841. These are, in general,
remarkable for their truth and feeling and harmony
of diction, qualities in which she was surpassed by
few modern poets. Among the best of her poems
are, one entitled "The Kitten," which first ap-
peared in an early volume of the Edinburgh An-
nual Register, and the Birthday address to her
sister. Miss Agnes Baillie, both of which have been
often quoted. The latter is equal, if not in some
respects superior, to the fine lines of Cowper, writ-
ten "On receiving his Mother's Picture." The
most popular of her songs are, "The Gowan
Gutters on the Sward ;" " Welcome Bat and Ow-
let Gray;" "Good Night, Good Night;" "It fell
on a Morning ;" which originally appeared in the
collection of Scotch songs called *The Harp of
Caledonia,' edited by John Struthers, and pub-
lished in Glasgow in 1821 ; " WooM and Married
and a' ;" and " Hooly and Fairly." The two latter
were written for Mr. George Thomson's celebrated
collection of Scotch melodies, as was also " When
white was my o'erlay as foam o' the linn," a new
version of "Todlin Hame." Her Scotch songs,
distinguished by their simplicity, their quiet pawky
hnmour, and pastoral tenderness, are known by
heart by all Scotsmen.
Miss Baillie passed the greater portion of her
life in retirement, and in her latter years in strict
seclusion, at her villa at Hampstead, where she
died Febniary 23, 1851, in her 89th year, retain-
ing all her faculties to the last. Her sister, who
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was also a poetess, and who died April 27, 1861,
la kii' 101 St year, always resided with her. The
following lines are from the beginning of an ' Ad-
dress to her Sister Agnes, on her Birthday : '
" Dear Agnea, gleamed with joy and d.Hshed with teai-s.
O'er OS have glided almost sixty years,
Since we on BothwelFs boony braes were seen,
By those whose eyes long closed in death have been.
Two tiny imps, who scarcely stooped to gather
The slender harebell on the purple heather ;
Ho taller than the foxglove's spiky stem,
That dew of morning stnds with silver gem.
Then every butterfly th«t crossed our view
With joyful shout was greeted as it flew ;
And moth, and ladybird, and beetle bright,
In sheeny gold, were each a wondrous sight
Then as we paddled barefoot, side by side,
Among the sunny shallows of the Clyde,
Minnows or spotted parr, with twinkling fin,
Swimming in mazy rings the pool within,
A thrill of gladness through our bosoms sent,
Seen in the power of early wonderment
Active and ardent, to my fancy's eye.
Thou still art young, in spite of time gone by.
Though oft of patience brief and temper keen.
Well may it please me, in life's latter scene,
To think what now thou art, and long to me hast been/'
The high literary fame which she acquired by her
works never succeeded in drawing her generally
into society. Her life was pore and virtuous in
the highest degree, and characterised by the most
consummate integrity, kindness, and active bene-
volence. Gentle and unassuming to all, she pos-
sessed an unchangeable simplicity of manner and
character, and while she counted amongst her
friends most of her contemporaries celebrated
for their genius or their virtues, many foi^eigners,
fi'om various parts of Europe, on their coming to
England, sought introductions to her.
The series of plays on the passions consists of
Count Basil, a tragedy, portraying love ; The
Trial, a comedy; De Montfort, a tragedy, de-
picting hatred, with The Election, a comedy;
Ethelwald, a tragedy, Part I. ; the same, Part
II. — both on ambition ; On*a, a tragedy founded
on fear ; The Dream, a tragedy in prose, in three
acts ; The Siege, a comedy in five acts ; The Bea-
con, a serious musical drama in two acts, the sub-
ject hope, interspersed with some pleasing songs ;
Romiero, a tragedy ; Tlie Alienated Manor, a co-
i medy ; and Henriqnez, a tragedy.
Her miscellaneous plays are Rayner, a tragedy;
The Country Marriage, a comedy; Constantia
Paleologus, or the last of the Csesars, a tragedy ;
The Family I^egend, a tragedy ; The Martyr, a
drama; The Separation, a tragedy; The Strip-
ling, a tragedy, in prose ; The Phantom, a musi-
cal drama ; Enthusiasm, a comedy ; Witchcraft, a
tragedy in prose; The Homicide, a tragedy in
prose, with occasional passages in verse; The
Bride, a drama ; and The Match, a comedy.
None of these are acting pieces. The Separation,
and Henriquez, one of her series on the passions,
were attempted on the London stage, but without
success.
Her Miscellaneous works consist of Metrical
Legends, Songs and Poems on general subjects.
A volume of her fugitive verses was published in
1840. Many of the early specimens of her genius
were collected in this volume. Under the head of
Miscellaneous were classed various pieces divided
into Songs, Romantic and other ballads, and poems
of a tender domestic character. Among them
were I^rd John of the East, Malcolm^s Heir, Sir
Maurice, the Moody Seer, and the tragic and ap-
palling ballad of the Elder Tree; also. Lines on
the Death of Sir Walter Scott. The third portion
of the volume contained subjects of a devotional
character; some of these it appears, as she states
in her preface, were written for ** the kirk, at the
request of an eminent member of the Scotch churchy
at a time when it was in contemplation to compile,
by authority, a new collection of hymns and sacred
poetry for the general use of parochial congrega-
tions.^* The plan meeting with opposition was,
however, relinquished.
A complete edition of Miss Baillie^s works was
published by Messrs. A. Longman and Co., in
1851, soon after her death. In this volume Is
inserted a poem entitled Ahalya Baee, which had
been previously printed for private circulation,
and amongst the fugitive verses are some short
poems never before published. The following is a
list of her productions : —
Series of Plays; in which it is attempted to delineate the
Stronger Pasdons of the Mind, each Passion being the sub-
ject of a Tragedy or Comedy. Lond. 1798, 1802, 2 vols. Sto.
6th edit. 1806, 2 vohj. 8vo. ' Vol iii. 1812, 8vo.
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BAILZIE.
189
BAINE.
MiMeQaneoiu Plays. Lond. 1804, 8to. 2d edit 1806, 8vo.
The Familj I.egend; a Tragedj. 1810, 8vo.
Collection of Poetical Miscellanies. London, 1828, 8to.
Additional Plays on the Passions. London, 1836, 8ro.
FogitiTe Verses, Miscellaneous Poems and Songs. London,
1811, 8to,
Complete edition of Works. Londcm, 1851, Imp. 8vo.
BAILLIE, Lady Grizel, see Home, Lady
Grizcl.
BAILZIE, or Bailue, William, a physiciau
of the fifteenth century, studied medicme in Italy
with 80 much reputation that he was first made
rector, and afterwards professor of medicine in the
university of Bologna, about 1484. He adopted
the Galenic system in preference to the Empiric,
and wrote * Apologia pro Galeni Doctrina contra
Empiricos,' Lyons, 1550. According to Demp-
ster, he returned to Scotland and died there, but
the date of his death is not recorded. In his Scots
writers, Mackenzie supposes him to be the author
also of an octavo book, called * De Quantitate Syl-
labarum Gnecarum et de Dialectis,' published in
1600.
Badi, a surname derived from Jie Gaelic word bane^ sig-
nifying white, or of a fair complexion, as Donald Bane, who
usurped the Scottish throne after the death of his brother
Malcolm Canmore. The name is sometimes spelled Baine,
as in the following instance, and sometimes Bayne, as in
that of Bajne, Alexander, the first professor of Scots Law in
the univerBity of Edinburgh, the subject of a'subseqaent
notice.
BAIKE, James, A.M., an eminent minister of
the Relief communion, and one of the fathers of
that church, was the son of the minister of Bon-
hill, Dumbartonshire, where he was bom in the
year 1710. He received the first part of his edu-
cation at the pai-isli school, and afterwards studied
for the church at the university of Glasgow. Hav-
ing been licensed to preach, he was presented by
the duke of Montrose to the church of Killearn,
the adjoining parish to Bonhill. In 1756 he be-
came one of the ministers of the High church of
Paisley, and in the following year he had the cele-
brated Dr. Witherspoon for his colleague. He
was intimate with many of the most distinguished
clergymen in the Church of Scotland, and so
early as 1745 his name is mentioned as having
been warmly engaged among his parishioners in
Killearn, in promoting a remarkable revival of re-
ligion in the west of Scotland at that period.
While he remained a minister of the Established
church, he was a zealous defender of her libeity,
independence, and legal rights, and a determined
opponent of what he considered ecclesiastical tyr-
anny. The conduct of the General Assembly in
1752 in deposing the Rev. Thomas Gillespie of
Camock, from the office of the ministry, as well
as some more recent proceedings, in his estima-
tion infringed on the cause of religious liberty, and
had a powerful influence in inducing him to resign
his pastoral charge at Paisley. To this he was
also led by the following circumstance : The office
of session clerk of the parish having become va-
cant, a dispute occnired as to whether the kirk
session or the town council had the right of ap-
pointment. The case came to be litigated in the
court of session, and was finally decided in favour
of the town council. Mr. Baine took the part of
the kirk session, his colleague of the members of
the town council ; which caused a painful misun-
derstanding between them. He therefore came to
the resolution of resigning his charge, which he
did in a lette#to the presbytery of date 10th Feb-
mary 1766, and in consequence was cited to ap-
pear before the General Assembly 29th May of
that year. Having appeared at the bar of the
Assembly, and been heard at considerable length
in an elaborate and able defence, he was declared
by the venerable court to be no longer a minister
of the Church of Scotland. Immediately after his
deposition Mr. Baine published a pamphlet enti-
tled * Memoirs of modem Church Refoimation, or
the History of the General Assembly, 1766, with
a brief account and vindication of the Presbytery
of Relief.* The publication consisted of letters to
a reverend friend, in which he gave an amusing
account of the procedure of the supreme ecclesias
tical court in his case, and indulged in some acri
monious remarks on the conduct of the leading
moderates. The pamphlet b now scarce. He had
in the meantime accepted of a charge under the
Relief body, then recently formed, and on the 13th
February 1766, he was inducted by the Rev. Mr.
Gillespie, late of Camock, as the minister of Col-
lege Street chapel, which was the first church
opened in Edinburgh in connection with the Relief
presbytery. Previous to his deposition by the
Established church he is said, after his admission
to South College Street cLapel, to have conducted
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BAIRD.
his new congregation to the neighbonrlng church of
Old Greyfiriars, at that time nnder the pastoral
care of Dr. Erskine, in order to partake of the sa-
crament of the Lord*8 sapper.
Mr. Baine had always distinguished himself by
testifying against whatever he considered to be a vio-
lation of public morality. Before he left Paisley he
published a sermon preached before the Society for
the Refoimation of Manners in that town, instituted
under his auspices, in which he declared, in strong
terms, against the pi*evailing vices of the age. In
1770 he published a sermon, entitled * The Tlieatre
Licentions and Perverted,' which he had preached
against Foote's play of * The Minor,* then acted
at Edinburgh, in which the characters of White-
field and other zealous ministers, and even reli-
gion itself, was most unjustly and pi-ofanely ridi-
culed. To this attack Foote replied in 1771 in
' An Apology for the Minor, in a Letter to the
Rev. Mr. Baine.' In 1777 Mr. Baine published a
volume of sermons, among which is one on the
subject of the Pastoral Care, delivered in the
Low church of Paisley at the admission of his
colleague in June 1757. Mr. Baine died January
17, 1790, in the 80th year of his age. He had
maiTied the only daughter of Dr. Michael Potter,
of Easter Livelands, Stirlingshire, professor of
divinity in Glasgow nnivei'sity, and son of Michael
Potter, one of the martyrs of the Bass. His eld-
est son. Captain Michael Bain, died a detenu in
France. His second son, the Rev. James Bain, a
probationer of the Established chui-ch of Scotland,
receiving episcopal ordination, was appointed a
chaplain in one of the colonies. The third son.
Lieutenant-colonel William Bain of Easter Live-
lands, served abroad during the American and
Continental ware. He was succeeded by his eld-
est son, Edwin Sandys Bain of Easter Livelands,
sergeant at law. A volume of Mr. Baine's ser-
mons was published nearly fifty years after his
death. His talents and attainments were of a high
order ; and his voice was so musical that, while
minister at Killeam, he was popularly known by
the name of ** the Swan of the West."
Baibi), a soraame of ancient standing in Scotland. Ac-
cording to Kisbet, (Herakby^ toI. l p. 314,) the familiet of
this surname have for arms, Gnles, a Boar passant, Or: as
relative to the name. Tradition states that while William
the Lion was banting in one of the sooth- west ooonties, he
happened to straggle from his attendants, and was alarmed
bj the approadi of a wild boar, which was slain by one of his
retinne of the name of Baird, who had hastened to his as-
sistance. For this signal service the king conferred upon
him large grants of land, and assigned him the above co««
of arms, with the motto " Dominos fedt**
In the reign of Alexander the Third, Robert, son of Wal-
deve de Biggar, granted a charter to Richard Baird, of Meikle
and Little Kyp in Lanarkshire. IDabympU's Colhciiont, p.
397.] Among the names in the Ragnum Roll of those who
swore submission and fealtj to Eang Edward the First of
England, m 1292, 1296, 1297, &&, are Fei^gos de Bard, John
Bard, and Robert Bard ; supposed to be of the Bairds of Kjp
and Evandale, then a considerable famil/ in Lanarkshire.
There is a charter of King Robert the Bruce of the barony of
Cambusnethan to Robert Baird. [^Haddington's ColUctimu.']
Baird of Camwath, with three or four other barons of that
name, being convicted of a conspiracy against King Robert the
Bruce, in a parliament held at Perth, were fiurfeited and
put to death in consequence.
The estate of Cambusnethan went by marriage, in the reigo
of David the Second, to Sir Alexander Stewart, afterwanL
of Damley and Crookston, who, in 1890, bestowed the lands
of Cambusnethan on Janet his daughter and her husband. Sir
Thomas Somerville of Camwath, created in 1427 Lord Soni>
endlle.
From the Bairds of Ordinhivas in Ban£bhire, descendants
of the family of Cambusnethan, came the Bairds of Auch-
medden in Aberdeenshire, who were long the principal fiunily
of the name, and for several generations sheriflb of that
county.
George Baird of Auchmedden, who was alive m 1668, mar-
ried Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Keith of Troup, bro-
ther of the earl marischaL His son and successor, also named
George, married in 1570, Lilias, daughter and heir of Walter
Baird of Ordinhivas, and had a numerous progeny. The eld-
est son, George Baird of Auchmedden, was ancestor of the
Bairds of that place, now represented by Fraaer of Findrach.
[Burh6*$ Landed Gentry."]
The fourth son, James Baurd, advocate, and one of the com-
missaiies of Edinburgh in the time of Charies the First, was
the founder of the houses of Newbyth and SaughtonhaH He
married Bathia, a daughter of Dempster of PiUiver, by whom
he had two sons, John and Robot. John the eldest was
admitted advocate in June 1647. At the Restoratiim he was
created a knight baronet, and made a lord of session, under
the title of Lord Newbyth. He died at Edmbuigh, 27th
April 1698, in the 78th year of his age. He collected the
decisions of the court from November 1664 to February
1667, and practiques from the former year to 1681, with an
Appendix to 1690, the manuscripts of which are preserved iu
the Advocates* Library. [Haig and Brtmton^s Senaion qf the
College ofJwUce.'] He married Margaret, daughter of Wil-
liam Hay of linplum, the second son of James lord Yester,
and brotlier of John, first earl of Tweeddale. By her he had
Sir William Baird of Newbyth, created a baronet of Nova
Scotia in 1696. The latter was twice married, first to Helen,
daughter of Su: John Gilmour of Craigmillar, president of the
court of session, and secondly to Margaret, daughter of Lord
Smchur. His son, by his first wife. Sir John Baird the
second baronet, married Janet, daughter of the Hon. Sir
David Dalrymple, advocate, grandfather of the celebrated
Lord Hailes. Sir John diod in 1746, without issue, when the
baronetcy became extinct, but the estate was entailed on hi*
second cousin, William Baird, the father of the celebrated
Sir David Baird.
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BAIRi),
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SIR DAVID.
The jonnger son of James Bmird, advocate, vix. Sir Kobert
Baird, Knight, of Saochtonhall in Mid Lothian, had, with
other iasne, James, his soooesaor, created in Febroarj 1696,
a baronet of Nova Scotia, and William Baird, a merdiant
and a baillie in £dinbar^ The latter was the father of
William Baird, who succeeded his second consin Sir John
Baird in the estate of Newbyth. He married Alida, fourth
daughter of Johnston of Hiltown, m Berwickshure, by whom
be had six sons and eight daughters. The gallant Sir David
Baird was the fifth son.
The estate of Auchmedden was purchased by the third earl of
Aberdeen ftom the Bairds, on which, according to a local tradi-
tion, a pair of eagles which had regularly nestled and brought
forth their young in the neighbouring rocks of Pennan, dis-
appeared, in fulfilment of an andent prophecy by Thomas
the Bhymer, that there should be an eagle in the crags while
there was a Biurd in Auchmedden. It is stated that when
Lord Haddo, eldest son of the earl, married Christian,
youngest daughter of William Baird, Esq. of Newbyth, and
sister of General Sir David Band, the eagles returned to the
mcks, and remained until the estate passed into the hands of
the Hon. William Gordon, when they again fled.
The baronetcy oonferred, in 1809, on General Sir David
Baird (see p. 195) was inherited in 1829 by his nephew,
Sir David, the remainder being, in default of issue of his
own, to the issue male of his eldest brother, Robert The
second baronet died in 1862, when his son, Sir David, be-
came third baronet
BATED, Sir David, Bart., K.C.B., a diatin-
gnisbed British commander, descended, as above
explained, from a junior bi*anch of the Bairds of
Auchmedden, in Aberdeenshire, was the fifth bat
second surviving son of WiUlam Baird, Esq., heir
by settlement of his second cousin, Sir John Baird
of Newbyth, Bart., and was bom at Edinburgh on
6tb December, 1757. His biographer Hook says
he was bom at Newbyth, but this is a mistake.
The house in which he first saw the light, and
where he was brought up, is situated in a court at
the foot of Blair's close, Castlehill, Edinburgh, at
one time possessed by the ducal family of Gordon,
and latterly by the Newbyth family, by whom it
was held for several generations. [Wiison's Me-
morials of Edinburgh^ vol. i. p. 139.] His father
died when he was only eight years old, and he early
evinced an inclination for a military life. He entered
the army December 16, 1772, as an ensign in the
second foot. He was then placed at Locie^s aca-
demy at Chelsea, where he remained some months,
actively improving himself in the knowledge of
military tactics. At Mr. Lode's academy, as now
at the military college, Sandhurst, the pupils were
subjected to all the routine of military service.
One evening when young Baii-d was on duty as
sentry, one of his comnanions, considerably his se-
nior, wished to get out, in order to fulfil some en-
gagement he had made in London, and tried to
persuade Baird to permit him to pass. "No,**
said the gallant boy, " thai I cannot do, but if you
please you may knock me down, and walk out
over my body." lie joined his regiment at Gib-
raltar in April 1778. One evening when he was
on guard, having dined with some of his brother
officers, they resolved to detain him with them,
and locked the door of the room to prevent his
visiting his sentries at the usual time. Baird
found remonstrances in vain, but determined to
let nothing interfere with duty, he sprang to the
window, which overhung the rampart, and with
an agility and dexterity for which he was always
remarkable, threw himself out, escaped unhurt,
and was at his post at the very minute appointed.
IHooh's Life of General Sir David Baird, vol. i. p.
2, Note."] He retnmed with his regiment to Bri-
tain in 1776.
Lord Madeod, eldest son ot the earl of Crom-
arty, having been, with his father, engaged in the
rebellion of 1745, spent several years in exile on
the continent ; and obtained the rank of lieutenant-
general in the Swedish army. Ultimately, on ac-
count of his youth at the time of joining the Pre-
tender, he received an unconditional pardon for
his share in the rebellion, and retuming to Eng-
land in the year 1777, he was presented to George
the Tliird, who received him very graciously. At
the suggestion of Colonel Duff of Muirtown, who
had served in Keith's Highlanders, and encouraged
by the favourable reception he had met with in the
north, he offered his sei*vices to raise a regiment.
The offer was accepted, and although without pro-
perty or political influence, so great was the magic
of his name among his clansmen, that eight hun-
dred and forty Highlanders were in a very short
time raised and marched to Elgin. In addition to
these, two hundred and thirty-six lowlanders were
raised by the Hon. John Lindsay, son of the earl of
Balcarres, David Baird, the subject of this memoir,
James Fowlis, and otherofficers; besides thirty -four
English and Irish, enlisted In Glasgow, making in
all eleven hundred men. The corps was embodied
at Elgin, and inspected there by General Skene in
April seventeen hnndi*ed and seventy -eight, in
which yeai' Baird obtained a lieutenancy, and in
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BAIRD,
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SIR DAVID.
September of the same year he became captain of
the grenadiers in the 73d regiment, then raised by
Lord Macleod. With this corps, which lie joined
at Elgin, he embarked for Madras, where he ar-
rived in Jannary 1780, and immediately entered
npon active service. This young and nn tried re-
giment had scarcely arrived in India, when Hyder
Ali, forcing his way through the Gants, at the head
of 100,000 men, bnrst like a mountain ton*ent into
the Camatic. He had interposed his vast army
between that of the British, commanded by Sir
Hector Monro, and a smaller force under the com-
mand of Colonel Baillie, which were endeavouring
to form a junction. The latter having, though
victorious, sustained a serious loss in an engage-
ment with Hyder All's troops, sent to the com-
mander an account of his difficult position, stating
that, from the loss he had sustained, and his total
want of provisions, he was equally unable to ad-
vance or remain in his then situation. With the
advice of a council of war, Sir Hector judged the
only course was to endeavour to aid Colonel Bail-
lie, with such a reinforcement as would enable him
to push forward in defiance of the enemy. The
detachment selected for this enterprise consisted
of about 1,000 men under Colonel Fletcher; and
its main force was composed of the grenadier and
infantry companies of Lord Macleod's regiment,
commanded by Captain Baird. Hyder Ali having
gained intelligence of this movement, sent a strong
body to cut them off on their way, but, by adopt-
ing a long circuitous route, and marching by night,
they at length safely effected a junction with Col-
onel Baillie. With the most consummate skUl,
however, Hyder, determining that they should never
return, prcpai*ed an ambuscade; into which, early
on the moniing of the 10th of September, they un-
warily advanced. The enemy, with admirable
coolness and self-command, reserved their fire till
the unhappy British were in the very midst of
them. The army under the command of Colonels
Baillie and Fletcher, and Captain Baird, marched
in column. On a sudden, whilst in a narrow de-
file, a battery of twelve guns opened upon them,
and, loaded with grape-shot, poured in upon their
right flank. The British faced about; another
battery opened immediately upon their rear. They
hnd no choice therefore but to advance ; other bat-
teries met them here likewise, and in less tlian ball
an hour fifty-seven pieces of cannon, brought to
bear on them at all points, penetrated into every
part of the British line. By seven o^dock in the
morning, the enemy poured down upon them in
thousands: Captain Bah'd and his grenadiers
fought with the greatest heroism. Surrounded
and attacked on all sides, by 25,000 cavaby, by
thirty i-egiments of Sepoy infantry, besides Hyder's
European corps, and a numerous artillery playing
upon them from all quarters, within grape-shot
distance, yet did this gallant column stand firm
and undaunted, alternately facing their enemies
on every side of attack. The French officers in
Hyder's camp beheld with astonishment the Brit-
ish grenadiers, under Captain Baird's command,
performing their evolutions in the midst of all the
tumult and extreme peril, with as much precision
coolness, and steadiness, as if upon a parade
ground. The little army, so unexpectedly assail-
ed, had only ten pieces of cannon, but these made
such havoc amongst the enemy, that after a doubt-
ful contest of three hoiurs, from six in the morning
till nine, victory began to declare for the British.
The flower of the Mysore cavalry, after many
bloody repulses, were at length entirely defeated,
with great slaughter, and the right wing, com
posed of Hyder's best forces, was thrown into dis-
order. Hyder himself was about to give orders
for reti-eat, and the French officer who directed
the artillery began to draw it off, when an unfore-
seen and unavoidable misfortune occurred, which
totally changed the fortune of the day. By some
unhappy accident the tumbrils which contained
the ammunition suddenly blew up in the centre of
the British lines. One whole face of theif column
was thus entii-ely laid open, and their aitillery
overturned and destroyed. The destruction of
men was great, but the total loss of their ammuni-
tion was still more fatal to the survivors. Tippoo
Saib, the son of Hyder, instantly seized the mo-
ment of advantage, and without waiting for orders,
fell with the utmost rapidity, at the head of the
Mogul and Camatic horse, into the broken square,
which had not had time to recover its form and
order. This attack by the enemy's cavalry being
immediately seconded by the French corps, and
by the first line of infantry, determined at once
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BAIRD.
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SIR DAVID.
the fote of oar unfortunate army. After succes-
sive prodigies of valour, the brave Sepoys were
almost to a man cut to pieces. Colonels Baillie
and Fletcher, assisted by Captain Baird, made one
more desperate effort. They rallied the Euro-
peans, and, under the fire of the whole immense
artillery of the enemy, gained a little eminence,
and formed themselves into a new square. In
this form did this intrepid band, though totally
without ammunition, the officers fighting only
with their swords and the soldiers with thehr bay-
onets, resist and repulse the mjrriads of the enemy
in thirteen different attacks ; until at length, inca-
pable of withstanding the successive torrents of
fresh troops which were continually pouring upon
them, they were fairly borne down and trampled
upon, many of them still continuing to fight under
the very legs of the horses and elephants. To
save the lives of the few brave men who survived.
Colonel Baillie had displayed his handkerchief on
his sword, as a flag of truce ; quarter was pro-
mised, but no sooner had the troops laid down
their arms than they were attacked with savage
fury by the enemy. By the humane interference,
however, of the French officers in Hyder*s ser-
vice, many lives were saved.
The loss of the British in this engagement, call-
ed the battle of Perimbancum, amounted to about
four thousand Sex>oys, and about six hundred Eu-
ropeans. Colonel Fletcher was slain on the field.
Colonel Baillie, severely wounded, and several
other officers, with two hundred Europeans, were
made prisoners. When brought into the presence
of Hyder, he, with true Asiatic barbarism, received
them with the most insolent triumph. The Bri-
tish officers, with a spurit worthy of their country,
retorted with an indignant coolness and contempt.
"Your son will inform you," said Colonel Baillie,
" that you owe the victory to our disaster, rather
than to our defeat.*^ Hyder angrily ordered them
from his presence, and commanded them instantly
to prison. Captain Baird had received two sabre-
wounds on his head, a ball in his thigh, and a
pike- wound in his arm. He lay a long tune on the
field of battle, narrowly escaping death from
some of the more ferocious of the Mysore cavalry,
who traversed the field spearing the wounded,
and at last being unable to reach the force
under Muuro, he was obliged to surrender to the
enemy. '
The result of this battle was the immediate re-
treat of the main army under Sir Hector Mnnro
to Madras. Colonel Baillie, Captain Baird, and
five other British officers, were marched to one
of Hyder's nearest forts, and afteinvards remov-
ed to Seringapatam, where they were joined by
others of theur captive countrymen, and subjected to
a most horrible and protracted imprisonment. It
was commonly believed in Scotland that Captain
Baird was chained by the leg to another man ; and
Sir Walter Scott, writing in May 1821 to his sou,
then a comet of dragoons, with his regiment in
Ireland, when Sir David was commander of the
forces there, says, "I remember a story that
when report came to Europe that Tippoo*s pris-
oners (of whom Baird was one) were chained to-
gether two and two, his mother said, * God pity
the poor lad that's chained to our Davie I ' " She
knew him to be active, spirited and daring, and
probably thought that he would make some des-
perate effort to escape. But it was not the case
that he was chained to another. On the 10th of
May all the prisoners had been put in irons ex-
cept Captain Baird; this indignity he was not
subjected to till the 10th of November following.
"When they were about," says his biographer,
"to put the irons on Captain Baird, who was
completely disabled in his right leg, in which the
wound was still open, and whence the ball had
just then been extracted, his friend Captain Lu-
cas, who spoke the language perfectly, sprang for-
ward, and represented in very strong terms to the
Myar the barbarity i>f fettering him while in such
a dreadful state, and assured him that death would
be the inevitable termination of Captain Baird's
sufferings if the intention were persisted in. The
Myar replied that the Circar had sent as many
pairs of irons as there were prisoners, and they
must be put on. Captain Lucas then offened to
wear two sets himself, in order to save his friend.
This noble act of generosity moved the compassion
even of the Myar, who said he would send to the
Kellidar, (commander of the fort,) to open the
book of fate. He did so, and when the messenger
returned, he said the book had been opened, and
Captain Baird*s fate was good ; and the irons were
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SIR DAVID.
in consequence not put on at that time. Conld
they really have looked into the volnme of fntu-
rity, Baird would undoubtedly have been the last
man to be spared." [Life of Sir David Baird,
vol. i. p. 44.] Each pair of irons was nine pounds
weight. Captain Lucas died in prison. Captain
Baird was preserved by Providence to revenge
the sufferings which he and his fellow-prisoners
endured by the glorious conquest of Seringapatam
on the 4th of May, 1799.
He remained a pHsoner for three years and a
half. He and his companions were only idlowed
a gold /anam, value about sixpence, a-day each,
to support themselves in prison, a pittance which
could only purchase them the poorest necessaries,
and Captain Baird« on recovering from a severe
attack of dysentery, suffered so much fi-om hunger
that he was often tempted to snatch his neighbour's
share, and ate with greediness whatever happen-
ed to be left. On the cessation of hostilities, in
March 1784, he and the surviving prisoners were
released, and in July he joined his regiment at
Madras. In 1785 the number of the regiment was
thanged to the 7l8t. It was also called the Glas-
gow Highland light infantry, from the success with
which the recruiting had been carried on in that
city. So destructive had been the carnage in this
regiment in the short time it had been in India,
that it was said Captain Baird and one sergeant
were the only two individuals belonging to the
original 73d. In 1787 he removed with his regi-
ment to Bombay. On the 5th of June of that year
he became migor of the 71st, and in October he
returned home on leave of absence. In December
1790 he obtained the lieutenant-colonelcy of his
regiment, the 71st ; and in 1791, on his return to
India, he joined the army under Marquis Corn-
wall is.
As commander of a brigade of Sepoys, Colonel
Baird was present at the attack of a number of
Droogs, or hill forts, and at the siege of Seringa-
patam in February 1792; and likewise at the
storming of Tippoo Sultaun's lines and camps on
the island of Seringapatam. In 1793 he com-
manded a brigade of Europeans, and was present
at the reduction of Pondicherry. He was after-
wards appointed to the command at Tanjore. On
the drafting of the 71st into other regiments, in
October 1797 he embarked at Madras for Europe.
In December, when he arrived at the Cape of
Good Hope, he was appointed brigadier-genera],
and placed on that staff, in command of a brigade.
On June 18, 1798, he was appointed major-gen-
eral, and returned to the staff in India. In Janu-
ary 1799 he arrived at Madras, in command of
two regiments of foot, together with the drafts of
the 28th dragoons, and on the 1st of February
joined the army at Velore, where he was appoint-
ed to the command of the fii*st European brigade.
On the 4th of May of that memorable year
General Baird commanded the storming party at
the assault of Seringapatam. One o^clock was
fixed upon for the assault, it being known that the
natives usually sought shelter and repose from the
heat of the sun at that hour. When the precise
moment airived, Baird ascended the parapet of tlie
trenches in full view of both armies, " a mUitary
figure," observes Colonel Wilks, ** suited to such
an occasion ;" and, drawing his sword, and gal-
lantly waving it, shouted out, ** Now, my brave
fellows, follow mo, and prove yourselves worthy
of the name of British soldiers I" His personal ap-
pearance added greatly to the chivalrous bearing
of his manner. His figure was tall and symme-
trical; his countenance cheerful and animated.
On his open manly brow were legibly displayed
the indications of that lofty courage, that firmness
of pui-pose, and that vigour of intellect which so
conspicuously marked his whole career. Within
seven minutes the British flag floated from the
outer bastion of the fortress; and befcire night
Seringapatam was in possession of the besiegers.
General Baird, who was undoubtedly entitled to
the governorship of the town which he had thus
taken, fixed his head-quarters at the palace of
Tippoo, who was among the slain. He was next
day abruptly commanded to deliver up the keys of
the town to Colonel Wellesley, who, as it hap-
pened, had no active share in the capture, but who
was appointed to the command by his brother, the
governor-general. " And thus," said Baird, " be-
fore the sweat was dry on my brow, I was super-
seded by an inferior officer ;" that ** inferior offi-
cer" being afterwards the duke of Wellington !
In consequence of his signal success on this oc-
casion, he was presented by the army, through
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BAIRD,
195
SIR DAVID.
1
General Han-is, the coinmander-iu-cliief, with the
state sword of Uppoo Snltann. The field officers
under his immediate command at the assault pre-
sented him at the same time with a dress sword.
In 1800 he was removed to the Bengal staff.
In 1801 General Baird was appointed to the
command of an expedition intended to act against
Batavia, but which was afterwards sent to Egj'pt.
In 1802 he returned in command of the Egyptian
Indian army overland to India. In September of
that year he was removed to the Madras staff, and
commanded a large division of the army forming
against the Mahrattas. He was afterwards em-
ployed in the Mysore country. In consequence
of the great reduction of his division of the army,
by the drafts made from it by General Sir Arthur
Wellesley, who was employed in the same ser-
vice, Greneral Baird resigned his command and
sailed for Britain with liis staff, March 1803. In
December he obtained the royal permission to
wear the Turkish order of the crescent. In June
1804 he was knighted by patent,
and, on the 18th of August follow-
ing, became a military companion
of the Bath.
On 30th October 1805 he was pro-
moted to the rank of lieutenant-
general, and commanded an expedi-
tion against the Cape of Good Hope.
Arriving there January 5, 1806, he
attacked and beat the Dutch army
on the 8th, and on the 18th received
the surrender of the colony. He
remained in the government of the
Cape till Januaiy 1807, when he
was recalled, and arrived in Britain
in March of that year. On the 19tli
July he was transferred from the col-
onelcy of the 54th to that of the
24th, and placed on the foreign staff
under General Lord Cathcart. Al
the siege of Copenhagen, where he
commanded a division, he was slight-
ly wounded. He was afterwards
employed for a short time in Ireland,
with the command of the *' drill
camp'* there, and was sworn in a
member of the Irish privy council.
Having been ordered to the Peninsula, in the
beginning of November 1808 he arrived at Co-
runna, in command of about 10,000 men, and
formed a junction with the army under General
Sir .John Moore. In the battle of Coninna, Janu-
ary 16, 1809, he commanded the first division of
the army, and lost his left arm. On the death of
Sir John Moore, he succeeded to the chief com-
mand, and on communicating the intelligence of
the victory to government, he received for the
fourth time the thanks of parliament, the previous
occasions being, for the opei-ations of the army in
India in 1799, for those of Egypt in 1801, and for
the Danish expedition. On this of*«a8ion also ho
received the red riband, on being appointed a
knight grand cross of the Bath. On the 18th of
April he was created a baronet by patent, and re-
ceived a grant of the most honourable armorial
bearings, having relation to his military transac-
tions. The following is a portrait of Sir David
from a painting by Sir Henrv Raebnm :
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BAIRD,
196
PRINCIPAL.
On Sir David's return to Edinburgh after the
Spanish campaign, he called npon the then pos-
sessor of the mansion on the Castlehill where he
was bom, and requested to be allowed to see the
house in which he had passed his infancy, and the
garden behind, where he said he had spent many
happy days in bojrish amusements. This was
readily conceded, and after viewing the house, he
was conducted to the garden, where he saw the
childi'en of the tenant of the house engaged in the
very same species of mischievous sport which he
declared had often been his own, namely, throw-
ing stones and kail castocks down the chimneys
of the houses in the Grassmarket below. [Cham-
hers" Traditions of Edinburgh^ vol. i. p. 155.]
Sir David married, 4th August 1810, Miss
Campbell Preston of Femtower and Lochlane,
Perthshire, niece of Sir Robert Preston, of Valley-
field, Baronet. In 1814 he was promoted to the
rank of general. In 1820 he was appointed com-
mander of the forces in Ireland, and sworn of his
majesty's privy council there, and in 1828 he be-
came governor of Fort-George in Scotland. He
died at an advanced age, August 18, 1829, at his
seat of Femtower in Perthshire, where he passed
the latter years of his life, and leaving no issue, was
succeeded in the baronetcy by his nephew. Captain
Baird. His widow snr^ ived till 28th May 1847.
A monument erected by her on Tom-a-Chastel, a
most romantic hill on her estate, to the memory of
her gallant husband, is in the form of an obelisk,
of Aberdeen granite, eighty-two feet four inches
in height, and an exact fac simile of Cleopatra's
needle; most fitting model for the monument
of the gallant soldier who was the first with a
European army to ascend the Red Sea, cross the
desert, descend the Nile, and display the united
standards of Britain and Brama on the shores of
Alexandria. [New Stat, Ace. vol. x. p. 741.]
Sir David Baird was deservedly popular with
the army. Although a strict disciplinarian, he
had the power to an extreme degree of winning
the attachment and respect of the men under his
command. "There was," says General Middle-
more, who served with him in Egypt, ** something
about him which gave at once complete confidence
in him : his countenance bespoke a mind spotless
from guile or subterfiige. You felt that truth
beamed in all his features—it was impossible to
doubt him — ^you might implicitly place your life,
and honour, and happiness, on his bare word.
He could not deceive ; and as he was firm and in-
flexible upon every point of discipline and duty,
so was he incapable of injuring a human being.
With the courage of a hero, his heart was as kind
and gentle as a woman's." His power over his
soldiers, even under the most trying circumstan-
ces, was strikingly exemplified at Wallajahbad in
1797, when the order came for breakmg up the
71st regiment, which he had so long commanded,
and drafting the men fit for service into other regi-
ments. The order was read to the men by the
adjutant. Sir David being too much afiected to
read it himself. "The effect produced by it,"
says his biogi-apher, "was beyond description.
It seems as if a sudden dismay had seized the
whole regiment. It was a moment of trial in
which there was something awful ; but Baird, who
knew his duty, and who always did it, addressed
the men thus : * My poor fellows — not a word —
the order must be obeyed.' And then, to conceal
emotions of which even he need not have been
ashamed, he tumed round, and ordered the band
to strike up the popular Scottish air, the choras of
which is in these words —
The king oommands, and we^ll obey,
Over the hills and fiir away."
He is said himself to have been passionately fond
of the native airs of his country. He fre-
quently spoke, with the most affectionate delight,
of the way in which his mother used to sing them,
and he had them similarly arranged for the band
of his regiment. The IJfe of Sir David Baird by
Theodore Hook was published at London in 1832
in two volumes.
BAIRD, George Husbaio), the very rev.,
D.D., principal of the university of Edinburgh,
the author and unwearied promoter of the scheme
for the education of the Highlanders, was bora in
1761, in the parish of Borrowstounness, where his
father, a considerable proprietor in the county of
Stirling, rented a farm from the duke of Hamil-
ton. He received the mdiments of his education,
fii'st at the parish school of Borrowstounness, and
subsequently, upon his father acquiring and re>
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BAIRD,
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PRTT^JJIPAL.
moving to the property of Manael, in West-Ix)-
tliian, at the grammar school of Linlithgow. In
1773 he entered as a student at the university of
Edinburgh ; and while there, acquired the special
notice of Principal Robertson, Professor Dalzel,
and others of the professors, for his diUgence and
proficiency. At college he and the late Professor
Finlayson, and Josiah Walker, who were fellow-
stndents with him, associated for the prosecution
of studies beyond what was required by the col-
lege courses ; by which he was enabled to make
himself master of most of the European languages.
These three young men, it is stated in the sketch
of Baird^s life in Kay^s Edinburgh Portraits, aie
said to have entered into an agreement to promote
the advancement of one another in life to the ut-
most of their power; and though, it is added,
there was a degree of singularity in the compact,
and perhaps no real increase from it in the dispo-
sition to serve each other, it is certain that indi-
Tidually all the three parties mentioned could
ascribe important advantages to the good offices
of one or other in that association, one much to
be commended and imitated. The reverse of such
conduct, from unworthy feelings of envy and jea-
lousy, is too often exhibited in after-life by those
who had once been schoolfellows and close com-
panions in their youth. In 1784 he was recom-
mended by Professor Dalzel as tutor to the fam-
ily of Colonel Blair of Blair. In 1786 he was
licensed by the presbytery of Linlithgow, and in
the following year he was ordained to the parish of
Dunkeld, to which charge he had been presented
by the duke of Athol, through the influence of his
fi-iend, Mr. Finlayson. At Dunkeld he remained
for several years, living as an inmate of the duke's
family, and superintending the education of his
grace's three sons, the last survivor of whom was
the late Lord Glenlyon. In 1789 or 1790 he was
presented to Lady Tester's church, Edinburgh,
but at the request of the duke and duchess of
Athol, he declined it. In 1792 he was trans-
ferred to the New Greyfriars church, Edinburgh ;
and at the same time was elected professor of
oriental languages in the university there. In
1793, on the death of Dr. Robertson, he was,
when not more than thirty-three years of age,
appointed the principal of the university.
As principal he was once called upon to exor-
cise college discipline in the case of three of the stu-
dents who afterwards attained to great distinction,
which has rendered this instance of the maintenance
of academic authority memorable in the annals of
the university. A challenge having been sent to
one of the professors, the parties implicated in this
misdemeanor, namely, Lord Henry Petty (after-
wards the marquis of Lansdowne), the late Fran-
cis Homer, Esq., M.P., and Mr. (now Lord)
Brougham, were summoned before the Senatus
Academicus. The only one who appeared was
Brougham, and the rebuke of the principal was at
once so administered and so received, that a friend-
ship ensued between them, which was continued
long after the former had entered upon public life.
In 1799 Principal Baird was translated to the
New North church; and in 1801, on the death
of Dr. Blair, he was removed to the High church,
where he continued to officiate till his death.
He -married the eldest daughter of Thomas El-
der, Esq. of Fometh, Lord Provost of Edin-
burgh. His later years, until prevented by the
infirmities of age, were principally occupied in
promoting his truly benevolent and philanthro-
pic plan, for extending a religious education
among the poorer classes of his fellow country-
men in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
At the meeting of the General Assembly of the
Church of Scotland in May 1824, he brought for-
ward his motion for increasing the means of edu-
cation throughout Scotland, but particularly in the
Highlands and Islands, and in large towns. The
Assembly of 1825 gave its sanction to the scheme
proposed ; which mainly owed its success to the
talents, labour, industry, personal influence, and
pious enthusiasm of the originator of the plan ;
who lived to see a provision secured, by his exer-
tions, for the Christian education of many thousand
children of the poor. Such was his zeal to for-
ward the educational interests, and to improve the
moral condition of his Gaelic countrymen, that, in
the autumn of 1827, in the 67th year of his age,
he visited the Highlands of Argyleshire, the west-
em parts of Inverness and Ross, and the Western
Islands, traversing the whole country fit>m Lewis
to Kintyi-e. The following year he visited for the
same purposes, the North Highlands, and the
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BATRD.
198
BALCANQUAL.
Islands of Orkney and Shetland. Through his
means also, the late Dr. Andrew Bell of Madras
bequeathed £5,000 to the scheme for education in
the Highlands. In 1832 the thanks of the Gen-
eral Assembly were conveyed to him by Dr. Chal-
mers, the moderator, in the following terms: —
**The benefits you have conferred on the canse of
education in the Highlands and Islands of Scot-
land will ever associate your name with the whole
of that immense region, and hand down your me-
moiy to distant ages as the moral benefactor of
many thousand families. I feel confident that I
do not outrun the sympathy of a single individual
in our church, when, in its name, I oflfer you, as
the head of a noble and national enterprise, the
meed of our united thanks, for the vigour, and ac-
tivity, anS the enthusiasm wherewith, at an ad-
vanced period of life, you have addi*cssed yourself
to this great undertaking, and may now be said to
have fully and firmly established it." By his be-
nevolent exertions the worthy principal is said to
have contributed much to the fi-eeing the minds
of the Highlanders from the supei-stitions which
they were so fond of cherishing, and particularly
to the expulsion of the fairies from the Highland
hills A portrait of Principal Baird is subjoined.
Dr. Baird died on the 14th January 1840, at his
residence of Manuel near Linlithgow, in the 79th
year of his age. He was, when a young man, a
correspondent of the poet Bums, and his name
appeal's among the list of subscribers to the first
or Kilmarnock edition of his poems. — Obituaries
of the time,
Batxtanquall, a surname derived originally from the
lands of that name in the parish of Strathmiglo, Fife. In
Sibbold^s List of the Heritors of that comity (1710) occurs
the name of Balcanqohall of that Ilk. [Hist, of F\fe^ Ap-
pendix. No. 2.] The estate of Balcanqoail afterwards be-
longed to the Hopes of Pinkie.
One of the first presbyterian ministers of Edinburgh wai
the Rev. Walter Balcanqnall, the son of Balcanqohall of
that ilk. Mr. James Melville, in his Diary, mentions him
under date 1574 as "ane honest, vpright harted young
man, latlie ehterit to that ministerie of Edinbruche.*' [ife^
ville^s Diary ^ P* '^1*] ^i^h his colleague Mr. James Law-
son, Mr. Robert Pont, Mr. Andrew Melville, and others, he
took an active part against the scheme of King James for
re-establishing the bishops. On the assembly of the estates
for that purpose in 1584, the king sent a message to the
magistrates of Edinburgh to seize and imprison any of the
ministers who should venture to speak against the proceeding
of the parliament. Mr. Walter Balcanquhall, however, as
well as Mr. Lawson, not only preached against these proceed-
ings from the pulpit, but the former, with Mr. Robert Pont
and others, appeared at the Gross, on the heralds proceeding
to proclaim the acts passed in parliament afiecting the church,
and publicly protested and took instruments in the name of the
Kirk of Scotland against them. For this, he and Mr Lawson
were compelled to retire to England, [Ibid, p. 119,] where
the latter died the same year. His will contained some
curious bequests, among others the following to his colleague:
*^ Item, I will that my loving brother Mr. James Cannichaell,
sail bow a rose noble instjuitlie, and deliver it to my deere
brother and loving fnend, Mr. Walter Balcanquall, who hath
beene so carefull of me at all times, and cheefelie in time of
this my present sicknesse ; to remaine with him as a perpetuail
tokin and remembrance of my spedall love slid thankful!
heart towards him." [Calderwood's Hist, vol. iv. p. 206.]
In the following year Mr. Balcanquhall returned to his charge,
and on Sunday, the 2d of January 1586, he preached before
the king ** in the great kirk of Edinburgh," when his mi^esty,
*' after sermoun, rebooked Mr. Walter pnblictlie from his
seate in the loaft, and said he would prove there sould be
bishops and spiritual! magistrats endued with authoritie over
the ministrie; and that he (Balcanquhall) did not his dntio
to condemn that which he had done in parliament." [lUd,
491.] In December 1596 he was again obliged to flee to
England, but subsequently retiumed. After being one of the
ministers of Edinburgh for forty-three years, he died in
1616. Of his son, well known as one of the executors of his
relative George Heriot, a notice follows.
The surname of Balcanquhall seems to have been in course
of time changed into Ballingall, as more euphonious.
BALCANQUAL, AValter, an eminent Epis-
copalian divine of the seventeenth centmy, the
don of the Rev. Walter Balcauqual, mentioned
above, born in Edinburgh about 1586. Although
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BALCANQUAL.
199
BALCARRES.
his father was a Presbyterian, he himself, probably
convinced by the arguments of King James in fa-
vour of bishops, preferred taking orders in the
Church of England. He commenced his studies
at the university of Edinburgh, where, in 1609, he
took his degree of M.A. He afterwards entered
at Pembroke Hall, Oxford, as a bachelor of di-
vinity, and was admitted a fellow, September 8,
1611. He was one of the chaplains of James
YI. In 1617 he was appointed master of the
Savoy, in the Sti-and, London; and in 1618 he
was sent by his majesty to the synod of Dort.
His letters concerning that assembly, addressed to
Sir Dudley Carlton, may be found in Mr. John
Hales* 'Golden Remains/ Before proceeding to
the synod of Doi-t, he received the degree of D.D.
from the univeraity of Oxfoi-d. In March 1624,
he obtained the deanery of Rochester, and after-
wards in May 1689, he was made dean of Dur-
ham. On the death of George Heriot, jeweller to
the king, February 12, 1624, being appointed one
of the three executors of his last will, with the
prindpal charge of the establishment of Heriot's
hospital at Edinburgh, Dr. Balcanqnal drew up
the statutes, which ai*e dated 1627, and discharged
the onerous trust imposed upon him, with much
ability, judgment, and good sense. In 1638 he
accompanied the marquis of Hamilton, the king's
commissioner, to Scotland, in the capacity of chap-
lain ; and his double dealing, on this and subse-
quent occasions, rendered him obnoxious to the
party in both kingdoms who were struggling for
their religious rights. He is said to have written
the apologetical narrative of the court proceed-
ings, which, under tlie title of ' His Majestie's
I^rge Declaration concerning the late Tumults in
Scotland,' appeared in folio in 1689. On July 29,
1641, he and five other gentlemen were denounced
as incendiaries by the Scottish parliament. He
was afterwards exposed to much persecution from
the English Puritans, and after being plundered,
sequestrated, and forced to fly from London, he
went to Oxfoi-d, and for some years shared the
waning fortunes of his sovereign. He died at
Chirk castle, Denbighshhre, on Christmas day,
1645, just after the battle of Naseby ; and a splen-
did monument was subsequently erected to his
memory in the parisl church of Chiik, by Sir |
Thomas Middleton.— iStei^n's History of Heriofs
Hospital.
Dr. Balcanqual's works are the following:
His Miye8tie*8 Large DeclaratbD conoemiog the Ute Tu-
molts in Scotland. London, folio, 1639.
Statates of Heriot^s Hospital in Edinburgh. Edin. 8vo.
Sernaon on Psalm outL 6. Lond. 1634, 4to. On Matth
XXL 13. Lond. 1634.
Balcarrbs, earl of, a title formerij possessed hj a princi-
pal branch of the ancient and noble family of Lindsay, and
now held by the chief of the name. [See LnrDSAT, surname
of.] The first of the family of Balcarres was John Lindsay,
the second son of Sur David Lindsay of Edsell and Glenesk in
Forfarshire, ninth earl of Crawford, who died in 1558. [See
Crawford, earl of.] John Lindsay was bom in 1552, and,
with bis elder brother David, was, at the proper age, sent to
pursue his studies m France, under the care of Mr. James
Lawson, afterwards the well-known colleague of John Knox
in the ministry of Edinburgh. On the troubles breaking out
between the Huguenots and the Catholics, they were obliged
to fly from Paris at a moment's warning, leaving their books
behind them, and saving nothing but the clothes on their
backs. They took refiige at first at Dieppe, but on the cap-
ture of that town, they passed over to England, and ultimately
went to the university of Cambridge. [JU'vet qfthe Lvtdaayt^
voL L pp. 331, 332.] In conformity with the practice of the
age, whereby the nobility and barons took possession of the
temporalities which, before the Reformation, belonged to the
Romish clergy, the revenues of the rectories of Menmuir,
Lethnot, and Lochlee, in Forfarshbre, livings in the gift of the
fiunily of Edxell, had been settled upon John Lindsay, while
yet a child, and in consequence he took the title, familiar to
every Scottish antiquary, of Parson of Menmuir. He had
also the teinds, or tithes, of certain parishes, and a pension of
two hundred pounds annually out of the bishopric of St An-
drews, by writ under the privy seal, 11th July 1576; and
the small estate of Drumcaim, in Forfarshire, was settled
upon him. [Jhid, p. 334.] Having applied himself to the
study of the law, he was appointed a lord of session, 5th July
1581, before he was tMrty years of age, when he assumed the
judicial title of Lord Menmuir. Sibbald styles him ** a wise
and teamed person.** [BUtory of F(/e, p. 853.] In 1587
he purchased the lands of Balcarres, in the pariah of Kilcon-
quhar, Fifeshire, with Balneill, Pitcorthie, and other lands in
tiiat county, and, 10th June 1592 he obtained a royal charter
xmiting them in a free barony in his favour; an estate, which,
says Lord lindsay, with the knds of Balmakin and Innerdo-
vat in Foriarsbire, formed the original patrimony of the Bal-
carres family. [Lm>€s of ike Lmdsayt^ vol. i. p. 337.] In
1587, Lord Menmuir*s name appears prominently as member
of different public commissions. He wss the framer of the
acts passed in that year, " anent the form and order of parlia-
ment," ** anent the vote of the barons,** and other acts which
modified the constitution of the Scottish parliament and
abridged the power of the higher nobility, in admitting the
lesser barons to a voice in parliament by iJieir commissioners.
[See Baron, title and privileges of.] In October 1591, he
was appomted one of the qoeen*s four master stabulars, or
managers of her revenues, the three others being Seyton, af-
terwards Lord Chancellor and first earl of Dunfermline;
Elphinstone, first lord Balmerinoch; and Hamilton, first earl
of Haddington. In June 1592 Lord Menmuir was appointed
for life " Master of the Metals** and minerals within Uie king-
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BALCARRES.
dom, " an appointmenli" says Lord Lindsay, " sanctioned by
extensive powers, and the object of which was the increase of
revenne to the crown, by the exploration of the mineral wealth
of Scotland, more espedally the gold mines of Crawfordmoor
on the lands granted by the Lindsays, above three hundred
and fifty years before, to the monks of Newbattle. But this
resource was found unproductive, or at least the necessary
preliminary outlay was too expensive." [Lttw of the lAnd-
taysy vol. L p. 354.] In January 1595 his lordship was ap-
pointed one of the eight commissioners of the exchequer,
called the Octavians, in whom the control and management of
the treasury and the administration of public affairs were vested,
with unlimited powers, after the death of Chancellor Hait-
land. In March of the same year [1595] Lord Menmuir
was appointed lord keeper of the privy seal, and on the
28th May 1696 secretary of state for life. " In this capadty,**
says Lord Lindsay, quoting the Balcarres papers in the Advo-
cates^ Library, " the correspondence and complicated negotia-
tions with fbrdgn powers, for the object of securing their sup-
port of James in the event of his succession to the throne of
England, fell to the conduct and guidance of Lord Menmuir.**
[Lives of the Lindtayty vol. L p. 356.] He was the chief
confidant and adviser of the king in his attempts to restore
episcopacy, and in 1596 drow up a "plat,** or scheme, for
" planting** the whole kirks throughout Scotland with perpe-
tual local stipends, — a scheme which, according to James
Melville, who has inserted it at full length in his Diaiy, [p.
223,] "was thought the best and maist exact that ever was
devisit or sett down, and wald, sum little things amendit,
baiffbdn gladlie receavit be the breithring of best judgment,
gif in the monethe of August ther haid nocht bein ane Act of
Esteattis devysit anent the renewing of the takes of teinds to
the present takismen for thair granting to the perpetuall plat,
quhilk in efiect maid the teinds in all tyme cumming heritable
to them; thir locall stipends and a portioun to the king sett
asyde in ilka paroche. To the quhilk, nather the kirk nor
gentilmen whase teinds was in vther men's possessioun, could
nor wald oondisend to. And sa, as I mentioned befor, the
chiefTof this wark gaiff it ower as a thing nocht lyk to be
done in his dayes." [MehiUe^s Diary, p. 229.] According
to Galderwood, the celebrated fifty-five "questions,** as
they were called, which, embracing the principal points in
dispute between Jahies and the clergy, were sent by the king
to the different synods and presbyteries, and led to the con-
vention of a General Assembly at Perth, 28th February 1597,
and ultimately to the yielding by the clergy of most of James*
demands and the re-establishment of episcopacy, were drawn
up by Lord Menmuir. [Lives of the Lrndsays, vol. L p. 366.]
As he had for years suffered severely from the stone, his lord-
ship designed to go to Paris, as was then the custom, to be
cut for the disease, and King James accordingly appointed
him ambassador to France, assigning him one hundred crowns
monthly during his absence. Towards the end of 1697 he
resigned his office of secretary of state, and his place as a lord
of session, the latter of which was bestowed on his elder bro-
ther Sir David, thenceforward designed Lord EdzelL [See
Edzrll, lindsays of.] His own title and rank as Lord
Menmuir were continued to him for life. Increasing infirmity
prevented his departure for France, and he died September 8,
1598, at his house of Balcarres in Flfeskire, in his forty-sev-
enth year. A total eclipse of the sun had appalled the
people of Scotland early in that year, and among other events
which it was thought to have portended was the death of
Lord Menmuir, "for naturall iudgment and leming,** says
James Melville, "the graittest light of the polede and conn-
sell of Scotland.** [IHarif, p. 290.] Besides the other offices
held by him, he was also chancellor of the university of SL
Andrews.
Lord Menmuir is commemorated as an able lawyer and
statesman, a scholar, a man of letters, and a poet He seems
to have been acquainted with the French, Italian, Spanish,
and other continental languages, and wrote both the Latin
and Scottish fluently and vigorously. He is mentioned wiUi
praise as a writer of " Epigrams,*' both by Scott of Scotstar-
vet, and Sir William Alexander, eari of Stirling ; but none of
them have been preserved. A treatise of his, * De Jure An-
glicano,* has also been lost He was a book-collector, and
accumulated numerous state-papers and lettera by persona^
distinguished during the earlier parts of the sixteenth century,
particularly those belonging to the court of France, such as,
Catherine de Medicis; Henry the Second; the celebrated
Anne, Constable de Montmorency; Diana of Poitien ; Mary,
Queen of Scots; Margaret of France, duchess of Savoy;
James the Fifth of Scotland ; Jeanne d*Albret, queen of Na-
varre, and others. All these, with othere of later date, were
presented, in 1712, to the Advocate*s library, Edinburgh, by
Lord Menmuir*s great grandson, Colin, third earl of Balcar-
res, and have been airimged and bound up, by Dr. Irving,
the hite libraiian, in nine folio volnmes. Mr. Miudment, ad-
vocate, has printed several of them in the MisceUtmy of the
Afaidand Club, vol. i. page 207, et seq., and in the AncJecta
Scotica, 2 vols. 8vo, 1836-7. Much of Lord Menmuir*s own
correspondence, both in Latin and Scottish, is also preserved
in the public repoatories of Scotland. Several of his Latin
letters are printed in Mr. Maidroent*s Letters and State Papers
during the reign of King James F/., Ahbotsfbrd Club, page
18 et seq. [See Lives qf the Lindsays, vol L pp. 875, 376
and notes,] The family mansion of Balcarres was erected by
his lordship in 1596.
He was twice married, first, in 1581, to Marion, daughter
of Alexander Guthrie, burgess of Edinburgh, and widow cA
David Borthwick of Lochhill, Lord Advocate firom 1573 to
1580, by whom he had two sons, John and David, and three
daughters; secondly, to Dame Jean Lauder, the dowager
lady of Corstorphin, who, described as " a termagant,** made
his life very uncomfortable, and was even imprisoned for her
violence. By this lady he had no diOdren. Catherine, his
eldest daughter, was married first to her cousin Sir John
Lindsay of Woodbead and Ballinscho, fourth son of David,
tenth eari of Crawford, and had a son. Colonel Henry Lindsay ;
secondly, to John Brown of Fordell, Perthshire, to whom also
she had issue ; Margaret, the second daughter, married Sir
John Strachan of Thornton, and Janet, the youngest, became
the wife of Sir David Auchmutie of Auchmutie.
John Lindsay, Lord Menmuir's eldest son, died Portly
after himself, under age and unmarried, in January 1601.
The second son, David, succeeded his brother when only
fourteen yeare old. In 1607, before he was twenty years of
age, he went to the continent, and spent some years in France
and elsewhere. In 1612 he returned to Scotland, when he
received the honour of knighthood. He married Lady Sophia
Seyton, third daughter of Alexander, first earl of Dunfermline,
lord high chancellor of Scotland, and retiring to Balcarres,
devoted himself to literary and scientific pursuits. He is said
to have had the best library of his time in Scotiand. He was
a laborious alchemist^ and " natural philosophy, particDlaHy
chemistry and the then fi&shionable quest of the elixir vitm,
and the philosopher's stone, occupied much of his attention.**
[Lives of the Lindsays, voL iL p. 3.] Ten volumes of tran-
scripts and translations from the works of the Bostcruciant
and othere were, at one period, m the library at Baloarres,
written in his own hand, of which only four now remain.
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, He was the oonrespondent and friend of Dnunmond of Haw-
thorndeo, and the odebrated Sir John Soott of Scotstarvet
On Charles the First's risit to Scotland in 1683, Sir David
was created Lord lindsaj of Balcaires, 27th Jane that year,
to him and h\s hmrs nude bearing the name of Lindsaj. In
1639, when the Soots mustered their forces on Dnnse Law,
to resist Charles* attempt to overthrow the ciTil and religious
liberties of Scotland, Lord Balcarres appeared at the head of
his followers on the side of the Covenanters. The tieatj of
Berwick brought a temporary peace, and Lord Balcarres dis-
banded his followers. He died at Balcarres in March 1641.
His eldest son, Alexander, second Lord Balcarres, raised a
troop of horse, constantly alluded to in the histories of the
period, with which he joined the Covenanters, and was en-
gaged at the battle of Atfbrd against the marquis of Montrose,
3d July 1645. After the defeat of the Covenanters, with
General Baillie and the earl of Argyle, he repaired to the par-
fiamott of Stirling, and was favourably received. At the sit-
ting of 10th July, **the house, by tiier acte, ordained the
Ijord Balcarras good service to hes countrey to be recordit in
the bookes of parliament to posterity, and a letter of thankes
to be wrettan from the house to hhn, for hes worthey carriage
and good service." IBalfour's Atmals, voL iii. p. 295.] At
the battle of Osyth, which followed, Balcarres acted as gen-
eral of the horse, and on the defeat of the Covenanters, he
fled to West Lothian, and reached Colinton the same night,
with ten or twelve horsemen only. On the surrender of the
king to the Scottish army. Lord Balcarres was one of the
commissioners sent by the Scottish parliament 19th Decem-
ber 1646, to negotiate with Charies on the part of the church
and parliament of Scotland ; but as his mi^jesty dedined the
terms, the Scotch army retired from England, after surren-
dering him to the English parliament In 1648 Lord Bal-
carres entered into the engagement or league, which was
formed for the rescue of the king, and was appointed colonel
of horse for the shire of Fife. He was also one of the Com-
mit appointed to manage afikirs during the recess of par-
liament On the arrival of Charles the Second in Scotland
in 1650, he waited upon his mtgesty, by whom he was grad-
oudy received. After the rout at Dunbar, he formed a party
in favour of the king, and they soon became the minority ra
pariiament On the 22d February 1651, "My Lord Balcar-
ras," says Sir James Balfour, *' gave his Miy'estie a banquett
at his housse Qn Fife), quher he stayed some two homes, and
visited his ladey that then hiy in." [Annalsj voL iv. p. 247.]
He was created earl of Balcarres by patent dated at Perth
9th January 1651, appointed hereditary governor of the castle
of Edinburgh, (this office was given up to the crown after
his death, by his widow,) and high commissioner to the Gen-
eral Assembly of the kirk, which met at Dundee, 16th July,
1651. '
On Charles's march to Worcester, he left Balcarres, with
the earl of Crawford and Lords Marischal and Glencaim, as
a committee of estates, in charge of his affidrs In Scotland,
but his lordship was soon obliged to take reiuge in the High-
knds, where he assumed the command of the royalist troops,
under the king's commission. He had sold his plate the pre-
vious year for two thousand pounds, to defray ihe expenses
of the General Assembly. To assist his majesty's interests in
the north, he now mortgaged his estates for six thousand
pounds more. [^Lives of the lAndtays^ voL iL p. 92.] Af-
ter the defeat of the king at Worcester, Lord Balcarres capi-
tulated, in December 1651, to Cromwell's officers at Forres,
and, disbanding his foUowers, settled, on the 8th November
1652, with his family at St Andrews, whence he kept up a
correspondence with lids exiled sovereign.
When General Monk was recalled from Scotland, Lord
Balcarres again took arms in the Highlands, and in concert
with Athol, Lorn (afterwards the unfortunate eari of Argyle,
beheaded m 1685), and the prindpal Highland chiefs, under
the earl of Glencaim as commander-m-chief, made a last un-
availing attempt to uphold the royal cause against Cromwell
In 1654 his estate was sequestrated. He was afterwards
sent for by the king, to consult as to the position of affairs,
and accordingly, with his countess, he proceeded to France.
He continued some years with the king, holding the office of
secretary of state for Scotland, and was employed in various
political negotiations for the interest of King Charies. Lord
Clarendon, head of the high church party, once had influence
enough with the king to procure his d'«ffnigfal frt>m the court
at Cologne, but he was soon recalled. In a letter to Lord
Arlington, Charles thus expresses himself,—" Our little court
are all at variance, but Lord Balcarres will soon return and
heal us with his wisdom." [Memoirs ofJame*^ earl ofBal-
carre$, quoted m the Lives of the Lindsays^ vol il page 106.]
His lordship died m exUe at Breda, 80th August 1659, and
his body havuig been brought to Scotland, was interred at
Balcarres. Cowley, styled by Lord Lindsay the minstrel of
the Cavaliers, wrote an elegiac poem upon his death, which
thus conclu'les :
** His own and coontry't min had not weight
Enongfa to crusli his mighty mind ;
He saw around the hurricanes of state.
Fixed as an isUnd 'gafaist the wavee and whuL
Thus Ucc the greedy sea may reach;
AU outward things are but the beach ;
A great man's aonl it doth assault In vabi !
Their God himself the ocean doth restrain
With an imperceptible chain.
And bids It to go back again.
His wisdom, Jostlce, and his piety.
His courage both to suffer and to die,
His vfatoes, and his lady too,
Were things celestlaL And we see
In spite of quarrelling philosophy,
How hi this case His certain found
That heaven stands still, and only earth goes round r
The first earl of Balcarres had married, in 1640, the bdy
Anna Mackenzie, dau^^iter and co-heuess of Colin, first earl
of Seafbrth, and had issue Charles and Colin, who both suc-
ceeded hun in the earldom, and three daughters: Anne, who
died a nun ; Sophia, a lady remarkable for her liveliness and
spirit, who accomplished the escape of her stepfather, the earl
of Argyle, frt>m the castle of Edinburgh in 1680, in the dis-
guise of a page holding up her train, and who married the
Hon. Colonel Charles Campbell, Argyle's third son by his first
wife; and Harriet, who became the wife of Sir Duncan
Campbell, Baronet, of Auchinbreck. The countess of Bal-
carres married a second time, in 1671, Archibald, the unfor-
tunate earl of Argyle, beheaded in 1685.
The eldest son, Charles, second eari of Balcarres, did not
long survive his father, dying unmarried on the 15th October
1662, when only twelve years old, of a disease of the heart.
The second son, Colin, succeeded his brother. He was an
episcopalian, and distinguished himself by his staunch adhe-
rence to James the Seventh. Lord Lindsay relates that at the
age of sixteen he went to London, and was presented to King
Charles by his cousin the duke of Lauderdale. Being ex-
tremely handsome, the king was pleased with his countenance.
He said he had loved his father, and would be a father to
him himself, and though so young he gave him the command
of a select troop of horse, composed of one hundred loyal gen-
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tleraen who had been rednoed^to poverty during the recent
troables, and had half-a-crown a-day. [Ltvet ofiht lAndaays^
vnl. iL p. 120.] His m^esty had previouslj settled on Ladj
Balcarres and the longest liver of her two sons a pennon of one
thousand pounds a^year, on her giving np, during their minori-
ty, the patent of the hereditary government of Edinburgh castle,
which had been conferred on their father. Earl Colin mar-
ried early, and there is a romance attending his marriage of a
peculiarly affecting nature. The young Mademoiselle Mau-
ri tia de Nassau, uster of Lady Arlington and the countess of
Ossory, and daughter of Louisa de Nassau, count of Bever-
waert and Anvurquerque in Holland, a natural son of Mau-
rice prince of Orange, had fallen deeply in love with him, and
erelong the day was fixed for their marriage. On this occa-
sion, says Lord Lindsay, the prince of Orange, afterwards
William the Third, presented his faur kinswoman with a pahr
of magnificent emerald ear-rings, as his wedding gift. On
the marriage daj, when the wedding party were assembled in
the church, and the bride was at the altar, to their dismay
no bridegroom appeared. The earl, it seems, had forgotten
the day fixed for his marriage, and was found, in his night-
gown and slippers, quietly eating his breakfast He hurried
instantly to the church, but in his haste left the wedding
ring in his writing case. A friend in the company gave him
one. The ceremony proceeded, and without looking at the
ring he had received, he placed it on the finger of his fair
young bride. It was a mourning ring, with the morthead
and CTMsed bones ! On perceiving it, at the close of the cer-
emony, the countess fainted, and the evil omen made sUch an
impression on her mind that she declared she should die with-
m the year, a presentiment which was too truly fulfilled.
f/Wd, p. 121.]
Ailer the death of his wife, Lord Balcarres went to sea
with the duke of York, and was with his royal highness in
the well-fought battle of Solebay, 28th May 1672. He was
admitted a privy councillor 8d June 1680, and in 1682 be-
came sheriff of Fifeshire. After the accession of James the
Seventh he was appointed, 8d September 1686, one of the
Council of Six, or commissioners of the treasury, in whom
the Scottish administration was lodged. When the prince of
Orange prepared to invade Britain, the earl of Balcarres and
his friend the eari of Cromarty proposed to the earl of Perth,
the chancellor, with the money then in the Scottish exche-
quer, about ninety thousand pounds, to levy ten battalions of
foot, to form a body of four or five thousand men from the
Highlands, to raise the arri^ van and to select about twelve
thousand horse out of them, and with this force and three or
four thousand regular troops, amounting in all to an army
of about fifteen thousand men, commanded by General Dong-
las and Lord Dundee, to m»roh to York, and keep all the
northern counties in order. This plan was disapproved of by
Lord Melfort, sole secretary of state, who sent orders for the
small army on foot instantly to march into England, to rein-
force the English army. On rumours of the landing of the
prince reaching Scotland, Lord Balcarres was sent by the
council to London to ascertain the state of matters. With
T/)rd Dundee he waited upon the king a day or two after
his return finom his flight to Feversham, and was affection-
ately received. At the request of James they took a walk
with his majesty in the Mall. The king asked them how
they came to be with him, when all the world had forsaken
him for the prince of Orange. I^ord Balcarres said their
fidelity to so good a master would ever be the same, and that
they had nothing to do with the prince of Orange. Lord
Dundee also made the strongest professions of duty. The
poor king then demanded, " Will you two, as gentlemen, say
yon have still attachment to me ?* They both replied, " Sir,
we do." ** Will yon,** said James, '* give me your hands npoo
it, as men of honour?** They did so. ** Well,** contiiioied
the king, ** I see you are the men I always took you to ba
You shall know all my intentions. I can no longer remain
here but as a cipher, or be a prisoner to the prince of Orange,
and you know there is but a small distanoe between the pri-
sons and the graves of kings ; therefore I go for France im-
mediately. When there, you shall have my instmcdona, —
yon. Lord Balcarres, shall have a commission to manage my
civil affairs, and you. Lord Dundee, to command my troopa
in Scotland.** {lAoea of the Lmdsc^s^ roL il p. 162.
After James was gone. Lord Balcarres waited on the prince
of Orange, to whom he was well known. The prince said be
doubt«d not of his lordship*s attachment to him at the oon«
vention. The eari relied, that although he had the utmost
respect for his highness, he could have no hand in turning
out his king, who had been a kind master to him, however
imprudent in many things. The prince twice thereafter spoke
to him on the same subject, but at last told him to bewan
how he behaved himself, for if he transgressed the law, hi
should be left to it Lords Balcarres and Dxmdee then
returned to Scotland, where, with the archbishop of St
Andrews, they received a oomnusaon from King James to
call a new convention at Stirling. After Dundee had gone
north to raise forces in King James* behalf, the duke of Ham-
ilton, who was president of the parliament, had been invested
with full powers, to imprison suspected persons, sent a de-
tachment of infantry to Fife, to take Lord Balcaires prisoner.
He was carried to Edinburgh, and confined m the oonmion
gaol, where at first he had liberty to see his friends. At the
first meeting of the convention, however, some intercepted
letters, directed to him by the earl of Melfort, were read ;
wherein, after assurances of speedy relief, he expressed a wish
that some had been cut off that he and Lord Balcarres had
often spoken off, and then these things had never happened,
*' but when we get the power,** it was added, '* we will make
these men hewers of wood and drawers of water.** In his
memorial to King James, Lord Balcarres solemnly denied
that he had ever heard Lord Melfort use any audi expres-
sions, and in the convention he was defended by the duke of
Queensbeny, who expressed his conviction that Melfort had
written the letters on purpose to injure Lord Balcarres, with
whom he was on very HI terms. Influenced by the duke of
Hamilton, however, the convention voted his lordship dose
prisoner in the tolbooth, where he remained for four months.
On the surrender of the castle of Edinburgh by the duke of
Gordon, he was removed to that fortress, and not released till
after the death of Dundee at Killiecrankie, and oonseqnoit
dispersion of his army. When confined to the castle be is
said to have seen the ghost of his finend Dundee one moniing
at daybreak. The story is thus related. "The q>ectre,
drawing aside the curtain of the bed, looked very stead^stly
upon the ea^, after whidi it moved towards the mantelpiece,
remained there for some time in a leaning posture, and then
walked out of the chamber without uttering one word. Lord
Balcarres, in great surprise, though not suspecting that whidi
he saw to be an apparition, called out repeatedly to his friend
to stop, but received no answer, and subsequently learned
that at the very moment this shadow stood before him Dun-
dee had breathed his last near the field of KHliecrankie.**
[[jaw's MemoridU^ Preftdory Notice by C Kirkpatrick
Sharpe^ Esq, p. xd. quoted by Lord TJndMy.'] Lord Balcar-
res had no doubt been dreaming of Dundee, and the visioo
which he thus saw had been but the vivid impression of his
di'eam.
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He had no sooner regained his freedom than he engaged
deeply in the plot set on foot by Sir James Montgomery of
Skelmody, for the restoration of Eiag James, and on its dis-
oovery, in 1690, he thought it advisable to retire to the con-
tinent. He first went to HoUand to visit his first wife*s rek-
tions, and then proceeded through Flanders in a coach with
some firiends on his way to France. At one part of the
Journey he was proceeding on foot with a guide through a
wood to the next stage, when he met with a party of ban-
ditti, who seized and robbed him, and were going to kill him,
but on promising them a good ransom they spared his life.
He remembered that the Jesuits had a college at Douay, firom
which they were distant thirty miles— they, he said, would
pay his ransom. The thieves agreed for one hundred pis-
toles, and took his oath never to discover them. The money
was pud, and he got his liberty, and went to tlie college,
where he found the famous Father Petre. The priests treat-
ed him with great kindness, got him dothes, and lent him
money on his bills. [Ltve* qfthe Lutdsa^^ vol. iL p. 176.]
On his arrival at St Germains, he waited on tiie exiled
monarch, by whom, as well as by the queen, he was received
with great affection. He delivered to King James the curi-
ous memoir, drawn up by himself, which, with the title of
* An Account of the Affairs of Scotland relating to the Revo-
lution of 1688,' was published in 1714 at London, and after-
wards in 1754 at Edinburgh; a work which has entitled Lord
Balcarres to a place in Walpole's Royal and Noble Authars.
The manuscripts from which these editions were printed hav-
ing been, in several instances, corrupted and interpolated,
Lord Lindsay has printed the Memoir for the Bannatyne
Club, for the first time in its original state.
L(Hd Balcarres remained for tax months at St Germains,
in great familiarity with Rmg James ; but his old opponent
Lord Melfort, and the priests, becoming jealous of the favour
shown to him, artfully forged a calumny against him, and he
was forbid the court He retired to the south of France,
whence he addressed an ezpostulatory letter to the king, as
bis father, on a similar occanon, had done to King Charles
the Second in his exile. James soon wrote to him, inviting
him back again, owning that he had been imposed upon, but
the earl refused to return. After passing a year in France,
he went to Brussels, then to Utrecht, and sending for his wife
and family from Scotland, resided there some years in tran-
quillity, m society with Bayle, Leclerc, and other learned
men. He had married a second time. Lady Jean Carnegie,
eldest daughter of David eari of Northesk. By this lady he
had a daughter, Anne, who became the wife of Alexander,
fifth earl of Kellie, and after his death, of James third Vis-
count Kingston, attainted after the rebellion of 1715, and
whom also she survived. His second countess died in King
Charies's reign, and he married a third time. Lady Jean Ker,
paternally Drummond, only daughter of WilKam earl of Rox-
burgh, youngest son of John earl of Perth, the cousin of that
eari of Perth who was chancellor of Scotland under King
James. By this lady he was father of Colin, Lord Cummer-
land, master of Balcarres, who died unmarried in November
1708, and Lady Margaret Lindsay, who married John eari of
Wigton, and had one daughter, married to Sir Archibald
Primrose.
Owing to his long exile, and his carelessness in money
matters, Lord Balcarres* affairs in Scotland fell into disorder,
and he found himself five thousand pounds in debt Many
applications were made to King William to permit him to re-
turn to Scotiand. In Carstares* State Papers^ (page 630,)
will be found a letter finom the Duke of Queensbeny to Car-
stares (seoretaiy of state for Scotland), dated Holyroodhouse
81st August 1700, recommending his behig allowed to return.
Carstares hhd ahvady spoken to King William in Lord Bal-
carres* behalf, His lordship had walked on foot, as usual, to
the Hague, to soKcit his favour. Carstares told the king, a
man he had once favoured was in so low a conation that he
had footed it firom Utrecht that nooming to desire him to
speak for him. '* If that be the case,** said he, " let him go
home, he has suffered enough already.** Lord Balcarres Ac-
cordingly returned to Scotland towards the end of 1700, aftet
an exile of ten years. [J[«pet of the Lindaaj^ vol n. p. 190.]
On the accession of Queen Anne Lord Balcarres went to
court, to wait on her Miyesty, and as Lord Lindsay adds, to
negotiate for the interests of the Episcopal church of Scotland.
The duke of Marlborough, with whom he had an eariy friend-
ship, and who often said he was the pleasantest c(»npanion
he ever knew, got him a rent-charge of five hundred pounds
a-year, for ten years, upon the crown lands of Orkney, as he
had lost his pensbn of a thousand pounds per annum at the
Revolution. The grant, dated May 29, 1704, proceeds on
the consideration of Anne, countess of Balcarres, having sur-
rendered the heritable right to the government of the castle
of Edinburgh. This rent-charge his necessities compelled
him afterwards to sell Although admitted a privy councillor
by Queen Anne, and talked of as likely to be appointed
lord-justice-general, he held no public office subsequently to
the Revolution. IJbid. page 193.]
Lord Balcarres supported the treaty of union, but on the
breaking out of the rebellion in 1715, 1^ old predilections for
the Stuarts returned, and he joined the standard of the Pre-
tender. After the suppression of the rebellion, his friend the
duke of Marlborough interposed his good offices on his behalf,
and the duke of Argyle, by whose exertions principally the
rebellion had been suppressed, being also favourable to him,
on surrendering he was subjected to no other punishment
than being confined to his own house, with a single dragoon
to attend him, till the passmg of the bill of indemnity. His
latter years were spent in retirement at Balcarres. He was
fond of books and added to his library. He had also a taste
for art, and during his residence in Holland collected several
pictures of the Dutch school, now in the possession of the
present Lord Balcarres. He caused a handsome village to
be built below his house, which is named after himself, Colms-
burgh, now a burgh of barony under the Balcarres family,
and a thriving place. He died in 1722, in his seventy-third
year. He had married, a fourth time. Lady Margaret Camp-
bell, eldest daughter of James, second earl of Loudon, and by
her, besides several children who died young, he had four
who survived him, namely, two sons, Alexander, fourth earl
of Balcarres, and James, fifth earl, and two daughters. Lady
Eleanor Lindsay, married to the Hon. James Fraser of Lon-
may, third son of William, eleventh Lord Salton, and Lady
Elizabeth, familiarly called Lady Betty Lindsay, who died at
Edinburgh, 12th March, 1744, unmarried.
Alexander, fourth earl of Balcarres, entered the army at ap
early age, and was first an ensign and then a lieutenant in
the horse grenadier guards. He next became a captain in
Lord Orimey*s regiment, then stationed in Flanders, in which
he served fix>m 1707 to the end of the war, was in all the
battles and most of the sieges during that time, was wounded
at St Venant, and was looked upon by all as an active, in-
trepid and skilful officer. Lord Lindsay quotes a spirited
reply of his which is still remembered and cited in illustration
of his character. A portion of the British army, in which he
had a command, beneging a town in Flanders, was m its
turn threatened by a superior force. As he voted for perse-
verance in the siege, he was asked, " What then have we to
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retreat upon?" *' Upon Heaven ! " was hia replj — iflid they
nltimately took the town. [^Livet of the Lmcbd^y voL iL p.
202.] He was in Ireland with his regiment at the time his
father and brother engaged in the rebellion of 1715, and their
participation in that outbreak made him lose all expectation
of promotion in the army. He returned home, and, in 1718,
married Elizabeth, daughter of David Scott of Scotstarvet, in
Fife. In 1732 he was promoted to a company in the foot
guards, the highest military rank he ever attained. At the
general election 1784, he was chosen one of the sixteen re-
presentative peers of Scotland. He died 21st July, 1736.
By his countess, who survived hun till 4th September 1768,
he had no issue, and was consequently succeeded by his bro-
ther.
James, fifth earl of Balcarres, was bom 14th November,
1691. Preferring the naval to the military service, at the age
of thirteen he went to sea on board the Ipswich, commanded
by Captain Robert Kirkton, an excellent ofScer, with whom
he remained five years, and through whose means he became
lieutenant of the Portland. In that ship he suflered much
hardship for neariy three years, and lost his health, which
obliged him to observe the strictest temperance in his habits,
and he became so much accustomed to it that he persevered
in it as long as he lived. The following characteristic anec-
dote is related by Lord Lindsay : ** Like most other gay and
handsome young men, he was fond of showing off his natural
graces to the best advantage, and, on the day appointed for
his examination as lieutenant, he waited upon his judges in a
rich suit of dothes, with red silk stockings and pink heels to
his shoes ; his examiners were a set of rough seamen in sail-
ors* jackets, who abhorred dandyism. They determmed not
to let him pass, and sent him back to sea for six months.
At the expiration of that time, he reappeared before the nau-
tical tribunal, a wiser roan — ^in a sailor's dress, with a quid of
tobacco in his cheek, — passed a most rigid examination with
great credit, and was dismissed with the assurance that he
liad acquitted himself equally to their satisfaction six months
before, — *but we were determined,* said they, * not to pass
you tin you were cured of your puppyism, which will not do
ifor a sailor.*** [^Lives of Vie lAndsoffs^ voL ii. p. 197.] His
ship being paid off at the peace, he returned at the age of
twenty-five to Scotland. He opposed his father's inclinations
to join the Pretender, but finding him bent upon it, he re-
solved to accompany him. He and his friend, the Master of
Sinclair, with the help of others, levied three troops of gentie-
men, who acted as common soldiers. Of this body he was
one of the three captains. At the battle of Sherifimuir five
squadrons of dragoons ran away before three squadrons of
them. They kept together and in order, acting with the
greatest gallantry, and when the Highlanders returned fix>m
the puiBiut, upon the left wing being beat, they had these
sqiuidrons to rally to. This saved the army, and Lord Mar-
ischal, by order of the eari of Marr, came to their front, and
thanked the whole body for their behaviour. [Lcufy Anne
Barnard, quoted in Lives qfthe lAndeays, vol ii. p. 198.]
After the suppression of the rebellion he was concealed for
some time in the castie of Newark, now ruinous, about three
miles from Balcarres, and then belonging to the Anstruthers.
One of the young ladies, we are informed, concealed him in a
secret room communicating with her apartment, and situated
near the leads of the house. To furnish him with food wo-
man's wit came to her aid. She feigned a ravenous appe-
tite, the cravings of which increased to such a d^ee that
she declared she could not bear to be seen eating. In conse-
quence, all her meals were brought to her room that she might
eut by herself; and the supply her pretended voracity required
served to satisfy both. His aunt, the countess of Stair, repre-
sented him to General Gadogan as drawn into the rebellion by his
father agiunst his will, and solidtfid a remission for him, which
was granted, at the joint request of Gadogan and Lord Stan-
hope, by Geoi^ the First, who soon after gave young Lind-
say a lieutenant's commission in the Royal North British
dragoons, or Scots Grays, commanded by his uncle. Sir James
Gampbell. He was in that station when he succeeded ae
Lord Balcarres, on the death of his brother, in 1736. He
then went to London, gained the good- will of the earl of Hay,
the brother of the duke of Ai^le, and Sir Robert Walpole,
and got the command of a troop, with which he proceeded to
the continent. At the batUe ^ Dettingen, fought 16th June
1743, he commanded one of the squadrons of his regiment,
and was by some of the generals recommended to George the
Second as deserving a higher rank. The kmg **fell into a
passion, and told the nunister that he had occasion to know"
before that no person who had ever drawn his sword in the
Stuart cause should ever rise to command, and that it was
best to tell Lord Balcarres so at once.** The earl, in conse-
quence, resolved to quit the army, which he did after the bat-
tle of Fontenoy, where his gallant unde, Sir James Camp-
bdl, received a mortal wound. His lordship sow retired te
his seat at Balcarres, and devoted himself to the improve-
ment of his estates. In the old Statistical account of the
parish of Kilconquhar, Fifeshlre, he is described as a noble-
man distinguished by the benevolence of his heart, the liber-
ality of his sentiments, and the uncommon extent of hit
knowledge, particularly in history and agriculture, and ai
among the first who brought farming to any degree of per.
fection in this countiy. [Stat. Ace. vol. ix. p. 296.] When
almost sixty years of age, Lord Balcarres married. He ha4
met at the waters of Moffat, Miss Anne Dalrymple, youngesi
daughter of Robert Daliymple, of Gastleton, knight, and
granddaughter of the Hon. Sir Hew Daliymple, of North
Berwick, knight, lord president of the court of session. She
was bom 25th December 1727, and married Lord Balcarres
at Edinburgh 24th October 1749, when only twenty-two.
They had eight sons and three daughters. Of this lai^ fam-
ily the cdebrated Lady Anne Lindsay or Barnard [see Bar-
nard, Lady Anne] was the ddest. Lord Balcarres died at
Balcarres, 20th February 1768, in his seventy-seventh year.
In his old age he was extremely deaf, llie death of his
brother, in 1736, to whom he was much attached, had so
nervously affected him that it suddenly deprived him of his
sense of hearing, which was never restored. He wrote a Sy»>
tem of Agriculture, and Memoirs of his family, £rom which
latter manuscript Douglas, in his peerage, derived mudi as*
sistance in drawing up his account of the Balcarres family
The manuscript was for a time lost, but was ultimately recov-
ered. Lady Anne Lindsay says it was lent to the brother of
her governess, a herald in the office of the Lord lion of Soot-
land, and on his death was sold among his books. Many
years afterwards it was discovered on a stall by a person who
bought it for a shilling, and returned it to a member of the
Balcarres family. Lady Anne arranged it as well as its state .
permitted, but altered nothing, and wrote a preface to it A
continuation was written by her brother, Alexander, the sixth
eari. From this valuable family history copious extracts are
given by Lord Lindsay in his mteresting biographical work.
Karl James was also the author of a poetical epistie, addressed
to his wife, written after reading Thomson*s Seasons, ** my
first,** he says, "and probably last essay m poetiy.** Of
Thomson he says, " I Kved a winter with the man at Bath ;
he had nothing amiable in his conversation, and I expected
litUe from his writings, and never had before read them ; yet
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his Seasons are trnlj poetic, — his descriptions beantiftil, re-
flections wise.** [_Lwet of ike JAndtayM^ toL ii. p. 275, and
His eldest son bat second chUd, Alexander, the sixth earl
of Balcarres, was born 18th January 1752, and when fifteen
yean of age he entered the army as an ensign in the 58dfoot,
and joined his regiment at Gibraltar. He next went to Ger-
many, where he remained two years, studying at the nniver-
sity of Gottingen. On his retom he became, in 1771, a cap-
tain in the 42d or Royal Highlanders. In 1775 he was
appointed, by purchase, all his commissions had been bought,
major of his old raiment, the 53d, with which he embarked for
Canada, on the breaking out of the American war. In 1777
he oonmianded the light infantry in the unfortunate army
under General Burgoyne, and at the battle near Ticonderago,
7th July of that year, he was wounded in the left thigh.
Thirteen balls passed throu^ his jacket, waistcoat, and
breeches, yet the wound was slight. At the head of his regi-
ment of light infantry he stormed and carried the lines of
Huberton. On the 7th of October following, on the fall of
the gallant brigadier-general Frazer, the command devolved
on Lord Balcarres, who having previously fortified his battal-
ion in a very stoong manner, at the head of his light infantry
was enabled to repulse the American army commanded by
General Arnold, alUiough victorious on every other point A
few days thereafter, however, he was forced to surrender with
the army, in consequence of Burgoyne*s convention with Gen-
eral Gates at Saratoga on the thirteenth October. He ob-
tained his fibertj two years afterwards, in 1779, and on his
return home he married, at London, Ist June 1780, his cou-
stn-german, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress, by a second
marriage, of Charies Dalxymple, Esq. of North Berwick.
While he remained a prisoner he had been appointed a lieu-
tenant-colonel in the 24th regiment, and in Felnruaiy 1782 he
was advanced to the rank of colonel, and constituted lieuten-
ant-colonel commandant of the second battalion of 7l8t foot,
tiien formed into a separate regiment, and called the second
71st regiment of foot.
At the general election of 1784, Lord Balcarres was chosen
one of the sixteen representative peers of Scotland. To the
bill introduced into the house of lords that year, for restoring
the forfeited estates, he gave his wannest support In an-
swer to an inquiry of Lord Thurlow, then lord-chancellor, as to
where the persons to whom the estates originally belonged
had resided, and what services they had been engaged in,
ance the two rebellions for which their ancestors and them-
selves bad suffered, Lord Balcarres made a very eloquent and
striking speed), in the course of which occurred the following
paasage: ** Banished thdr countiy, their properties confis-
cated, and impoverished in eveiy thing but their national
qririt, they offned their services to foreign princes, in whose
armies thej were promoted to important commands and
trusts, which they discharged with fidelity ; but the moment
they saw a prospect of return to their friends and restoration
to the bosom of their country, there was not a man of them
that hesitated ; they resigned those hi^ stations, and from
• bong general ofBcen and colonels, accepted oompahies, and
some even subaltern commissions in our service. They were,
mdeed, returned to their firiends, and received with open
orms, nor, in the course of those twelve yeare, was there a
roan who had abandoned his chief because he was poor, or
had deserted him because the heavy hand of adversity hung
over his head. A lew more yean promoted them to com-
mands in the British service; and, at the beginning of the
late war, we again see armies rushing from the Highlands,
but not with the same ideas that formerly animated them.
They had already fully established their attachment to their
sovereign, ^ a due regard to the laws of their country.
They had repeatedly received the thanks of their king, and of
the two houses of parliament; but they now found them-
selves impelled by a further motive,~they saw themselves
commanded by their former chieftains, — ^they hoped that, by
the e£fusion of their blood, by the extraordinary ardour and zeal
they would show in the service, they should one day see their
leaders legally re-established in their paternal estates, and be
enabled to receive from them those kindnesses and attentions
which they had so generously bestowed upon them in their
adversity. It was this hope, and these ideas only, that put a
stop to those emigrations which had almost depopulated the
northern parts of the kingdom.** In reply, the lord-chancel-
lor, after disclaiming any mtention of reflecting on the char-
acten or impeaching the merits of the gallant gentiemen in
whose favour this act of grace had been brought forward,
proceeded to say, ** It was fortunate for those brave men that,
from what he had said, he had afforded an opportunity for
their merits to be brought forward in a manner so truly hon-
ourable to them, and the best calculated to do them the jus-
tice they deserved. He rejoiced that their merits had now
received the highest remuneration, the praise of a soldier who
had distinguished himself so eminently in the service of his
country, that his ooropetencj to distribute either censure or
approbation on military merit became unquestionable, and
thence his applause was an honour superior to all reward. So
well satisfied was he with what had fallen from the noble
lord on that part of the subject, that he declared he would
desire no better proof of the merits of the persons concerned.**
This benevolent and important bill passed on the 18th of
August, 1784. He was rechosen a representative Scottish
peer at the elections of 1790, 1802, 1806, and 1807. He had
been colonel of the 6dd foot since the 27th August, 1789
and in 1793 he had the rank of major-general
On the breaking out of the war that year, he was appoint-
ed to the civil government and command of his majesty's
forces in the island of Jersey, in the absence of Marshal Con-
way the governor. While in that command he undertook
and carried on the correspondence with the army of La
Vendee, and the establishment of the lines of communications
with its chiefs and those of the Chonans, a business on which
he prided himself, and from which he had great expectations,
but which, being mismanaged at home, came to nothing.
In 1794 Lord Balcarres was named to the government of
Jamaica, where he arrived in April 1795. Almost immedi-
ately after his arrival the Maroons broke out in rebellion, for
the suppression of which he at once adopted the most spirited
and judicious measures, and was successful in putting an end
to the revolt His exertions were acknowledged by the
House of Assembly, 22d April 1796, voting the sum of seven
hundred guineas for the purchase of a sword to be presented
to him as a testimony of the gratitude of the colony. In an-
swer, his lordship congratuli^ed the assembly that *' during
their contest with an enemy the most ferocious that ever dis-
graced the annals of history — ^an army of savages, who had
indiscriminately massacred every prisoner whom the fate of
war had placed in their power^no barbarity, nor a single act
of retaliation, had sullied the brightness of their arms.** In
1798 he became lieutenant-general, and in 1801 he resigned
his government of Jamaica, and returned to England, and on
the 25th September 1803, he attained to the full rank of gen-
eral Having met with an accident which lamed him for
life, he resided in hb latter yeare at Haigh Hall, near Wigan,
in Lancashu^ the Haigh property being the mheritance of
his countess, on failure of male issue in her maternal family,
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that of SU Robert Bradshmigb of Haigh, baronet, ber ladj-
abip^s great-grandfittber. Besidee tbe contumation of bis
father's Memoirs, already mentioned, Lord Balcarres com-
menced * Anecdotes of a Soldier's Life,* which be did not fin-
ish. In the third yolome of the Lives of the Lindsays is
inserted an interesting selection from his public despatches
and prirate correspondence daring the Maroon war. He died
March 27th, 1825. He bad issue, James Lord Lindsay, tbe
seventh earl of Balcarres, three other sons and two daughters.
Tbe following anecdote, related by tbe late Mr. James
Stuart, younger of Duneam, is eminently characteristic of
Lord Balcarres. Speaking of General Arnold, tbe celebrated
American ren^ade, be says that he " resided in England af-
ter the war, but was treated tit various times in a way not
likely to lead others to emulate his treasonable conduct. He
was with the king (George the Third) one day when Lord
Balcarres, who had fought under General Burgoyne in tbe
Saratoga campaign, (and had been specially opposed to him
in the action of October 7, 1777, when his little redoubt saved
the British army,) was presented. Tbe king introduced
them. * What, Sire !* said the eari, drawing up his form,
and retreating, * tbe traitor Arnold? The consequence was
a challenge from Arnold. They met, and it was arranged
that the parties should fire by signal Arnold fired, and Ix>rd
Balcarres, turning on bis heel, was walking away, when Ar-
nold exclaimed, * Why don't you fire, my lord? ' Sir,' said
Lord Balcarres, lookmg over his shoulder, * I leave you to the
executioner!'" [Stuarfs Thrt€ Ytan tn NorOi Ametricay
vol ii. p. 462.]
Tbe Hon. Robert Lindsay, second son of the fifth eari of
Balcarres, bom in 1754, was many years in the dvi service of
the East India Company. Having served bis time, he was
appointed to tbe snperintendency of Sylhet, in the extreme
north of Bengal, where be made a large fortune. While still a
resident in India, be purehased the estate of Leucbars in Fife,
and on bis return to Scotland in 1789 be bought from his
elder brother the lands of Balcarres. He married bis cousin
*^Elizabeth, third daughter of Sir Alexander Dick of Preston-
field, baronet, and had issue five sons and four daugbtera.
He wrote some interesting * Anecdotes of an Indian Life'
printed in the third volume of the Lives of tbe Lindsays.
He died in 1836, and was succeeded by his eldest son.
Colonel James Lindsay of Balcarres and Leucbars, grenadier
guards, colonel of tbe Flfesbire militia, and formerly member
of pariiament for Fifeshire. By bis second wife, Anne,
daughter of Sir Coutts Trotter, baronet of Weetville, he bad
Sir Coutts Lindsay, baronet, bom in 1824, younger of Bal-
carres, author of *• Alfred, a Drama,* and * Edward the Black
Prince, a Tragedy,* another son, named Robert, and three
daughters. Margaret, tbe eldest, married in 1846 ber cousin
Lord Lindsay, tbe author of the lives of tbe Lindsays.
Three of tbe fifth earl's sons, Colin, James, and John,
were officers in the army. Tbe Hon. Colin Lindsay, bom 5th
April 1755, purchased an ensigncy in November 1771, in the
4th regiment of fooL He embarked for America as lieutenant
in tbe 55tb, and was afterwards promoted by purchase to a
company in tbe 73d, or Mackenzie Highlanders. He served
as captain of grenadiers during the greater part of the Amer-
ican war, and was in all tbe actions in the West Indies. In
1780 he was appointed major to the second battalion of the
73d, and in that capacity served at Gibraltar during the fa-
mous siege of that fortress. At the peace of 1783 he return-
ed to England with his regiment, and was promoted to tbe
lieutenant-colonelcy of the 46tb. In December 1793 he was
appointed aide-de-camp to the king, with the rank of colonel
m tbe army. An expedition being ordered to tbe West In-
dies, Colonel Lindsay was early in 1795 advanced to the ra^^k
of brigadier-general, and appointed quarter-master-general ot
tbe forces there. He sailed with bis brother, tbe earl of Bal-
carres, then proceeding to Jamaica, and landing at Barba-
does on 12th March, was directed to take the command of
the troops in Grenada, at that time in a dangerous state, on
account of tbe revolt of the Mulattoes and Negroes excited
by French emissaries. He marched from St George's at four
in the morning of the 15tb, attacked and defeated tbe insur-
gents on the 17tb, but fell a victim to excessive fiitigae and
a noxious climate, deeply lamented by his brother officers and
tbe soldiers under his command. His death took place 22d
March 1795, in the fortieth year of Ins age. He published
A Military Miscellany; Extracts from Colonel TempIehoflle*s
History of the Seven Years' War; bis Remarks on General
Lloyd; on tbe Substance of Armies; and on tbe March of
Convoys : also a Treatise on Winter Posts. To which is add-
ed, A Narrative of Events at St. Lude and Gibraltar ; and of
John Duke of Marlborough's March to the Danube; with tbe
Causes and Consequences of that Manoeuvre. Lond. 1793,
2 vols. 8vo.
The next son, the Hon. James Stair Lindsay, entered the
army in 1774, as an ensign in tbe 14th foot, then in America.
He commanded tbe grenadiers of the 73d in tbe engagement
with tbe French and Mobrattas at Cuddalore IStii June
1783, when be was mortally wounded, storming tbe redonbta
of that place. He received bis wound about three o'clock
but the attack and defence being most vigorous, be refused
to be taken out of the enemies* Imes, and lay there till near
six, when a French officer got him a surgeon. He was car-
ried prisoner into the fort and taken to tbe French hospital,
and humanely treated. In a few days be died, 22d June
1783, in tbe twenty-fifth year of his age, unmarried. General
Stewart, in bis Sketches of tbe Highlanders, (vol. il p. 163,}
speaks of him with great pnuse. Part of an unfinished
Journal of the War in tbe Camatic, in which he fell, is in-
serted in the third volume of the lives of the Lindsays.
William, tbe next son, was drowned at St Helena, getting
into a boat from tbe Priam East Indiaman, in 1785, aged
twenty-six, having been bom in 1759.
His next brother, the Hon. Charies Dalrymple Lindsay,
entered into holy orders, and became Insbop of ICIdare, in
Ireland. He was bom 14tb December 1760; studied at
Baliol College, Oxford ; had the rectory of Great Sutterton
in Lincolnshire conferred on him in 1793 ; was consecrated
bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora, 20tb October 1803, and was
translated to the see of Kildare in 1804. He was also dean
of Christ Church, Dublin. He married first at Bostoii, 1st
January 1790, Elizabeth only dangbter of Tliomas Fydell,
Esq., member of parliament for Boston, and by ber, who died
7tb February 1797, be had three sons and a daufi^ter. He
married, secondly, Catherine, daughter of George Coussmaker,
Esq., who brought him two sons. He died 8tb August,
1846.
Tbe Hon. John Lindsay, tbe ninth of the family, bom 15th
May 1762, had a lieutenant's commission in tbe 73d foot, in
December 1777, and was promoted in 1780 to a captaincy tn
the 2d battalion of the 73d regiment serving in India, in which
station he continued fifteen years. He accompanied Colonel
Fletcher and tbe troops detached to tbe support of Colcmel
Baillie, on Hyder Ali's memorable invasion of the Camatie,
and was taken prisoner by the Mabrattas, 10th September,
1780, after being wounded in four places, and endured a cap-
tivity of three years and ten months at Seringapatara, snfTer-
ing tbe greatest privations, and even denied medical aid.
His Journal of that terrible captivity, printed in the third
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volume of the lives of the lindaajs, has been tnilj deecribed
48 one of the meet afiecting and interesting narratives extant
At the oondnaion of the peaoe in March 1784 Captain Lind-
saj and his fSBllow-prisonerB obtained their freedom, and re-
joined their regiments. He served nnder the Marquis Corn-
wallis in 1791-2, and with his firiend Sir David Baird, was at
the taking of Seringapatam, where he had so long been a
prisoner. He next served in the war with Franoe in 1798,
and returned to England on his regmient*s being ordered
home in 1797. He became major and lieutenant- colonel
of the 7l8t, and quitted the army on the peace in 1801.
Lord Lindsay states that in 1822, when General Stewart of
Garth published his * Sketches of the Highlanders,* Colonel
Lindsay and Sir David Baird [see life of the latter, ante, p.
191] were the only survivors of the two hundred men of the
flank companies of the 78d who had fought under Baillie^s
command at Conjeveram. [Lhet of t^ Lmdtays^ vol iL p.
849.] He married, 2d December 1800, Lady Charlotte
North, youngest daughter of Frederick second eari of Guilford,
and died in 1826.
The Hon. Hugh Lindsay, the youngest son, bom 80th Oc-
tober 1765, entered the navy, and after serving till the cessa-
tion of all promotion at the dose of the American war, becanll
commander of an East Indiaman, in the service of the East
India Company, and afterwards was a director and chairman
of the Company. He married at Bargeny 14th Januaiy
1799, Jane, second daughter of the Hon. Alexander Gordon,
a judge of the court of session, under the title of Lord Rock-
ville, fourth son of William second earl of Aberdeen, by Anne,
dowager countess of Dumfries and Stair, and had issue. He
died 2dd April 1844. An interesting adventure in China, in
^hich he figures as the principal actor, will be found in the
third volume of the Lives of the lindsays.
Besides Lady Anne Barnard, already mentioned, the fifth
carl had two other daughters, Lady Margaret and Lady Eliza-
beth. Lady Margaret was bom 14th February 1758, and
married, first, at Balcarres, 20th June 1770, Alexander For-
dyce, Esq. of Roehampton in Surrey, banker in London, who
died without surviving issue, and secondly, in 1812, Sir James
Burgess, and died in Dublin in December 1814. The great
beauty of this lady was commemorated by Sheridan while she
was yet young, in the well-known lines:
** Harked you her eye of heavenly blue.
Marked yoo her cheek of roey hae;
That eye in liquid drcles rovin;,
That cheek abashed at man's approvtngr:
The one Love's arrows darting roand«
The other blushing at the woand? **
The youngest daughter, Lady Elizabeth, bora 11th October
1768, married 24th July 1782, Philip third earl of Hardwicke,
lord-lieutenant of Ireland from 1801 to 1806, and had issue,
like the rest of the family she was highly gifted, and was the
authoress of a beautiful translation of the * Gerusalemme lib-
erata,* in manuscript. Lord Lindsay quotes an * Address to
Entick,* written in a playful vein, when a mere girl, on the
fly-leaf of Entick*s grammar, on the occasion of an absurd
task having been imposed on her by her school-mistress ; also,
lines addressed to her eldest son, I^rd Viscount Royston on
his birthday, and sent to him at Harrow in May 1796, in-
serted in the Lives of the Lindsays, (vol. ii. pages 338 and
839). Lord Royston was lost in a storm off Lubeck 1st April
18(W, in his twenty-fourth year. His * Remains* were pub-
lished in one volume, edited by the Rev. Henry Pepys, now
oishop of Worcester.
The venerable Countess Dowager of Balcarres, the mother
of this large family, survived her husband, the fifth earl, fifty-
two years, and died at Balcarres 29th November 1820, in the
ninety-fourth year of her age.
James the seventh earl was "bom 24th April, 1783. He
had entered the army, and was major in the 20th regiment ol
li^t dragoons, when he quitted the service in 1804. He
succeeded his father in March 1825, and was created baron
of Wigan, in the peerage of Great Britain, by patent, dated
in June 1826. He married, 21st November 1811, the Hon.
Maria Margaret Frances Pennington, only surviving child of
the first Lcnrd Muncaster, and has issue four sons. His eld-
est son, Alexander William Crawford, Lord Lindsay, bom in
1812, is the author of a * Letter on the Evidences of Christi-
anity ;* * Letters on Egypt and the Holy Land ;' ' The History
of Christian Art ;* and ^ The lives of the Lindsays ;* from
which latter work considerable assistance has been derived
in the drawing up of this account of the Balcarres family
He married, as already stated, his cousin Margaret, eldest
daughter of CoL Lindsay of Balcarres, and has issue.
On the death of George, the twenty-second earl of Craw-
ford, in 1808, Alexander, sixth earl of Balcarres, succeeded
as twenty-third earl of Crawford, but did not assume that
title. His son, the seventh earl of Balcarres, had the digni-
ties of earl of Crawford and baron Lindsay adjudged to him
by the decision of the House of Lords, 11th August 1848,
[see Crawford, earidom of, and Lindsay, Lord,j whereby
he succeeded as twenty-fourth earl of Crawford, and takes
rank as the premier earl of Scotland in the Union roll His
lordship, who is the acknowledged chief of the clan Lindsay,
also claims the title of duke of Montrose (see that title),
conferred on David, fourth earl of Crawford, by charters,
dated 18th May 1488 and 19th Sept 1489, an older creation
than that held by the head of the ancient house of Graham.
The Balcarres arms are the same as those of the earl of
Crawford, which see.
The following is a representation of Balcarres Craig, on the
east of Balcarres house in Fife
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BALFOUR.
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BALFOUR.
Balfour, a very andent Dame in Fife, derived from the
lands of Balfonr, in the parish of Marldnch, formerly belong-
ing to a funily which were long heritable sheiiflb of Fife.
Balfonr castle was built upon their ancient poeseadons, in the
Tale or strath of the Orr, a tributary of the Leven, near their
confluence. Bal-orr is the original name. The family of
Balfour, according to Sibbald, possessed these lands as early
as the reign of Duncan the First, IHitL ofFifi^ p. 866], and
assumed from them their name. The first of the funily in
Scotland was Siward, supposed to have come firom Northum-
berland, in the reign of Uiat monarch. His son, Osulf, who
lived in the time of Malcolm Canmore, was the father of Si-
ward, to whom King Edgar gave the valley of Orr, that is,
Strathor and Maey, " pro capte Ottar Dani.** Siward*s son,
Octred, witnessed a charter of David the first about 1141.
He was the father of Su* Michad Balfonr, who had two sons.
William, the eldest, was the ancestor of the Balfours of Bal-
four. About the year 1196 Sir Michael de Balfour obtained
a charter from William the Lion, dated at Forfar. In 1229,
in the fifteenth year of the reign of Alexander the Second,
his son. Sir Ingelramus de Balfonr, sheriff of Fife, was wit-
ness to a charter of confirmation by that monarch to the
monastery of Aberbrothock, of a mortification to them by
Philip de Moubray, * De uuo plenario tofto in Innerkeithing.*
His son Henry was witness to another confirmation by the
same monarch to that monastery of a donation by Malcolm
earl of Angus, * De terris in territorio de Kermuir.* He was
the father of John de Balfour, who, with many of the barons
of Fifediire, fell at the sack of Berwick by Edward the First,
80th March, 1296. His son, Sir Duncan de Balfonr, adhered
to the fortunes of Sur William Wallace, and was slam 12th
June 1298 at the battle of Blackironside, where the English,
under Sir Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, were defeated
with great daughter. Amongst others present at the paiiia^
ment held at Cambuskenneth, 6tb November 1814, were David
de Balfour and Malcolm de Balfour, as their seals are appended
to the general sentence by that parliament of forfeiture of all the
rebels. In the parliament hdd at Ayr in 1815 were Sir Michael
de Balfour, sheriff of Fife, and David de Balfonr; their seals
are appended to the act of that parliament for settling the
crown. [7&td pp. 866, 867.] Sir Michael died in 1844, and
in 1875, the fifth year of the reign of Robert the Second, his
eldest son and successor, Sir John Balfour of Balfour died,
leaving an only daughter, Margaret, who married Sir Robert
de Bethune, * familiaris regis Roberti , * as he is styled.
From them the present proprietor of Balfour, J. E. Drinkwa-
ter Bethune, Esq., is descended. Several of the other Fife
heritors of the name of Bethune, as the Bethunes of Bandon,
of Tarvet, of Blebo, of Clatto, of Craigfudie, and of Kiu-
gask, were also descended from them. Of the most remarka-
ble personages belonging to the Bethunes of Balfour were
James Bethune, archbbhop of Glasgow and chancellor of
Scotland; his nephew. Cardinal Bethune; and the nephew
of the cardinal, James Bethune, archbishop of Glasgow. [See
Bbtuunb, surname of.] In the house of Balfour are original
portraits of Cardmal Bethune, and of Mary Bethune, cele-
brated for her beauty, one of the queen*s four Maries.
Besides many illustrious descendants in the female line the
surname of Balfonr has been ennobled by three peerages,
namely, the baronies of Burleigh and Kilwinning in Scotland,
and of Balfour of Clonawley in Ireland. In Sir Robert
Sibbald*s time, at the beginning of the ei^teenth century,
there were a greater number of heritors in Fife named Bal-
four than of any other surname. His list contains no less
than thirteen landed proprietors in that county of the name,
vix., the Balfours of Burleigh, of Femie, of Dunbog, of Den-
mylne, of Grange, of Forret, of Randerston, of Rademie, of
Nortbbank, of Balbiraie, of Halbeath, of Lawlethan, and of
Banktown. {EitL of FYe, App. No. II.] In his Memoria
Balfouriema, he says the £unily of Balfonr is divided into
several branches, of which those of Balgarvie, Monntwhanney^
Denmylne, Ballovy, Carriston, and Kirkton are the prindpai.
Sir John Balfour of Balfonr, already mentioned as the
father of Margaret the wife of Sir Robert de Bethune, had
an only brother, Adam, who married the granddaughter
of Macduff^ brotiier of Colbane, earl of Fife, and obtained
with her the lands of Pittencriefil He died of wounds re-
cdved at the battle of Durham, in 1846, and was buried in
Mehrose abbey. His son. Sir Michad Balfour, was brought
up by his kinsman Duncan, twdfth eari of Fife, who in 1353
gave in exchange for Pittencrieff the mudi more valuable
lands of Mountwhanney. The countess Isabella, daughter of
earl Duncan, also be^wed many grants of land upon her
** cousin** Sir Michael, who, at her death without issoe,
should have succeeded as her nearest hdr, but the regent Al-
bany, the brother of her second husband, obtained the earl-
dom in virtue of a dispodtion in his &vour by the countess.
Sir Michael died about 1885. His ddest son, Michad Bal-
four of Mountwhanney, had a son. Sir Lawrence, of Strathw
and Mountwhanney, who, by his wife Maijory, had three
sons : Geoige, his hdr ; John of Balgarvie, progenitor, by his
son James, of the Balfours of Denmylne, Forret, Randerston,
Tony and Boghall, Kinloch, &c ; and David Balfour of Car-
raldstone or Cairiston. The latter £unily terminated in an
heiress, Isabel Balfour, who married a younger son of the
fourth Lord Seton, ancestor of the Setons of Carriston.
James Balfour, son of Sir John Balfour of Balgarvy, in
1451 obtained fix>m King James the Second the lands of
Denmyhie, in the parish of Abdie, and county of Fife, ori-
ginally belonging to the earis of Fife, and wMch fell to the
crown at the forfdtnre of Murdoch duke of Albany. This
James Balfour was dain at the dege of Roxburgh, soon after
the death of James the Second, in 1460, as appears from a
charter, granted by James the Third, in favour of John Bd-
four his son, who married Christian Sibbald, daughter of Pe-
ter Sibbald of Rankdllor, and fdl with his sovereign, James
the Fourth, at the battle of Flodden, in 1518. Patrick his
son was the father of Alexander Balfour, whose son. Sir
Michad Balfour, was knighted at Holyroodhouse, 26th Mardi
1630, by George Viscount Dupplin, chancellor of Scotland,
under a special warrant from Charles the First, and the -same
year in which his son Sir James recdved a dmilar honour.
Sir Michad was comptroller of the household to Charies the
First, and was equally distinguished for his military courage
and dvil prudence. By his wife, Jane, daughter of James
Durham of Pitkerrow he had five sons and nine daughters,
seven of whom were honourably married.
Of the ddest son, Sir James Balfour of Kinnaird, the cele-
brated annalist and antiquary, a life is given bdow.
The second son, Alexander, styled of Lumbamie, was a
minister of the gospel, a man, says Sibbdd, not more re-
spected fi>r the dignity of his appearance than for the wisdom
and piety of his life.
Michael Balfour of Randerston, the third son, was emi-
nently distinguished for his experience and skill in agrical-
tund matters.
Sir David Balfour of Forret, the fourth son, was admit-
ted advocate 29 January 1650. In 1674 he was knighted,
and nominated a judge in the court of session. He took his
seat on the bench with the title of Lord Forret. The fol-
lowing year he was appointed a judge of the court of justid-
ary. In 1685 he was dected a oommisdoner for the county
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BALFOUR.
209
BALFOUR.
of Fife to the parHament which met that year, choeen one of
the lords of tho articles, and appointed a commissioner for the
plantation of kirks. He died shortly after the Revolution.
[Hixig and Bnmtom*s History of <Ae Senator* of the CoUege
ofJtutiee, p. 402.] His second son, James Balfour, succeeded
to the lands of Randerston.
A subsequent proprietor of the estate of Forret, probably a
descendant of this learned judge, seems to have entertained a
dengn of erecting a convenient place of refreshment for the
members of the college of justice at Edinburgh ; for in a note
to Kojf's Portraits [vol L p. 22] we find the foUowiug pass-
age, winch is curious as maiking the habits of the members
of the bar about the middle of the eighteenth century: ** In
the minutes of the Faculty of Advocates, 13th February 1741
there is an entry relative to a petition presented to the Dean
and Faculty by James Balfour of Forret, stating that he m-
tended to build a cofieehouse adjoining to the west side of the
Parliament House, * for the oonveniency and accommodation
of the members of the college of justice, and of the senators
of the court,* and that he was anxious for the patronage of
the society. He also mentioned that he had petitioned the
judges, who had unanimously approved of the project A
remit was made to the curators of the library, and to Messrs.
Cross and Barclay, to consider the petition, and report whe-
ther it should be granted; but nothing appears to have been
done by the committee." The estate of Forret, which b in
the parish of Logie, andentiy belonged to the Ferrets of that
ilk, a son of which house, who had been vicar of Dollar, suf-
fered martyrdom on the Castlehill of Edinburgh in 1538.
[See FoRBKT, surname of.] It is now the property of a
family of the name of Mackenzie.
Of Sir Michael's youngest son, Sir Andrew Balfour, doctor
of medicine, the distinguished naturalist and scholar, a me-
moir is given below.
The descendants of Sur James Balfour, lyon king at arms,
continued long to possess the lands of Denmyhie. The family
is now entirely extinct in the male line, and is represented by
Lord Belhaven as heir of line. [See Bblhayen, lord.] The
complete extinction of this family is the more remarkable, as
it is stated by Sir Robert Sibbald that Sir Michael Balfour
lived to see three hundred of his own issue, while Sir Andrew,
his youngest son, saw six hundred descendants from his fa^
ther. - The ruins of the old church of Abdie, on the western
shore of the loch of lindores, still contain several monuments
of this family.
About the close of the seventeenth century a fatal duel oc-
curred between Sur Robert Balfour of Denmylne, and Sir James
MacgiO of lindores, who were near neighbours and intimate
friends. Sir Itobert was a young man in his prime; Sir
James was much more advanced in years. Attended by their
servants, they had both gone to Perth on a market day, when
Sir Robert unfortunately quarrelled and fought with a High-
land gentieman on the street. Sir James came up at the
time and parted the combatants. In doing this, it is said,
he made some observations as to the superiority of the High-
lander, which offended Sir Robert, who, chafed and angry,
offered next to fight his friend. They returned home toge-
ther on the evening of a long sunmer day. When at Gar-
pow they dismounted, gave their servants their horses, and,
ascending by the road a considerable way up the hills, they
stopped at a spot on the slope of the Ochils where a small
cairn of stones, locally knoira by the name of Sir Robert's
Prap, was afterwards raised to commemorate the event They
there drew their swords. A shepherd, who was sitting on a
higher part of the hills, is said not or/iy to have seeawhat
took place, but even to have overhsard what passed between
them. It is said that Sir James Mac^gill, who is alleged to
have been by far the more expert swordsman of the two, made
various attempts to be reconciled to his angry friend, and
even after they were engaged, conducted himself for a time
merely on the defimsive. But from the fury with which Sir
Robert fought, he was forced to change his plan, and to at-
tack in turn. The consequence was that Sir Robert was run
through the body, and died on the spot, when Sir James
mounted and rode off, leaving his corpse to the care of the
servants. It is added that Sur James immediately afterwards
proceeded to London, where he obtained a pardon from King
Charles the Second. Mr. Small, in his Roman Antiquities,
tells a foolish and very improbable story of Sir James being
obliged by the king to fight an Italian swordsman then in
London, who had previously acted the bully, but who also
fell beneath the skilful arm of the Scottish knight [^Leigk-
toris HisL <f F\fey voL ii. p. 178.] The fate of the last
baronet of Denmylne is equally remarkable. He set out on
horseback from his own house to pay a viat and neither
man nor horse was ever agam heard of. It is supposed that
he perished in some of the lochs or marshes with which Fife
then abounded. Shortly after his disappearance Denmylne was
purchased by General Scott of Baloomie, the father of the
duchess of Portland and the viscountess Canning. These
Unds were pubsequentiy bought from her grace, when march-
ioness of Htchfield, by the brother of the pres«[it proprietor
Thomas Watt, Esq. of Denmylne.
Another branch of the house of Balfour possesses the lands
of Balbimie in the parish of Markinch, Fifeshire. During
the reign of Malcolm the Fourth, the lands of Balbimie be-
longed to Orm the son of Hugh, abbot of Abemethy, tht
ancestor of the family of Abemethy. [See Abernethy
surname of, cmte^ p. 14.] He exchanged them with Duncai
earl of Fifij, the charter being conferred by William the
Lion. Sibbald says that anciently these lands belonged to
a fiamily who took their name from them, and were de-
signed Balbimie of that ilk. About the end of the six-
teenth or beginmng of the seventeenth century, the lands
of Balbimie were purchased from the Balbimies, who hold
them under the earls of Fife, by George Balfour, son of Mar-
tin Balfour of Dovan and Lalethan, the ancestor of the pre-
sent proprietor. This Martin Balfour was, in 1596, served
heir to his grandfather David Balfour, in the lands of Dovan
and Lalethan. He was descended from Peter Balfour, a
yoimger son of Balfour of Balfour, who, having married a
daughter of Thomas Sibbald of Balgonie, obtained from his
father-in-law a charter of the lands of Dovan in the reign of
Robert the Third. The present proprietor of Balbimie seems,
therefore, to divide with Balfour of Femie, the representation
of the ancient family of Balfour of Balfour.
Balfour of Bitrleioh, Lord, an attainted barony in the
peerage of Scotland, formerly held by a branch of the Fife
family of Balfour. In 1445<-6 Sir John Balfour of Balgarvie,
[from the Celtic Bal-garbh^ the rough town or dwelling,] had
a grant of the lands of Burleigh in Kinross-shire, which were
erected into a free barony in his favour, by King James the
Second, in the ninth year of his reign. He had two sons,
Michael and James. The latter is said to have been the an*
cestor of the Balfours of Denmylne, Forret, and other families
of the name, llie eldest son, Michael, was the father of Sir
Michael Balfour designed of Burieigh, who, besides other
charters, had one of the lands of caster and wester Balgarvie,
on the 16th February 1505-6, and another to himself and
Margaret Musshet his wife, of the lands of Schanwell, 28tb
May 1512.
O
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BALFOUR.
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BALFOUR.
His grandson, Michael Balfour of Borleigb, was served heir
to his father in 1642. He had a charter of half of the lands
of Kinloch and office of coroner of Fife, 18th Jnne 1566. He
married Christian, daughter of John Bethmie of Creich, and
had an only child, his sole heiress, Margaret Balfonr, who
married Sir James Balfonr of Pittendriech and Moontwhan-
ney, lord president of the conrt of session, whose life is given
below. Sir James* eldest brother, Michael Balfonr of Mount-
whanney, commendator of Melrose, was the progenitor of
the Balfours of Trenaby, in OrKney.
Sir James had. six daughters and three sons. The eldest
son, Sir Michael Balfour of Burleigh, had a charter of the
lands of Nethertown of Auchinhuffis in Banifehire, 28th Oc-
tober 1577, and another of the barony of Burleigh, 29th Oc-
tober 1606. By James the Sixth, he was honoured with the
title of Lord Balfour of Burleigh, by letters patent, bearing
date at Royston, in England, 7th August 1606, Sir Michael
being then James* ambassador to the duke of Tuscany and
the duke of Lorraine. ISibbaUTs Hist, of F\fe^ page 279.]
He was created a lord of parliament under the same title at
Whitehall 10th July 1607, without any mention of heirs in
the creation. [CarmichaeVg TracU.I His lordship was sub-
sequently sworn of the privy coundL On 7th Sept. 1614, a
charter was granted to Michael, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, of
the barony of Kilwinning, with the title of Lord Kilwinning, to
him and his heirs and assigns whatever. [Dcuglat^ Peerage^
vol. L page 180.] His lordship married first, Margaret Adam
son, and secondly, Margaret, daughter of Lnndie of Lundie,
by whom he had a daughter Margaret, who succeeded him as
baroness Balfour of Burleigh. She married Robert Amot, the
son of Sir Robert Amot of Femie, chamberiam of Fife. This
Robert Amot assumed on his marriage the name of Balfour,
and had the title of Lord Burleigh, in virtue of a letter from
the king. At the meeting of the Scottish parliament in 1640,
the estates, in consequence of the absence of a commissioner
from his majesty, appointed Lord Burleigh theur president,
and he was continued in that office in 1641. He was also
one of the commissioners for negotiating the treaty of peace
with England in 1640 and 1641, and in the latter year was
one of the privy councillors constituted by parliament. Dur-
ing Montrose*s wars, he was actively engaged on the side of
the parliament, and seems to have acted in the north as a
general of the forces. In September 1644 the marquis of
Montrose, with an army of about two thousand men, ap-
proached Aberdeen, and summoned it to surrender, but the
magistrates, after advising with Lord Burleigh, who then
commanded in the town a force nearly equal in number to
the assailants, refused to obey the summons, upon which a
battle ensued within half-a-mile of the town, on the 12th of
that month, in which Burleigh was defeated. He was also
one of the committee of parliament attached to the army un-
der General Baillie, which, through the dissensions of its
leaders, was totally routed by the troops of Montrose on the
bloody field of Kilsyth 15th August 1645. He opposed the
" engagement** to march into England for the rescue of King
Charles, and was one of those who effectually dissuaded
Cromwell from the invasion of Scotland. In 1649, under the
act for putting the kingdom in a poetnro of defence. Lord
Burleigh was one of the colonels for the county of Fife, and the
same year he was nominated one of the commissioners of the
treasury and exchequer. He died at Burleigh 10th August
1668. By his wife, who predeceased him in June 1689 he
had four daughters and one son. Jean, the eldest daughter,
married, in 1628, David, second earl of Wemyss, and died
10th November 1649, leaving one daughter, Jean, countess of
Angus and Sutherland. Margaret the second daughter, be-
came the wife of Sir James Crawford of Killnmie, without
issue. Isabel, the third daughter, married Thomas, first Lord
Ruthven,' and had issue. The youngest daughter, wboae
name is not mentioned, married her cousin. Amot of Femie.
John Balfour, third Lord Balfour of Burleigh, spent hit
younger years in France, where he was wounded. On his
retum home, on passing through London, ho married, early
in 1649, without his father*s consent, Isabel, daughter of Sir
William Balfour of Pitcullo, lieutenant of the tower of Lon-
don. His father, with the view of having the marriage an-
nulled, got it proposed, in a general way, to the General As-
sembly the same year, but no answer was given to the appli-
cation. Lord Burleigh died in 1688, leaving, besides Robert,
his heir, two other sons and six daughters. His second son,
John Balfour of Femie, was a lieutenant-colonel in the reign
of James the Seventh. He had two sons, Arthur, father of
John Balfour of Femie, and John, who succeeded by entafl to
the estate of Captain William Crawford, whose name and
arms he assumed, and left issue. Henry, the third son ot
Lord Burleigh, was styled of Dunbog. He was a mijar of
dragoons, and one of the representatives fur the county of
Fife in the last parliament of Scotland, in which he warmly
opposed the union. He was the father of Henry Balfour of
Dunbog.
Robort, fourth lord Balfour of Burleigh, was, in 1689,
appointed one of the commissioners for executing the office of
derk register. He died in 1718. His lordship nuuried Lady
Margaret Melville, only daughter of George, first eari of Mel-
ville, by whom he had a son and two daughters. Margarrt,
the eldest, died unmarried at Edinburgh 12th Mardi 1769.
Mary, the younger, married in 1714 Brigadier-general Alexan-
der Bmce of Kennet, and died at Skene in Stirlingshire 7th
November 1758, leaving a son and daughter; the fonner be-
came a lord of session under the title of Lord Kennet
Robert Balfour, fifth Lord Balfour of Burleigh, was a man
(^ a most daring and desperate character. In his eariy youth,
while still master of Burleigh, he fell in love with a girl of
inferior rank, whose name has not been given, and in conse-
quence his father sent him to the continent, in the hope tliat
travel would remove the feeling of attachment fbr her firom
his mind. Before setting out he exacted a promise from the
girl, that she would not marry any one in his absence, de-
daring that if she did he would put her husband to death,
when he came back. Notwithstanding this threat she mar-
ried Henry Stenhouse, a schoolmaster at Inverkdthing, al-
though not without informing him of the risk he incurred in
taking her. On the retum of the master of Burleigh his first
inquiry was after tiie girl, and on being inibrmed of her mar-
riage, with two attendants, he proceeded on horsebadc directly
to the school of Stenhouse, and calling the unfortunate
schoolmaster to the door, he shot him in the shoulder, 9ih
April 1707. Stenhouse died of the wound twdve days after.
Young Balfour was tried for the murder in the High Court of
Justidaiy 4th August 1709, when his counsel pleaded in de-
fence that there was no malice prepense; that the wound had
not been in a mortal place but in the arm, plainly showing
that the intention had been to frighten or correct, not to kill ;
and lastly, that the libd had not been that the wound was
deadly, on the contrary it admitted that the deceased had
lived several days after it, and the prisoner would prove ma-
htm regimen and a fretful temper as the immediate causes (if
death. Notwithstanding this ingenious defence the Juir
found him guilty, and he was sentenced, 29th November, to
be beheaded 6th January 1710; but a few days before that
date he escaped from prison by exchanging clothes witii bis
dster, who was extremely like him. [Maelaunn^s Criminal
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BALFOUR,
211
SIR JAMES.
TriaUJ] He skulked ibr some time in the neigfabovhood of
Borieigfa Castle, Kinross-shire, and an ash tree, hollow in the
trunk, was l<Hig pointed oat as his place of shelter and con-
ceabnent From having been often the place of his retreat,
it bore the name of Burleigh's Hole. After sustaining the
ravages of the weather for more than a century, it was com-
pletely blown down in 1822. On the death of his father in
1713, the title devolved on him, and the next thing heard of
him is his appearance at the meeting of Jacobites at Loch-
maben, 29th May 1714, when the Pretender's health was
publicly drunk by them at the Cross on their knees, Lord
Bnrid^ denouncing damnation against all who would not drink
it. [i2ae*« Hittory of ike Rebellion, p. 49.] He engaged in
the rebellion of 1715, for whidi he was attainted by act of
parliament, and his title and estate, which then yielded sis
hundred and ninety-seven pounds ft-year, forfeited to the
crown. He died without issue in 1757. The representation
of the family of Balfour of Burleigh is claimed by Bruce of
Keiniet ; also, by Balfour of Femie.
Sir James Balfour, knight, the second son of Sir James
Balfonr of Pittendriech, by Margaret his wife, only child and
heir of Michael BaUbur of Burleigh, Esq., was created by
James the Sixth in 1619 a peer of Ireland, under the title of
Lord Balfour, baron of Clonawley, in the county of Ferman-
agh. His lordship died October 1634, when the title appears
to have become extmct He was buried at St Anne*s, Black-
friars, London. From his brother, William Balibur, who
settled in Irehmd, are descended the family of Townky-Bal-
four of Townleyhall, in the county of Louth.
The John Balfour of Burley of Sir Walter Scott's novel of
Old Mortality, was usually designed of Kinloch. He was the
principal actor in the murder of Archbishop Sharp. His
estate was forfeited, and a reward of ten thousand marks
offered for himself. He fought both at Drumdog and at
Bothwell Bridge, and is said to have afterwards taken refuge
in Holland, where he offered his services to the prince of Or-
ange. He is generally supposed to have died at sea on his
voyage back to Scotland, immediately previous to the Revo-
lution. There are strong presumptions, however, for believ-
ing that he never left Scotland, but found an asylum in the
parish of Roseneath, Dumbartonshire, under the protection of
the Aigyle fiunily, and that havmg assumed the name of
Salter, his descendants continued there for many generations.
The last of the race died in 1815. [iVeto Stat. Ace. of Scot-
kmd^ artide Boieneath,']
We kam from Schiller's History of the Siege of Antwerp
from 1570 to 1580, that a Sir Andrew Balfour and his com-
pany of Scots defended that city against the Prince of Parma.
The name seems still to exist in Holland, for in the Brussels
papers of 28th July 1808, Lieutenant - colonel Balfour de
Burleigh is named Commandant of the troops of the king of
the Netherlands in the West Indies.— [Note 2, B. to Sootfs
Old MartaUtn.']
BALFOUR, Sir James, of Pittendriech, an
eminent lawyer of the sixteenth century, was a
eon of Sir Michael Balfour of Mountquhanny in
the parish of Kilmany, Fife. Being designed for
the church, he studied both divinity and law, as
was usual in those days. His brother David was
one of the murderers of Cardinal Bethune, and
he himself, after the murder, joined the con-
spirators in the castle of St. Andrews. On the
surrender of tlie castle in June 1547, he was
put into the same galley with Knox, and carried
prisoner to France. After bis return to Scotland
in 1549, he abandoned his former friends, and de-
nied that he bad been in the castle of St. Andi-ews
or the French galleys at all, for which Knox has
severely denounced him in his History. He was
appointed oflBcial of the archbishop of St. Andrews
within the archdeaconry of Lothian ; and in 1559, '
he gave his active support to the queen regent
against the lords of the congregation, which led
,Knox to declare that ^^of an old professor he had
become a new denier of Christ Jesus and mani-
fest blasphemer of his eternal verity.'* [Knox's
History^ page 173.] From this it has been sup-
posed that Balfour had become a Roman Catholic.
He seems to have been, with good reason, sus-
pected of tampering with some of the protestant
lords, as a boy of his was taken with a writ
which ** did open the most secret thing that was
devised in the council, yfea, those very things which
were thought to have been known but to very
few." [ZWrf. p. 200.] He escaped the search of the
reformers of Fife in February 1560, when the lords
of Wemyss, Seafield and others wei-e taken prison-
ers, and about the same time he was appointed
parson of Flisk in Fifeshire. Shortly after the re-
turn of Queen Maiy from France, 12th Nov. 1561,
he was nominated an extraordinary lord of session
under the title of Lord Pittendriech, and two yeara
after, in 1568, he was made an ordinary lord. In
1564, on the institution of the Commissary Court
at Edinburgh, he became chief commissary with
a salary of four hundred marks. In July 1565
he was sworn of the privy council. On the night
of Rizzlo's murder, he was with the queen at Ho-
lyroodhouse, and his enemies intended to have
hanged him at the same time, but he made his
escape. [Keith's Hist p. 882.] He was subse-
quently knighted by the queen, and promoted to
the office of clerk-i-egister, in place of Mr. James
Macgill. In 1566 he was one of the commission-
ers for revising and publishing the old laws called
Regiam Majestatem, (&c., and the acts of parlia-
ment. [Douglas^ Peerage^ vol. i. p. 177.] He is
said to have been the original deviser of the mur-
der of Damley, to have framed the bond for mu-
tual support entered into by the conspirators, and
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to have prepared the house of the Kirk of Field,
at Edinburgh, which was possessed by his bro-
ther, for the receptioQ of Damley. IChalmers*
Life of Mary, vol. ii. p. 25. — Laing^s Dissert.
vol. ii. p. 87.] It is certain that on his removal
to Edinburgh the unhappy Damley was " lodged
ill the mansion of the provost, or chief prebend-
aiy of the collegiate church of St. Mary in the
Fields, as a place of good air. This house stood
nearly on the site of the present north-west
comer of Drammond Street, as is ascertained
from Grordon*s map of the city of Edinburgh in
1647, where the rains are indicated as they ex-
isted at that period. It is said to have been se-
lected by Sir James Balfour, brother of the pro-
vost, and ' the most corrapt man of his age,* {Ro-
hertsorCs Hist voL ii. p. 854,) as well fitted from
its lonely situation for the intended murder."
IWilson^s Memorials of Edinburgh^ vol. i. p. 78.]
Immediately after that dreadful event, which
took place 9 th Febraary 1667, Balfour was openly
accused of having been accessory to it, and a paper
of the following tenor was aflSxed to the door of
the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, on the night of the
16th of Febraary: "I, according to the pi-ocla-
mation, have made inquisition for the slaughter of
the king, and do find the earl of Bothwell, Mr,
James Balfour, parson ofFlisk, Mr. David Cham-
bers and black Mr. John Spence, the principal de-
visers thereof, and if this be not true speir at Gil-
bert Balfour." [Keith's Hist. p. 868.] In the
beginning of 1567 he had been appointed deputy
governor of Edinburgh castle, under the earl of
Bothwell, who committed to his care the famous
bond, signed by eight bishops, nine earls, and seven
barons, declaring that ambitious and unscrupu-
lous nobleman guiltless of Damley's murder and a
suitable match for the queen, which he afterwards
used with fatal effect against the regent Morton.
According to the enemies of Mary it was to Sir
James Balfour that Bothwell, after Mary^s sur-
render at Carberry, sent for the casket said to
contain the letters that formed the alleged evi-
dence of her guilt ; which casket he delivered,
but on secret infoimation furnished by him, the
messenger was seized by the confedei*ated lords,
with whom he was at the time tampering. [Bu-
cftanan, b. xviii. p. 51.]
After the imprisonment of Mary, Balfour sur-
rendered the castle of Edinburgh to the regent
Mun-ay, on the following conditions: first, a par-
don for his share in the king's murder; secondly,
a gift of the priory of Pittenweem, then held by
the regent in commendam; thirdly, an heritable
annuity to his son out of the rents of the priory of
St. Andrews; and, fourthly, a gift of five hundred
pounds to himself. These terms being fulfilled,
the castle was delivered into the hands of Sir
William Earkaldy of Grange, who was appointed
governor. He was continued in the privy council
by the regent Murray, to please whom he resigned
his ofSce of clerk register, when Sir James Macgill
was re-appointed. For this service, in December
of the same year (1567) Balfour received a pen-
sion of five hundred pounds, and was appointed
president of the court of session. He was present
at the battle of Langside on the side of the regent,
and was instrumental in obtaining the overthrow
of his former benefactress. [MehnUe^s Memoirs, p.
202.] Seldom long constant to any party, and
equally ungrateftil to Murray for the honours con-
ferred upon him as he had been to his hapless
sister. Sir James Balfour, during the years 1568
and 1569, busily engaged in intrigues in behalf of
Mary, and was, in consequence, in August of the
latter year, apprehended by the earl of Lennox, for
participation in his son's murder. He was, however,
set at liberty on caution, but was never brought
to trial, having made his peace with the regent
by means of large bribes to his ocrvants. [Ibid,
p. 221.] After the assassination of the regent in
January 1570, he openly joined the party of
the queen. In Bannatyne's Journal, under date
April 1570, there occurs the following passage:
"The quenis factione, to wit the Hamiltones,
Argyle, Huntlie, Boyd, Crawford, Ogilbie, and
Sir James Balfoure, remained at Lynlythgow,
and there, after divers consultationes, vnderstand-
ing that the Englis armie was retired fiirth of
Scottis boundis, tuke baldness vpon them be oppin
proclamatione to set vp the authoritie of that
murtherer and knawin adultres called the queue,
and so all farther conference betwixt the two
parties ceased; for the lordis that snstened the
kingis querrall answerit in few wordis, that they
culd have no farther commoning with opin and
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SIR JAMES.
periured traytoris, as they were everie one. "
[Bannatyne's Journal^ p. 14.] At the time Mait-
land of Lethington and Klrkaldy of Grange main-
tained the castle of Edinburgh for the queen,
Balfonr joined them, and his name, with that of
Gilbert and Robert Balfbnr, occurs in a list of per-
sons forfeited on the dOth day of Angnst 1571.
llhid. p. 258.] By the end of the following year,
he made his peace with the regent Morton, and
was a chief instrument in bringing aboat the paci-
fication, at Perth, between the king^s and qneen's
party in January 1573, which, by the submission
of all the queen^s lords, left Kirkaldy and Mait-
land entirely at the mercy of their ruthless enemy,
Morton. Bannatyne says he ^^ remaned not in
the castle with the rest of the traytoris, albeit he
18 als grit a traytor as ony of thame all. He gave
in a long scrole to the lordis of the articles of the
parliament, that he might be restored to all thingis,
&c., whairwith mony sthrreth, and in spedall the
bischop of Orknay, now abbot of Halirudhous,
wha pix)testit for the copie of it; but I hard no
word that it was obteaned. Sindrie scroles were
gewin in vpon the said l^r James declaring his treas-
sonable dealingis in tymes bypast; notthi»!es his
dres is made with the regent, and he hes tane him
in his protectione." IBcmnaiyne's Journal^ p. 440.]
He seems to have been at this time governor of
Blackness castle, on the frith of Forth, and to fill
np the measure of his treachery to his former
friends, when Sir William Kirkaldy^s brother, Sir
James, arrived there from France with a supply
of money and stores for the queen's service, he
received him with due honour and pretended wel-
come, but the very night of his guest's arrival, he
placed him in a dungeon heavily chained, and
with the money which Sir James Kirkaldy had
brought from France, departed for Edinburgh to
hand it over to Morton. He had compounded
with the regent for his pardon, and was to have
paid him a large sum of money for his composi-
tion; but, says Bannatyne, *^the getting agane
the Blacknes, and also Mr. James Kirkaldie payis
that, as is reported; for it was affii*med that he
said to the regent, gif I can get you as gude (or
better) as my compositione, sail not I be freed
thereof; which the regent grantit. For as I have
Mud, it was alledgit that the said Sir James had
written to Mr. James Kirkaldie, befoir his cumm-
ing out of France, to cum to the Blacknes, and not
to cum to the north; becaus that gif the lord
Huntlie had gottin the gold, he wald hald it to
himself, or eUs the maist part thereof, and so give
to thame of the castle what he lyked. But how-
soever the mater was, the said Mr. James come
and landit at the Blacknes, a little efter the par-
liament, with his cofferis, thinking it had bene
sure for him as befoir; and leist that ony thing
suld be knawin, but that it ware tane perforce,
Sir James, or the Captane Alexander Stewart,
had gewin advertisment of the said James cum-
ing." [/;&tW. p. 441.]
The regent Morton, however, was not disposed
to put his trust in a man who had betrayed and
deserted both sides as Balfour had done, and in the
following month of February, a complaint against
him and his brother for the murder of Damley and
other grievous crimes, which are recited in full by
Bannatyne in his Journal, [pp. 444 — 455], was
read before the lords of the articles in parliament ;
in consequence of which he was obliged to make
his escape into France, where he remained for some
years. On the resignation of the regency by
Morton in 1578, he returned to Scotland, and
joined the party who watched for that nobleman's
destruction. In 1579 Morton recovered his au-
thority, and Balfonr again fled, when the forfei-
ture of 1571 was re-enacted.
In 1580, after James the Sixth had assumed the
reins of government, Balfonr retunied to Scotland
to organise a plan for the destruction of Morton.
On the trial of that nobleman he produced the
celebrated bond already mentioned, signed by him
and others for the support of Bothwell, as well as
other written evidence of his guilt, which he had
so long preserved for such an occasion. After
Morton's death he was restored against the for-
feiture of 1579, by act of parliament.
Sir James Balfour is supposed to have died in
January 1583 or 1584. He man-ied Margaret,
the daughter of Michael Balfour of Burleigh and
Balgarvie, by whom he acquired these lands, and
from him the Lords Balfour of Burleigh were de-
scended, as shown in our account of that family
inserted above. He is the reputed author of the
well-known collection of decisions entitled ' Bal-
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BALFOUR,
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SIR JAMES.
four's Practicks, or a System of the more ancient
Law of Scotland,' a voluminous work which re-
mained in manuscript until 1754, when it was
published by the Ruddimans, in a folio volume of
684 pages, with a life of Balfour prefixed by Wal-
ter Goodall. This work continued to be used by
practitioners till superseded by Stair's Institutes.
Lord Hailes observes that Balfour's work is inter-
polated, for it mentions certain acts of parliament
and the names of certain peers that did not exist
till after the death of Balfour. It is very likely
to have been added to after his time.
BALFOUR, Sir James, of KinnaiM, Bart., an
eminent herald, annalist, and antiquary, eldest
son of Sir Michael Balfour of Denmylne, bv his
wife, Jane, daughter of James Durham of Pitker-
row, was bom about 1600. He soon displayed a
capacity for study, and a taste for poetry. The
accompanying portmit of him is from an original
picture in the possession of Lord Belhaven.
r ' J
Hid youthful efforts m verse were noticed with
commendation by the poet Leach or Leochieus, in
his Strenal published in 1626. He had success-
fully translated Leach's Latin poem, Pcmthea^ into
the Scottish vernacular ; and Sir Robert Sibbald,
who, in his Memoria Balfimriaim, gives an account
of his life and writings, tells us that he had seen a
volume of Latin and Scottish poems, written by
Balfour, not now extant. After some time spent
abroad, Sir James, on his return, devoted himself
to the study of the antiquities of his native coun-
try. " It was, indeed, fortunate for his progress,"
says Sibbald, " that several learned men had be-
gun to illustrate the history of Scotland. Of these,
Robert Maule, commissary of St. Andrews, had
engaged in a work concerning the origin of our
nation, while David Buchanan had applied an ac-
curate criticism to the older monuments of Scottish
story. Mr. David Hume of Godscroft had under-
taken to refute the objections against the high
antiquity of the nation ; the labours of Sir Robert
Gordon of Straloch shed no inconsiderable light
on the earlier history of Scotland ; whUe Robert
Johnstone detailed the transactions of British
policy, in conjunction with those of France, the
Netherlands, and Germany, from the year 1572
to the year 1628. Mr. William Dmmmond of
Hawthomden recorded the history of the ^ye
Jameses ; Mr. Guthry, the events which charac-
terized the progress of our civil war; and Mr.
Wishart, afterwards bishop of Edinburgh, com-
memorated the actions of the celebrated marquis
of Montrose. The geographical delmeation of the
kingdom had been greatly advanced by the labours
of Timothy Pont, son of that eminent promoter of
letters, Mr. Robert Pont. Sir Robert Gordon of
Straloch, his son James, minister of Rothiemay,
and Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, director of the
chancery, had likewise contributed many topogra-
plucal descriptions, and sundry maps of the coun-
ties. The right reverend primate, John Spottis-
wood, archbishop of St. Andrews, had carried
down both the ecclesiastical and civil history of
Scotland, from the introduction of Christianity,
until the death of James VI. ; while the history of
the Scottish Church had been detailed by David
Calderwood, from the epoch of the Reformation to
the year 1625." In order to prosecute the study
of heraldry, Balfour repaired to London, where he
became acquainted with Sir Robert Cotton, also
with Sir William Segar, garter king -at -arms,
who obtained from the College of Heralds a highly
honourable testimonial in his favour, signed and
sealed by all the members of that body. He like-
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BALFOUR,
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SIR JAMES.
wise became known to Roger Dodsvirortb, and Sir
William Dugdale, to whom he commonicated sev-
eral cbartersy and other pieces of information re-
garding Scottish ecclesiastical antiquities, which
they inserted in their Monasticon Anglicanumy
under the title Cmnobia ScoHca, and which Balfonr
afterwards expanded into a volume, called Mon-
asticon Scoticum, Amongst other distinguished
persons of his own country whose fiiendship he
enjoyed, were Drummoud of Hawthomden, Sir
Robert Aytoun, and the earl of Stirling. By the
influence of the Viscount Dupplin, chancellor of
Scotland, he was in June 1630 created lord lyon
king-at-arms, having some days previously been
knighted by the king. In December 1633 he was
created a baronet. On the occasion of the coro-
nation of Charles I. at Edinburgh that year. Vis-
count Dupplin was created e#rl of Kinnoul ; and
of this nobleman Sur James in his Annals tells the
following curious anecdote : The king in 1626 had
commanded, by a letter to his privy council, that
the archbishop of St. Andi*ews should have pre-
cedence of the chancellor; to which the latter
would not submit. ** I remember," 8a3r8 Balfour,
*' that K. Charles sent me to the lord chancellor
on the day of his coronation, in the morning, to
show him that it was his will and pleasure, bot
onlie for that day, that he wold cecd and give way
to the archbishop ; but he returned by me to bis
Majestie a very bmske answer, which was, that
he was ready in all humility to lay his office doune
at his Majestie's feet ; bot since it was bis royal
will he should enjoy it with the knowen privileges
of the same, never a stoled priest in Sco&and
sliould sett a foot before him, so long as his bloode
was bote. Quben I had related his answer to the
kiuge, he said, * Weel, Lyone, lett's goe to busi-
ness ; I will not medle farther with that old can-
kered gootish man, at quhose hand ther is nothing
to be gained but soure words.* " Though a staunch
Presbyterian, when the civil wars broke out. Sir
James inclined to the cause of the king, but took
no part in the contest. He was, nevertheless, de-
prived by Cromwell of his office of lyon king-at-
arms. Living in retirement at Falkland palace,
or at his own seat of Kinnaird, he collected many
manuscripts on the art of heraldry, and wrote
several treatises on that subject, some of which
are now in the Advocates* Libraiy, while others
were dispersed, or destroyed by the English in the
capture of Perth, in 1 651, to which city he had
caused them to be conveyed. Sibbald gives a cata-
logue both of his original treatises and of the manu-
scripts which he was at such pains to collect. [3/6-
moria Baifouriana^ pp. 19 — 83.] For illustrating
Scottish history, he investigated all the chartei-s,
public registers, and monastic chartularies and
chronicles he could procure, and he was able to
form a large collection of these documents. He
formed, at considerable expense, a library of most
valuable books, and particularly rich in Scottish
history, antiquities, and heraldry. He likewise
collected and arranged ancient coins, seals, and
other reliques of the olden time, and wrote a book
of epitaphs and inscriptions on the monuments of
monasteries and parish churches. He left several
abridgments of the books of Scone, Cambusken-
neth, and others, and extracts from the histories
of John Major, Hector Boethius, Lesly, and Bu-
chanan. His literaiy correspondence was exten-
sive with those of his contemporai'ies who were
eminent either as historians or historical anti-
quarians, particulariy Robert Manle, Henry Maule
of Melgnm, David Buchanan, Sir Robert Gordon
of Straloch, Mr. Roger Dodsworth, Sir William
Dugdale, and Drummond of Hawthomden. At
the request of Sir John Scott of Scotstarvet he
contributed not a little to the geographical illus-
tration of the kingdom. He drew up an accurate
description of the shire of Fife, including obser\^a-
tions on its antiquities, and the genealogies of its
principal families, and he bad begun to compile
a geographical description of the whole of Scot-
land, the manuscript of which was of so much use
to the Dutch geographer, Bleau, that he dedicated
to Sir James Balfour the map of Lorn in his The-
atrum Scotia^ appending to it an engraving of his
arms. Besides his various treatises on heraldry,
he wrote annals of the life and reign of James I.
and II., and memorials of the reigns of James
III., James IV., and James V., and Mary. The
reign of James VI. he treated at greater length.
He also wrote an account of the kings of Scotland
from Fergus I. to Charles I., and the annals of
Scotland in two volumes, the first extending from
the accession of Malcolm 111. to the death of
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BALFOUR,
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SIR ANDREW.
James VL, and the second from the accession of
Charles I. to the sixteenth year of his reign.
When it became necessary to form a separate
establishment for the Prince of Wales, who was
also steward or seneschal of Scotland, Sir James
deemed it proper to inquire into the amount of the
revenue to which the hereditary princes of Scot-
land were entitled, as well as the extent of their
privileges ; and among his manuscripts is one with
the following title : — ' The True present State of
the Principality of Scotland, with the Means, how
the same may be most conveniently Increased,
and Augmented ; with which is joyned, Ane Sur-
vey, and brief Note from the Publick Registers of
the Kingdom of certain Infefitments and Confir-
mations given to Princes of Scotland, and by them
to their Vassals, of diversse Baronies and Lands
of the Princlpalitie, since the 15 year of the Reign
of King Robert III.* To natural history he like-
wise gave his attention, and composed in Scots an
alphabetical treatise on gems. He also wrote in
Latin, an account, collected from various authors,
of the frauds practised in the imitation of precious
stones. He died in February 1657. He is usu-
ally styled of Kinnurd, having, in 1631, obtained,
in favour of himself and his spouse, a grant of the
lands and barony of that name in Fife. He was
four times manied ; first, on 21st October 1630,
to Anna, daughter of Sir John Alton of that ilk,
by whom he had three sons and six daughters,
and who died August 26th, 1644; 2dly, to his
cousin, Jean Durham, daughter of the laird of
Pitkerrow, who died without issue, 19th July,
1645; 3dly, to Margaret, only daughter of Su*
James Amot of Femie, by whom he had three
sons and three daughters ; 4thly, to Janet, daugh-
ter of Sir William Auchinleck of Balmanno, by
whom he had two daughters. The family, as stat-
ed above, is now extinct in the male line. From
his collection of MS., preserved in the Advocates*
Library, his * Annals and Short Passages of State,'
were published by Mr. James Haig in 1824, in
four volumes octavo.
BALFOUR, Sir Andrew, Bart., an eminent
physician and botanist, and founder of the botanic
garden of Edinburgh, the brother of the preceding,
and fifth and youngest son of Sir Michael Balfoui-
of Denmylne, was bom there January 18, 1630.
His education was superintended by his brother,
Sir James, the famous antiquary, who was thirty
years old at the time of his birth. He took his
degree of A.M. at the univei*sity of St. Andrews,
and about 1650 removed to London, where he
prosecuted his medical studies under the celebrated
Harvey, and other eminent practitioners. He
afterwards went to Blois, in France, to see the
botanical garden of the duke of Orleans, then
kept by his countryman. Dr. Morison. After re-
maining some time at Paris, he completed his edu-
cation at the university of Caen, where, Septem-
ber 20, 1661, he received his degrees of bachelor
and doctor of medicine. On his return to London,
Charles the Second appointed him travelling tutor
to the young earl of Rochester, whom he in vain
endeavoured to reclaim. In his last illness his
lordship expressed |is obligations to Dr. Balfour,
for the good instructions he had received from him.
After spending four years on the continent, they
returned in 1667. Dr. Balfour afterwards com-
menced practice as a physician at St. Andrews.
In 1670 he removed to Edinburgh, where, among
other improvements, he introduced the manufac-
ture of paper into Scotland. Having a small bo-
tanical garden attached to his house, chiefly fur-
nished by seeds sent by his foreign correspondents,
he raised there many plants, till then unknown in
this country. His friend and botanical pupil, Mr.
Patrick Murray of Livingstone, had formed at his
seat a botanic garden, containing one thousand
species of plants ; and, after his death. Dr. Bal-
four transferred his collection to Edinburgh ; and,
joining it to his own, laid the foundation of the
first public botanic garden in Scotland ; for which
the magistrates of the city allotted a piece of
ground near the foot of Leith Wynd, and adjacent
to Trinity Hospital, taken down in 1845 for the
convenience of the North British railway. Here
the Botanic garden continued till 1767, when,
by the exertions of Dr. Hope, a subsequent pro-
fessor of botany, it was removed to a piece of
ground between Leith and Edinburgh, on the west
side of Leith Walk. [See Hope, John.] This
place was abandoned in 1822 for a more suitable
situation at Inverleith Row, where the Edinburgh
Botanical Garden is now in a flourishing condi-
tion.
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BALFOUR,
217
ROBERT.
Dr. Balfour was created a baronet by Charles
the Second. He has the merit of being the first
who introdaced the dissection of the human body
into Scotland ; and, with Sir Robert Sibbald, he
planned the Royal College of physicians, of which
society he was elected the first president. On the
publication of the Pharmacopoeia by the college in
1686, the whole arrangement of the materia medi-
ca was committed to his care. Shortly before his
death he projected the foundation of an hospital in
Edinburgh, which is now the Royal Infirmary.
He died in 1694, bequeathing his museum to the
University. He never appeared as an author, but
in 1700 his son published a series of the familiar
letters which he had addressed to Mr. Murray of
Livingstone. The great merits of Sir Andrew
Balfour as a naturalist, physician, and scholar, are
commemorated, not only by Sir Robert Sibbald,
in the Memoria Balfauriana, and elsewhere ; but
also more recently by Professor John Walker, in
his Essays on Natural History.
BALFOUR, Robert, a distinguished scholar,
and philologist, principal of Guienne college, Bor-
deaux, about the beginning of the seventeenth
century, is supposed to have been bom about the
year 1550. As he left his native country young,
very little is known regarding him. He is sup-
posed to have derived his lineage from the Bal-
garvie branch of the Fifeshire family of Balfour,
but in his Commentary on Cleomedes [p. 196] he
has himself stated that he was a native of Forfar-
shire. He studied first at the university of St.
Andrews, and aftei-wards repairing to France, he
became a student in that of Paris, where he dis-
tinguished himself by the ability with which he
publicly maintained certain philosophical theses
against all oppugners. He was subsequently in-
vited to Bourdeanx, by the archbishop of that see,
and became a member of the college of Guienne.
The precise date of his appointment to a profes-
sor's chair is unknown, but it appears from a let-
ter from Yinetus to George Buchanan, of date 9th
June 1581, that he must have been previous to
that year professor of the Greek language and
mathematics. He was subsequently appointed
principal of the college of Guienne, an ofiice which
he filled with much prudence and reputation. He
is thought to have succeeded to the priucipalship
on the death of Yinetus, 14th May 1586. His ear-
liest publication was an edition, the first that ap-
peared, of the ancient history of the famous coun-
cil held at Nice, in the year 325, the author of
which was Crclasins, a native of Cyzicus, a city of
Mysia, who became bishop of CsBsarea in Pales-
tine. This work appeared in 1599, in 8vo. HU
next undertaking was an edition of the Meteora
of Cleomedes, with a copious and elaborate com-
mentary, published at Bourdeaux in 1605, 4to.
'* His work," says Dr. Irving, "was commended
by men eminent for their learning, and his com-
mentary continues to be held in such estimation
that it has been reprinted within a very recent
period in an edition of Cleomedes published by
Professor Bake of Leyden." ILives of Scottish
Writersy vol. i. p. 243.] Balfour's last and great-
est work was his Commentary on Aristotle. The
first volume, containing an exposition of the Or-
ganon, or treatises i-elating to the science of logic,
was published in 1616. The second volume, com-
prising a similar exposition of the ethics, appeared
in 1620, when the author must have been up-
wards of seventy years of age. The date of his
death has not been ascertained. He was living
in 1625. " Balfour," says Dr. Lrving, from whose
life of him these particulars have been gleaned,
" left behind him the character of a learned and
worthy man. His manners are represented as
very pleasing ; and he is particularly commended
for his kindness to his connti-ymen, many of whom
at that period wandered on the continent in quest
of learning, or learned employment. The only
fault imputed to him by one biographer, \_D. Bu-
chananus de Scn'ptoribus Scotis^ p. 129,] is his
zealous adherence to the Romish faith. This spe-
cies of zeal he has testified by introducing into his
commentary on the Categories of Aristotle, a de-
fence of the astounding doctrine of transubstantia-
tion. As a proof of the estimation in which he
was held, it may be stated that Francois de Foix
de Candale, bishop of Aire, who died in the year
1594, bequeathed to him the mathematical part of
his library." ILives of Scottish Writers^ vol. i. p.
244.] Morhof mentions Balfour as a celebrated
commentator on the philosophy of Aristotle, and
Dempster says he was " the PhoBuix of his age ; a
philosopher profoundly skilled in the Greek and
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BALFOUR.
218
BALFOUR.
J^tiii languages ; a mathematician worthy of be-
ing compared with tlie ancients; and to those
qualifications he joined a wonderful suavity of
manners, and the utmost warmth of affection to-
wards his countrymen." His writings display an
extent of erudition which reflects honour on the
literary history of his country. His edition of
Cleomedes, in particular, is spoken of in high
I tei-ms of praise by the ei-udite Barthius.
The following are the titles of Balfour's works :
Versio et Notao ad Gelasium Cyzicenam de Cntns Conrilii
Kicsni et versio ad Theodonim Presb. de Incarnatione Do-
mini. Par. 1699, 8vo.
Vermo et Comm. ad Cleomedis Meteora. Burd. 1605, 4to.
Commentarins R. Balford in Organum Logicom Aristotelis.
Bnrd. 1616, 2 vols. 4to.
Comm. in Organum Aristotelis. Bard. 1618, fol.
Commentarii in iEthica Aristotelis. Par. 1620, 4to.
BALFOUR, James, of Pilrig, near Edinburgh,
an ingenious writer, was admitted an advocate,
November 14, 1730, but never had much practice
at the bar. In 1787, on the death of Mr. Bayne,
professor of Scots law in the university of Edin-
burgh, he and Mr. John Erskine of Camock, ad-
vocate, were presented by the faculty of advocates
to the patrons of the vacant chair, who elected
^Ir. Erskine, afterwards author of the ' Institute
of the Law of Scotland.' Balfour was subse-
quently appointed sheriff-substitute of the county
of Edinburgh. Having a taste for philosophical
science, he early opposed the speculations of
David Hume, particularly in two treatises, which
he published anonymously, the one entitled *A
Delineation of Morality,' and the other ' Philoso-
phical Dissertations.' With these Hume, though
they combated his own views, was so much
pleased, that, on the 15th March 1753, he wrote
the author a letter requesting his friendship as he
was obliged by his civilities. On the 28th An-
gust 1754 Balfour was elected professor of moral
philosophy in the university of Edinburgh. In
1764, on the death of Mr. William Kirkpatrick,
professor of public law in that university, he re-
ceived a royal commission to succeed him. In
1768 he published at Edinburgh his former lec-
tures under the title of ' Philosophical Essays,' in
which he subjected to a rigorous examination
Lord Kames' Essays on Morality and Natural
Religion. In the spring of 1779 he resigned the
chair of public law. He died at Pilrig, 6th March
1795, aged 92,— (Botcer^s Hist, of the Unwerstfy of
Edinburgh^ vol. ii. page 374.)
The following are his publications :
Philosophical Essays. Edin. 1768, 8to.
Philosophical Dissertations. Edin. 1782, 8to.
Of Matter and Motion; Of Liberty and Necessity; On
the Foundation of Moral Obligation ; Nature of the Soul &c
BALFOUR, Alexander, a miscellaneous wri-
ter, a native of the parish of Monikie, Forfeuvhire,
was bom March 1, 1767. His parents belonged to
the humbler rural class ; and being a twin, he wa&
taken under the protection of a friend of the fam-
ily, to whom he was indebted for support in hit
early years. He received but a scanty education,
and when very young was apprenticed to a weaver j
notwithstanding which, he taught a school in hb |
native parish for several years. At the age oi
twenty- six, he became clerk to a merchant and
manufacturer in Arbroath. The following year he
married. He made hi.^ first essays in composition
when only twelve years of age, and at a more ma-
ture age he contributed occasional verses to the
British Chronicle newspaper, and to Dr. Ander-
son's *Bee.' In 1793 he contributed several pieces
to the Dundee Repository, and not a few to the
Aberdeen Magazine in 1796. Four years after his
removal to Arbroath he changed his situation, and
two years after, on the death of his first employer,
he carried on the business in partnership with his
widow. On her retirement, in 1800, he assumed
another partner, and having obtained a government
contract to supply the navy with canvas, he was
in a few years enabled to purchase considerable
property. During the war with France he exhi-
bited his patriotism by inseHing in the Dundee
Advertiser a succession of loyal poems and songs,
most of which were republished in London, and
some of the latter set to music and sung at places
of public entertainment. To the Northern Min-
strel, published at Newcastle, he contributed about
twenty songs, and furnished several pieces to the
Literary Mirror, published at Montrose. The ac-
count of Arbi-oath in Dr. Brewster's Encyclopedia
was written by him, and he also contributed seve-
i-al papers to Tilloch's Philosophical Journal.
In the year 1814 he removed to Trottick, in the
neighbourhood of Dundee, to assume the manage-
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BALFOUR.
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BALGONTE.
mcut of a branch of a London house, which was,
in the succeeding' year, suddenly involved in bank-
ruptcy ; and^was obliged to accept of the situation
of manager of a manufacturing tstaiMkhment at
Balgonie in Fife, where, upon a limited aalary, he
continued for three years. In October 1818, prin-
cipally on account of his childi-en, he removed to
Kdinburgh, and was employed as a clerk by Mr.
Blackwood the publisher. In the course of a few
months he was seized with paralysis, and in June
1819 was obliged to relinquish his employment.
For ten years thereafter he spent his days in a
wheel-chair, and devoted himself entirely to liter-
ature. Li 1819 he published a novel, called
^Campbell, or the Scottish Probationer,' which
was well received. At the close of the same year
he brought out an edition of the poems of his de-
ceased friend, Richard Gall, with a memoir. In
1820 he published a volume, entitled ' Contempla
tion, and other Poems.* About the same time he
began to contribute to Constable's Edinburgh
Magazine, tales, sketches, and poems, descriptive
of Scottish rural life, which he continued to do till
the close of that work in 1826. One poetical se-
ries, entitled ^Charactera omitted in Crabbe's
Parish Register,' was so favourably received, that
he was induced to republish it in one volume in
1825. In 1822 he began to write novels for the
Minerva Press of I^ndon ; the first of which, in
three volumes, was called ^The Farmer's Three
Daughters.' His second, which was by far the
best, appeared in 1823, also in three volumes,
and was entitled, *The Foundling of Glenthom,
or the Smuggler's Cave.' In 1827, Mr. Joseph
Hume, M.P., presented a number of his works to
the premier, Mr. Canning, and a donation of one
hundred pounds was obtained for him from the
Treasury, in consideration of his talents and mis-
fortunes. His latest work was a novel, entitled
* Highland Mary,' in four volumes, which, like his
other novels, was distinguished for the most touch-
ing pathos. He contributed till his death to the
periodicals of the day, and wrote largely in particu-
lar for the ' Edinburgh Literary Gazette,' a publi-
cation long since discontinued, lie died on Sept.
12, 1829. A posthumous volume of his remains
was published under the title of * Weeds and Wild
Flowers,' with a Memoir by Mr. D. M. Moir.
Balfour's works are :
Campbell; or, the Scottish Probationer, 8 vols. 8vo. Ed-
inburgh, 1819.
Contemplation, and other Poems, 1 vol. Svo. Edin., 1820.
Hm Faonar's Three Danghters. A Korol, 8 vols, 8vo.
London, 1822.
The Foundling of Glenthom, or the Smuggler*8 Cave, a
Romance, 8 vols. 8vo. London, 1823.
Characters omitted in Crabbers Parish Register, 1 vol. 8vo.
Ediubuigh, 1826.
Highland Mary, a Novel, 4 vols. Edinburgh, 1827.
Weeds and Wild Flowers, posthumous, with a Memoir
1 vol 8vo. Edinburgh, 1830.
Baloohtb, Baron, a title of the earl of Leven and Mel-
ville, conferred in 1641, on his ancestor, General Alexander
Leslie, commander of the Scots army at Dunse Law in May
1639. [See Leven and Mklvtllb, earl of.] The lands of
Balgonie, in the parish of Marldnch, Fife, originallj belonged
to the family of Sibbald. [See Sibbald, surname of.] Sir
Andrew Sibbald of Balgonie, sheriff of Fife, in 1457, and
again in 1466, had an only daughter, Helen, who married
Robert Lundin, second son of Sir John Lnndin of Lundin.
Their son. Sir Robert Lundin of Balgonie, was lord high trea-
surer of Scotland. His descendant, Robert Lundin, sold the
lands of Balgonie in the sixteenth century, to General Alex-
ander Leslie, the first earl of Leven, whose first title was Lord
Balgonie, as already stated. They continued in possession of
the Leven family till 1823, when they were purchased for the
sum of one hundred and four thousand pounds, by James Bal'
four, Esq. of Whittingham, brother of the late General Bal-
four of Balbimie. Balgonie castle, on the south bank of tho
river Leven, is of great antiquity. The following woodmit
representation of it is from Natte*s Scotia Depida:
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Bauol, or Balliol, the name of a Norman baron, whose
descendant was declared king of Scotland in 1292. He was
possessor of Balleul, Harcourt, and other manors in Norman-
dy, from the former of which he derived his name. His son.
Guy de Baliol, came over to EngUnd with the Ck>nqueror*s
son, William Rufos, who appointed him lord of the forest of
Teesdale and Marwood, and bestowed on him the lands of
Middlcton and Biwell in Northumberland. He had also
lands in Yorkshire. His son, Bernard de Baliol, built the
strong castle on the Tees, in the county of Durham, called
Bernard Castle, and was forced by David the First of Scot-
land, in 1135, to swear fidelity to Matilda. Previous to the
battle of the Standard, in 1138, the English sent Robert
de Bruce and Bernard de Baliol to the Scottish army un-
der David the Furst, to endeavour to procure peace, but
the proposal was rejected with disdain, when Bruce re-
nounced the homage which he had performed to David for
a barony in Galloway, and Baliol also gave np the fealty,
sworn to Matilda three years before. Adhering to the for-
tunes of King Stephen, Baliol was taken prisoner at the bat-
tle of Lincoln, with that monarch, 2d February 1141. On
the incursion into Northumberland of the Scots in 1174, he
was among the Yorkshire barons who, with Robert de Stutte-
ville, hastened to the relief of Alnwick castle, then besieged
by the Scottish king. During their hurried march a dense fog
arose, and the more cautious advised a retreat, when Baliol
exclaimed, " You may retreat, but / will go forward alone,
and preserve my honour.*' In consequence they all advanced,
and the returning light enabled them to desciy the battle-
ments of Alnwick castle. William, the Scottish king, was
then in the fields with a slender train of sixty horsemen. At
the head of these, however, he instantly charged the new
comers, whose force was much larger. Being overpowered,
and unhorsed, he was made prisoner by Baliol, and sent
first to the castle of Richmond and afterwards to Falaise in
Normandy. [Hailet* Arnialt, vol L p. 115.] This feudal
chief married Agnes de Pinkeny. His son, Eustace de Bal-
iol, was tlie father of Hugh de Baliol, who, in 1216, was
joined with Philip de Hulcotes in defence of the northern bor-
ders, and when Alexander the Second of Scotland had sub-
dued the whole of Northumberland, these two barons held
out stoutly all the fortresses upon the line of the Tees, parti-
cularly that of Bernard castle, the seat of the Baliol family,
which was assaulted by Alexander, and before which Eu-
stace de Vesd, the husband of his illegitimate sister, Mar-
garet, was slain. Hugh de Bailors eldest son, John de Baliol,
was one of the magnates of Henry the Third of England,
whose cause he strenuously supported in his struggles with
his barons. He was possessed of great wealth, having thirty
knights* fees, equal to twelve thousand pounds of modem
money. He married Devorgilla, one of the three daughters
and 00 -heiresses of Allan, lord of Galloway, by Margaret,
eldest daughter of David, earl of Huntingdon, and in right
of his wife he had large possessions in Scotland, and was one
of the Regents during the minority of Alexander III. In 1263
he laid the foundation of one of the colleges at Oxford, which
was completed by his widow, and still bears his name. He
died in 1268. His son, John de Baliol, became temporaiy
king of Scotland, by the award of Edward the First Of this
John de Baliol a notice is given below.
Alexander de Baliol, the brother of John, kii^ of Scots,
being in the retinue of Antony Beck, the celebrated bishop of
Durham, in the expedition of Edward the First to Flanders,
was restored to all his brother*s lands in Scotland m 1297,
and on 26th September 1300, he was summoned by writ to
parliament till the 8d November 1306, under the title of
Baron BalioL He married Isabell, daughter and heiress of
Richard de Chilham, and widow of David de Strathbogie
earl of Athol, by whom he obtained for life the castie and
manor of Chilham in the county of Kent. Dying without
issue, the barony of Baliol in consequence became extinct
There were several collateral branches of the name of Baliol
in Scotland, whose names appear as donors and witnesses in
the cloister registers. In the Ragman Roll, also, four or five
of them are mentioned. One of these, Alexander de Balliolo,
Camerarius Sootiie, was baron of Cavers in Teviotdale. As
chamberlain of Scotland he has a place in the Lives of the
Officers of State, (page 266.) The name of Baliol is supposed,
{Nesbifs Heraldry^ voL L p. 178,) to have been changed to
Baillie, [see Baiixib, surname of, antCy p. 173,] having be-
come odious in Scotland.
BALIOL, John, some time king of Scotland,
was the son of John de Baliol of Bemai-d castle,
county of Durham, the founder of Baliol college,
Oxford, as already stated, by his wife, the Lady
Devorgilla, granddaughter of David, earl of Hun-
tingdon, and is supposed to have been bom about
1260. On the death, in 1290, of Margaret the
" Maiden of Norway," granddaughter of Alexan-
der the Third, no less than thirteen competlton
came forward for the vacant throne of Scotland.
Of these, John de Baliol and Robert de Biiice,
lord of Anuandale, were the principal. Baliol
claimed as being great-grandson to the earl of
Huntingdon, younger brother of William the Lion,
by his eldest daughter, Margaret ; and Bruce as
grandson by his second daughter, Isabella ; that is,
the former as direct heir, and as nearest of right,
and the latter as nearest in blood and degree. Ac-
cording to the rules of succession which are now
established, the right of Baliol was preferable;
but the protest and appeal of the seven earls of
Scotland to Edward, brought to light by Sir Fran-
cis Palgrave, shows that in that age the order of
succession was not ascertained with precision, and
that the prejudices of the people and even the
ancient laws of the kingdom favoured the claims
of Bruce, and to this circumstance the unhappy
results which followed may in a great measure be
attributed. The competitors agreed to refer their
claims to the arbitration of Edward the First of
England, who straightway asserted and extended
bis daim of feudal superiority to an extent never
attempted by any of his predecessors. He met
the Scottish nobility and clergy at Norham on the
10th May, 1291, and required them to recognise
his title as lord paramount. At their request he
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BALIOL,
221
JOHN.
granted them a term of three weeks in order
that thej might consult together, at which period
he required them to retun a definitive answer. In
the meantime he had commanded his barons to as-
semble at Norham with all their forces, on the Sd
June. On the 2d he gave audience to the Scots in
an open field, near Upsettlington, on the north
bank of the Tweed, opposite to the castle of Nor-
ham, and within the territory of Scotland. At
this assembly eight of the competitors for the
crown were present, who all acknowledged Ed-
ward as lord paramount of Scotland, and agreed
to abide by his decision. Bruce was among them,
but Baliol was absent. The next day Baliol ap-
peared, and on being asked by the chancellor of
England whether he was willing to make answer
as the others had done, aHier an affected pause,
he pronounced his assent.
Edward, going beyond his mere claim as over-
lord or superior of Scotland, now brought forward
a right of property in the kingdom, and demanded
to be put in possession of it, on the specious pre-
text that he might deliver it to him to whom the
crown was found justly to belong. Even this
strange demand was acceded to, all the competi-
tors agreeing that sasine of the kingdom and its
fortresses should be given to Edward. On the
llth, therefore, the regents of Scotland made a
solemn surrender of the kingdom into Edward's
bands, and the keepers of castles surrendered their
castles. The only demur was on the pai*t of Gil-
bert de Umfraville, earl of Angus, who would not
give up the castles of Dundee and Foifar, with-
out a bond of indemnification. [See ante^ page
127.] Edward immediately restored the custody
of the kingdom to the regents, Eraser, bishop of
St. Andrews, Wishart, bishop of Glasgow, John
Comyn of Badenoch, and James, the steward of
Scotland. The final hearing of the competition
took place, on the 17th November 1292, in the
hall of the castle of Berwick-upon-Tweed, when
Edward confirmed the judgments of his commis-
sion and parliament by giving judgment in his
favour. On the 19th the crown was formally
declared to belong to him, and the next day he
swore fealty for it to Edward at Norham. On
the 80th of the same month, Baliol was crowned
at Scone, and being immediately recalled to Eng-
land, was compelled to renew his homage to Ed-
ward at Newcastle. In the course of a yeai,
Baliol was four times summoned to appear before
Eklward in the parliament of England. Roused
by the indignities heaped upon him while there,
he ventured to remonstrate, and would consent to
nothing which might be construed into an ac-
knowledgment of the jurisdiction of the English
parliament. Having, on the 2dd October, 1295,
concluded a treaty with Philip, king of France,
Baliol, who at times was not without spirit, which,
however, he wanted firmness to sustain, solemnly
renounced his allegiance to Edward, and obtained
the Pope's absolution from the oaths which he had
taken. Edward received the intelligence of his
renunciation with contempt rather than with an-
ger. "The foolish traitor," said he to BalioFs
messenger, " since he will not come to us, we will
go to him.'' With a large army he immediately
marched towards Scotland. In the meantime, a
small party of Scots crossed the borders, and plun-
dered Northumberland and Cumberland. They
took the castle of Werk, and slew a thousand of
the English. King Edward, on the other hand,
having taken Berwick, put all the garrison and in-
habitants to the sword. The Scots army were de-
feated at Dunbar, 28th April, 1296, and the castles
of Dunbar, Edinburgh, and Stirling falling into
Edward's hands, Baliol was obliged to retire beyond
the river Tay. On July 10, 1296, in the churchyard
of Stracathro, near Monti-ose, in presence of An-
thony Beck, bishop of Durham and the English
nobles, he surrendered his crown and sovereignty
into the hands of the English monarch, and was
divested of everything belonging to the state and
dignity of a king. He was thereafter, with his
son, sent to London, and imprisoned in the Tower,
where he remained till July 20, 1299, when, on the
intercession of the Pope, he and his son were de-
livered up to his legate. "Thus ended," says
Lord Hailes, " the short and disastrous reign of
John Baliol, an ill-fated prince, censured for doing
homage to Edward, never applauded for asserting
the national independency. Yet, in his original
offence he had the example of Bruce ; at his revolt
he saw the rival fondly combating under the ban-
ners of England. His attempt to shake off a for-
eign yoke speaks him of a high spirit, impatient of
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BALTOL,
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EDWARD.
injuries. He erred in enterprising beyond lila
strength ; in the cause of liberty it was a meritor-
ious error. He confided in the valour and unani-
mity of his subjects, and in tlie assistance of
France. The efforts of his subjects were languid
and discoi-dant ; and France beheld his ruin with
the indifference of an unconcerned spectator."
Baliol retired to his estates in France, where he
died in 1314. The following is a cast of the seal
of John Baliol, while king of Scotland, from An-
dei*son's Diplomata Scotiffi :
During the subsequent contest in Scotland under
Wallace, the assertors of the national independence
maintained the rights of Baliol, and Wallace, so
long as he held authority, acted as governor of the
kingdom under him and in his name. To the
unpopularity of the family and of Baliol's bro-
ther, who had taken part with Edward, may in
part be attributed the partial support which the
great patriot received in his struggle. For the rest
of his life, John Baliol resided as a private man
in France, without interfering in the affaire of Scot-
land. Some writers say that he lived till he was
blind, which must have been the effect of some
disease and not of old age, as he could not have
been, at the time of his death, above fifty -five
years old at the utmost. He manned Isabel,
daughter of John de Warren, earl of Suirey. The
Scots ati^xed the contemptuous epithet of Toom
Tabard (empty jacket) to Baliol, their temporary
lung.—DalrytnpU's Annah of Scotland^ vol. L
BALIOL, Edwabd, eldest son of the preceding,
succeeded, on the death of his father, to his esUtes
hi France, where he resided in a private manner
for several years. In 1324 he was invited over
by Edward the Second of England, to be brought
forwai-d as a rival to Robert the Brace, and iu
1327, at the request of Edward the Third, he
again visited England with the same object. His
first active appearance on the scene was on the
following occasion : Some of the Anglo-Norman
barons possessed estates in Scotland, which were
forfeited during the war with England. By the
treaty of Northampton in 1828, whereby the in-
dependence of Scotland was secured, their estates
in that country were I'estored to the English bar-
ons. Two of these, Thomas Lord Wake, and
Henry de Beaumont, having in vain endeavoured
to procure possession, joined Baliol, when, after
the death of Brace, he resolved to attempt the re-
covery of what he considered his birthright. Id
Caxton's Chronicle it is stated, that in 1381, hav-
ing taken the pai-t of an English servant of uis
who had killed a Frenchman, Baliol was himself im-
prisoned in France, and only released on the inter-
cession of the Lord de Beaumont, who advised
him to come over to England, and set up his claim
to the Scottish crown. King Edward did not
openly countenance the enterprise. With three
hundred men at arms, and a few foot soldiers,
Baliol and his adherents sailed from Ravenspur
on the Humber, then a port of some importance,
but overwhelmed by the sea some centuries smce,
and landing at Kinghorn, August 6, 1882, defeated
the earl of Fife, who endeavoured to oppose them.
The army of Baliol, increased to three thousand
men, marched to Forte viot, near Perth, whero
they encamped with the river Eara in front. On
the opposite bank lay the regent of the kingdom,
the earl of Mar, with upwards of thirty thousand
men, on Dupplin Moor. At midnight, the Eng-
lish force forded the Eara, and attacking the
sleeping Scots, slew thirteen thousand of them,
including the eai'ls of Mar and Moray. Baliol
then hastened to Perth, where he was unsuccess-
fully besieged by the earl of March, whose force
he dispersed. On the 24th of September, 1382.
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BALIOL.
223
BALLANTYNE
Edward Baliol was crowned king at Scone. On
the 10th of February 1333, he held a parliament
at fidinbargh, consisting of what are known as
the disinherited barons, with seven bishops, in-
cluding both WilUam of Dunkeld, and it is said
Mauiice of Dunblane, the abbot of Inchaffray,
who there agreed to the humiliating conditions
proposed by Edward the Third. His good for-
tune now foi'sook him. On the 16th December,
within three months after, he was suiprised in
his encampment at Annan by the young earl of
Moray, the second son of Randolph, the late re-
gent, Archibald Douglas, brother of the good
lord James, Simon Eraser, and others of the he-
roes of the old war of Scotland's independence,
and his army being overpowered, and his brother
Henry, with many of his chief adherents, slain, he
escaped nearly naked and almost alone to England.
Having on the 23d of November preceding sworn
feudal service to the English monarch, the latter
marched an army across the borders to his assist-
auce, and the defeat of the Scots at Halidon Hill,
July 19, 1333, again enabled Baliol to usui-p for a
brief space the nominal sovereignty of Scotland.
The following is a cast of the seal of Edward
Baliol from Anderson's Diplomata Scotise :
He now renewed his homage to Edwaid HI.,
and ceded to him the town and county of Berwick,
with the counties of Roxburgh, Selkirk, Peebles,
Dumfries, and the Lothians, in return for the aid
he had rendered him. In 1334 he was again com-
pelled to fly to England. In July 1335 he was
restored by the arms of the English monarch. In
1338, being by the regent, Robert Stewart, closely
pressed at Perth, where this restless intruder, sup-
ported by the English interest, held his nominal
court, he again became a fugitive. After this he
made several attempts to be re-established on the
throne, but the nation never acknowledged him ;
their allegiance being rendered to David the Se-
cond, infant son of Robert the Brace. At Inst,
worn out by constant fighting and disappointment,
in 1356 he sold his claim to the sovereignty, and
his family estates, to Edward the Third, for five
thousand merks, and a yearly pension of two thou-
sand pounds sterling, with which he retired into
obscurity, and died childless at Doncaster in 1363
With him ended the line of BsMol.^Ti/tler's His-
tory qfScotian '.
BxLLAitTYNB, a name variously written Ballenden, Bellen-
den, and Ballentyn, and the same as Bannatyne, [see
BAifNATYNE, surname of], originally derived from the lands
of Bellenden in Selkirkshire. Of this surname the family of
Ballenden or Bellenden of Aachinonl, in the county of Edin-
burgh, was at one period the most distinguished, a descend-
ant of which became in 1661 Lord Bellenden of Brougbton, a
title afterwards merged in that of the Duke of Roxburgh.
[See Bellenden, Lord.]
BALLANTYNE, James, an eminent printer,
was the son of a respectable shopkeeper in Kelso,
where he was bom in the year 1772. He was
educated at the grammar school of his native town,
and in 1783 he first became acquainted with
Sir Walter Scott, who then attended the public
school of Kelso, for a few weeks, while on a visit
to his aunt, during the vacation of the Edinburgh
High school. He was early bound apprentice to a
solicitor at Kelso, and in 1795 commenced practice
there, but not meeting with clients, in the follow-
ing summer, though not brought up to the printing
business, he conmienced as printer in his native
town, and stalled the Kelso Mail newspaper with
success. He had the merit of being the first to
introduce an improved style of printing into Scot-
land ; and the works which issued from his press
in a provincial town, for elegance and accuracy,
w^ere unequalled at the time in this countiy.
Among the earliest of these was the first great
work of his friend Sii* Walter Scott, * The M in-
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BALLANTYNE,
224
JOHN.
strclsy of the Scottish Border,' which was printed
at the Ballantyne press, Kelso. About the end of
1802, chiefly by the advice of Scott, he was in-
duced to remove to Edinburgh, where the distinc-
tion he had already acquh*ed in the trade procured
for him ample employment. In 1805, shortly after
the publication of the ' Lay of the Last Minstrel,'
needing a supply of money to enable him to carry
on his inci'easing business, he applied to Sir Walter
Scott, from whom he had previously received a
loan, for another advance, when, on consideration
of being admitted a partner, to the extent of a
third sharer in the business, Scott embarked a
considerable sum of money in the concern. His
inci-easing business as a printer did not preclude
his editing the Edinburgh Weekly Journal^ of which
he and his brother became the proprietors in 1817,
and which was conducted by him with spirit, in-
telligence, and good taste. In this paper first ap-
peared the celebrated letters of Sir Malachi Mala--
growther on the currency. In dramatic literature,
especially, Mr. Ballantyne's taste was excellent,
and his graceful and discriminating ciiticisms in
the Weekly Journal were much esteemed at the
time. His friendship with Sir Walter Scott, which
began when they were boys at school, lasted un-
diminished during their lives. He was the pnnter
of all the productions of the author of Waverley,
and often judiciously suggested corrections on the
manuscripts, or the proofs of his works, which
that great writer did not disdain to adopt. In
1816, he married a Miss Hogarth, the daughter of
a wealthy farmer in Berwickshire, the sister of
George Hogarth, Esq , anthor of a * History of
Music' He then lived in St. John Street, Can-
ongate, at no great distance from his printing
establishment, at St. Paul's Work. Mrs. Ballan-
tyne died in 1829, leaving him a large family of
children. In January 1 826, the company of which
he was the head were unfortunately involved in
the bankruptcy of Messrs. Constable & Co., pub-
lishers, when their liabilities amounted to one
hnndred and two thousand ponnds. Mr. Ballan-
tyne died January 17, 1838, having survived his
illustrious friend the author of Waverley only
about four months. Shortly before his death he
published an affecting statement, in which he ex-
pressed his wish to bo restored to that degree of
health which would enable him to do some justice
to the character of the great man who had gone
before him. In private life Mr. Ballantyne was
distinguished for the urbanity of his manners, the
kindness of his disposition, and for his social qua-
lities. He possessed in a high degree an acute
observation of men and manners, with great liter-
ary knowledge, and ample stores of anecdote,
which rendered him a pleasing and instructive
companion. He is described, however, as having
been a man of indolent habits, and not a little ad-
dicted to the pleasures of the table. — Lockharfs
Life ofScoU,
BALLANTYNE, John, bookseller and pub-
lisher, a younger brother of the preceding, was
bom at Kelso, in the year 1774, and like his bro-
ther, was also a schoolfellow of Sir Walter Scott.
When the Kelso MaH was started by his brother,
he assisted in ^vriting for it. He was oiiginaUy
intended for his father's business, namely, that of
a small merchant, or shopkeeper, in Kelso, and
was sent, while very young, to London, where h«
spent some time in the banking house of Messrs.
Currie. On his return to Kelso, the department
in his father's business which more immediately
devolved upon him was the tailoring one. In
1805, the business having fallen off, he disposed
of his goods to pay his debts, and followed his
brother, Mr. James Ballantyne, to Edinburgh.
He was taken into his counting-house as clerk, at
a salary of two hundred pounds per annum, whUe
his father, who had accompanied him, was also
employed about the printing-ofSce. In 1808, on
some temporary disagreement between Sir Walter
Scott and his publishers, Constable and Co., John
Ballantyne became a partner with Scott in the
firm of Ballantyne and Co., booksellers and pub-
lishers, Hanover Street. Among the first of the
(I works published by the new firm was *The Lady
of the Lake.' In 1813 he engaged also in the
profession of an auctioneer of works of art, libra-
ries, &c., having taken premises in Princes Street
for the pui-pose. He held till his death the office
of bookseller to the king for Scotland. When the
earlier Waverley novels were in course of printing
Mr. John Ballantyne was intrusted with the man-
agement of their publication. Some of these cele-
brated works he published himself. He also bronght
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BALLANTYNE.
226
BALMER.
oat two periodical publications, ^The VisioDary,'
and ' The Saleroom,^ written chiefly by Sir Walter
Scott, who edited for him the works of Beanmont
and Fletcher, which were pablished at John Bal-
lantyne^s risk. He was himself the aathor of two
thin Tolnmes, entitled *The Widow's Lodgings,*
which, though described as "wretched trash,"
reached a second edition. Possessing good natu-
ral talents, with great powers of wit and hnmour,
he was in company one of the most amusing of
story-tellers, and could relate an anecdote with a
gusto and effect peculiar to himself. He is de-
scribed as having been of a quick, active, and in-
trepid disposition, very fond of field sports, and a
eapital mimic. From his volatility and light-
heartedness. Sir Walter Scott bestowed on him
the soubriquet of Rigdumfnnnidos. The follow-
ing instance of his benevolence of disposition is
related in Lockhart's Life of Scott. He remarked
one day to a poor student of divinity who was at-
tending his auction, that he looked as if he were
in bad health. The young man assented, with a
sigh. " Come," said Ballantyne, " I think I ken
the secret of a sort of draft that would relieve you —
particularly," he added, handing him a check for
£5 or £10, " particularly, my dear, if taken on an
empty stomach." His health having been seri-
ously affected, with the view of amendment he
travelled for some time on the continent. On his
return he retired to a seat in the neighbourhood
of Kelso, and when there he commenced the pub-
lication of a beautiful edition of the British novel-
ists, entitled ' Ballantyne's Novelist's Library,'
edited by Sir Walter Scott, who furnished biogra-
phical prefaces to the different authors. This
work was printed and published for Mr. Ballan-
tjrne's sole benefit. A severe attack of asthma
confined him to the house for some weeks. He
died in his brother's house, St. John Street, Edin-
burgh, on the 16th of June, 1821, aged 47, and
was buried in the Canongate churchyard. He had
been married at an early age to Miss Parker, a
relative of Dr. Rutherford, but had no family.
BALLANTYNE, John, the Rev., author of
* An Examination of the Human Mind,' was born
at South Piteddie, in the parish of Kinghom, Fife,
on the 8th May 1778. He received his early ed-
Dcation at a school in the village of rx>chgelly,
and in 1795 became a student in the university of
Edinburgh. Although his parents belonged to the
Established church, he himself became a member
of the Secession, and attended the divinity hall
under the superintendence of Professor Lawson of
Selkirk. During the prosecution of his studies, he
was engaged in teaching a school, first at Loch-
gelly, and afterwards in Edinburgh. After being
licensed, he received a call from Stonehaven in
Kincardineshire, and from another congregation, but
accepted that of the former. He was ordained in
1805. His congregation being small, he had am-
ple leisure to attend to his literary pursuits. He
had early made choice of metaphysical science as
a subject of study, and in 1828 he published his
metaphysical speculations in a thick octavo vol-
ume, entitied *An Examination of the Human
Mind,' a work of great labour and of considerable
merit. He had previously contributed a paper on
the subject of church extension to the Christiai^
Recorder, Glasgow, a religious periodical, and in
1824 he published anonymously a pamphlet en-
titied ^ A Comparison of Established and Dissent-
ing Churches, by a Dissenter,' i%markable as be-
ing the first of that long series of publications on
the voluntary question with which the press after-
wards teemed from the pens of the Scotch dissent-
ing clergy. After the controversy had fairly been
entered upon, he was induced to remould and
greatly to enlarge this work, which, in its new
and improved form, was published, in 1830, with
his name. Mr. Ballantyne died 5th November
1830, in the 52d year of his age and the 25th of
his ministry. He left sufficient materials to make
another volume of his great metaphysical work,
but the sale of the first volume was so much in-
jured by the connexion of his name with the vol-
untary church controversy, that no encouragement
was given to proceed with the farther publication
of the work. The first volume, however, is com-
plete in itself. — M^KerrowU Hist, of the Secession
Church.
BALLENDEN, or Bellendbn, John, see
Bellenden, John.
BALMER, Robert, D.D., an eminent divine
of the United Secession church, was bom Novem-
ber 22, 1787, at Ormiston Mains, in the parish of
Eckford, Roxburghshire. His father, Thomns
p
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BALMER,
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PROFESSOR.
Balmer, was a land-steward, fii*st at Ormiston,
and afterwards at Crailinghall. His mother, Mar-
garet Biggar, was a grand-daughter of the James
Biggar mentioned in the Autobiography of the
venerable Boston of Ettrick, as an elder. Both
parents were distinguished for their piety. They
belonged however to different denominations, his
father being a member of the Antiburgher congre-
gation at Morebattle, while his mother adhered to
the congregation at Jedburgh connected with the
Burgher Synod. Robert was the eldest of their
family. In infancy he was a feeble and sickly
child, but as soon as he began to speak, he was
quick to learn, and eager to inquire. It is related
of him that even in childhood he was punctual in
his morning and evening devotions, unequalled in
getting hymns and passages of scripture by heart,
and restless till he had learnt the lessons required
of him. In his eighth year he had the measles,
and from that time he began to enjoy generally good
health. When he was about three yeare of age, his
parents removed to Upper Cralling, whei*e he was
first sent to a school, taught by a female. He left
this school in November 1796, to attend one at
Crailing Mill, where he continued for half a year,
but in that time he made considerable progress in
his education. His father died when he was about
ten years of age. He had been in easy circum-
stances for his station in life, and had saved a
little money. With the interest received from this,
And the profits of a small shop which she opened at
Eckford Moss, his mother was enabled to maintain
herself and her children respectably. When Robert
was about the age of fourteen, he was sent to the
grammar school of Kelso, then under the charge of
Mr. Dymock, afterwards Dr. Dymock of Glasgow
high school, one of the authors of the Bibliotbeca
Classica. Among othei*s of his class-fellows at the
school at Kelso, with whom he continued on terms
of intimacy in after life, was the late Thomas Prin-
gle, author of African Sketches and other poems.
He entered the university of Edinburgh in the ses-
sion of 1802-3, and studied there during four ses-
sions before going to the divinity hall. In the au-
tumn of 1806, after undergoing an examination by
the Associate Synod of Selkirk, he was admitted
to the study of divinity under the Rev. Dr. George
Lawson, then the professor of this branch of learn-
ing appointed by the Associate Synod. The atten-
dance on the hall at Selkirk continued only during
two months in the end of summer and beginning
of autumn, and during the winters of his residence
in Edinburgh, he also attended the divinity hall
in the university of that city, then presided over
by William Ritchie, D.D., and completed there
the course of study required for receiving licence
in the Established Chm*ch of Scotland. In the
course of his attendance on Dr. Ritchie^s class, he
obtained a prize for the best essay " on the char-
acter of Moses as a legislator." During his aca-
demical course, Mr. Balmer supported himself by
teaching. He was firet employed in the family of
a farmer in the neighbourhood of Jedburgh. He
afterwards taught a school at Barnyards in the
palish of Kilconquhar, Fifeshire, from which place
he removed to take charge of the tuition of the
family of the Rev. Dr. Douglas of Galashiels, and
a select number of pupils who were educated along
with them. He was subsequently tutor in the
family of Mr. Scott of Sin ton. It was not till
nearly two yeai*s after he had finished his theolo-
gical studies that he could make up his mind to
assent to the formula of the Secession Church, and
become one of its preachers. But being allowed
to make certain explanations as to his views, he
was on the 4th August, 1812, licensed to preach
the gospel by the Secession Presbytery of Edin-
burgh. In the course of a few months after, he
received calls from the congregations of Lochwin-
noch, Leslie, Ecclefechan, and Berwick-upon-
Tweed. He gave his preference to the latter town,
and was ordained to the charge of the Associate
congi-egation there, on the 23d Mai*ch 1814. He
took a deep interest in the movement towards
union between the two sections of the Secession
Church, and was moderator of the Associate Sy-
nod at its last meeting as a separate body from the
General Associate Synod, in September 1820. He
was called to London, to supply the late Dr.
Waugh^s pulpit on two occasions, the first in 1819,
and the second in 1823, and both times, on his
i*etum home, he spent a few days with the late
Robert Hall of Leicester, whom he admired as the
greatest of contemporary writers. On Mr. HalPs
death he committed to writing his recollections of
his conversations with him, which have been pub-
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BALMER,
227
PROFESSOR.
lished. In 1826 Mr. Balmer married Miss June
Scott, daughter of Mi*. Alexander Scott, of Aber-
deen, and sister of the late John Scott, author of
' Visits to Paris,' and the original editor of the
London Magazine, who died of a wound which he
had received in a duel. On the agitation of the
voluntary question, which began in April 1829,
Mr. Balmer agreed with those who hold that all
interference on the part of the civil power in the
establishment and support of religious institutions,
is unscriptural and unwarrantable. He spoke at
a voluntary meeting at Jedburgh, but took no
other active part in the controversy. On the
death of Dr. Dick, Mr. Balmer was, at the meet-
ing of the United Associate Synod, in April 1834,
elected by a large majority, professor of pastoral
theology in the Secession church, while the Rev.
Alexander Duncan of Mid-Calder, was chosen
professor of systematic theology; but by a subse-
quent arrangement sanctioned by the Synod, Mr.
Duncan and Mr. Balmer exchanged professorships,
the latter being transferred to the chair of sys-
tematic theology. A small sum of fifty pounds
annually was assigned to each of these appoint-
ments, not in name of remuneration, but merely to
defray necessary expenses. The change of residence,
at first to Glasgow, and afterwards to Edinburgh,
during the eight weeks that the session continued,
was conducive to his general health, and his eye-
sight, which from application had become greatly
weakened, was so much improved that he was
induced to continue permanently in the professor-
ship, having at one time entertained thoughts of
resigning it. In the spring of 1840, the university
of St. Andrews conferred on him the honorary
degree of D.D. In 1843, Dr. Balmer took part
in the proceedings of the large meeting held in
Edinburgh, in commemoration of the bicentenary of
the Westminster Assembly. The speech delivered
by nim on that occasion on the principles of Chris-
tian union, not only received the marked approval
and eulogy of the chairman, Dr. Chalmers, but
suggested to John Henderson, Esq., of Park, the
idea of doing something whereby such union might
be promoted, and ultimately led to the publication
of the Essays on Christian Union, by ministers of
different denominations, of which Dr. Balmer's
formed the second. Hence originated the Evan-
gelical Alliance, now a strong and influential reli-
gious confederacy. In the controversy which for
some years agitated the Secession church in relation
to the extent of the atonement, Dr. Balmer was
towards the close of his life an object of suspicion
to his brethren, as to the orthodoxy of his senti-
ments. To use his own words, " he believed the
atonement to be, in one view, universal, to have
removed all legal obstacles to the salvation of aU,
and to have laid a foundation for the universal
calls and invitations of the gospel. - He held at the
same time the doctrine of election." " Whatever
was peculiar," says his biographer, " in the senti-
ments of Dr. Balmer on this subject, he did not
bring it forward so as to unsettle the minds either
of the students under his cai*e, or of the member?
of his congregation, in regard to the received doc-
trine of the Secession Cliurdi." In the beginning
of 1842, a bookseller belonging to his congi*ega
tion, having formed the design of reprinting that
portion of PolhilFs Treatise on the Divine Will
which relates to the extent of the atonement, ap-
plied to him to introduce the essay with a few
prefatoiy remarks. That preface did not give sat-
isfaction to those who held, in the strictest sense,
the articles in the Confession of Faith which speak
of redemption as purchased only for the elect; and
at the meeting of Synod in May 1843, the brethren
who were dissatisfied with his views, sought a con-
ference with him, that they might hear any explana-
tions which he chose to give. At a nr.eeting of
Synod in the following October, the question be-
came again the subject of discussion, on two over-
tures being brought up from the Presbytery of
Paisley and Greenock ; and, after Dr. Balmer, in
a speech of two hours' duration, had unfolded his
views, with perfect candour and explicitness, the
S3i)od agreed to a finding to the effect that, on
explanation, supposed diversities of sentiment, in
a great measure, disappeared, and that scriptural
harmony prevailed among the brethren. At the
same time, it was recommended that the use of the
expressions, universal atonement on the one hand,
and limited atonement on the other, should be
avoided, on account of their liableness to be mis-
apprehended. Tlie matter came again before the
Synod in May 1844, but they adhered to their
former decision. Dr. Balmer did not long survive
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BALMERINO.
228
BALMERINO.
the settleitaent of this painful business, as he died
on the morning of Monday, July 1, 1844. Tlie
following is a portrait of this eminent professor of
the Secession Church •
At the commencement of his last illness, which
was influenza caused by a cold caught while ab-
sent from home, he was able, with an effort, to
correct the final proof sheet of his essay * On the
Scriptural Basis of Union among Christians.' He
published little during his lifetime. A volume
of his sermons was issued by ministers of the As-
sociate Synod in 1819, for the benefit of the stu-
dents' library, to which any profits arising fi-om its
sale were to be applied. He was the author of * Ob-
servations on the Character of the Rev. Dr. Henry
Belfrage as an Author,' fnmished at the request
of the editora of the Memoir of that eminent min-
ister and pleasing writer ; an Addi*ess to Elders,
and some funeral Sermons. He contributed at
one time some reviews to the Theological Maga-
zine, and other religions publications. His Aca-
demical Lectures and Pulpit Discoui-ses were pub-
lished, posthumously, in 2 vols, in 1845 ; with a
memoir prefixed, from which have been chiefly
derived the materials for this sketch of his life.
Baijierino, Baron, a title formerly possessed by a branch
of the Elphinstone family, first bestowed in 1603, on the
Hon. Sir James Elphinstone, knight, third son of Robert,
third Lord Elphinstone, by his spouse Margaret, daughter of
Sir John Dnimmond of Inverpeffrey, [see Elphinstokb,
surname of].
The Balmerino branch of the Elphinstones were singulariy
unfortunate. The history of no family in the Scottish peer-
age was marked by so many vidautudes. Out of the six
lords Balmerino, to which number the line extended, three
were condemned to death, and the kst lord was pablidy be-
headed as a traitor.
The first Lord Balmerino, previous to his deration to
the peerage, was designed of Innemochtie, and under that
designation, was appointed a lord of session, 4th March,
1586. In 1595 he was constituted one of the dght commis-
sioners of the treasury, called fi?om their number Octarians,
who were intrusted with the management of the public re-
venue, and who became, fit)m their office, exceedingly unpop-
ular ; and he was one of the intended victims to the fuiy of
the people, in the remarkable riot in Edinburgh, in December
1595, which afterwards cost the dty so much. In 1598 he
w:is appointed secretary of state, and on the 20th Februaiy
1604, he was created a peer of parliament by the title of bar-
on Balmerinodi, in Fifeshire. On the 1st of March 1605 he
was constituted president of the court of session. In his lat-
ter years he fell into disgrace with the king, owing to the fol-
lowing drcumstanoe: In 1599, while secretary of state, he
had drawn up a letter in the name of James VL, addressed
to the Pope, Clement VIII., requesting a cardinal*s hat for
his kinsman, Chisholme, bishop of Vaison, in order that ha
might manage the correspondence between the courts of
Rome and Uolyroodhouse, and shuffling it in among other
papers lying for the king's signature, it was subscribed by his
majesty without his noting the contents, or observing to whom
it was addressed. The letter was transmitted to Rome, and
the deceit was not finally discovered till 1608, five years after
James* accession to the throne of England, when Lord Bal-
merino was sent for to London to explain the transaction.
Having confessed his guilt he was removed to Scotland by
land, under a guard, and imprisoned at Falkland. He was
tried at St Andrews, and being found guilty of treason, was
sentenced to be beheaded. The execution of the sentence,
however, was ddayed, and in October 1609 a warrant passed
granting him liberty of free ward in Falkland, and one mile
round that place. Afterwards he obtained permission to re-
tire to his own house of Balmerinoch, where he died in 1612.
It was thought, however, that in this he was but made the
scapegoat of James VI., who was believed to have been privy
to the writing of the letter, with the view of rendering the
English Catholics favourable to his accession to the English
throne. James* double dealing was a strong feature in his
character. By his first wife, Sarah, daughter of Sir John
Mentdth of Carse, his lordship had a son, John, second Lord
Balmerino. His second wife, Marjory, daughter of Hugh
Maxwell of Tealing, brought him a son, James, created in
December 1607 Lord Coupar, and two daughters, Anne, mar-
ried to Andrew, first Lord Eraser, and Maiy, who became the
wiie of John Hamilton of Blair.
John, second Lord Balmerino, was restored to blood and
to the peerage by letter under the great seal, 4th August,
1613, his father having died under attainder. He distin-
guished himself by the opposition which he displayed in par-
liament in 1688, to the act establishing the royal prerogativB
of imposing apparel on churchmen. A petition to the king,
on the part of Uie opposition, having been drawn up by Wil-
liam Haig, a lawyer, who had been solidtor to James VI., a
copy of it was shown to Charles, who signified his displeasure
at the measure so strongly that the intention of preaentine it
I I
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BALMERINO.
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BALNAVES.
iris abandoned. Lord Balmerino had unfortunately re-
tained a duplicate of it, and having interlined it in some
places with his own hand, he showed it to one John Dun-
more, a notary in Dundee, his confidential agent, who was
allowed to take it home with him under the strictest injunc-
tions of secrecy. The latter, however, gave a copy of it to
Peter Hay of Naughton, in Fife, who bore no goodwill to
Lord Balmerino, and he immediately carried it to the arch-
bishop of St Andrews. That prelate, thinking the petition
was sent about for subscription, hurried with it to London,
and kid the matter before the king. Lord Balmerino was,
in consequence, on the 10th June 1634, examined before the
privy council concerning this paper, and afterwards committed
to dose confinement in Edinburgh castle. He was subse-
quently brought to trial, for having divulged and dispersed a
dangerous and seditious libel, as the petition was styled, and
concealing and not revealing the author thereof, and being
found guilty by a majority of one, sentence of death was pro-
nounced upon him. The earl of Traquair, who was then
chancellor, apprehensive of the vengeance of the populace, if
the sentence was carried into execution, hastened to London,
and procured a pardon, though it was not till November 1635
that Lord Balmerino was set at liberty. His lordship en-
tered warmly into the views of the covenanters, and assisted
them not only with his advice and personal exertions, but
also with large sums of money, to the injury of his paternal
inheritance. On the 18th August 1641 he was nominated
president of parliament, on the 17th September a privy coun-
cillor, and on the 13th November following an extraordinary
lord of session. He died of apoplexy on the 28th February
1649, and was buried in the vaulted cemetery of the Logan
&mily, adjoinmg to the old church of Restalrig, but according
to Scott of Scotstarvet, his body was disinterred in 1650 by
Cromwell's soldiers, while searching for leaden coffins, for the
purpose of making bullets, and thrown into the street. He
married Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Ker of Femyhirst,
and sister of the notorious Gar, earl of Somerset. His name
has found a place in Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors,
Lord Balmerino's Speech on the Army, describmg their
Conspirades,* having been published in 1642, 4to.
John, third Lord Balmerino, the son of the second lord,
bom 18th February 1623, on succeeding to the title, found
his a£fair8 in great disorder. He was also engaged in several
lawsuits, and was obliged to dispose of almost the whole of
his landed property. For his compliance with the ruling
powers during the usurpation, and for non -conformity, he
was fined in the sum of X6,000 Scots, by the earl of Middle-
t<m*s paiiiament in 1662. He died 10th June 1704, aged 82.
By his wife, I^dy Margaret Campbell, only daughter of John,
earl of Loudon, lord high chancellor of Scotland, he had John,
fourth Lord Balmerino, and three other children, who died
in infiucy.
John, fourth Lord Balmerino, bom 26th December 1652,
was styled by Lockhart in his Memours, as ** perhaps one of
the best lawyers in the kingdom, and veiy expert in the
knowledge of the Scottish constitution." He was admitted a
privy councillor 16th August 1687, succeeded his father in
1704, and strenuously opposed the Union. At the general
election in 1710, he was elected one of the sixteen represen-
tatives of the Scottish peerage ; the same year he was ap-
p<nnted general of the mint, and sheriff of the county of Edin-
borgfa, and in 1711 he was named one of the commissioners
for executing the office of lord chamberlain. He was also one
of the lords of police. In 1713 he was rechosen a represen-
tative peer. On the accession of George I. he was removed
from ail his offices, and no longer elected one of the sixteen
peers. Notwithstanding this harsh treatment he oontinoed
faithful to the house of Hanover during the rebellion of 1715
He afterwards lived retired, and died at his house at Leith,
Idth May 1786, aged 84. By his first wife, Lady Christian
Montgomery, thud daughter of Hugh, seventh earl of Eglin-
tonn, he had two sons and two daughters. His eldest son,
Hugh, master of Balmerino, an officer in the army, was killed
at the siege of Lisle in 1708. His second son, John, succeed-
ed him as fifth Lord Balmerino. By his second wife, Anne,
daughter of Arthur Ross, the last archbishop of St. Andrews,
he had the unfortunate Arthur, sixth and last Lord Balmerino.
and another son and a daughter, who both died unmarried.
John, fifth Lord Balmerino, bora 24th November 1675,
applied to the study of the law, and was admitted advocate
in 1703. In June 1714, a few weeks before the death of
Queen Anne, he was appointed a lord of session, and took
his seat on the bench as Lord Coupar. [See Coupab, Bar-
on.] He died at Leith, 5th January 1746, aged 71, and
having no issue by his wife, Lady Elizabeth Carnegie, daugh-
ter of David, fourth earl of Northesk, he was succeeded in
both his tiUes of Balmerino and Coupar by his half-brother,
Arthur, nxth and last Lord Balmerino, for a notice of whoso
life see Elphinstonb, Aktuub.
The Lords Balmerino were superiors of the district of Cak
ton in Edinburgh. The town coundl purchased the superi-
ority firom the last representative of that noble family, who
presented the old Calton burying-ground to his vassals, and
it is said offered them the whole hill for £40. — [ Wilsmi't
Memorials of Edinburgh^ vol il p. 133.] The house of the
Lords Balmerino in Ldth was at the comer of Coatfidd Lan«
in the Kirkgate, and here the third Lord Balmerino recdved
Charles II. on his landing in Leith, 29th July 1650.
Balnaves, a surname which, according to one tradition,
was derived from the high mountain Bennevis, (the Hill of
Heaven,) in the south-west extremity of Inverness -shire, near
which those who bore the name are said to have lived. Ac-
cording to another traditbn the name arose firom one Nevoy
or Nevay plilying well at the football before one of our kings,
when the latter called out, '^ wed ballad, Nevoy,** hence the
surname Balnaves ; in accordance with which some persons
of the name have a football for crest, with the motto, Forti-
tudme et velocikUe. An old family, Balnaves of Cambody,
had for crest a hand holding a football, with the motto, Hinc
origo. [Nitbet^B Eeraldty, vol. L p. 20.]
BALNAVES, Henry, of HaUhill, one of the
promoters of the Reformation in Scotland, was
bom at Kirkcaldy, in the reign of James the Fifth
After a com*se of study at the university of St.
Andrews, it is stated that, while yet a boy, he
travelled to the continent, and hearing of a fi*ee
school at Cologne, procured admission into It, and
received a liberal education. While on the conti-
nent he imbibed the principles of the Reformation.
On his retuiii to Scotland he studied the law, and
was for some time a procurator at St. Andrews.
On SI St July, 1538, James the Fifth appointed
him a lord of session ; and on 10th August 1539
he obtained a charter of the lands of Hallhill, in
the parish of Collessie, Fife, to himself and Chris-
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HENRY.
taue Schemes his wife. [Diplomata Regia^ vol. vii.
p. 176.] He was afterwards employed by the
earl of Arran when governor of the kingdom, on
whose appointment to the regency he became sec-
retaiy of state ; and is said by Sir James Melville
to have been veiy instrumental in getting passed
the celebrated act of parliament inti'oduced by
Lord Maxwell, by which the reading of the Bible
in the "vulgar toung" was permitted. In 1542
he was depute keeper of the privy seal, and in
1543 he was chosen by parliament one of the am-
bassadors to Heniy the Eighth, sent with their in-
structions with regard to the proposed man*iage of
the infant queen Mary to Edward the young prince
of Wales. In this embassy he was joined with
Sir James Learmonth the treasurer, and Sir Wil-
liam Hamilton of Sanquhar. They set off from
Edinburgh 23d March, 1543 [Sadler's State Pa-
persy vol. i. p. 90], and the treaties of peace and
marriage were finally arranged on the Ist of July.
But, shortly after, on the return of the governor
Arran to the popish faith and his reconciliation
with Cardinal Bethnne, Balnaves was dismissed
from all his offices, in consequence of his protestant
principles and his favouring the English alliance.
In November of this same year (1543), with the earl
of Rothes and Lord Gray, he was apprehended at
Dundee by the regent and cardinal, and confined
in the castle of Blackness until May following,
when they were restored to liberty, in consequence
of the arrival of Henry's fleet in the Fiith of Forth.
In 1546, after the murder of Cai'dinal Bethnne,
he joined Norman Leslie, and the others, in the
castle of St. Andrews, for which he was declared a
traitor and forfeited, although he was not actually
concerned in the deed. While his friends were
besieged in the castle, he was sent as their agent
to England, for assistance, and in February 1547,
a month after the death of Henry the Eighth, he
received from the guardians of Edward the Sixth
considerable sums of money and provisions for
them. IFoedera, vol. xv. p. 133.] He himself
obtained a pension of one hundred and twenty-
five pounds, from lady day (25th March) that year;
at the same time, he became bound that Leslie and
his associates should do what they could to deliver
the young queen Mary and the castle of St. An-
drews into the hands of the English. When that
fortress at last surrendered, he was conducted
with the othere to France, and confined in the
French galleys at Rouen. On this occasion it was
that the popish party in Scotland shouted for joy
in the streets ;
•* Ye priests, content ye nou ;
Ye priests, content ye nou ;
For Normand and bis companie
Hae fill'd the gaUeys fon ! "
During his confinement at Rouen, he wrote what
Knox terms " a comfortable treatise of justifica-
tion," which, after being revised by Knox, who
prefixed a recommendatory dedication, was pub-
lished in 1584, under the title of * The Confession
of Faith, &c., compiled by M. Henry Balnaves, of
Hallhill,^ &c., as given in full after this article.
Dr. M*Crie speaks of a London edition of the
same date, but this is evidently a mistake.
In 1556, the forfeiture which Balnaves had in-
cun*ed was removed, when he returned to Scot-
land, and in 1559, " the year," according to Pit-
scottie, " of the uproi*e about religion," he took a
leading part for the congregation. In August of
that year he was secretly despatched to solicit the
assistance of Queen Elizabeth's envoy, Sir Ralph
Sadler, at Berwick, and obtained from him a pro-
mise of an aid of two thousand pounds sterling.
On the 11th February 1563 he was reappointed a
lord of session, and in December of that year
named one of the commissioners for revising the
Book of Discipline. On the trial of Bothwell for
the murder of Damley in 1567, he was appointed
one of the four assessors to the earl of Argyle, the
lord justice general, and in the following year, he
and Buchanan accompanied the regent Murray
when he went to York, to attend the inquiry, by
English and Scottish commissioners, into the al-
leged guilt of the unfortunate Queen Mary. In
requital for his various services, he received the
lands of Letham from the regent. He retired
from the bench previous to October 1575, and died
at Edinburgh, according to Dr. Mackenzie, in
1579. We learn from Calderwood's History and
Sadler's State Papers that he raised himself, by
his talents and probity, from an obscure station to
the first honom-s of the state, and was justly re
gai'ded as one of the principal supporters of the
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BANFF.
refonned cause in Scotland. He is described^ by
John Knox as a veiy learned and pious man, and
Sir James Melville characterizes Lim as " a godly,
learned, wise and long-experimented counsellor."
[^Melville's Memoirs^ p. 27.] A short ballad, sign-
ed Balnaves, in Ramsay's Evergreen, entitled
' Advice to a headstrong Youth,' and beginning,
*^ 0 gallandis all, I cry and cali,"
has been attributed to him ; but in our estimation
without sufficient grounds. On the faith of it,
however, he has obtained a place in Irving's * Lives
of Scottish Poets.' [Vol. ii. p. 136.] His estate
of Hallhill he disponed to Sir James Melville,
third son of Sir John Melville of Raith, and bro-
ther of Su: RoboA't Melville of Murdocairnie, fii*st
Lord Melville. It remained the property of his
descendants till the reign of Charles the Second,
i!ihen it was purchased by the earl of Melville.
The house of HaUhill has long been taken down,
and its site, with a portion of the estate, is includ-
ed within the parks round Melville House.
The following is the title of Balnaves' treatise
on Justification above referred to :
The Confession of Faith, oonteining how the troubled man
shoold seeke refuge at his God, therto led by faith; &c.
CompOed by M. Henry Balnanes, of Halhfll, and one of the
Lords of Session and Ck>ansell of Scotland, being as prisoner
within the old pallaice of Roane, in the yeare of our Lord
1548. Direct to his faithfull brethren, being in Eke trouble
or more, and to all true professours and fauourers of the syn-
cere worde of God. Edinb. 1584, 8vo.
Balvaird, Barok, a title in the peerage of Scotland, con-
ferred, 17th November 1641, on the Rev. Andrew Murray,
who was settled minister of Abdie in Fife in 1618, second son
of David Murray of Balgonie and Agnes his wife, a daughter
of Moncrieffe of Moncrieffe. In 1631, on the death of Sir
David Murray of Gospertie, first viscount of Stormont, the
minister of AMie succeeded to the baronies of Amgask and
Rippo. He was knighted at the coronation of Charles the
First in Scotland m 1633, and in 1636 he had a charter of
the lands of Pitlochie, *' Domino Andrea Murray de Balvaird
inilitL" In 1638 he was a member of the famous General
Assembly which met at Ghisgow, of which the Rev. Alexan-
der Henderson was moderator, and by his sound judgment,
authority and moderation, he assisted greatly in allaying the
beats and differences which arose among the members. He
was in consequence favourably represented to the king by the
Marquis of Hamilton, his majesty's high commissioner. The
same year he was deprived of the church of Abdie in conse-
quence of the moderation of his .views. Charles the First
afterwards created him a peer by the title of Lord Balvaird.
[^Dou^hs' Peerage, vol. ii. p. 542.] He was, however, pro-
hibited by the Assembly from bearing improper titles. On
the death of the second Viscount Stormont in March 1642, he
succeeded to tiie lands, lordship, and barony of Stormont,
while the title of Viscount Stormont went to the second eari
of Annandale of the name of Murray. Lord Balvaird died oq
the 24th of September 1644. By his wife, Lady Elizabetli
Camegy, fifth daughter of the first earl of Southeak, he had
five sons and three daughters. His eldest son, David, second
Lord Balvaird, succeeded to the titles of Viscount Stormont
and Lord Scone, on the death of James, earl of Annandale, in
1658, and the title of Lord Balvaird thenceforth became
merged in that of Viscount Stormont [See SroKMOirr,
Viscount.]
The Hon. James Murray, M.D., the third son of the first
Lord Balvaird, was a physician of great reputation and learn-
ing. The fourth son. Sir John Murray of Drumcurnie, was
appointed a lord of session in October 1681, and sat in the
Scottish parliament as oce of the commissioners for the county
of Perth, in 1685 and 1686. By the royal commissioners he
was appointed one of the lords of the articles in April 1686,
and in July 1687 he was appointed a lord of justiciary. At
the Revolution in 1688 he lost all his offices. The Hon.
William Murray, the fifth son, was an advocate at the Scotch
bar, and became very eminent in his profession.
Bakff, Baron, a titie in the peerage of Scotland, confer-
red by Charles the First by patent, dated at Nottingham,
81st August 1642, on Sir George Ogilvy of Dunlugns, a de
scendant of a younger branch of the noble family of Airlie.
Sir Walter Ogilvy of Auchleven, second son of Sir Waltei
Ogilvy of Lintrathen, high treasurer of Scotland, (who died
in 1440— see article Airub, ante, page 31,) married in 1437
Margaret, daughter and heiress of Sir John Sinclair of Desk-
ford and Findlater, and had two sons, Sir James Ogilvy, ancestoi
of the earls of Findlater [see Fun>LATKK, earl of], and Sir
Walter Ogilvy of Boyne, ancestor of the Lords Banff. The
latter, by his marriage with Margaret, second daughter and
co-heiress of Sir James Edmonstone of Edmonstone, obtained
half of the lands of Tulliallan in Perthshire, and of the thane-
dom of Boyne in Banffshire, and by excambion with Elizabeth
Blackader, the elder sister of his wife, and her husband, Pat-
rick Blackader, the other half of that thanedom was obtained
by him, in right of his wife, in exchange for her half of Tulli-
allan, 25th February 1486. The name of Banff, by which
the family was afterwards ennobled, seems to be derived firom
the andent thanedom of Boyne. In some old charters the
town of Banff is spelled Bomeffe and Bameje. The district
of Boyne has probably received its name firom a conspicuous
mountain in the neighbourhood of Cullen called the Binn.
Sir Walter had three sons, viz. George, ancestor of the
Ogilvies of Boyne, Rothiemay and Inchmartyne; Walter
Ogilvy of Dunlugus, progenitor of the Banff family, and Sir
William Ogilvie of Stratheam, appointed high treasurer ot
Scotiand by John duke of Albany, governor of the kingdom,
who granted him a charter of the lordship of the forest of
Boyne, 6th February 1516. [Crawfor^t Officers of State,
p. 370.] By his wife, Alison Rule, Sir William Ogilvy had
a son, John Ogilvy of Stratheam, afterwards designed of
Camousie.
The second son above mentioned. Sir Walter Ogilvy of
Dunlugus, held the office of provost oi Banff. He had a
charter firom his nephew, John Ogilvy of Stratheam, of cer-
tain lands in Invemcss- shire, Camousie in Banffshire, and
Monycabock in Aberdeenshire, dlst March 1531. He died
29th November 1558, and was bmied in the church of Banff;
where a monimient was erected to his memoiy. By his wife,
Alison Hume, daughter and co-heir of Sir Patrick Hume of
Fastcastle, he got a considerable estate. He had two sons.
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BANFF.
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BANFF.
George and Walter, and a daughter, married to Sir Alexan-
der Fraser of Philorth.
The eldest son, Sir George Ogilvy of Donlugus, mamed
Beatrix Seton, foorth daughter of George fifth Lord Seton,
and had three sons and a daughter, the latter married to
William Forbes of Tolqohonn. He acquired the thanedom of
Boyne from the elder branch of his family, and had a charter
of all the lands of that thanedom, 20th March 1575. George,
his second sou, was the father of Sir George Ogilvy, first
baronet of Gamousie, so created 24th April 1626.
The eldest son. Sir Walter Ogilvy of Banflf and Dunlugus,
married Helen, daughter of Walter Urquhart of Cromarty,
and had two sons, and a daughter, Beatrix, married to Alex-
ander Seton of Pitmedden.
Sir Geoige Ogilvy, the eldest son, was the first Lord Banff.
He was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, dOth July 1627.
During the civil wan he adhered to the royal cause, and
after the army of the Covenanters had been expelled from
Aberdeen by the Gordons, 15th May 1639, when it was pro-
posed by Gordon of Straloch, the historian, and Burnet of
Craigmylle, a brother of the laird of Leys, who were both
peaceably inclined, to enter into a negotiation with the earl
marischal at Dunnottar, Sir George Ogilvy would not listen
to the proposal, but addressing Stndoch he said, ** Go, if you
will go ; but pr'ythee, let it be as quarter-master, to inform
the earl that we are coming.** He distinguished himself in
the action against the Covenanters under the earl of Montrose
at the Bridge of Dee on the 19th of June [Spalding's EtMtory^
vol. L p. 248]. After the defeat of the Royalists there he re-
tired to England, and in 1640 his houses and lands were
pluhdered by the Covenanters. In 1642, as aheady stated,
for his faithful services King Charles created him a peer of
Scotland, under the title of Lord Banfi^ to him and his hein
male for ever, bearing the name and arms of Ogilvy. His
l(Hdship died 11th August 1663. He was twice married : first
to Margaret, daughter of Alexander Irvine of Drum, by whom
ne had a daughter Helen, married to the second earl of Airlie;
and secondly to Mary Sutherland, a daughter of Dufibs, by
whom he had a son, George, second Lord Banff, and two
daughters, who were both married.
George, second Lord Banff, married Agnes Falconer, only
laughter of the first Lord Halkerston, and had two sons,
George, third lord Banff, and Sur Alexander Ogilvy, of Foiglen,
and four daughters. According to Douglas [Peerage, vol. L
p. 193], Sir Alexander Ogilvy, the second son, became an
advocate, but there is no evidence of this on record. [Haig
and BrwUofCe Senators of the College of Jtatice, p. 483.]
He was created a baronet 29th June 1701, and in 1702 he
was elected member of the Scots parliament, for the burgh of
Banff, and continued to sit in it till the Union. In June
1703 he and Lord Belhaven wove ordered into custody for
some improper expressions in parliament, and on the SOth of
the same month, on presenting a petition acknowledging
their offence, they were brought to the bar of the house, by
the ofiioer of the guard, and after makmg a proper apology
to the commissioner and the estates, were rest(»red to their
places. On the 25th March 1706 Sir Alexander was ap-
pointed a lord of session, and took his seat on the 23d July
following, under the judicial title of Lord Forglen. The same
year he was constituted one of the commissioners for the
treaty of union, which he steadily supported in parliament.
He died 3d March 1727. He was twice married, and by his
first wife, Mary, eldest daughter of Sir John Allardice of
Allardice, in the county of Kincardine, he had three sons and
four daughters. His eldest son, George, died before liim, as
did also his second son Alexander, but the eldest son of
the latter, Sir Alexander Ogilvy, baronet, became seventh
lord Banff
In Fountainhall^s Dedsions, under date March 28, 1685,
there is reported a curious case, in which Sir Alexander For-
bes of Tolquhoun pursued Alexander Ogilvy of Forglen, for
taking away a gilded Mazer cup out of his house, ret rm-
dicatione for restitution, or for the value. After the exami-
nation of witnesses, who proved nothing, it was discovered
that Tolquhoun himself had some years ago given in this cup
to a goldsmith in Aberdeen to be mended, and he having for-
gotfit was lying there unrelieved, for Tolquhoun*s not paying
half-a-crown for it. The lords getting notice of this, pro-
ceeded to advise the case. Tolquhoun by a bill had craved
delay, till witnesses were examined as to who had given the
cup to the goldsmith, seeing that Forglen might have shuffled
it in there, but the lords rejected the bill, and assoilzied For-
glen, ordaining Tolquhoun to pay a thousand merks of ex-
penses, and allowing Forglen to pursue him for defamation.
In the following April Ogilvy brought an action against
Forbes for defamation of character before the privy council,
who fined him in twenty thousand merks, the half to go to
the king, and the other half to the pursuer, and ordained the
defender to crave pardon of the lords of session. Forbes ob-
tained a letter from the king to the privy council, remitting
the one half of the fine, but the lords of session, on reconsid-
ering the case, ordered the other half to be pud to Foi^en.
The second Lord Banff died in 1668, and was succeeded
by his eldest son George, third lord, a Roman Catholic. In
1705 he renounced popery, and a curious letter on the subject
firom his lordship and Mr. William Hunter, minister of Banflf
who married his daughter, to Mr. Carstares, will be found L
the Carstares* State Papers, 736. Having signed the for-
mula subjoined to the act of parliament for preventing the
growth of popeiy, hia lordship took his seat in the last pariia-
ment of Scotland on the first day of its last session, Sd Octo-
ber 1706. He voted with ministers on every question in
support of the treaty of union, and his share of the twenty
thousand pounds distributed on the occasion amounted only
to eleven pounds two shillings. [Camwatk*e Memoirs^ pw
415.] Had he been a little more hard to win he would
doubtless have got more. His lordship was burnt to death
in the castle of Inchdrewer, about four miles from the town
of Banff, under very suspicious circumstances, in November
1713. " It is said that he had gone for some time to Ireland,
engaged probably in some of the intrigues then carrying on in
behalf of the Pntender; and it was suspected that the per-
sons in whose charge he had left the castle, having pillaged
some of his valuable property, murdered him immediately
after his return, and set his apartment on fire for the sake of
concealment. By some, it seems, the event was viewed as
a judgment on his apostacy, and particularly with regard to
some threats used by him of burning the Protestants.** [Neto
Stat Ace. Bca^fihire, vol. xiiL p. 31.] He married Lady
Jean Keith, third daughter of William seventh earl Marischal,
and had a son, George, fourth Lord Banff, and a daughter,
who was twice married, the second time to the above-men-
tioned Rev. William Hunter.
George, the fourth lord, died m 1718. He married, 11th
January 1712, Helen daughter of Sir John Lauder of Foun-
tainhall, baronet, a lord of session, l^ whom he had two
sons, John George, fifth lord, bom 18th February 1717, and
Alexander, sixth lord, a posthumous son, being bom in 1718.
Her ladyship married a second time James Hay, second son
of Hay of Rannes, by whom she had three sons, and died 22d
October 1743.
John George, the fifth Lord Banff, was unfortonatolv
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GEORGE.
drowned 29th July 1738, when bathing with Lord Deakford,
tflerwarda sixth Mii of Findlater, after dinner at the Black
Kocks near CoUen. He had a short time previonslj married
^lary daughter of Captain James Ogilvy, but had no issue.
His brother Alexander succeeded him as sixth Lord Banff.
He had the rank of captain in the royal navy 13th February
1741, and was commander of the Hastings man of-war in
1745^ and 1743, when he captured a valuable outward bound
Spanish register ship, a Spanish privateer of twenty guns,
and a French polacre with a rich cargo, and other vessels.
In 1745 he was appointed to the command of the Tilbury,
and <Ued, unmarried, at Lisbon in November 1746, in the
29th year of his age. His personal property was bequeathed
to his brothen-uterine the Hays, while his title and estate
were inherited by his cousin. Sir Alexander Ogilvy of Forglen,
grandson of Sir Alexander Ogilvy, Lord Forglen.
Sir Alexander Ogilvy, seventh Lord Banff, succeeded his
grandfather in his estate and baronetcy in 1727; and in 1746
he succeeded his cousin as already stated in the Banff peer-
age. He married, 2d April 1749, Jean daughter of William
Misbet of Dirieton, and by her had four sons and five daugh-
ters, the eldest of whom, Jane, was married to Sir George
Abercromby of Bidcenbog, baronet.
The eldest son, Alexander, having died young m 1763,
William, the second son, became, on the death of his father,
1st December 1771, eighth and last Lord Banffl He was an
officer in the Inniskillen dragoons, and served on the conti-
nent under the duke of Yoik. He died, unmarried, at
Forglen, 4th June 1803, when, all his brothers being dead
without issue, his estates went to his sister, the Hon. Lady
Abercromby, and the title became dormant The Hon. Lady
Abercromby died in 1838, and was succeeded by her son Sir
Robert Abercromby of Bu-kenbog and Forglen, baronet. The
title of Lord Banff is claimed by Sir William Ogilvie of Cor-
nousie, baronet.
Banvattne, in old writings spelled Benachtyne, and Ban-
nachtyne, a surname supposed originally to have been the
lame as Ballantyne.
The most ancient families of the name were the Banna-
tynes of Corhouse, of Newtyle, descended from the former;
James Bannatyne of Newhall, son of the laird of Newtyle,
Forfarshire, appointed a lord of session 14th Februiuy,
1626; died 1636; of Camys, now Kames, in the Island
of Bute; and of Kelly, founded by a second son of that
family. By charters and bonds of manrent the Bannatynes
may be traced as in possession of Kames early in the four-
teenth century, when it is supposed that Kames castle, a
smgle tower, which was long the residence of the family, was
built. A tumulus on the side of a small stream near the
Point House, Bothesay, is shown where a bloody battle took
place between the Bannatynes of G[ame8 and the Spences of
North Kames. The castle was formerly surrounded by a
ditch, which was filled up, and a modem house added to the
tower by the late Lord Bannatyne, of whom a notice is given
below, and who sold the estate to Mr. James Hamilton,
writer to the signet. Although the Bannatynes are no
longer in possession of Kames, their name b perpetuated
as having once been connected with Bute in the village of
Port Bannatyne, about 3 miles from Bothesay. Con-
uected with the ancient family of Bannatyne of Kames was
George Bannatyne, the collector of our Scottish poetry, the
subject of the foUowmg notioe, whose father, Mr. James
Bannatyne, a writer in Edinburgh, possessed the estate of
Kirkton of Newtyle, in Forfarshire, the manor house of which
was called Bannatyne H( use. He was a man of some emi-
nence m his profession, and held the office of Tabular, or
Keeper of the Rolls, to tlie Court of Session, in which his
second but then eldest living son, Thomas Bannatyne, who
became a lord of session, under the designation of Lord New-
tyle, was conjoined with him as his successor by royal precept
May 2, 1583. The father, James Bannatyne, died in 1683.
The son, Thomas Bannatyne, was bom on the last day oi
August, 1540, and appears for the first time as justice-depute,
17th February, 1572. On the 20th April, 1577, he was ap-
pointed an ordinary lord of session in place of Sir John Bel-
lenden of AuchinouL He was one of the commissioners for
opening pariiament, 18th November, 1583, and also in August
1584. On the 18th November, 1583, he was appomted by
his colleagues on tho bench their collector for the following
year " of the fourtie shillings quhilk sdi be givin them be
the parties pleyand before them, quha tynes the plcy the time
of the giving of the saids lords decret of dempnation or absol-
vitor," [^Books o/ Sederunt,'] a tax which the Court had been
authorised to levy by an act of parliament passed a short time
before. Lord Newtyle died 13th August, 1591. [^ffaig ana
BnuUoiCM. Senators of the College of Jtutice^ p. 164.] In
1596 his son, Mr. James Bannatyne, was retoured his heir in
the Unds of Kirkton of Newtyle, with the brewhouse and
comteind, and half of the barony of Balmaw, which before
the Reformation belonged to the abbey of Lindores, having
been granted to that monastery by Alexander the Third, along
with some other territorial grants. These properties belong
now to Lord Wharacliffe.
BANNATYNE, George, the collector of the
national poetry of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-
turies, and whose name has been adopted by a
distlngolshed Scottish litei*ary club, founded hy
Sir Walter Scott, in 1823, was bom February 22,
1545. His father, the above-mentioned James
Bannatyne of the Kirktown of Newtyle, Forfar-
shire, by his wife, Kathciine Taillefer, had twenty-
three children, and George was the seventh child.
He was brought up to trade, but it does not appeal
at what particular time he began to be engaged in
business, nor what branch of business he pursued.
His famous collection was written in the months
of October, November, and December, in his re-
tii'ement in Bannatyne House, Forfarshire, dur-
ing a pestilence which raged in Edinburgh in the
latter part of 1668. " Bannatyne's Manuscript,"
says Sir Walter Scott, in a memoir of him, which
he wrote for the Bannatyne Club, " is in a folio
form, containing upwards of eight hundred pages,
vei7 neatly and closely written, and designed, as
has been supposed, to be sent to the press. The
labour of compiling so rich a collection was under-
taken by the author during the time of pestilence
in the year 1568, when the dread of infection com-
pelled men to forsake their usual employments,
which could not be conducted without admitting
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RICHARD.
— i !
the ordinary promiscuous intercourse between man
and his kindred men. In this dreadful period,
when hundi-eds, finding themselves surrounded by
danger and death, renounced all care, save that
of selfish precaution for theii* own safety, and all
thoughts save apprehensions of infection, George
Bannatyne had the courageous energy to form and
execute the plan of saving the literature of a whole
nation ; and undisturbed by the universal mourn-
ing for the dead, and general fears of the living,
to devote himself to the task of collecting and re-
cording the triumphs of human genius ; thus, amid
the wreck of all that was mortal, employing him-
self in presei-ving the lays by which immortality
is at once given to others, and obtained for the
Avriter himself." Many of the productions of the
**Makkaris" of ancient days would have perished
had not George Bannatyne thus rescued them
fix)m oblivion. On the north side of Bannatyne
house, there is a capacious circular turret, which
is believed to have been Mr. Bannatyne's study,
while engaged in this laborious but interesting
task.
In October 1587 Bannatyne was admitted a
merchant and guild brother of the city of Edin-
burgh. . Sir Walter Scott conjectures that, as
usual in a Scottish burgh, his commerce was gen-
eral and miscellaneous. In a few years, we are
fuither told, he had amassed a considerable capi-
tal, " which he employed to advantage in vaiious
money-lending transactions." Bannatyne died
some time previous to 1608. He had married Is-
obel Mawchan or Maughan, relict of Baillie Wil-
liam Nisbet, who brought him a son and a daugh-
ter. The son died young. His daughter was
married, in her 16th year, to George Foulis of
Woodhall and Ravelstone, whose grandson, Wil-
liam Foulis of Woodhall, bestowed the valuable
collection of Scottish poetry left by George Ban-
natyne on the Hon. William Carmichael of Skir-
ling, advocate, brother of the eai-1 pf Hyndford.
Allan Ramsay afterwai-ds selected from it materials
for his * Evergreen.' In 1770 Lord Hailes pub-
lished a more accurate selection from it. In 1772
the Bannatyne Manuscript was presented by the
third eaii of Hyndford to the Advocates' Library,
in which it is now preserved. Bannatyne himself
wrote one or two pieces pf original poetry, but
these are of no great merit. The club that bears
his name was instituted in 1823 for the publication
of works illustrative of the history and antiquities
of Scotland. Of this club Sir Walter Scott was
president, and he regularly took the chair on their
anniversaiy dinners from 1823 to 1831. For their
first dinner on March 9, 1823, he composed an
excellent song, (now inserted among his poems,)
which was sung by Mr. James Ballantyne, book-
seller, and heartily chorased by the company : —
** Aiisist me, je friends of old books and old wine,
To sing in the praises of Sage Bannatyne,
Who left such a treasure of old Scottish lore,
As enables each age to print one volume more,
One volume more, mj friends, one volume more,
Well ransack old Bannj for one volimie more.
BANNATYNE, Richard, secretary to John
Knox, and compiler of * Memoriales of Transac-
tions in Scotland from 1569 to 1673,' was, it is
satisfactorily ascertained, a person of respectability
and learning, and much esteemed by the great
reformer, whose friendship and confidence he en-
joyed till his death. Very little is known coa»
ceruing him. It appears probable that he was a
descendant of the family of which George Banna-
tyne was a cadet. It is uncertain whether he
belonged to the profession of the law, or was a
licentiate of the church. In the prefatory notice
to Mr. Pitcaim's edition of the ' Memoriales,'
printed in 1836 for the Bannatyne Club, which
contains all the particulars of Richard Bannatyne's
life that can now be obtained, and to which we
have been indebted for these details, there occurs
the following passage : " There is no reason for
supposing that Bannatyne had ever been em-
ployed as an authorized reader or catechbt under
John Knox. Although the first minister of Edin-
burgh would most likely require the services of
such an individual, to aid him in overtaking the
laborious but important duties of parochial visita-
tion and catechising, &c., yet it is not known that
Knox availed himself of the continued personal
assistance and services of any other person than
Richard Bannatyne. But at the same time it
ought to be remarked, that in the course of the
* Memoriales,' notice is repeatedly taken of Richard
Bannatyne having made appearances in the Gen-
eral Assembly, and before the Kirk Session of
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RICHARD.
Edinburgh, during the illness or absence of John
Knox; and that he was permitted to address
these coni*ts as a 'prolocutor' or speaker ;" which
he could only have done in the capacity of a mem-
ber, or law-agent appearing on behalf of another.
At the first Greneral Assembly held after the death
of Knox, which took place in November 1572,
Richai'd Bannatyne presented a petition, or " sup-
plication," praying that he should be appointed by
the church to put in order, for their better preser-
Tation, the papers and scrolls left to him by the
reformer. The Assembly agreed to his request,
and granted him '* the summ of foui*ty pounds, to
be payed off the 1572 years crope," for so doing.
About 1575, after he had completed the task as-
signed to him, Richard Bannatyne became clerk
to Mr. Samuel Cockbum, of Tempill, or Tempill-
hall, advocate, in whose service he remained for
thirty ycai-s, and whom he appointed joint execu-
tor of his last will and testament with his only
brother, James Bannatyne, merchant in Ayr. To
his master's daughter, Alice, he left a legacy of
two hundred merks, besides smaller gifts to his
domestics. Richard Bannatyne died September 4,
1605. Of the * Memoriales' there ai-e two MSS.
extant, understood to be transcripts of the origi-
nal; one in the library of the university of Edin-
Durgh, and the other in the Advocates' Library.
From the latter Sir John Graham Dalzell, pub-
lished, in 1806, an octavo volume, entitled * Jour-
nal of the Transactions in Scotland,' which excited
great interest from the historical value of the con-
tents. The university transcript having been
afterwards discovered, Mr. Pitcaum had the ad-
vantage of collating the two with each other,
whereby he was enabled to produce the first com-
plete edition of Bannatyne's work which has yet
appeared. The following graphic and interesting
notice of Richard Bannatyne, which records also
one of the latest appearances in the pulpit of John
Knox, is taken from the Diary of Mr. James Mel-
i ville, 1556—1601, printed at Edinburgh in 1829.
" The town of Edinbruche recouered againe, and
the guld aud honest men therof retoumed to thair
housses. Mr. Knox, with his familie, past hame
to Edinbruche; being in Sanct Andros, he was
verie weak. I saw him every day of his doctrine
go hulie and fear, with a furring of martriks about
his neck, a staff in the an hand, and guid godlie
Richard Ballanden, his servand haldin vpe the
vther oxtar, from the Abbay to the paroche klrke,
and be the said Richart and another servant,
lifted vpe to the pulpit, whar he behouit to lean
at his first ontrie ; bot or he haid done with his
sermont, he was sa active and vigorous, that he
was lyke to ding that pulpit in blads, and file out
of it! Sa, soone efter his coming to Edinbruche, he
becam unable to preatch ; and sa instituting in his
roum, be the ordinar calling of the kiik and the
congregation, Mr. James Lawsone, he tuk him
to his chamber, and most happelie and comforta-
blie departed this lyff." [Melville's Diary, p. 26.]
The scene that took place just before Knox
breathed his last, in which Bannatyne acted a pro-
minent part, is thus described by Calderwood,
(vol. iii. p. 237) : " About five houres he sayeth to
his wife, * Goe, i-ead where I cast my first anker ;'
and so, she read the 17th chapter of the Gospel
according to Johne; and, after that, some ser-
mons of Mr. Calvin's upon the Ephesians. About
halfe houre to tenne they went to the ordinar
prayer, which being ended, Doctor Preston said
unto him, ' Sir, heard yee the prayers? * He an-
swered, ^I would to God that yee and all men
heard them as I heard: I praise God for that
heavenlie sound.' Then Robert Campbell of Kln-
zeancleucho sitteth donn before him on a stoole,
and incontinent he sayeth, ^Now, it is cornel' for
he had given a long sigh and sob. Then said
Richard Bannatyne to him, * Now, Sir, the time
yee have long called to God for, to witt, an end
of your battel), is come, and seeing all natnrall
powers faile, give us some signe that yee remem-
ber upon the comfortable promises which yee have
oft shewed unto us.' He lifted up his one hand,
and incontinent therafter randered his spirit, about
eleven houres at night."
Bannatyne's attachment to the refoimer, and
high appreciation of his chai*acter, are well illus-
trated in the following anecdote. When Knox
was accused by Robert Hamilton of St. Andrews,
of being *^as great a murtherer as any Hamilton
in Scotland, and, therefore, suld not ciy out so
fast against murtherei*s, he being privy to an at-
tempt to assassinate Damley at Perth," he chal-
lenged the accuser to make good his charge, and
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BANNATYNE.
236
BANNERMAN.
Hamilton at ouce retracted it. Upon wliich Ban-
natyne said to him, ^^ Gif I knew my maister to
' be sic a man, I wold not serve bim for all the geir
in Sanct Andrews."
BANNATYNE, Sir William Macleod, Knt.,
one of the senatora of the College of Justice, was
bom January 26, 1743. lie was the son of Mr.
Roderick Macleod, writer to the signet, and
through his mother he succeeded to the estate of
Kames in the island of Bute, when he assumed
the name of Bannatyne. His aunt, Lady Clan-
ranald, was imprisoned in the Tower of London,
for having afforded protection to Prince Charles
during bis wanderings, after the battle of CuUo-
den. Being of a gay and easy disposition, he had
not been many years in possession of Kames,
when he was obliged to part with it, and, as
already stated, it was purchased by Mr. James
Hamilton, writer to the signet. He received a
liberal education, and was admitted advocate,
January 22, 1766. While at the bai* he deserv-
edly acquired the character of a sound and able
lawyer. Among his intimate friends were Blair,
Mackenzie, Cullen, Erskinc, Abercromby, and
Ci*aig. He was a contributor to the Mirror and
I>ounger, and was the last survivor of that illus-
trious band of men of genius who shed so bright a
lustre on the periodical literature of Scotland,
about the end of the eighteenth century. In private
life, his benevolent and amiable qualities of heart
and mind, and his rich store of literary and histo-
rical anecdote, endeared him to a numerous and
highly distinguished circle of friends. On the
death of I>ord Swinton, in 1799, he was promoted
to the bench, and took his seat as Lord Banna-
tyne, on the 16th May of that year. He retired
in 1823, when he had the honour of knighthood
conferred upon him. He died at Edinburgh, No-
vember 30, 1833, in his 91st year. Although as
a speaker Lord Bannatyne was perspicuous and
distinct, his judicial remarks when written by
himself, from his parenthetical style, were exceed-
ingly involved and confused. Nevertheless, his
decisions were sound, and his legal opinions had
always due weight with his brethren on the bench.
The Highland Society was originated by him and
some other patriotic gentlemen in 1784, and he
was an original member of the Bannatyne Club.
He had collected a valuable library, rich in hisio-
rical, genealogical, and antiquarian works, and at
its sale, which took place 25th April, 1834, six
months after his decease, a set of the Bannatyne
publications was purchased for Sir John Hay, bar-
onet, of Smithfield and Haystown, for one hun-
dred and sixty-eight pounds sterling. It wanted,
however, one or two of the "Garlands." Tlie
following is a likeness of Lord Bannatyne taken
by Kay in 1799
^.
His mansion, Whiteford House, near the bottom
of the Canongate of Edinburgh, became a type-
foundry after his death.
Banmerman, a samame denved from the office of banner-
bearer to the king. Those of this name held that office dar-
ing the tenth and eleventh centuries, and carried for arms a
banner displayed. Boece states that once when King Mal-
colm the Third had advanced against the rebels in Moray, he
who bore the royal banner showing a want of courage the
king took the banner from ^lim and gave it to Sir Alexander
Carron, the ancestor of the noble family of Scrimzeour, vis-
counts and earls of Dundee, afterwards hereditaiy standard
bearers. In this story, the first part of which at least is
somewhat doubtful, Buchanan follows Boece, but an inter-
polated passage of Fordun [Book L p. 285] places this event,
so far as relates to the ori^ of the Scrimzeours, in ihe reign
of Alexander the Furst [See ante^ p. 54.] The former ban-
ner-bearer and his successors, according to Sir George Mao-
kenzie, in his genealogical account of the families of Scotland,
were ordained to bear in their crest of arms a banner with iih
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BARBOUR,
287
JOHN.
•Uff broken. In consequence thej ceased to carry any arms
at aU for several centories; but ultiinately aasnmed those of
Forbes, with some difierence, because of their frequent alli-
anoes with persous of that surname. In the early part of
the eighteenth century, Bannerman of Waterton, thereafter
of Elsick, began to use the old coat of arms of the Banner-
mans, without the mark of dishonour. [NiAet 9- Heraldry^
▼oL il p. 86.]
In 1589 Alexander Bannerman of Waterton was sheriff-
depute of Aberdeen. [Scotstarvefs CoUecHoM^ p. 184.1
Margaret, a daughter of Bannemuui of Elsick, married, 23d
NoTember 1608, George Gordon of Haddo, ancestor of the
earls of Aberdeen.
On 28th December 1682, the ancestor of the family of
Bannerman of Elsick, whoee seat is Crimonmogate, Aber-
deenshire, was created a baronet of Noya Scotia, for his
attachment to the cause of Charles the Second. His second
son, George Bannerman of Dunboig, was admitted advocate
14th February 1671, and on 16th January 1684 he was ap-
pointed solicitor to King Charles the Second. He married
Elixabeth Oliphant, daughter of the Uird of BachiHon, and
died at Edmbuigh 20th November 1691. He did not take
the oaths to WilUam of Orange, having adhered to the exiled
farailf. All the family were Jacobites. A younger brother,
Mr Robert Bannerman, was episcopalian minister at New-
ton, but lost his livmg in 1689, for not agreeing with the
Revolution. Another brother, Captain Bannerman, was an
sfficer in King James' forces.
The name frequently occurs in the Burgh records of the
town of Aberdeen. In 1715 Sir Peter Bannerman was pro-
vost of that city.
In 1851 Sir Alexander Bannerman, who from 1832 to 1840
«nu M.P. for the city of Aberdeen, was appointed lieutenant-
governor of Prince Edward*s Island, and at tlie same time
was knighted. In 1854 governor of the Bahamas, and in
1857 of Newfoundland.
Baxbour, a surname which there can be no doubt origin-
ated from the profession of a barber, and seems to have been
at one period conunon in Scotland. In 1309 King Robert the
Bruce granted to Robert Barbour a charter of the lands of
Craigie in Forfarshire. To this Robert Barbour Dr. Jamie-
ton suggests the probability that the poet Barbour was re-
lated. In the borough rolls of exchequer in the year 1328
occnn an order issued by King Robert the Bruce to Sir Alex-
ander Seaton, governor of Berwick, for the payment of a cer-
tain sum of money to a John Barbour or Barber. A person
of the name of Andrew Barbour possessed a tenement in the
Castle street of Aberdeen, from which, in 1850, a burgess of
that dty called Mathew Pinchach had granted an endowment
to the Carmelite Friars, as appears from a charter given by
David the Second to that body, of the date of 1560. In this
eharter the name Barbour is curiously translated Barbitcmsor.
[J<mi€9fm*» Barbour^ page 3.]
BARBOUR^ Barber, or Barbar, John, an
emiDent historical poet, was bora, according to a
supposition of Lord Hailes, about 1316; other
authorities say, 1880. Aberdeen is stated by
Hume of Godscroft, Dr. M^Kenzie and others, to
nave been his birthplace, but the statement,
though extremely probable, is not fully authenti-
cated. From the sameness of the name, he is con-
jectured by Dr. Irving to have been the sou of the
above-named John Barbour, llrmng*s Lives oftht
Scotish Poeis^ vol. i. p. 254,] while Dr. Jamie-
son suggests that the Andrew Barbour, also above
mentioned, was his father. [Jamie$an'$ Batbour^ v.
i. p. 8.] The latter is certainly the more proba-
ble supposition. Where all is conjecture, however,
without any evidence to support it, Mr. Pinkerton,
on the other hand, prudently abstains from hazard-
ing a guess as to either the birthplace or the pa-
rentage of the poet. [PinkertofCs Barbour^ vol. i.
p. 18.] Tytler says, " there is a presumption that
he was educated at Arbroath," [Lives of Scottish
Worthies^ vol. ii. p. 159,] but he states no
grounds and gives no authority for it. That Bar-
bour received a learned education is certain, being
intended for the church. In 1856 he was pro-
moted by David the Second to the archdeaconry
of Aberdeen. In August 1857, Edward the Third,
on the application of his own sovereign, granted
him permission to visit Oxford with three scholars
in his company. The letter of safe-conduct is
preserved in Rymer's Fcedera [vol. vi., p. 81.]
Although Warton supposes, [History of English
Poetry^ vol. I. p. 818,] and Tytler ** pronounces
with certainty" that he "studied in middle life at
Oxford," [Lives of Scottish Worthies, p. 159,] there
is no evidence that he ever pursued any regular
studies there. In September. 1857 he was ap-
pointed by the bishop of his diocese one of the
commissioners to deliberate at Edinburgh, con-
cerning the ransom of David the Second, then
a captive in England. [Fcedera, vol. vi. p. 89.]
In November 1864, he received another permis-
sion to pass through England, accompanied by
four horsemen, for the purpose of studying at Ox-
ford, or elsewhere. It has been conjectured that
his repeated visits to that university were for the
purpose of consulting books, and conferring with
learaed men, or perhaps he had the charge of
young students whom he conducted to Oxford, to
place them under academical discipline. From
the terms of the first recited passport, in which
three scholars in his company are distinctly men-
tioned, this is most likely to have been the case.
In October 1865 he appears to have visited St.
Denis, near Paris, in company with six knights
his attendants. The object of their expedition haf
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BARBOUR,
238
JOHN.
been conjectured by Dr. Irving to have been of a
religious kind, for the king of England granted
them permission to pass through his dominions on
their way to St. Denis and other sacred places.
[Fadera, vol. vi. p. 478.] Another safe-conduct,
dated November 1368, granted by Edward to
Barbour, permitted him to pass through England,
with two servants and their horses, on his way to
France, for the pui-pose of studying there. In
February 1373-4 his name appears in the list of
auditors of the Scottish exchequer. Such are all
the scanty materials that are known of the life of
Barbour.
His great poem of ' The Bruce, or the History
of Robert the First, King of Scotland,' was writ-
ten at the desire, it is said, of King David the
Second. It was not commenced till after the mid-
dle period of his life, and as he himself infoims us,
was finished in 1375. Hume of Godscroft asserts
that as a reward for the compilation of *The
Bruce,' he had a yearly pension out of the exche-
quer during his life, which he gave to the hos-
pital at Aberdeen, and that it continued to be
paid in the seventeenth century [History of the
House of Douglas^ p. 30] ; but for this there does
not seem to be any authority. On this subject
there appeara to be considerable confusion in the
statements of different writers. Dr. Nicolson,
without producing any voucher, affirms that he
received this pension from King David [Scottish
Historical Library^ p. 145], but King David died
in 1370, five years before the poem was finished.
Dr. Mackenzie first states that it was David the
Second, and afterwards that it was Robert the
Second who conferred this pension on Barbour.
[Lives of Scots Writer s^ vol. i. pp. 264, 297.] Dr.
Irving says the original source of information on
the point is evidently the passage in Godscroft.
[Lives of the Scottish Poets, vol. i. p. 256.] It is
known that he had two pensions, one of ten pounds
Scots from the customs of Aberdeen, limited to
his life, and another of twenty shillings from the
rents of that city, the latter of which, at his death,
ho bequeathed to the chapter of the cathedral
church of his native city, for a mass to be sung
for his soul's repose.
Annexed is a woodcut of the cathedral of Aber-
deen-
Barbour died at the end ot 1395, at an advance/i
age. His celebrated poem has long been consid-
ered valuable as an historical record. It contains
copious details of the glorious exploits of Robert
the Bruce, and his heroic companions in arms.
The first known edition of * The Bruce ' was pub-
lishetl at Edinburgh in 1616, in 12mo, but an ear
lier edition is believed to have existed. There
have been about twenty editions in all ; the work
having been several times reprinted both at Edin-
burgh and Glasgow. The best editions are Pin-
kerton's, with notes and a glossary, printed from
a MS. in the Advocates' Library, dated 1489,
three volumes 8vo, London, 1790 ; and Dr. Jam-
ieson's 4to, Edinburgh, 1820. Taking the total
merits of this work together, Pinkerton says that
'*he prefers it to the early exertions of even the
Italian muse, to the melancholy sublimity of Dan-
te, and the amorous quaintness of Petrai-ca."
Barbour, who was contemporary with Gower and
Chaucer, wrote better English than either of these
poets; his language being moi-e intelligible to a
modem reader than is that of any one poet of the
fourteenth century. The following affords a very
favourable specimen of his style, and of his talent
at raral description : —
This was in midst of month of May,
When birdis nng on ilku spray,
Melland their notes, with seemly soun.
For softness of the .•(we<!t seasoon
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BARCLAY.
239
BARCLAY.
And learis of the branchis spreeda,
And bloflsomis bright, beside them breeds,
And fieldis strawed are with flowers
WeD sarottring of seir ooloors ;
And all things worthis, bljth, and gaj.
Barboni* was celebrated in his own times for his
learning and genins ; but the humanity of his sen-
timents, and the liberality of his views, were much
in advance of his age. His description of Free-
dom b highly dignified and poetical : —
A ! fredome is a nobil thing !
Fredome mayss a man to haiff Ijking,
Fredome all solace to men giffis
He levys at ess that freely levys.
A noble hart may haiff nane ess,
No ellys nocht that may him pless,
Gyff fredome failythe ; for fire liking
Is yeamyt onr all othir thing.
Na he that ay hass levyt fre,
May nocht knaw weill the propyrte.
The angyr, na the wrechyt dome
That is cowplyt to fool tbjridome.
Bot gyff he had assayit it.
Than all perquer he suld it wyt,
And sold think fi;«dome mar to pr}'S8
Than all the gold in warld that is.
From some passages in Wyntoun's Chronicle^ it
bas been conjectured that Barbour also composed
a Genealogical History of the kings of Scotland,
bat no part of this is known to be extant. Ac-
cording to Tytler this formed two works, one on
the Original of the Stewarts, and the other on the
Genealogy of King Bmt.
Barclay, the same name as the English Berkeley, the
Scottish Barclays being originally descended from Roger de
Berkeley, who is s^d to have come into £ngUnd with Wil-
Ham the Conqueror, and according to the custom of the time,
aasmned his surname from Berkeley castle in Gloucestershire,
the place of his residence and possessions.
During the twelfth century a branch of the Berkeley family
settled in ScotUnd, and in 1165 we find Walter de Berkeley
chamberlain of the kingdom ^Crawford's Officers of State,
page 253]. The dame is of long standing in Kincardineshire.
In the foundation charter of the Abbey of Arbroath from
William the Lion in 1178, in conveying to that institution the
lands of Mondynes, in the parish of Fordoun, it is said,
** Dedi etiam eis unam carucatam terre in Monethyne, super
aquam de Bervyne, quam Willus de Munfort et Umfridus de
Berhdey, et Waltems Scotus et Alanus, filius Symonis, et
aim pro^ homines, mei per preceptnm meum eis mensuraver>
nnt,**
The writer of the account of the Barclays of Mathers,
afterwards Urie, in Nisbet*s System of Heraldry, doubtless
one of that family, desirous of making it even more ancient
than the Conquest, expresses his opmion that their eariy settle-
ment in Scotland was before that event, and that they were not
of Norman race at aU. He says, {N%^)et, vol. iL page 245,]
whether the ancient surname of Berkeley or Barclay be ori-
ginally of Caledonian, British, or Saxon extraction, is what
cannot now be concluded, but this much is vouched that in
the reign of William the Lion there were four great and emi*
nent families of that name settled in Scotland, namely, Wal-
ter de Berkeley, William de Berkeley, Humphrey de Berkeley,
and Robert de Berkeley — the two first having been great
chamberlains of the kingdom. Walter de Berkeley, the first
named, was one of the pledges for King William the Lion to
Henry the Second of Rngland. He left two daughters, one
of whom, Margaret, married Sir Alexander Seton of Seton,
ancestor of the earls of Winton. This Walter de Berkeley is
supposed to have been the nephew of Theobald de Berkeley,
the progenitor of the Barclays of Mathers in Kincardineshire,
who lived in the reign of David the First, and had two sons,
Humphry and John.
Humphry the elder, designed of Gaimtully, was a liberal
benefactor to the abbey of Arbroath, and is undoubtedly
the same who is mentioned in the above dted charter of
William the Lion. On part of his large possessions in
the"^ Meams, namely Balfeith, Monboddo, Glenfarquhar,
&&, in the parish of Fordoun, he granted a donation to
the abbot and monks thereof, which was confirmed by
William the lion, and was renewed and augmented by his
only chOd Richenda, and her husband, Robert, ancestor of
the earls of Glencaum. This second donation was confirmed
by Alexander the Second. After the death of her husband,
the monks prevailed on Richenda to dispone these Unds to
them for the third tune, which third donation was confirmed
by Alexander the Second at Aberbrothwick, 7th March, 1243.
Humphry's brother, John de Berkeley, who succeeded him,
turned the abbot and monks out of all the lands so granted
to them, but was obliged to enter into an agreement with
them, confirmed by Alexander the Second, whereby, in lieu
of what he had thus dispossessed them of^ he gave them the
mill of Conveth, with the appurtenances thereof, taking them
bound, at the same time, to pay to him and his heirs, in all
time coming, the sum of thirteen merks of silver yearly.
John was succeeded by his son Robert de Berkeley, and he
by his son Hugh de Berkeley, who obtained a charter from
King Robert the Bruce upon Westerton, being lands lying near
the above mentioned mill of Conveth. His son, Alexander
de Berkeley, bom in 1826, was the first designed of Mathers.
He obtained these lands, situated in the southern district of
Kincardineshire, on his marriage with Katherine, sister of
William de Keith, great marischal of Scotland, whose charter
conveying them, dated in 1351, is confirmed by King David
the Second, at Perth, 18th March the same year. He was
sucoeeded by his son, David de Berkeley, whose grandson,
also named David de Berkeley, was that laird of Mathers,
who with the hiirds of Lauriston, Arbuthnott, Pittarrow and
Halkerton, was accessary to the sUughter of John Melville of
Glenbervie, sheriff of the Meams in the reign ef James the
First, as formerly narrated, and who built the castle called
the Kaim of Mathers. [See ante, page 143, article Arbuth-
nott.] He married Elizabeth, a daughter of Strachan of
Thornton in the same county.
His son Alexander was the first to spell the family name
Barday. He was living in 1483, as appears by a charter
dated in that year, granted to him **by his kinsman, William,
earl Marischal*' He married Katherine, daughter of Wishart
of Pittarrow. His son, David Barclay of Mathers, married
Janet, a daughter of Irvine of Dnun. Their eldest son,
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BARCLAY.
240
BARCLAY.
Alexander Barclay of Mathers, was living in 1497. He mar-
ried Mai^ory, seoond daughter of James Anchinleck, laird of
Glenbervie, the son of John Anchinledc of that ilk m Forfar-
shire, and who, by marrying the only daughter of the sheriff,
John Melville, killed by the barons of the Meams, obtained
his estate of Glenbervie.
David Barclay of Mathers, bom in 1580, the fifth in descent
from this Alexander Barclay, and the twelfth laird of Mathers
of the name of Barclay, by his extravagance and living much
at court, was obliged to sell the estate first of Mathers, after
it had been in possession of the family nearly three hundred
years, and then the old patrimonial lands, after being in the
family upwards of five hundred years. He married Elizabeth
livingston, daughter of Livingston of Dunnipaoe, and had a
daughter, Anne, first married to Douglas of lllwhilly, and
secondly to Strachan, afterwards bishop of Brechin; and
several sons; of whom John and Alexander died young;
David became his heir and representative; Robert was rector
of the Scots college at Paris, and James, the youngest, a comet
in a troop of horse, was killed at the battle of Philiphaugh.
Had the last laurd of Mathers of this family, remembered
the advice of that laird, his ancestor, who first changed the
name from Bericeley to Barclay, as contuned in **the Laird
of Mathers* Testament,'* the estate might still have been in
possession of his descendants. The yerses which pass under
this name are as follows: —
** Giff thou desire thy house lang stand,
And thy successors bmik thy land.
Above all things live God in fear,
Intromit nocht with wrangousgear,
Nor conquess nothing wrangously
With thy neighbour keep chanty.
See that thou pass not thy estate;
Ob^ duly thy magistrate:
Oppress not, but support the puire.
To help the commonweill take cuire.
Use no deceit; mell not with treason.
And to all men do richt and reason.
Both unto word and deed be troe;
All kinds of wickedness eschew.
Slay no man, nor thereto consent;
Be nocht crael, but patient.
Ally ay in some guid place,
With noble, honest godly, race.
Hate huirdom, and all vices flee,
Be humble ; haunt guid companye.
Help thy friend, and do nae wrang.
And God shall cause thy house stand lang.
David, afterwards Colonel David Barclay of Urie, was bora
m 1610. He entered the army, and served as a volunteer
under Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden. Having attained
the rank of nuyor, he remained abroad till the dvil wars
broke out in his own country, when he returned home and
became colonel of a regiment of horse on the side of the long.
On the accession of CromweIl*s party to power, he retired
from active military service, and in 1647 purchased the estate
of Urio in Kincardineshire, from William earl MarischaL
After the Restoration he was committed prisoner to Edin-
burgh Castle upon some groundless charge of hostility to the
government, but was soon liberated, through the interest of
the earl of Middleton, with whom he had served in the civil
war. During his imprisonment he was converted to Qua-
kerism by the celebrated lurd of Swinton, who was confined
•Q the same prison. [See Swinton, surname of.] He mar-
ried Catherine, daughter of Sir Robert Gordon of Gordons-
town, the premier baronet of Nova Scotia, and well known
historian of the house of Sutherland, second ton of the eari of
Sutherland, and second cousin of King James the Sixth. By
her he had two daughters, Lucy and Jean, and three ions,
Robert, John, and David. Lucy and David died unmarried.
Jean married Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, to whom she
bore eight children. Robert, the eldest son, who became
celebrated as the apologist for the Quakers, is afterwards
noticed. John, the second son, settled in East Jersey in
America, where he married and left issue.
In the Ragman Roll, among those who swore fealty to Ed-
ward the First, in 1296, occurs the txme of Patricias de
Berkeley. This surname was then so numerous in Scotland,
that the different families are not eaaly distinguishable. Be-
sides the Barclays of Mathers, there were the Barclays of
Towie, and those of Gartly or Garthie, in Aberdeenshire; of
Collaimie, in Fife; of Touch, descended from the latter; oi
Johnston, descended fix}m the family of Mathers; of Balma
kcwan, the first of which family was the second son of DaviH
Barclay of Johnston ; and other families of the same name.
In the charters of King William the Lion to the abbey of
Dunfermline, amongst the witnesses are Walter de Berkeley
and Robert de Berkeley. In the reign of Alexander the
Second, Malcolm, earl of Angus, married the daughter of Sii
Humphry Berkeley. In the regbter of Arbroath is a chartei
granted by Malcolm, earl of Fife [who lived in the reign o
Alexander the Third], to Andrew de Swinton, to which Roger
de Berkeley is a witness. In 1284 Hugo de Berkeley war
JtuHciarius Laodoma. His name appears as a witness to
charter of Alexander the Thud, to the monks of Melrose,
dated at Traqmur the 12th December, in the sixteenth yeai
of his reign. He is supposed to be the same Hugo de Berke-
ley who had half of the barony of Crawfordjohn in Lanaric^
shire, and was sometimes designed of Crawfordjohn and some-
times of Kilbimie, whicli, in 1471, went to the Craufurds by
marriage. In the register of Melrose (p. 62) Sir Walter
Berkeley, knight, sheriff of Aberdeen, is so designed in a
charter of King Robert the Brace to that town. His seal ot
arms was the same with those of the lords Berkeley in Eng-
land.
In 1315, Sir David Berkeley or Barclay of Cairay-Barday
in Fife, married Margaret de Brechin, daughter of Sir David
de Brechin, lord of Brechin. He was one of the chief asso-
ciates of Robert the Brace, and was present at most of his
battles, particularly Methven, where he was taken prisoner.
IBarbaur^ page 82.] After the successful issue of the strug*
gle he was appointed sheriff of the county of Fife. [SibbaUTs
Hist, o/Fi^, page 288.] On the forfeiture of his brother-
in-law. Sir David de Brechin in 1321 [see Brbchik, lord of},
King Robert bestowed upon him the lordship of Brechin, the
barony of Rothiemay, the lands of Kinloch and part of Glen-
esk, which had belonged to his brother-in-law. He had for
his paternal estate the barony of old Lindores and the lands
of Caimy of Fife. His strong castle stood near the loch of
Lindores. He gave to the monks of Balmerino, in pure
alms, a right of fishing in the river Tay. This Sir David
Barclay, lord of Brechin, is also frequently mentioned in
the wars of King David Brace, to whom he faithfully ad-
hered even when his cause was the most depressed, and in
1341, by that monarch*s command, he seized Sir 'V\^lliam
Bullock, chamberiain of Scotland, suspected of treason, and
committed him to prison. Having slain John Douglas, brother
of the knight of liddesdale, at Forgywood, he was assassi-
nated at Aberdeen on Shrove Tuesday, 1350, by John of SL
Michael and his accomplices, at the instigation of Williatr
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BARCLAY.
241
BARCLAY.
Douglas, knight of Liddesdak, then a prisoner in England.
iFordwty b. il p. 848.] By Margaret de Brechin, his wife,
he had Da\nd his heir, and a daughter, Jean, manied to Sir
David Fleming of Biggar, by whom he had a daughter,
Marion, the wife of Sir William Maule of Panmnre.
The son, David, second lord of Brechin of the name of
Barclay, granted a charter of the lands of Kyndestleth to
Hogh Barclay, his cousin, from whom the Bardays of Gol-
laimie in Fife were descended. IDouglas't Peeragey vol L p.
245.] In 13C3 he granted a charter of confirmation of the
lands of Dnnmure, lying in his barony of lindores, to Roger
Mortimer. On 10th Janoaiy 1862-3 he is witness to a
charter of Sir Thomas Bisset and Isabel de Fife. In 1364
he went to the wars of Prussia, having obtained a safe con-
duct from King Edward the Third to pass throogh his domi-
nions, attended by twelve esquires, with their horses and ser-
vants. The date of his death is unknown. He left one
daughter, Margaret, married to Walter Stewart, earl of
Athole and Caithness and earl palatine of Strathem, second
son of King Robert the Second, by his second wife, Euphemia
Ross, executed in April 1487, for being accessary to the mur-
der of King James the First. Just before going to execution
he emitted a judicial declaration that the lordship of Brechin
nad been held by him in courtesy of his wife, and that the
light to that lordship after himself belonged to Sir Thomas
Maule of Panmure, nearest heir of his countess, in right of his
grandmother, daughter of Sir David Barclay of Brechin.
[Nuhtts Hercddn/y vol ii p. 81.] See Athole, earls of,
anU p. 163, and Panmure, earls of.
The family of Barclay must have possessed CoUaimie,
whidi is in the parish of Dunbog, for nearly five hundred
years. In 1457, David Barclay of CoUaimie was one of the
assessors in a perambulation between Easter and Wester
Kinghcgm. [iVis^V HercMry, vol I p. 126.] They also
possessed other large estates in Fifeshire. In 1656 we find
Robert Barclay of Collaimie served heir male to his father.
Sir David Barclay, knight, among others, in the lands of Kil-
maron, Pitblado, Hilton, and BoghalL The Barclays of
Collaimie were heritable bailies of the regality of Lindores, an
office implying great personal influence or high rank, while it
conferred dvil authority of the most varied and extensive de-
soiption. On the abolition of the heritable jurisdictions in
1747, Antonia Barclay of Collaimie and Mr Harry Barday,
her husband, received the sum of two hundred and fifteen
pounds sterling, as a compensation for this office. The family
is now extinct, the estate ha^ing been sold about the begin-
ning of the present century to the Ute Dr. Francis Balfour of
Femie, In the appendix to Sibbald*s History of fife there is
a list of natives of that county who have risen to eminence in
literature or science; among others mention is made of ** the
famous William Barclay (father of John), professor of law at
Anglers, who derived his pedigree from Barclay of Conaimie."
Of this William Barclay a notice is given below. Sir Henry
Stcuart Barday, baronet, of Coltness, eldest son of Henry
Stenart Barday, Esq. of Collaimie, who was youngest brother
of the said baronet, succeeded his cousin as third baronet in
1839. Died in 1851. Baronetcy extinct
The Bardays of Pierston are an ancient family in Ayrshire,
of distinction so early as the twelfth century. Sir Robert
Barday of Pierston, knight, was created a baronet of Nova
Scotia, 22d October 1668. Sir Robert Barday, the eighth
baronet, died in 1839. His grandson. Sir Robert Barday,
bom in 1819, succeeded as ninth baronet.
The Bfirdays of Ardrossan were also an old family of Ayr-
shire. In 1471 the line of this branch of the Barclays temii-
nated in an heiress, who married Malcolm Craufurd of Green-
ock, the founder of the family of Craufurd of Kilbirnie.
Tlic Bardays of Towie or Tolly in Aberdeenshire are said to
have been descended from John Berkeley, son of Lord Berke-
ley of Gloucestershire. He obtained a grant of tlie estate
of Tolly for his son Alexander Berkdey, about 1100. On
the front of the old castle of Towie Barday, in the parish of
Turriff, this inscription is cut in stone: ** Sir Valter Bardny
fonndit the Tollie Mills, 1210." This corroborates the com-
mon opinion, that com mills turned by water were introduced
into Scotland by the Saxon followers of Malcolm towards tlio
end of the deventh century; for had com mills previously
existed in the country the founding of a mill would not have
been worth recording. [New Stat, AcoourU^ vol. xiL p. 287.]
Immediatdy aboye the door of the old castle of Towie Barclay
is the following inscription, " Sir Alexander Barclay, founda-
tor, decessit, 1136.^ It is believed, however, that the castle
was not built before 1593. The Bardays seem to have
mingled in the firays of their time, and are frequently men-
tioned in Pitcaim^s Criminal Trials. The estate remained in
the same family till it was sold by the Hon. Charles Mait-
land Barday of Tiliycoultry, brother of the earl of Lauder-
dale, who married Isabd Barclay, the last heiress, in 1752,
and assumed the name of Barchy. Persons of the name still
exist in the district From this ancient family the celebrated
Russian general. Field Marshal Prince Barclay de Tolly, who
died in 1818, was lineally descended.
Barclat-Allardice, the name of a former proprie-
toiL of Urie. The sumame of AUardice is derived from the
barony of Alrethes, in Kincardineshire, which, during the
rdgn of William the lion, bdonged to a family who assumed
its name, in the course of time softened into AUardice. On
the 8th October, 1662, Sir John AUardice of AUardice, the
then chief of that andent family, married Lady Mary Graham,
eldest dster and oo-heir of WiUiam Graham, eighth earl of
Mentdth, and second earl of Airth. ' He died before Novem-
ber 1690, leaving four daughters and two sons. The elder
son, John AUardice of AUardice, married, 26th October,
1690, EUzabeth daughter of WiUiam Barday of Balma-
kewan. Leaving no issue, he was succeeded by his brother.
Sir George AlUrdice of AUardice, whose grandson's only
daughter, Sarah-Anne AUardice, bom 13th July 1757, was
served heiress of line of the earls of Airth and Mentdth, and
of David, earl palatine of Strathem, son of Robert the
Second, king of Scotland. She married in 1777 Robert
Barday of Urie, great-grandson of the famous apologist foi
the Quakers (bdng his second wife), and in consequence ho
assumed the name of AlUrdice in addition to his owil Their
ddest son. Captain Robert Barday- AUardice, the cdebratcd
pedestrian, designed of Urie and AUardice, became, in right ul
his mother, heir general and heir of line of the first earl of
Aurth. He was also sole heir of the body of Prince David,
son of Robert the Second, king of Scotland. He was born
25tli August, 1779, and succeeded his father in 1797, and
his mother, (who had married a second time,) in 1833. In
1842 he published at Edinburgh, in one volume, * An Agri-
cultural Tour through the United States and Canada.* He
died 1st May 1854. His only daughter, Margaret, mar-
ried in 1840 Samuel Ritchie, at one period a private sol-
dier.
BARCLAY, ALEXi^KDER, an elegant poet of
the 16th centuiy, is mentioned by Bishop Bale,
Q
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BARCLAY,
241
ROBERT.
Dr. Bullejn, UoHinshed, and Ritson, as a native
of Scotland, although Pitts, Wood, and some other
English writers, claim him for England. From
his writings it appears that he spent some of bis
earlier days at Croydon in Snrrej. About 1495
he went to Oriel College, Oxford, where, or at
Cambridge, he received his education, and took the
degi-ee of D.D. Going afterwards to the conti-
nent, he acquired a knowledge of the Dutch, Ger-
man, Italian, and French languages. On his re-
turn to England he entered the church, and be-
came chaplain to Bishop Cornish, who, in 1508,
appointed him one of the priests or prebendaries of
St. Mary, Ottery, Devonshire. Subsequently he
became first a Benedictine monk of Ely, and
aftei*ward3 a Fi'anciscan monk at Canterbury.
On the dissolution of the monastenes in 1589, he
became a Protestant, and was presented to the
living of Great Baddow, in Essex. In 1546 he
was vicar of Wokey, in Somersetshire, and in
1552 he became rector of All Hallows, Ix)ndou,
but did not possess this living above six weeks.
He died at a very advanced age at Croydon, Sur-
rey, in June, 1552. Of his personal character
different accounts have been given. Bale, a Pro-
testant, treats his memory with indignity, and
charges him with living a scandalous, and licen-
tious life; while Pitts, a Roman Catholic, assures
us that he directed his studies to the service of
religion, and employed his time in reading and
writing the lives of the saints. As an improver of
English literature he is entitled to grateful com-
memoration; and his industiy in enriching the
language with translations, written in a purer style
than belonged to that period, is much commended.
His chief production is a satire, entitled * The Ship
of Fools,' partly a translation and partly an imita-
tion of a German poem by Sebastian Brandt,
called Navts Stvltifera^ printed in 1497. He
also translated Sallnst's History of the Jugnr-
thine War, published in 1557. Among his other
publications is an English translation of the ' Mir-
rour of Good Manners,^ a treatise compiled in
Latin by Dominyque Mancjm, for the use of the
^* jnvent of England.*' His Eclogues are the ear-
liest specimens of pastoral poetry in the English
language. IMackenzie's Scots Writers.'] The fol-
lowing are some of bis principal works
The Castell oi Labour, wherein b Rychesse, Vertne, and
Honour; an allegorical Poem, in seven line stanzas, trana-
lated from the French. Printed by Wynken de Wonle, 1506.
Certain Kgloges, contaming the Miseries of Conrts and
Courtiers, five in number, in English verse, from iEneas Syl-
vius* Miserae Curialium. Lond. 1508, fol. 1509, 1548,
1670, 4to.
Stultifera Nauis, qua Omnium Mortalium narratur Stultitia,
&c The Ship of Fooles, wherem is shewed the foUy of all
states, with diuers other Workes adioyned to the same, veiy
profitable and frnitfiil for all men. This edition has the
Latin version of James Lodier, pupil of Brandt, the Author
who first transUted it from the German, and also the English
transbtions of Barclay. To which is annexed, The Mirrour
of Good Manners, containing the four cardinal vertues; com-
piled, in Latin, by Dominike Mansoin, and translated into
Englishe, by Alexr. Barclay. English and Latin. Also cer-
ta}'ne Egloges of Alex. Barclay. Imprented in the cyte of
London, in Fletestre (te), at the signs of $aynte Geoige, by
Richard Pynson, to his cost and charge. Ended the year of
our Sauior m.d.ix. foL Lond. 1570, folio, printed bj Ca-
wood, J.
The Introductory to Write and to Pronounce Frenclie.
London, 1521, folio.
The Famous Chronicle of Warre, whyche the Bomaynet
hadde agaynst Jugurth, vsurper of the kyngedome of Nomidie :
whiche Chronicle is compiled in Latin by the renowned Ro-
mnyne, Salluste; and translated mto Englishe by Syr Alex-
ander Baiklaye, prieste; nowe perused and oonected by
Thomas PaynelL London, 1557, 8vo.
A Right Fruitful Treatise, entituled, the Myrror of Good
Manners, contaynynge the iiii vertues called Cardynall, com
pyled, m Latyn, by Dominike Mancyn, and translated uiU.
Englishe. Printed by Pynson, no date. fol.
A. B. his figure of our Mother Holy Churcbe oppressed by
the Frenche king. 4to. Pynson.
BARCLAY, Robert, of Urie, the Apologist
for the Quakers, was bom December 23, 1648, at
Goi-donstown, shire of Moray, or, according to one
authority, at Edinburgh, but this is incorrect.
His father, as already stated, was Colonel David
Barclay, the son of the last laird of Mathers, and
his mother, Catherine Gordon, was the daughter
of Sir Robert Gordon of Goi-donstown, baronet.
He was the eldest of three sons. After receiv-
ing the rudiments of education in his native coun-
try, his father sent him to Paris, to study under
the direction of his uncle, the principal of the
Scots college there. His deportment and chai*acter
so endeared him to his uncle that he offered to
make him his heir, and to settle a large estate
immediately upon him if he would remain in
France, an offer which he at once reject^. Hav-
ing by his uncle's influence become a Roman
Catholic, he was immediately recalled home. In
1666 his father embraced the peculiar principles of
the Quakers; and two years afterwards young
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ROBERT.
Barclay adopted the same doctrines, aud soon dis-
tingaished himself bj his talents and zeal in their
vindication. This change had not been produced
without a degree of thought and investigation
almost beyond his yeai-s, for he was not then nine-
teen. It also gave a decided bias to his future
studies. He learned the Greek and Hebrew lan-
guages, being already proficient in Latin and French,
and to his other acquirements he added an acquaint-
ance with the writings of the Fathers, and a know-
ledge of ecclesiastical history. Andrew JaflFray,
one of the Friends, thus writes of him : — " A little
after his coming out of the age of mmority, as it is
called, he was made willing, in the day of God's
power, to give up his body as a sign and wonder
to this generation, and to deny himself and all in
him as a man so far as to become a fool, for His
sake whom he loved, in going in sackcloth and
ashes through the chief streets of the city of Aber-
deen, besides some services at several steeple
houses, and some sufferings in prison for the
truth's sake."
His first treatise, written with great vigour, was
published at Aberdeen in 1670. It was entitled
* Truth cleared of Calumnies,' in answer to a book
against the Quakers, by the Rev. William Mit-
chell. The same year he wrote an appendix entitled
^ Some things of weighty concernment proposed in
meekness and love, by way of queries, to the seri-
ous consideration of the inhabitants of Aberdeen,
which also may be of use to such as are of the same
mind with them elsewhere in the world.' A re-
l)ly to the * Truth cleared of Calumnies' was writ-
ten by Mitchell, to which Barclay rejoined with a
treatise under the title of * William Mitchell un-
masked, or the staggering instability of the pre-
tended stable Christian discovered, his omissions
observed, and weakness unvailed," &c. In 1673
he published ^A Catechism and Confession of
Faith,' explanatory of the doctrines of the Quak-
ers. The design of this work was to prove that
Quakerism was the perfection of the reformed re-
ligion, and that protestants as they receded fi-om
it were so far inconsistent with themselves, and
approached to popery. His next treatise, pub-
lished in 1674, entitled *The Anarchy of the
Ranters and other Libertines, the Hierarchy of
the Romanists, and other pretended Churches,
equally refused and i*efuted,' &c., was intended to
mark the distinction between the rationalists of
his sect, and the enthusiasts; but some senti-
ments concerning church discipline which it con-
tained, involved him in disputes with some of his
own brethren, and he aftenvards published a vin-
dication of this work. His publications, which
were numerous, involved him in various contro-
versies with the students of Aberdeen and others.
His great work, considered the standard of
Quakerism, ■ entitled *An Apology for the true
Christian Divinity, as the same is held forth and
preached by the people called in scorn Quakers,'
appeared in 1675. It was written and published
in I^tin, " for the information of strangers," but
the author himself translated it into English, ** for
the benefit of his countrymen." The 'Apology'
was preceded by his * Theses Theologicae,' printed
in Latin, French, Grcrman, Dutch, and English,
and addressed to the clergy generally throughout
Europe, requesting their examination and judg-
ment. In his principal work he attempts to prove
that there is an internal light in man, which is
better fitted to guide him aright in i-eligious mat-
ters than even the Scriptures themselves, the
genuine doctrines of which may be rendered un-
certain by various readings in different manu-
scripts, and the fallibility of translators and inter-
preters. "Whence," he says, "we may very
safely conclude that Jesus Christ, who promised
to be always with his children, to lead them into
all truth, to guard them against the devices of the
enemy, and to establish their faith upon an un-
moveable rock, left them not to be principally
ruled by that which was subject, in itself, to many
uncertainties, and therefore he gave them his Spirit
as their prindpal guide, which neither moths nor
time can wear out, nor transcribers nor translator
corrupt ; which none are so young, none so illiterate,
none in so remote a place, but they may come to be
reached, and rightly informed by it." In a dedi-
catory address to Charles the Second, he pleads for
toleration to the new sect in the following empha-
tic terms: — "Thou hast tasted of prosperity and
adversity ; thou knowest what it is to be banished
thy native country, to be overruled as well as to
rule, and sit upon the throne ; and being oppress-
ed, thou hast reason to know how hateful the
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oppressor is to God and man. If, after all these
warnings and advertisements, thou dost not turn
unto the Lord with all thy heart, but forget him
who remembered thee in thy distress, and give up
thyself to lust and vanity, surely great will bo thy
condemnation." The Apology was reprinted at
Amsterdam, and translated into the German,
Dutch, French, and Spanish languages. It re-
ceived many answers, as it was not conceived
difficult to overturn its strange and unusual the-
ories. Barclay's name as the apostle of the
Quakers was now extensively known, and accom-
panied by the celebrated William Penn and (Jeorge
Fox he travelled into England, Holland, and
Germany, disseminating the principles of the So-
ciety of Friends, and was everywhere received
with great respect. About the end of 1677 he
addressed an Epistle and * Friendly advice^ on
public affairs to the ministers of the different
states of Europe then assembled at Nlmeguen.
At this period a severe persecution raged against
the Quakers, and in that year Barclay, bis father,
and many others of the Society of Friends, were im-
prisoned at Aberdeen, at the instigation of Arch-
bishop Sharp, with whom he remonstrated by an
excellent letter on the occasion. By the inteipo-
sition of Elizabeth, the princess palatine of the
Rhine, who respected the Quakers, and corre-
sponded with both Penn and Barclay, he was
soon liberated ; and he even acquired the favour
»f the court. -
In 1679, Charles the Second, who, it is probable,
considered him a harmless enthusiast, granted him
a charter under the great seal erecting his lands
of Urie into a fi-ee barony; and in 1682, the
proprietors of East Jersey, in North America,
appointed him governor of that province, bestow-
ing npon him 5,000 acres of land above his pro-
prietary share ; but he never went out, having the
power to nominate a deputy. The last of his pro-
ductions was a long letter in Latin, addressed to
a person of quality in Holland, * On the Possibility
and Necessity of an Inward and Immediate Re-
velation,' written in 1676, but not published
till 1686. From that year till his death, ex-
cepting on one or two occasions, he may be said
to have lived in retirement at Urie, where he died,
August 3, 1690, in the forty-second year of his
age. His death was occasioned by a violent fever
which attacked him immediately after his return
from a religious visit to some parts of Scotland.
Bai'clay possessed great natural abilities, which
were much improved by the superior classical edu-
cation he had received ; these, joined to a strong
undei'standing, with a high degree of enthusiasm,
and much activity and energy, admirably fittt-d
him for the extraordinary career which he pur-
sued. He had been several times in prison ; but
this did not damp his ardour, or hinder him from
vindicating his opinions, and making proselytes on
all occasions that offered. In his moral character
he was free from every reproach, and his temper
was so well regulated that he was nev^r seen in
Unger. Besides the works above-named, he wrote,
while imprisoned in Aberdeen, a treatise 'On
Universal Love.' He had mai-ried, in February
1670, Christian MoUison, the daughter of a mer
chant in Aberdeen, by whom he had three sons
and four daughters, all of whom survived him for
fifty yeara. His second son, Mr. David Barclay,
a mercer in Cheapside, successively entertained
the three first Greorges, kings of England, when
they visited the city on Lord Mayor's day. From
this gentleman are descended the Barclays of Bury
Hill in Surrey.
Barclay himself had a high opinion of James
the Second of England, who, on his accession,
had gi-anted toleration to the Quakers. In
1688, shortly before that infatuated monarch's
dethronement, being at court one day, ho was
standing with his Majesty at a window, when the
king observed, that *' the wind was then fair for
the prince of Orange to come over." Barclay re-
plied, ''It was hard that no expedient could be
found to satisfy the people." On which the king
said, " He would do any thing becoming a gen-
tleman, except parting with liberty of conscience,
which he never would do whilst he lived." Tliat
liberty of conscience which he claimed for him-
self, he unrighteously, as well as unwisely, denied
to others. An account of the life and writmgs of
Barclay, the Apologist, was published in 1802, in
12mo, by Joseph Gumey Be van, one of the soci-
ety of Friends.
The following is a list of Robert Barclay's
works :
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BARCLAY,
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WILLIAM.
Trnth cleared of CalumnicSf wherein a book, entitled, A
Dial(^ne between a Quaker and a Stable Christian, (printed
at Aberdeen, and, npon good gronnd, judged to be writ bj
William Mitchel, a preacher near by it, or at least that he had
a chief hand in it,) is examined, and the disingennity of the
Author, in his representing the Quakers, is discoyered; here
b also their case truly stated, cleared, demonstrated, and the
Objections of their opposcrs answered according to truth,
scripture, and right reason; to which are snbjomed, Queries
to the Inhabitants of Aberdeen, which might also be of use to
such as are of the same mind with them elsewhere in the
worid. Aberd. 1670.
William Mitchell unmasked, or the Staggering instability
of the pretended Stable Christian discovered; his omissions
obserred, and weakness unvailed, &c 1671.
Seasonable warning and serious exhorti^on to, and expos-
tulation with, the inhabitants of Aberdeen, concerning thb
present dispensation and day of God*s living visitation towards
them. 1672.
A Catechism and Confesnon of Faith, approved of, and
agreed to by the general assembly of the patriarchs, prophets,
and apostles, Christ himself chief speaker in and among them,
which containeth a true and faithAil acconnt of the principles
and doctrines which are most surely believed by the churches
of Christ in Great Britain and Ireland, who are reproachfully
called by the name of Quakers, yet are found in the one faith
with the primitive church and saints, &c 1678.
The Anarchy of the Ranters and other Libertines, &c. 1674.
Theses Theologicse. Lond. 1675, 8vo.
Theologian vere ChristiansB Apologia. Amst 1676, 4to.
Loud. 1729, 8vo.
An Apology for the true Christian Divinity, as the same is
held forth and preached by the people called, in scorn, Quakers,
being a full Explanation and Vindication of their Principles
vid Doctrines, by many Arguments deduced firom Scripture
•nd right resson, and the testimonies of famous Authors
both ancient and modem, with a full Answer to the strongest
Objections usually made against them; presented to the
King; written and published, in Latin, for the information of
Strangers, by Robert Barclay; and now put into our own
I^anguage, for the benefit of his Countrymen. Lond. 1676,
1 678, 1701, 8vo., 1786, 8vo. Birm. by Baskcrville, 1765, 4to
Printed in Latin. Amst 1676, 4to. Translated into Spa-
nish, by Ant. de Alvarado, 1710, 8vo.
Treatise on Universal Love. 1677.
Apology for the true Christian Divinity indicated. Ix)nd.
1679, 4to.
Vindication of his Anarchy of the Ranters. 1679.
The Pos«bility and Necessity of the Inward and Immediate
Revelation of the Spirit of God, towards the foundation and
ground of true Faith, proved in a Letter written in Latin to a
person of Quality in Holland, and now also put into English*
1686.
A true and Faithful Account of the most material Passages
of a Dispute between some Students of Divinity (so called),
of the Univcrnty of Aberdeen, and the People called Quakers,
held in Aberdeen, in Scotland, in Alexander Harper his dose,
(or yard), before some hundred of Witnesses, upon the 14th
day of the second month, called April, 1675, there being John
Ijttley, Aleximder Sherreff, and Paul Gellie, Master of Arts,
opponents; and defendants, upon the Quakers* part, Robert
Barclay and George Keith * Preses for moderaUng the meet-
ing, chosen by them, Andrew Thomson, Advocate; and by
the Quakers, Alexander Skein, sometime a Magbtrate of the
City: published for preventing misreports, by Alexander
Skein, John Skein Alexander Harper, Thomas Merser, and
John Cowie. To which is added, Robert Barclay*!! OfTer U
the Preachers of Aberdeen, renewed and re-inforced.
Quakerism Confirmed; being an answer to a pamphlet by
the Aberdeen Students, entitled Quakerism Canvassed, writ-
ten in conjunction with George Keith. Aberdeen. 1676.
An Epistle of Love and Friendly Advice to the Ambassa^
dors of the se%-eral Princes of Europe met at Nimeguen, to
consult the peace of Christendom so far as they are concerned.
Written in Ijitin, but published also in Engl'ish for the bene-
fit of his countrymen. 1677.
Works. I^nd. 1692, foL
BARCLAY, William, a learned civilian, de-
scended from the family of Barclay of Collairney,
in Fife, was born in Aberdeenshire in 1546. He
was related to the earl of Huntly, Ogilvy of Find-
later, Lesley of Balqnhain, and other persons of
distinction. He was educated in tlie university of
Aberdeen, and in his youth he frequented the
court at Holyrood. His prospects of preferment
in Scotland being blighted with the dethronement
of Mary queen of Scots, and his adherence to the
Elomish faith, following the example of many other
Scottish youth at that period, he went, in 1573, to
France, and resolved to devote himself to the
study of jui-isprudence. Repairing to the univer-
sity of Bourges, he attended the lectures of Cuja-
cius, Donellus, and Contins, three celebrated pro-
fessore of law. He took the degree of doctor of
laws in that university. The duke of Lorraine
had recently founded the university of Pont-a-
Mousson, and Barclay, on the recommendation of
his uncle Edmund Hay, the Jesuit, Its first rector,
was appointed in 1578 the first pi-ofessor of civil
law in that institution. The duke also made him
dean of the law faculty, counsellor of state, and
master of requests. In 1581 Barclay married
Anne de Malleville, a lady of Ix)rraine, by whom
he bad one son, John (the subject of the next
aiticle), whom the Jesuits endeavoured to seduce
into their society ; but this being opposed by his
father, they influenced the duke against him, and
in 1603, he resigned his chair and quitted I-K)rraine.
Barclay's first and largest work, written in liatin,
as all his works were, was a treatise on regal
power, in which hcf zealously contends for the
divine right of kings. It was printed in the year
1600, with a dedication to the French king, Henry
the Fourth. The first two books are directed
against the famous dialogue of his countryman
Buchanan; the thurd and fourth against the ^Vin-
diciae contra TjTannoj,' written by Hubert J^n
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JOHN.
guet under the assumed name of Stephanos Junius
Brutus; and the last two against a treatise of Jean
Boucher, a doctor of the Sorbonne, who rendered
himself notorious for his seditious audacity during
the unhappy ascendant of the League. This vol-
ume, says Dr. Ii-ving, ought to contain a curious
portrait of the author, wiiich, liowever, is very
seldom to be found. On each side of it wei'e dis-
played the blazouings of eight di£fcrent families,
with which Barclay is supposed to have been con-
nected. PAceeding to London, he was graciously
received by James the Sixth, who is said to have
offered him a place in the council with a pension,
on condition of his renouiicing the Romish religion,
which he declined to do, and in 1604 he returned
to France. The professorehip of civil law at the
university of Angers being vacant, he was offered
that chair, and having accepted it on an engagement
for five years, by a decree of the university, of date
7th February 1606, he was confirmed in the rank
of dean or first professor. In this univereity he
taught with high reputation. Anxious to support
the dignity of his office he carried his taste for ex-
ternal pomp to an unusual extent. When he
went to the university - hall to lecture, he was
dressed in ^^ a rich robe, lined with ermine," with
a massy chain of gold about his neck, having his
son on bis right hand, preceded by one servant,
and followed by two othera bearing his train!
His elaborate commentary on the titles of the
Pandects, *De Rebus creditis,* and *De Jure-
lurando,* appeared in 1605, dedicated to King
James. Towards the close of the same year he
died at Angers, before he had completed the age
of sixty. A treatise on the power of the pope,
which he left in manuscript, was published by his
son, four yeai-s after his decease. In this work,
which excited a strong sensation at the time of its
appearance, he proves that the pope has no author-
ity over sovereigns in temporal mattei*s. llrving's
Lives of Scottish Writers, vol. i.]
The following is a list of William Bai-clay's
works:
De Regno et Regali Potestate, adversus Buchauuinm,
Brutom, Boucherium, et reliquos Monarchomachos, libri sex.
Parifflis 1600. 4to. Hanov. 1612, 8vo.
Comm. in Tltnloa Pandectarum de Rebus Greditis et de
Jure;*irando. Par. 1605, 8vo.
De Potestate Papas, quatenus in Reges et Piincipes secn-
laros Jus et Imperium habeat. Liber posthomus. Francf.
1609. Hanoviae, 1611, 8vo. Franc 1613, 1621. The
same in English. Lond. 1611, 4to. Item de Regno t
Regali Potestate, adversus Buchanannm, Bnitum et reliqucs
Monarchomachos; libri vL Uanov. 1617, 12mo.
BARCLAY, John, author of Argenis, son of
the preceding, by Anne de Malleville, his wife, was
born at Font>a-Mousson, January 28, 1582; and
although not a native of Scotland, is usually iu-
cluded in Scottish Biographies. He was educated
in the College of the Jesuits in his native town,
and made so rapid a progress in his studies that at
the age of nineteen he published Annotations ou
the Thebais of Statius. The early indications of
genius which he displayed induced the Jesuits to
solicit him to enter into their order. His rejection
of their offers, in which he was countenanced bv
his father, was the cause of their quitting Lorraine
in 1603. He accompanied his father to London,
and dedicated to James the Sixth the first part of
his *■ Euphormionis Lusini Satyricon,* a Latin
romance of a half-political, half-satirical nature,
printed at London the same year, which is parti-
cularly severe upon the Jesuits. He went with
his father to Angers, and in the beginning of 1604
he sent his ^ Kalendse Januaiis,' as a poetical
offering to King James. He returned to London
in 1605, in the hope of obtaining some preferment
at court; but after a farther residence of twelve
months, being disappointed, he removed to Paris,
where he married Louise, daughter of Michael
Debonnaire, " Tr^orier des vieilles bandes." Dur-
ing his residence at Paris he published there the
second part of his ^ Satyricon,^ dedicated to the
earl of Salisbury, and at Amsterdam a brief nar-
rative of the Gunpowder plot, in Latin. In 1606
he fixed his abode in London. In 1609 he pub-
lished his father's able work, * De Potestate Pap»,*
to which he prefixed a preface of nine pages,
which concluded with an intimation of his purpose
to defend his father's memory against any attack.
Cardinal Bellannin having published a ti-eatise
against it, he issued in 1612 a large quarto
volume in answer, entitled * Pietas,* being in de*
fence of his father's work. In 1610 he published
at London an apology for his * Satyricon,' which
had excited so many censures that he found it
necessary to attempt some explanations. In 1614
appeared his ' Icon Animarum,' formmg the fourth
part of his * Satyricon.' The object of this work L»
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BARCLAY,
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JOHN.
to give a delineatiou of the genius and
manners of the different nations of Enrope,
with remarks on the various tempera ot
men, and he has not forgotten to extol the
genius and character of the people of
Scotland, tlie land of his fathera.
About the end of 1615, Barclay quitted
London, with his family, and pi-oceeded to
Paris, but having been invited to Rome by
Pope Paul the Fifth, he there fixed his
residence in the beginning of 1616. With
the view of recommending himself to the
heads of the church, he published in 1617,
his next work, ' Parienesis,' or an exhor-
tation to Sectaiiaus. lie received much
civility at Rome, and in particular was
kindly treated by Cardinal BelUrmin.
It was at Rome that he wrote his cel-
ebrated Latin romance, entitled ' Ai'genis/
and while the printing of the first edition
was going on at Paris, the author died at
Rome, of the stone, August 21, 1621,
aged 39. His Argenis was published at
Paris soon after his death. It is a political alle-
gory, containing allusions to the state of Europe
at the time, and especially France during the civil
wars of the seventeenth century. The style has
received the commendations of the greatest schol-
ars, and the work has been translated into the
English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and
even into the Polish, Swedish, Icelandic, and other
languages. The first English veraion was pub-
lished by Sir Robert Le Grys and Thomas May,
Esq., London, 1628, 4to. Another by Kingsmill
Long, E^q., appeared at London in 1636. A
tliird, under the title of * The Phoenix, or the His-
tory of Polyarchus and Argenis,* by Clara Reeves,
authoress of the * Old English Baron,' appeared in
1772, in 4 volumes 12mo, being that lady's first
work. Argenis was a special favourite with Car-
dinal de Richelieu and with Liebnitz. Cowper
styles it "the best romance that ever was written."
In the notes to Mai-mion Su* Walter Scott has
quoted a singular story of romantic chivalry from
the Satyricon of Barclay.
Tlie following is a woodcut of John Barclay,
from a portrait prefixed to a French edition of his
'Argenis,* of date 1625*
The disposition of Bai-clay was of a melaiiclioly
cast, his mornings were m^terruptedly devoted
to study, and his aflenioons were occupied in cul<
tivating a small garden. He was afflicted witii
that passion for tulips which at that time over-
spread Europe, and which is known under the
name of the Ttdipo-mania, He *^ had it to that
excess,** says Lord Hailes, who wrote a sketch of
his life, " that he placed two mastiffs as sentinels
in his garden; and rather than abandon his fa-
vcmrite flowers, chose to continue his residence in
an ill-aii*ed and unwholesome habitation.** Be-
sides the works above mentioned, Barclay left an
unpublished History of tiie Conquest of Jerusalem
by the Franks, and some fragments of a General
History of Europe. He had four children in all,
a son and two daughtera boni in London, and a
son born in Rome. His elder son is said to
have obtained a rich benefice from Pope Urban
the Eighth. One of his sons, like his father, was
a writer of Latin veraes, and in 1652 he printed an
elegy at Paris. Barclay's wife, from excess of affec-
tion, sometimes annoyed him with her jealousy
There was somethingromanticinherfcelings regard-
ing him. After his death she erected a monument,
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BARCLAY,
248
WILLIAM.
Ti-itli his bust in marble, at the church of St. Lo-
renzo, on the road to Tivoli ; but on learning that
Cardinal Barberini had there put up a similar
monument in honour of his preceptor, she said,
*' My husband was a man of family, and famous
in the literary world ; I will not suifer him to re-
main on a level with a base and obscure peda-
gogue I" and indignantly caused her husband^s
bust to be removed. [Irving^s Lives of Scottish
Writers^ vol. i.]
The following is a list of John Barclay's works :
Not» in Statii Thebaidem. Mosaponti, 1601, 8vo.
Series Patcfacti Diviiiitus Paricidn, contra Maximam R^m
regnamqne Brittanijc cogitati et instructi. 1606.
Apologia pro se. Par. 1610, 12mo.
Pietas, sive Publics pro regibos ac principibos, et privatse
pro Gul. Barclaio parente YindidiB, adversns Bellannlnnni.
Paris, 1612, 4to.
Icon Aniinorum, qos est quarta Pars Satyrid. Lond. 1614,
8vo. 1625, 1 2mo. cum Notis A. Buclmeri. Dresd. 1680, 8vo.
Satyricon cum dave. Leyd. 1623, 12nio. In Partibus v.
cum duvc. Amst 1629, 12mo. Oxon. 1634, 12mo. Amst
1658, 12mo. Idem, cum Notis, in quatnor partes priores et
scxta parte anctum cui titulus; alithophilus castigatus. Lugd.
Bat 1674, 8vo.
Poematum libri duo. London, 1615, 4to. His Latin
poems are also inserted in the Delitis Poetarum Scotomm.
Paronesis ad Sectarios de vera Ecdesia Fide ac Beligione.
Rome, 1617, 8vo. Col. 1625, 12mo.
Satyricon cum dave et conspiratio Anglicans. Ozf. 1634,
12mo.
Argenis. Par. 1621, 8vo. In French, 1622, 8vo. In
English. Lond. 1625, 4to. In Latin. Lugd. Bat Elzev.
1627, 1650, 12mo. Amst 1658, 12mo. By Sir Robert 1^
Giys and Tho. May W'ith cuts. 1628, 4to. Oxf. 1634,
8vo. In English, by K. Long Lond. 1636, 4to. Amst
Klzev. 1655, 12mo. New English Translation, entit The
Phoenix; or the History of Polyarchus and Argenis. Trans-
lated from the Latin by a Lady. 1772, 4 vols. l2mo. La
suite et continuation de VArgenis en iz. HvTes; sc Aigenidis
pars altera. Par. 1625, 8vo. Idem, Latine. Franc. 1626, 8vo.
Argenis «t Satyricon, cum dave et Alithophili veritatis La-
crymc Lugd. Bat 1627, 12mo. Elzev. 1630, 2 vols. Ea-
dem, cum notis et continuatione, Th. BugnatiL Lugd. Bat
1664, 2 vols. 8vo. Camb. 1673, 8vo. Cum figuris. Amst
1703.
BARCLAY, William, M.D., often confounded
with the eminent civilian of the same name, to
whom he was related, was the brother of Sir Pa-
trick Barclay of Tolly, and was bora about 1570.
He studied at the university of Louvain, under
the celebrated scholar, Justus Lipsius, to whom
he addressed several letters, which have been
printed. Lipsius had such a high opinion of him
that he is recorded to have said, that if ** he were
dying, he knew no person on earth he would leave
his pen to but the doctor." [Callirhoe^ or the
Nymph of Aberdene^ edition Aberdeen, 1670.]
Barclay describes himself as A.M. and M.D., but
where he took those degrees we are not informed.
Having been appointed a professor in the univer-
sity of Paris, he taught humanity there for sev-
eral years, and acquired considerable reputation
by his talents and learning. He afterwards re-
turned to Scotland, where he appears for a time
to have followed the medical profession, but soon
went back to France, and resumed his former oc-
cupation at Nantes in Bretagne. Dr. Irving says
that it may be inferred from Dempsters brief no-
tice that Barclay*s reason for again leaving his
native country was that his situation was rendered
uncomfortable in consequence of his adherence to
popery. [Irmng*s Lives of Scottish Writers^ vol.
i. p. 231.] According to Dempster, at the time
of his writing, Barclay was residing in Scotland^
and pursuing the practice of physic He is con-
jectured to have died about 1630. His principal
tract, called * Nepenthes, or the Vertves of Ta-
bacco,' was published at Edinburgh, in 1614, in
8vo. It is now exceedingly rare, and has been
reprinted in the first volume of the Miscellany ol
the Spalding Club fi-om the copy in the Advo-
cates' Library. Added to this treatise arc six
little poems addressed to some of his friends and
kinsmen, all in praise of tobacco. He also wrote
* Callg-hoe, commonly called the well of Spa, or
the Nymph of Aberdene resuscitated ;' Apobatu-
rum, or last farewell to Abeixieen, of which no
copy is now known to exist; some Latin poems in
the * Delltiae Poetarum Scotorum,' besides a Com-
mentary on the Life of Agricola by Tacitus, and
other Latin works.
The following is a list of his works, from Dr.
Ii-ving's * Lives of Scottish Writers,' vol. i. p. 232 :
Oratio pro Eloquentia. Ad v. d. Ludovicum Servinnm,
Sacri Consistorii R^i Consiliarium, et in amplissimo Senatu
Parisiensi Regis Advocatum. Paris, 1598, 8vo.
G. Coraelii Taciti Opera quae ezstant, ad exemplar quod
J. Upsius quintum recensuit. Seorsim excusi oommentarii
ejusdcm Lipsii, meliores plenioresque, cum curis secnndis, et
auctariolo uon ante adjecto. Gnil. Bardayus Praemetia
quaedam ex Vita Agricolae libavit. Adjecd sunt indices
aliquanto ditiores. Paris, 1599, 8vo. — Menage and Bayle
have ascribed these Praemetia to the dvilian, and the same
error has been committed by other writers.
Nepenthes, or the Vertves of Tabacca By William Bar-
day, Mr. of Art, and Doctor of Phyncke. Edinb. 1614, 8vo.
— This tract is dedicated to the author^s nephew, Patrick, thr
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BARCLAY,
249
JOHN.
son and beir of Sir Patrick Barclay of Tolly; and the dedica-
tion Ib preceded by ** A merie Epistle of the Author to the
Printer,** who is no dther than <* good Master Hart**
Calliihoe, commonly called the Well of Spa, or the Nymph
of Aberdene, resuacitat by William Barclay, Mr. of Art, and
Doctor of Phyack. What Diseases may be cared by drinking
of the Well of Spa at Aberdene, and what is the true nse
thereof. As it was printed by Andro Hart Anno Domini
1615, and now reprinted at Aberdene by lohn Forbes,
yomiger. Printer to the Town and Universitie, Anmo Domini
M. DC. LXX., 8vo.
Guil Barclay], Arooemomm Artiom, et Medidnte Docto-
ris, Judidun de Certamine G. Eglisemmii cam G. Buchanano,
pro Digoitate Paraphraseos Psalmi diiL Non violandi
3fanes, A^jecta sont, Eglisemmii ipttam Judidam, at editum
fuit Londini, typis EduarcU Aldsi, an. Dom. 1619; et, in
gratiam stodiosae juventatis, cjosdem Psalmi elegans Para-
phrasis Thomae Rha>di. Ix>nd. 1620, 8to. — Dr. Eglisham,
like a faur as well as a bold critic, exhibited his own verses in
competition with those of Buchanan, and had no reason to
congratolate hmiself on tne issue.
Gnil. Barclay ii, M. D. Poemata. Dditiae Poeiarttm Sco-
foratm, tom. L p. 137. — These poems only occnpy four pages
and a half.
BARCLAY, John, founder of a religions sect
named Bereans, bom in 1734, was the son of Mr.
Lndovic Barclay, fanner, parish of Mnthill, Perth-
shire. Being designed for the chnrch he was sent
to St. Andrews, where he took the degree of A.M.
He attended the divinity class in St. Mary's Col-
lege; and while there espoused and advocated
some of the peculiar doctrines then broached by
Dr. Archibald Campbell, professor of church his-
tory in that university ; the chief of which was,
that the knowledge of the existence of God is de-
rived from revelation, and not from nature. On
the 27th September 1759 he was, by the presby-
tery of Auchterarder, licensed to preach the gos-
pel ; and was for some time assistant to the Rev.
Mr. Jobson, Ern^. Having imbibed some of the
sentiments of Mr. John Glas, minister of Tealing,
the founder of the Glasites, he was obliged to
quit Errol. In June 1763 he became assistant to
Mr. Anthony Dow, minister of Fettercaim, where
lie remained for nine years, and where he was
very popular as a preacher. In 1766 he published
part of a Paraphrase of the whole Book of Psalms,
which he had composed, accompanied with ^A
Dissertation on the best means of interpreting
that portion of the Canon of Scripture.* From
Ills peculiar views, the pi*esbytei*y of Fordoun, in
consequence of this publication, cited him to ap-
pear at their bar, where he defended himself with
ability and success. He afterwards published a
small work, entitled ' Rejoice Evermore, or Christ
All in All ;* in which he repeated those doctrines
which were deemed heretical. In consequence of
this, the presbytery appointed one of their own
body to read publicly, in the church of Fettercaim,
a warning against the dangerous doctrines that he
preached; but without injuring his popularity or
usefulness. In 1769 he published one of the larg-
est of his treatises, under the title of * Without
Faith, Without God, or an appeal to God concern-
ing his own Existence.' In summer 1769, he ad-
dressed a letter on the * Eternal Generation of the
Son of God,' to Messrs. Smith and Ferrier, two
clerg}'men of the Church of Scotland who had
separated from it and become Glassites. In 1771
he published a Letter * On the Assurance of Faith ;'
and also a * Letter on Prayer,' the latter addressed
to an Independent congregation in Scotland. On
the death of Mr. Dow in 1772, the presbytery of
Fettercairn prohibited Mr. Barclay from preaching
in the kirk of Fettercaim ; and they refused him
the usual certificate of character on quitting their
bounds. Having in consequence left the Church of
Scotland, he went to Newcastle, and was ordained
there Oct. 12, 1773. He afterwards proceeded to
Edinburgh, where a congregation holding his pecu-
liar sentiments had been formed, and he was their
"pastor for about three years. Subsequently, in
order to disseminate his piinciples, he repaired to
London, where he preached for nearly two years.
He ahso preached at Bristol, and other places in
England. The name of Bereans was voluntarily
assumed by his folIowei*s, to distinguish them from
other Christian sects, and took its origin from the
Jews of Bcrea, mentioned in the Acts of the Apos-
tles, chap. xvii. verae 11, as being "more noble
than those in Tliessalonica, in that they received
the word with all readiness of mind, and searched
the Scriptures daily, whether these things were
so." At Edinburgh Mr. Barclay published an
edition of his works in three vols. In 1788 he
broughl out a small work for the use of the Bcrcan
churches, entitled *The Epistle to the Hebrews
Paraphrased,' with a collection of Psalms and
Songs fix)m his other works. He died of apoplexy,
on the 29th of July, 179S.— Scots Magazine.
BARCLAY, John, M.D., a distinguished ana-
tomist, the nephew of John Barclay the Berean,
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BARCLAY.
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BARGENY.
was born in 1760. He was a native of Cairn in
Perthshire, where his father was a farmer. He
first stQcUed divinity at St. Andrews, and was by
the presbytery of Danlceld licensed as a preacher.
In 1789 he repau^ to Edinburgh in the capacity
of tutor to the family of Sir James Campbell of
Aberuchill, baronet, and abandoning the clei-ical
profession began to study medicine at the nniver-
sity of Edinburgh, particularly turning his atten-
tion to anatomy, both human and comparative,
lie became assistant to Mr. John Bell, and in
1796 took the degiee of M.D. He afterwards
studied for some time under the late Dr. Marshall
of London, an eminent teacher of anatomy in
Thavies Inn. In November 1797 he began his
career as an anatomical lecturer in Edinburgh.
In 1803 he published a Nomenclature^ with the
view of rendering the language of anatomy more
accurate and precise ; but although this work dis-
played much talent and learning, it was not gener-
ally adopted. In the following year, the Royal Col-
lege of Surgeons passed a resolution declaring that
attendance on his lectures should qualify for passing
at Surgeon's Hall, and in 1815 he was admitted a
licentiate of the Royal College of Pliysicians, and
a resident fellow the following year. In 1808 he
published a ^ Treatise on the Muscular Motions of
the Human Body.* In 1812 appeared his 'De-
scription of the Arteries of the Human Body.'
Ilis last publication was an ^Enquiry into the
Opinions, Ancient and Modern, concerning Life
and Organization.* In consequence of the de-
clining state of his health, in 1825 he entered
into partnership with Dr. Robeii; Knox, at the
time Conservator of the Royal College of Surgeons,
lie died at Edinburgh, August 21, 1826. He
had married in 1811 Eleonora, daughter of his for-
mer patron. Sir James Campbell of Aberuchill,
baronet, by whom he had no issue. This lady
afterwards married Mr. Charles Oliphant, writer
to the signet. Dr. Barclay's introductory lectures,
revised by himself before his death, containing a
valuable abridgment of the history of anatomy,
wei*e published by Su* George Ballingall, M.D.,
after his decease. The article Physiology, in the
tliu'd edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, was
written by Dr. Barclay. It was piincipally on
his recommendation that the Highland Society of
Scotland established a veterinary school in Edin-
burgh. His anatomical collection, now known as
the Barclayan Museum, was bequeathed to the
Royal College of Surgeons of that city, in which
a bust of him, by Joseph, has been placed.
Subjoined is a list of his works:
A New Anatomical Nomenclature, relating to the terma
whidi are expressiTe of Poution and Aspect in the Animal
System. Edin. 1803, 8vo.
The Muscular Motion of the Human Body. Edinburgh,
1808, 8vo.
Description of the Arteries of the Human Body. Edm.
1812, 12mo.
An Enquiry into the Opmions, ancient and modem, con-
cerning Life and Organization. Edinburgh, 1822, 8to.
Introductory Lectures to a course of Anatomy, with a Me-
moir of the Author, by George Ballingall, M.D. Edinbuigb,
1827, 8vo.
Baboknt, Baron, a title (now dormant) in the peerage of
Scotland, first conferred, in 1639, on Sir John Hamilton of Car-
riden, only son of Sir John Hamilton of Letterick, natural
son of John first marquis of Hamilton. The father of the
first peer had obtained a legitimation under the great seal
22d December 1600, and acquired considerable estates in the
counties of Ayr and Lanark. Among the rest he had char-
ters of Bargeny, which had formerly belonged to the Ken-
nedys, Carlok, and other lands in Ayrshire, 23d December
1681. From the former his son, the first lord, took his
designation. This peerage was created with limitation to
the heuB male of tlie first lord's body. In 1648 Lord Bar-
geny accompanied the duke of Hamilton, in his unfortunate
expedition into England, and was excepted by Cromwell out of
his act of grace and pardon, 12tb April, 1654* He died April
1658. He married Lady Jean Douglas, second daughter of
William first marquis of Douglas, and had two sons and fire
daughters.
The elder son, John, second Lord Bargeny, was served
heir to his father 17th October, 1662. His liberal principles
made him obnoxious to the ministry of Charles the Second,
and he was imprisoned in Blackness castle in November 1679.
From thenoe he was removed to Edinburgh, and indicted for
high treason, for having compassed the life of the duke of
Lauderdale and others of the nobility, encouraged rebellion
to the sovereign, and openly declaimed against episcopacy,
then the established religion in SooUand. From want of
evidence, however, this indictment was not brouglit to triaL
A letter from the king, dated 11th May 1680, was laid before
his privy council in Scotland, bearing that his migesty had
received a petition from Lord Baigeny, representing his fa-
therms loyalty and sufierings, and declaring his innocence of
the crimes hud to his charge : in consequence of which he
was released, on finding security to stand trial, in fifty thou-
sand merks. After being sot at liberty he discovered that
Cunningham of Mountgrennan and his servant, two of the
prisonera taken at Bothwell-bridge, were suborned by Sir
Charles Maitland of Hatton and Sir John Dalrymple, to give
false evidence against him. Their depositiona, which also af-
fected the duke of Hamilton, were prepared beforehand, and
they were promised a share of the confiscated estates; but
when the trial approached, their consciences revolted against
the crime. Lord Bargeny*s evidence was ready to be pro-
duced before parliament, 28th July 1681, but the duke of
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BARNARD,
251
LADY ANNE.
York interpofied to prevent inquiry. lAndenon'i History of
tht Ilouat of Hamilton, p. 218.] His lordship entered beart-
iij into the Revolution, and in 1689 he raised a regiment of
six hundred foot for the publior service. He died 25th May
1693. He was twice married, first, to Lady Margaret Cun-
ningham, second daughter of William ninth earl of Glencaim,
lord high chancellor of Scotland, and had issue two sons- and
a daughter; the latter, named Nicolas, married to Sir Alexr
ander Hope of Kerae, baronet ; secondly, in 1676, to Lady
Alice Moore, dowager countess of Clanbrassil, eldest daugh-
ter of Henry first eari of Drogheda, by whom he had no
children. His eldest son, John, Master of Bargeny, died be-
fore his fiitber. He married, 19th June 1688, Jean, daugh-
ter of Sir Robert Sinclair of Longformacus, baronet, and had
ooe daughter, Joanna, heiress of Bargeny, married, in 1707,
to Sir Robert Dalrymple of Gastleton, knight
The younger son, William, succeeded his father in 1693,
and became third Lord Bargeny. He took the oaths and his
seat in the Scotch parliament 9th ftlay 1695, and exerted
himself in opposition to the treaty of Union m 1706. He
died about 1712. He was twice married, first to Maiy, eld-
est daughter of Sir William Primrose of Camngton, sister of
the firrt Viscount Primrose, by whom he had a daughter, the
Hon. Grizel Hamilton, married 15th February 1713 to Tho-
mas Buchan of Caimbulgh, advocate ; and secondly, to Mar-
garet, eldest daughter of Robert Dnndas of Amiston, a lord
of session, sister of the first Freadent Dundas, by whom he
liad a son,
James, fourth Lord Bargeny, bom 29th November 1710.
He succeeded his fiiUier in 1712. and completed his education
by visiting foreign countries, as appears from Hamilton of
Bangour's epitaph on the companion of his travels, who,
** With kind Bargeny, laiUiful to his word.
Whom heaven made good and social, though a lord,
The cities viewed of many-langnaged men. *
His lordship died unmarried at Edinburgh, 28th March,
1786, in the 26th year of his age, and was buried, 5th April,
in the Abbey-church of Holyrood-house. The title has re-
mained dormant ever since. A competition arose for the
estate, between first, the children of Joanna. Lady Dahrym-
ple, only daughter of John, Master of Baigeny; secondly,
the children of the Hon. Mrs. Budian of Caimbulgh, daugh-
ter of the third lord; and thirdly. Sir Alexander Hope of
Kerse, son of the Hon. Nicolas Hamilton, daughter of the
second lord. It was ultimately decided m the House of
Lords in favour of the first, by whose representative, Henri-
etta Dnndas Dabymple Hamilton, Duchess de Coigny, daugh-
ter of the late Sir Hew Dalrymple Hamilton of North Ber-
wick, baronet, it came to be possessed.
The murder of the young Kennedy of Bargeny by the earl
of CassiUis in December 1601, led to the dark and bloody
deeds which form the subject of the Auchindrane tragedy,
dramatised by Sir Walter Scott, and included in Fltcaira*8
Criminal Trials, arising out of the feuds between the earls
of Cassillis and the lairds of Bargeny. See Cassiujs,
eari of.
BARNARD, Lady Annk, (born Lindsay,) au-
thoress of the beautiful and touching ballad of
* Auld Robm Gray,' was the eldest daughter of
the fifth earl of BalcaiTes, by his Countess Anne,
daughter of Sir Robeit Dalrymple of Gastleton,
knight, an account of whom will be found under
the Balcarres branch of the Lindsays [see ante^
p. 204.] She was bom on the 8th of December,
1750. Her youth was chiefly spent at her father's
seat in Fife, varied by occasional visits to Edin-
bm'gh. At her mother's house in that city she
became, in early life, acquainted with all the men
of chai*acter and distinction of the day in the
Scottish metropolis, among whom were Hume the
historian, Henry Mackenzie, the author of ^ Tiie
Man of Feeling,* Loi-d Monboddo, and other emi-
nent litei*ary men of that period. When Dr.
Johnson visited Edinburgh hi 1773, she also had
an opportunity of becoming known to him. Later
in life she and her sister Lady Margaret, who had
been married while veiy young to a gentleman
named Fordyce, i*e8ided together in London, her
sister being then a widow. Her nephew. Col.
Lindsay of Balcarres, mentions that her hand was
sought in marriage by several of the fii-st men of
the laud, as her friendship and confidence wcra by
the most distinguished women, but her heart had
never been captured, and she remamed single till
1793, when she married Andi*ew Barnard, Esq.,
the son of the bishop of Limerick, an accomplished
but not wealthy gentleman, younger than hereelf,
whom she accompanied to the Cape of Good
Hope, when he went out as colonial secretaiy un-
der Lord Macartney. The journals of her resi-
dence at the Cape, and excursions into the interior
country, illustrated with drawings and sketches of
the scenes described, are pi*eseiTed among the
family MSS. in the library of Lord Balcarres. A
few extracts from them, remarkable for a style at
once lively and graphic, ai*e printed in the third
volume of the 'Lives of the Lindsays.' Nine
years afterwards she retmiied to Scotland. Her
husband died at the Cape, in 1807, without issue,
and, after his death, Lady Anne, and her sister
Lady Mai'garet, again resided together in Berke-
ley Square, London, till the latter was maiTied,
for the second time, in 1812, to Su* James Bm*-
gess. Of Lady Margai*et, who was celebrated
alike for her peraonal charms and mental accom-
plishments, an account has been given under the
Balcarres branch of the Lindsays, ante^ p. 207.
Among their familiar guests and friends in Lon-
don were Bm-ke, Sheridan, Wyndham, Dundas,
and the Prince ot Wales, afterwards George IV.
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LADY ANNE.
The attachment of the latter to Lady Anne Bar-
nard continued unabated during life. "I recol-
lect," says her nephew, Colonel Lindsay, " George
IV. sending for her to come and see liim when he
was very ill. He spoke most affectionately to her,
and said, ^ Sister Anne (the appellation he usually
gave her,) I wished to see you, to tell you that I
love you, and wish you to accept this golden chain
for my sake, — ^I may never see you again.'" The
ballad of * Auld Robin Gray ' was written by Lady
Anne in 1771, when in her twenty-first year, soon
after her sister's first marriage, and consequent
departure fi*om the family home. Notwithstanding
the popularity to which it immediately attained,
being translated into almost every European lan-
guage, the real author of it long remaiued unknown,
and it was claimed by more than one person, and
in particular by a clergyman residing on the coast.
It was not till about two years before her death
that Lady Anne publicly acknowledged the author-
ship of this simple and celebrated ballad. In ^ the
Pirate,' which appeared in 1823, the author of
AVaverley compared the condition of Minna to
that of Jeanre Gray, " the village-heroine in Lady
Anne Lindsay's beautiful ballad," and quoted the
second verse of the continuation, or second pait.
This induced Lady Anne to write to Sir Walter
Scott, and confide its history to him. From her
characteristic letter, dated July 8, 1823, the fol-
lowing are interesting extracts: "Robin Gray, so
called from its being the name of the old herd at
6alcan*es, was horn soon after the close of the
year 1771. My sister Margaret had maiTied, and
accompanied her husband to London. I was me-
lancholy and endeavoured to amuse myself by
attempting a few poetical trifles. There was an
English Scotch melody of which I was passionately
fond. Sophy Johnstone, who lived before your
day, used to sing it to us at Balcarrcs. She did
not object to its having improper words, though I
did. I longed to sing old Sophy's air to different
words, and give to its plaintive tones some little
history of virtuous distress in humble life, such as
might suit it. While attempting to effect this in
my closet, I called to my little sister, now Lady
Ilardwicke, who was the only person near me, *I
have been WTiting a ballad, my dear; I am op-
pressing my heroine with many misfortunes. I
have ali-eady sent her Jamie to sea, and broken
her father's arm, and made her mother fall sick,
and given her auld Robin Gray for a lover ; but I
wish to load her with a fifth soitow within the
four lines, poor thing! Help me to one! — * Steal
the cow, sister Anne,' said the little Elizabeth.
The cow was immediately lifted by me, and the
song completed. At our fireside, and amongst
our neighbours, ^Auld Robin Gray' was always
called for. I was pleased in secret with the ap-
probation it met with; but such was my dread of
being suspected of writing anything, perceiving
the shyness it created in those who could ^write
nothing, that I carefully kept my own secret.—
Meantime, little as this matter seems to have been
worthy a dispute, it afterwards became a party
question between the sixteenth and eighteenth
centuries. ' Robin Gray' was either a very an-
cient ballad, composed, perhaps, by David Rizzlo,
and a great curiosity, or a very modem matter,
and no curiosity at all. I was persecuted to avow
whether I had written it or not, — ^where I had got
it. Old Sophy kept my counsel, and I kept my
own, in spite of the gratification of seeing a reward
of twenty guineas offered in the newspapers to the
person who should ascertain the point past a doubt,
and the still more flattering circumstance of a visit
from Mr. Jemingham, secretary to the Antiquarian
Society, who endeavoured to entrap the truth from
me in a manner I took amiss. Had he asked me
the question obligingly, I should have told him the
fact distinctly and confidentially. The annoyance,
however, of this important ambassador from the
antiquaries, was amply repaid to me by the noble
exhibition of the *Ballat of Auld Robin Gray's
Courtship,' as performed by dancing dogs under
my window. It proved its popularity from the
highest to the lowest, and gave me pleasure while
I hugged myself in my obscurity." The following
were the words with which Lady Anne closed the
interview with Mr. Jemingham, after having been
subjected to a very rigid cross-examination by
that gentleman. " The ballad in question," said
she, " has in my opinion met with attentions be-
yond its deserts. It set off with having a very
fine tune put to it by a doctor of music, (the Rev
William I-.eeves, rector of Wrington, who died in
1828, aged 80;) was sung by youth and beauty
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BARNARD.
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BARON.
for flTe years aiid more, had a romance composed
from it by a man of eminence, was the subject of
a play, of an opera, and of a pantomime, was snug
by the nnited armies in America, acted by Punch,
and afterwards danced by dogs in the street — ^but
never more honoured than by the present investi-
gation." The old air is now only retained to the
first verse. It belongeil to a song of no great
delicacy, called ' The Bridegroom greits when the
sun gaes down.'
Sur Walter Scott printed in 1824, in a thin quarto
volume for the Bannatyne club, a revised version
of * Auld Robin Gray,* and two continuations by
tlie authoress, sent to him by her ladyship at his
request for the purpose. The preface contains her
letter to him, explanatory of the origin of the bal-
lad. The second part was written many yeai*s
after the first, at the request of the countess, her
mother, who often said, " Annie! I wish you would
tell me how that unlucky business of Jeanie and
Jamie ended." It is far inferior to the fii-st, al-
though it has touches that are both beautiful and
characteristic. In it auld Robin falls sick, con-
fesses that it was he who stole the cow, in order
to oblige Jeanie to marry him, then leaving all his
wealth to his widow, dies, and Jamie of course is
at last married to his Jeanie. Writing to her lady-
ship subsequently, Sir Walter Scott says : ** I have
sometimes wondered how many of our best songs
have been written by Scotchwomen of rank and
condition. The Hon. Mrs. Murray, (Miss Baillie of
Jerviswood bom) wrote the very pi^etty Scots song,
* An *twere not my heart's light I wad die,* —
Miss Elliot, of Minto, the verses to the * Flowers
of the Forest,' which begin
*I have heard a lilting,* &c
Mrs. Cockbnm composed other verses to the same
tune,
*■ I have seen the smiling of fortune beguiling,* &c
Lady Wardlaw wrote the glorious old ballad of
* Hardyknute :' — ^Place ' Auld Robin ' at the head
of this list, and Lquestion if we masculine wretches
can claim five or six songs equal in elegance and
pathos out of the long list of Scottish minstrelsy."
Lady Anne Barnard died 6th May, 1826, in
her 74th year. "Her face," says Mr. Charles
Kirkpatrick Sharpe, "was pretty, and replete
with vivacity; her figure light and elegant; her
conversation lively ; and, like the rest of her fam-
ily, peculiarly agreeable. Though she had wit,
she never said ill-natured things to show it ; she
gave herself no au^ either as a woman of rank, or
as the authoress of Auld Robin Gray." "Her
stores of anecdote," says her relative Lord Lind-
say, " on all sulyects, and of all persons, her rich
fancy, original thought, and ever-ready wit, ren-
dered her conversation delightful to the last, while
the kindness of her heart, — a very fountain of ten-
derness and love, — always overflowing, and her
sincere but unostentatious piety, divested that wit
of the keenness that might have wounded — it
flashed, but it was summer lightning. " His lord-
ship has given ample extracts from her lively and
interesting sketches of the home- circle of her
youth in the second volume of his * Lives of the
Lindsays,' a work from whence have been derived
most of the materials for this notice.
Baron, [Latm baro^ or rir, a man, German bar, a frws
man, Spanish roro, a stout noble person,] a feudal honour (»f
great antiquity. Barons were those who held their lands of
a superior by militaiy and other services. For some tmie be-
fore the Nonnan Conquest this name was commonly used in
France to denote a person of the first dignity ; but afler thut
event it was introduced into England, and used to signify an
immediate vassal of the Crown, bound for his lands to give
personal service to the king in his wars, to attend at his
court and council when summoned, and to do homage to him
and acknowledge himself his " man " or baron. The name
is now used as the title of the lowest order of the nobility.
The feudal system, of which the baronage formed so im-
portant a part, and which exerted so beneficial an influence
on Scotti^ civilization, was, as exhibited in its most flour-
ishing state during the middle ages, introduced into Scotland
by the Anglo-Norman adventurers, (a term used to distin-
guish not only Normans, but French, Flemings, and others
speaking the French language, all, however, knights of re-
putation,) who accompanied David the first, when, afler
spending his youth and receiving his education in England,
be, as independent Count or Prince of Cumbria, under-
took the subjugation of the West Lothians and Galloway, as
well as afterwards on his accession to the throne, and to
whom he granted lands in all parts of the country. " His
education and tastes," says Mr. Burton, (/4/e of Lord Lovai,
page 3,) " attached him to the gallant race who, wherever
they went, were first in arms and arts, and mingled the stern-
est powers of man with his finest social enjoyments. He
courted the presence of the lordly Normans. They had near-
ly exhausted England ; and the new territory opened to
them, if less rich and fertile, was still worth commanding.
The charters and other law documents anterior to the war of
independence, are full of high-sounding Norman names,
many of which subsequently disappeared from the Scottii*h
nomendature— Morevilles, De Viponts, D'Umfravilles, De
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BARON.
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BARON.
Qulnceys, D'Angains, &c." In reference to this remark it
may be stated that, except ecclesiastics, from David Che First
downwards, none were admitted as witnesses in the royal
charters bat tenants m c(^ntef barons or magnates. " It was
chiefly,** continues Mr. Burton, ** in the fertile plains of the
south, and in the neighbourhood of the English border, that
they (the Anglo-Norman knights) were most thickly congre-
gated ; but some of them had found their way far north, to
the wild districts beyond the Grampians, where the greatness
of the estate was some compensation for its barrenness. But
wherever their lot was cast— among the Saxons of Mid-
Lothian, the Celts of Inverness, or their brother Norsemen of
Caithness- -these heroes, who united the courage and fierce-
ness of the old sea-king to the polished suavity of the Frank,
became the lords of the land, and the old inhabitants of the
soil became their subordinates.** These Anglo-Norman bar-
ons and their successors, in the then state of society in Scot-
land, acquired powers and privileges of a high order, and in
some sense, were indq>endeiU even of the monarch to whom
they owed their homage, and who possessed the right of re-
sumption of their lands. Partly by direct grants, but more
frequently by marriages with the heiresses of Celtic nobles,
the entire nobility and great pait of the baronage of the kingdom
had soon nearly become Norman in name as well as in blood.
The powers of a feudal baron were very great Within his
own lands he had high and even sovereign jurisdiction, both
civil and criminal, which in the general sense he might exer-
cise, either by himself or by his deputy, called a bailie. His
criminal jurisdiction, in particular, was most extensive. Ac-
cording to the laws ascribed to Malcolm M'Kenneth (c 13) it
reached to all crimes except treason, and what lawyers call
the four pleas of the crown, namely, robbery, murder, rape,
and fire-raising ; and even in some cases he could judge as to
the latter, and in processes for breaking of orchards, destroy-
ing of green wood and of planting, provided the ofienders
were taken in the fact, and in riots and bloodwits, the fines
of which he had the power to appropriate to himself,
i Erskme'i InsHiuies, Book I. Title iv. p. 91.]
Our parliaments or national councils, for the word parlia-
ment was not in use till long after, consisted at first only of
the king's barons, or fireeholders, and under the same appel-
lation, it would seem that the dignified clergy were included,
on account of their freeholds. [£r«ikme*« InstituUSj Book I.
Title iii. p. 60.J Every Scottish baron, whatever were his
holdings, if he had a barony and the power of pit and gal-
lows, had a right to sit and vote in the national council. Few
or none of the smaller lairds, however, availed themselves of
a privilege involving the obligation of distant journeys and
much expense, and the consequence was a great accession of
[lower to the higher nobles. Hence came the distinction of
the greater and lesser barons, which was not known in Scot-
land till towards the end of the reign of James the First In
a general council held at Perth, on the 1st March 1427, an
act was passed dispensing with the attendance of the lesser
barons and free tenants in parliament, on condition of their
electing from each sheriffdom, in proportion to its extent,
two or more commissioners as their representatives. [Act
1427. c 101.] From this dispensation, however, the greater
barons were expressly excepted. These were sufficiently dis-
tinguished from the lesser barons by theu* grants or patents
of peerage, whereby they were dignified by the titles of duke,
earl, or baron.
In England the distinction between greater and lesser bar-
ons seems to have arisen from the latter holding of the former.
Dngdale says, "Those who were the king's chief tenants,
id estj his principal freeholders, had the title of barones mofo-
res. And as they thus holding of the Idng m ctqnte by
barony were called his barons, so had most of the great esris,
in those elder times, their great freeholders under them, whom
they also called barons, as is evident by their charters, where-
in they usually wrote Omnibus BanmSms mw, tam Fnmds
quam Anglicis^ &c. And as these great tenants of the king,
who had their titles from their principal seats or heads oi
their baronies, were called his barones nu^ores^ so were
his other tenants or freeholders who held of him by miliUry
service m capite termed barones mmores; of which two
sorts of tenants, together with the bishops and earls, the par-
liaments of this realm did anciently consist, only the barones
mnjores had summons by several vmta, and the others, who
held by military service in capite^ by one general summons
from the sheriff in each county.'* [Prefaee to Baronage^ p. 3.]
It is worthy of notice, that while the English feudal barons
are frequently styled lords by the English genealogists, as
Lord Percy, Lord Neville, Lord Mowbray, &c., it was not
usual so to designate the Magnates ScoHa^ or great baroos of
Scotland, although their tenure, status, and rank were pre-
cisely the same. On this point Lord Lindsay aptly remarks:
"There might have been differences in wealth and power,
but all the magnates, strictly speaking, were peers. Neither
the Bmces till the marriage of the elder Brace with the coun-
tess of Carrick, nor the Baliols till their elevation to the
throne, nor the High Stewards till after the middle of the
fourteenth century, possessed any title higher than that of
simple ' Sire,' or Seigneur — like the De Conc^ of France.**
ILives of the Lindsays, vol. L p. 57. note.] It may be add-
ed, that of the thirteen competitors for the Scottish crown,
on the death of Margaret of Norway, dght were untitled bar-
ons, while two others were styled lords of theur respective
possessions, as Comyn, lord of Badenoch, and Brace, loni of
Annandale.
In England the barons ceased to be peers, unless so created,
during the thirteenth century, but in Scotland, np to the
year 1687, — in which year, various acts, drawn up by Lord
Menmnir [see article Balgabres, ante, p. 199] were passed
for regulating the form and order of parliament and the vote
of the barons, — the title of baron was common to all the
landed proprietors or lairds, holding theu: lands directly of tlie
Crown. As one object of these acts was to free the barons
from their dependence on noblemen, they were bitteriy op-
posed by the nobility, headed by the eari of Crawford who, in
name of his order, protested against their receiving the small
barons to a voice in parliament by their commiasionerB.
Under the feudal system, the king, when he gave a grant
of lands for military service, conferred on the grantee a juris-
diction within them of sheriffiihip, barony, or regality, and as
they descended to his heirs, each new possessor, on inheriting
the lands, doing homage for them, the jurisdiction also became
heritable.
RegaUties were feudal rights of land granted by the king
tin Hbertxm regalitatem. Those to whom they were granted,
though sometimes only commoners, were called " lords of re-
gality,** on account of the high and regal jurisdiction whidi
they conveyed. The civil jurisdiction of a lord of r^-
lity was m all respects equal to that of a shdriff ; but hb
criminal was, as Erskine observes, " truly royal.** He had,
says Burton, "at least as many of the privileges of an
independent prince as a Margrave or Pfalzgrave. His
courts were competent to try all questions, civil or criminal,
that of high treason against the sovereign alone excepted.
He appointed judges and executive officers, who were respon-
nble only to himself. He had within his territory a series
of municipal qrstems — corporations with thmr mnnidpa)
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BAKON.
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ofRcere, privileged markets, harbours, and iniU&. with in-
ternally administered regulations of police, applicable to
freights and measores, fishing privileges, and other like nse-
fnl institutions. He could build prisons and coin money.
When any of his people were put on trial before the king's
oonrtB he oould *repledge* the accused to his own court,
cmly fining recognizances to execute justice in the matter, —
a nominal check, which would seldom divert the lord and his
* baillie* or judge from acting according to then: own particu-
lar views.** lBwlm'8 L^e of Simon LordLovaty p. 162.]
" An analogy,** adds Mr. Burton in a note, ** will be seen be-
tween the regalities and the palatinates created in England.
The jealousy with which any dispersal of the privileges of the
Crown among the gr»it barons was watched in England
bronght back two of the three palatinates to the king at a
very early period, while the third (Durham) being in the
hands of a bishop, could not be the means of throwing any
<langeroua power into the hands of a particular house, and re-
mained in existence till the year 1886.** Mr. Riddell, in his
Remarks on peerage law (p. 67), observes, "Although* we
had, in fact, many palatinates, according to English notion,
that is to say, fiefs invested with royal jurisdiction, yet the
term was almost wholly unknown in Scotland. Only one
earidom, that of Strathem, was styled a palatinate ; but what
the peculiar nature of the distinction was does not appear.**
Some ecdesiastics, as bishops and abbots, possessed the
rights of barons, and some of the abbeys had a right of regal-
ity over thdr lands. These hereditary jurisdictions passed
from hand to hand with the lands to which they were at-
tached ; and the regality of Dunfermline abbey continuing
attached to the temporal lordship after the dissolution of the
monasteries, we find the newspapers, so late as the year 1782,
recording a conviction by the judge of the regality, of some
gipsies who lived in a cave and plundered the neighbourhood,
in these terms : *' This day was finished here a veiy tedious
trial of four gypsies, (or gypsies habit and repute,) strollers,
or vagabonds, which lasted between eighteen and nineteen
boon, by the honoured Captain Halkett, James Dewar of
Laasodie, and Henry Walwood of Garvock, deputies of the
most honourable the marqnis of Tweeddale, as heritable bai-
lie of the justiciary and reality courts of Dunfermline, when
on a full and phiin proof, James Ramsay, one of the gang,
was sentenced to be hangtd the 22d of March next, and the
other three to be whipped, the first Wednesday of each
month, for one half year, and afterwards to be banished the
reality for ever.** \ Extract from Cakdonian Mercury^
C/tahnert, p. 246.]
The power which their heritable jurisdictions conferred on
the greater barons became at last formidable to the state, and
enabled some of them openly to defy the law. The histoiy of
the reigns of the first Jameses is but the record of the strug-
gle of the Crown against tihe feudal aristocracy. Immedi-
ately upon the forfeiture of the eari of Douglas, June 10,
1455, an act was passed whereby it was ordained that no re-
gality should be granted for the future without the authority
of parliament ; and another that no office should be given
afterwards in fee or heritage. Our sovereigns, nevertheless,
continued to make grants of heritable jurisdictions, most
of which were confirmed by pariiament; others, without
such ratification, were strengthened by the immemorial exer-
dse of their jurisdictions, till it became at last the general
opinion that those statutes of 1455 had lost their authority.
By the treaty of Union, article 20, all heritable offices and
jurisdictions were reserved to the owners as rights of proper-
ty. The heritable jurisdictions in Scotland were finally abol-
ished in 1747, the holders of them receivmg compensation for
the same, parliament having voted one hundred and fifty
thousand pounds sterling for the purpose. By the act abol-
ishing them (20 George II. c 48) the dvil jurisdiction of a
baron m Scotland was reduced to the power of recovering
from his vassals and tenants the rents of his lands, and of
condemning them in mill services ; and also of judging in
causes where the debt and damages do not exceed forty shil-
lings sterling. His criminal jurisdiction was, by the same
statute, limited to assaults, batteries, and other smaller of-
fences, which may be punished by a fine not exceeding twenty
shillings sterling, or by setting the offender in the stocks
(now disused). The obligation which was bng imposed by
the law of Scotland on barony vassals to attend the baron's
head courts was about the same time prohibited.
The power of the high feudal aristocracy within their
own territories was as great as that of the monarch himself,
and many of them, as the Douglases, the Lindsays, the Ham-
iltons and others, afiected a state and magnificence equal to
those of the sovereign. An account of the feudal state of one
of the great barons will be found under the head of the earl
of Crawford as described by Lord lindsay [see Crawford,
earls of]. The picture drawn by him bears a close resem-
blance to the feudalism of England and the continent " But,**
adds his lordship, ** owing to the mixture of Celtic and Nor-
man blood, a peculiar element mingled from the first in the
feudality of Scotiand, and has left its indelible impress on the
manners and habits of thought of the country. Difierently
from what was the case in England, the Scoto-Norman races
were pecuUariy prolific, and population was encouraged as
much as possible. This was evinced by the ramifying ten-
dency of the Scotch Stuarts, Douglases, Hamiltons, Lind-
says, &c, as compared with the Howards, Percies, Mowbrays.
De Veres, &&, many of which houses have become entirely
extinct, while most of the old Scottish families number their
hundreds and thousands, in eveiy class and station of life.
The eari or baron bestowed a fief, for example, on each of his
four sons, who paid him tribute in rent and service; each son
subdivided his fief again among his own children, and they
again among theirs, till the blood of the highest noble in the
knd was flowing in that of the working peasant, at no remote
interval This was a subject of pride, not shame, in Scot-
hind.** ILwet o/ike Lindaaytj vol i. p. 117.]
A BUROH OF BARONY was a Corporation holding of a baron
within his domain and governed by magistrates, the right
of electing whom was sometimes vested in the inhabitants
themselves and sometimes in the baron their superior. The
ground granted to the burgh, and on which it was erected,
continued as truly a portion of the barony as if it were (he
holding of a single vassal When the magistrate who ruled
such a burgh was appointed by the superior he was styled a
baron bailie, and, as the baron *s deputy, possessed within the
burgh all the rights belonging to the baron himself. This
was a cUiss of magistrates peculiar to Scotiand. The right of
the barons, and some of them of no great note, to constitute
burghs, and appoint magistrates, or to give authority to the
feuars or burgesses to elect their own magistrates, who, by
such authority only, were legally authorised to administer
justice and pass laws for maintaining peace and order in the
buigfa, is one proof of the great and peculiar powers of the
Scottish aristocracy, which distinguishes Scotland firom all
the other nations of Europe. Greenock, now a flourishing
seaport, and the sixth town in Scotland in point of popula-
tion, is a case in point In 1685, being then a mere village,
it was erected into a bui^h of barony holding of John Shaw,
proprietor of the barony, and till 1741 the affairs of the burgh
were superintended by the superior or by a baron bailie ap-
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BARON.
256
BARTOK.
— M
pointed by him. By a charter dated in that year, and by
another in 1751, Sir John Shaw, the superior, empowered
the feuara and subfeoars to meet yearly for the porpose of
choosing nine fenars rending in Greenock to be managers of
the bni^h fimds, of whom two were to be bailies, one treas-
urer, and six councillors. The last-mentioned charter gave
power to hold weekly markets, to imprison and punish de-
linquents, to choose officers of court, to make laws for mam-
taining order, and to admit merchants and tradesmen as bur-
gesses on payment of a small sum. This instance is one of
many that might be cited of the extent to which the pure
feudal system had prevailed, and of its continuance in Soot-
land after it had disappeared everywhere else in Europe. The
Burgh Reform act of 1833 put the jurisdiction and govern-
ment of Greenock on a different footing, as it did all the other
burghs of Scotland.
Baron, now generally spelled Barron, a surname derived
from the feudal title of Baron. A family of this name for-
merly possessed the lands of Kinnaird in Fife. In the time of
James the Fifth, Magdalen, prioress of Elcho, feued these
lands to Alexander Leslie, whose grand-daughter and heir-
ess married James Baron, merchant in Edinburgh, who thus
acquired the lands. Of this family were two learned doctors
of divinity, named John and Robert Baron. Tlie latter was
professor of theology in Marischal Coll^, Aberdeen, and
the author o£ various philosophical works. He was elected
bishop of Orkney, but died at Berwick in 1639, before he
could be consecrated. The son of Mr. Baron disponed the
lands to Sir Michael Balfour of Denmiln, the father of Sir
James Balfour, lord lyon. Sir James was, during his father's
life, invested with the lands of Kinnaird, and was always
designed of Kinnaird. [See ante, p. 314.]
lliere was a family of the name of Baron in the dukedom
of Florence, from Scotland. The first of them b said to have
accompanied William, the brother of Achains, to assist Char-
lemagne in his wars, and he settled in Italy. His family
continued for a long time, but failed at last, much regretted
by a Florentine author, Ugolinus Verinius, {De Reparatione
FlorentuB, lib. iii.) in these verses
** Clara potensqoe diu, sed nono est nulla BAaosuM
Extra progenies, extremlaqne orta BritanDla.**
Barr, a surname derived from the small village of Barr in
the parish of that name in the district of Carrick, Ayrshire.
It b conjectured that the village took its name from its inac-
cessibleness, *^ being hemmed m on eveiy side by precipitous
bills, and approachable only by rugged glens and across a
stream, which dwindling into a purling rill in summer, mshei;
with a torrent's farj in winter, and destroys every vestige of a
roadway along its gravelly banks. The parish did, indeed,
constitute a strong natural barrier between Galloway on the
south and Ayrshire to the north, and was neariy inaccessible
till about the beginning of the present century.** [New Stat.
AccawU of Scotland, vol. v. p. 407.] The name may also
have been derived, in some instances, from the estate and
castle of Barr in Renfrewshirp, which anciently belonged to
a family named Glen. Sir Robert Barr, a bui^gess of Glas-
gow, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, but the date of
creation b not exactly known, and the baronetcy b extinct.
Barrkt, Baron Barret of Newburgh, a peerage of Scot-
land now extinct, conferred by King Charles the First on Sir
Edward Barret, knight, of Bellhouse in Essex, by patent
dated at WhitehaU 17th October 1627, to himself and the
legitimate heirs male of his body, bearing the name and arms
of Barret. Hb lordship was chancelbr of the exchequer in
England from 1635 to 1642. He married Anne, daughter of
Sir Edward Gary, knight, and died in 1644 without issue,
when the title became extinct Hb kinsman, the Hon. Rich-
ard Lennard of Horseford, in Norfolk, (youngest son of Rich-
ard Lord Dacre,) to whom Lord Barret bequeathed hb pro-
perty in Essex, took the name of Barret, and was ancestor of
'Iliomas Bantt Lennard, Lord Dacre, who died in 1786.
Barry, a surname more prevalent in Ireland than in Eng-
land or Scotland, and in the former country ennobled in the
family of the earls of Barrymore, (a title now extinct,) de-
scended firom William de Barri, a knight of Norman origin.
Barrie, the Scottish mode of spelling the name, b evidently
derived from the parish of Barrie in Forfarshire.
BARRY, George, D.D., the author of the
History of the Orkney Islands, a native of Ber-
wickshire, was bom in 1748. He studied for the
ministry at the college of Edinburgh ; and having
become private tutor to the sons of some gentlemen
in Orkney, he was, by their patronage, appointed
second minister of Kirkwall. About 1796 he was
translated to the island and parish of Shapinshay.
The statistical account of his two pai-ishes, insert-
ed in Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Reports, first
brought him into notice. In consequence of bis
zeal and efficiency in the education of youth in
his parish, the Society for Propagating Christian
Knowledge in Scotland, about 1800, elected him
one of their members, and gave him a superinten-
dence over their schools at Orkney. Soon after, the
university of Edinburgh conferred upon him the de-
gree of D.D. His valuable * History of the Ork-
ney Islands,* comprehending an account of their
present as well as their ancient state, on which he
had been engaged for some years, was not pub-
lished till after his death. He died May U, 1805.
BARRY, Thomas, Provost of Bothwell, was
the author of a Latin poem on the battle of Otter-
bum, fought in 1388, but there is little known
concerning him.
Barton, a surname supposed to have heen originally de-
rived from Bereton, that is, the farm of here or barley. It
is the name of numerous localities in England, as Barton-on-
Humber, and others, amounting to nearly forty in alL In
some instances the name may have been given to a smaU
port, having a bar of sand blocking up its entrance, and in
others applied to a small enclosure or farm having a bar gate.
It b also the name of a peculiar kind of block and tackle of
great power.
Barton is properly an English name. The Bartons of Bar-
ton Hall were an ancient family in Lancashire, having branch-
es ui Ireland and Scotland. There was also an old family of
Barton of Smithilb in the same county, recorded in the Her-
ald*8 Visitation of 1567, but subsequently establbhod m ths
palatinate of Chester
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BARTON,
257
ANDllEW.
BARTON, Andrew, a distinguished uaval com-
maoder, of the reign of James the Fourth, be-
longed to a family which, for two generations, had
produced able and successful seamen, and were
intrusted by the king with the principal authority
in all maritime and commei-cial matters in Scot-
land. To the increase of his navy, and to nautical
afftiirs in general. King James paid particular at-
tention, and the Bartons not only purchased vessels
for him on the continent, and invited into Scot-
land the most skilful foreign shipbuildei-s, but sold
to him some of their own ships. In the reign of
the fomth James the Scottish navy consisted of
sixteen ships of war, besides one vessel called the
Great Michael, the largest then known to be in the
world, and which, as an old author says, ^* cum-
bered all Scotland to get her fitted out for sea."
The daring and skill of the Bartons, of whom there
were three brothers, and of Andrew in particular,
had raised them to a renown scarcely inferior to
that of the famous admiral. Sir Andrew Wood
himself, who flourished in the same reign ; and the
prowess of Andrew Barton was put to the proof
on the following occasion. A small fleet of Scot-
tish merchantmen had been piratically attacked
by some Dutch ships, and plundered of their car-
goes, while the crews, after being murdered, were
thrown overboard. Andrew Barton was instantly
despatched with a squadron to take signal ven-
geance on the perpetrators of this cruel deed.
Many of the pirates were captured; and the ad-
miral commanded the hogsheads, which were
stowed in the holds of his vessels, to be filled with
the heads of his prisoners, and sent as a present
to his royal master. So early as the year 1476,
the ships belonging to the Bartons were plundered
by a Portuguese squadron, and as the king of
Portugal refused to make any amends, letters of
reprisal were granted to the Barton family by the
Scottish monarch, authorizing them to take all
Portuguese vessels which should come in their
way, until, they had fully indemnified themselves
for their losses. The Portuguese maiiners, on
theur part, were not slow to retaliate, and in 1507,
the Lion, commanded by John Barton, the father
of Andrew, was seized at Campvere, in Zealand,
and its commander thrown into prison. His sons
pi-ocurcd fi*om King James a renewal of then* Ict-
tei*s of reprisal, and fitted out two strong ships,
the larger called the Lion, and the lesser the Jen-
ny Pirwen, which they placed under the command
of Andrew Bai*ton. With these he cruised in the
Channel, intercepting and capturing, at various
times, many of the richly laden vessels returaing
from the Portuguese settlements in India and
Africa; and, as Tytler remarks, the unwonted ap-
pmition of blackamoors at the Scottish court, and
black empresses presiding over the royal tourna- '
ments, is to be traced to the spirit and success of
the Scottish priyateers. Not content, however,
with stopping the Portuguese ships, and making
prizes of them, whenever they could, the Bartons
detained and searched English merchant vessels
bound for Portugal, or coming from that country,
under the pretence that they had Portuguese goods
on board. In consequence of this, they were
treated by the English as pirates; and the coun-
cil board of England, at which the earl of Surrey,
(afterwards created Duke of Norfolk,) pi-csided,
was continually receiving complaints from the
sailors and merchants, that Barton was in the
practice of intercepting English vessels, and pray-
ing i*edi*es8. King Henry, not willing to come to
a rupture with the king of Scotland, at first paid
little attention to these complaints. The earl of
Surrey, however, could not conceal his indignation,
and, on hearing of some late excesses of the priva-
teers, declared that ^^ the narrow seas should not
be so infested whilst he had an estate that could
furnish a ship, or a son who was able to command
it." He accordingly fitted out two men-of-war,
which were manned by well selected crews, ar-
chers, and men-at-aims, and placed under the
command of his two sons, Sir Thomas Howard,
called by old historians Lord Howard, afterwards
created earl of Sun'ey in his father^s lifetime, and
Sir Edward Howard, afterwards lord high admiral
of England. Having put to sea he fell in with
Andrew Barton cruising in the Downs, having
been guided to his whereabouts by the captain of
a merchantman which Barton had plundered on
the previous day. This took place in July, 1511.
On approaching Barton, the English vessels showed
no colours or ensigns of war, but put up a wiL ^w
wand on their masts, that being the emblem of^i
trading vessel. But when Barton ordered thcni
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BARTON,
258
ANDREW.
to bring to, the English threw out tlieir flags and
pennons, and fii-cd a broadside. The Scotch ad-
miral then knew that he had English vessels to
contend with. Barton commanded his own ship,
the Lion, to which was opposed Sir Tliomas
Howard ; his other vessel was only an armed pin-
nace, named the Union, called by Hall the bark of
Scotland ; but far from being dismayed at the odds
against him, he engaged boldly, and in a rich dress
and bright annour, appeared on deck, with a
whistle of gold about his neck, suspended by a
golden chain, and encouraged his men to fight
valiantly. A gold whistle was in those days the
sign of the oflice of high admiral. Tlie battle that
ensued was most obstinately contested. On both
sides the most detennined valour was displayed,
till the Scottish admiral was desperately wounded.
It is said that even then this bold and experienced
seaman continued to encourage his men with his
whistle till death closed his career.
In an old ballad, on this seafight, fought before
England had a navy at all, entitled * Sir Andrew
Barton,' it is related that
With pikes a»d gunnes, and bowemen bold.
The noble Howard is gone to the sea ;
With a valjant heart, and a pleasant cheare,
Out at Thames mouth sayled hee.
And days he scant had saylcd three
Upon the * voyage' he took in hand,
But there he met with a noble shipp.
And stoutly made itt stay and stand.
" Thou must tell me," I^rd Howard sayes,
" Now who thou art, and what's thy name ;
And shcwe me where thy dwelling is,
And whither bound, and whence thou came."
" My name is Heiirye Hunt," quoth hee,
With a heav yc heart, and a carefull mind ;
*' I and my shipp doe both belong
To the Ncwca&tlc that stands upon Tyne "
" Hast thou not hcird, now, Henrye Hunt,
As thou hast saylcd by daye and by night,
Of a Scottbh rover on the seas,
Men call him Sir Andrew Barton, Knight ?"
Then ever he sighed, and sayd alas !
With a grieved mind, and well away,
•* But over well I knowe that wight,
1 was his prisoner yesterday."
If wo are to believe this ballad, Barton *s ship,
the Lion, was furnished with a peculiar conlri-
vance suspending large weights or beams from hi*"
yardarms, for the purpose of being dropped down
upon the enemy when they should come along-
side. This was an old stratagem of the Romans,
which the Scottish admiral had adopted with great
success. Baiton and these beams arc thus de-
scribed by the said " Henrye Hunt :"
*' He is brasse within, and Steele without,
With beames on his topcastle stronge,
And thirtye pieces of ordinance
He carries on each side alonge ,
And he hath a pinnace deerlye dight,
St. Andrewes crosse itt is his guide.
His pinnace bearetb nineacore men,
And fifteen canons on each side.
" Were ye twent}'e shippea, and he but one,
I sweare by kirke, and bower, and hall.
He wold orecome them every one,
If once his beames they doe downe falL"
" This is cold comfort,** sayes my lord,
" To welcome a stranger on the sea,
Yett He bring him and his shipp to shore,
Or to Scotland he shall carry mcc."
The ballad i>i-occeds to relate that Henry Hum
guided Howard to the place whei-e Barton's ships
lay, and on coming up with them, he ordered all
his ensigns to be fuiied :
" Take in your ancyents, standards eke.
So close that no man may them see,
And put me forth a white wiilowe wand,
As merchants use that sayle the sea."
But they stiired neither top or mast,
Stoutly they past Sir Andrew by ;
" What English churles are yonder," he sayd.
That can so little curtesye.
" Now by the roodc, three years and more
I have been admirall on the sea ;
And never an English nor Portingall
Without my leave can passe this way."
Then called ho forth his stout pinnace,
** Fetcho backe yond pedUtrs nowc to mee i
I sweare by the masse, yon English churles
Shall all hang at my niaino-mast tix?e."
With that the pinnace itt shott off,
Full well Lord Howard might it ken,
For it stroke downe his foremast tree
And killed fourteen of his men.
The English commander then ordcrcd his gui-
I
, I
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BARTON,
259
ANDREW.
ncr, " good Peter Simon," to ftre off his ordnancp,
which he did with effect ;
And he lett goe his great gunnes shott,
Soe well he settled itt with his ee ;
The first sight that Sir Andrew sawe,
He sawe his pinnace sunke i* the sea.
And when he sawe his pmnace sunke,
Ixvd, how his heart with rage did swell !
" Nowe cutt my ropes, itt b time to be gon,
He fetch yon pedlars backe myseL"
When my lord sawe Sir Andrewe looae,
Within his heart he was fall faine ;
" Nowe spreade your ancyenta, strike up drummes^
Sound all your trumpetts out amaine !**
Tlie English seem to have been most apprehen-
sive of the beams on the yardarms, but to make
Qso of this contrivance, it was necessary that some
one should ascend the mainmast; and Howai-d
had stationed in a proper place a Yorkshire gen-
tleman, named Horseley, the best archer in his
ship, with strict injunctions to let fly an arrow at
every one who should attempt to go up the rig-
gings of Barton's vessel. Two of Barton's officei*s,
named Gordon and James Hamilton, the latter his
" only sister's sonne," were successively killed in
the attempt. Barton himself, confiding in the
strong armour which he wore, then began to as-
cend the mast. Lord Thomas Howard called out
to the archer to shoot true, on peril of his life.
"Were I to die for it," answered Hoi-seley, "I
have but two arrows left." ITie first which he
shot bounded from Barton's ai-monr, without hurt-
ing him; but as the Scotch admiral raised his arm
to climb higher, the archer took aim where the
annour afforded him no pi-otcction, and wounded
him mortally through the armpit.
Sir Andrew he did swarro the tree.
With right good will he swarvod then ;
Upon his breast did Horseley hitt,
But the arrow bounded back agen.
Then Horseley spyed a privye place
With a perfect eye m a secrette part ;
Un-kr the spole of his right arme,
Hfl smote Sir Andrew to the heart.
Jumping upon deck, Barton addressed his men :
** Fight on," he said, " my brave hearts; I am a lit
tic wounded, but not slain. I will but rest awhile,
and then rise and fight again; meantime, stand
fast by St. Andrew's cross ;" meaning the flag of
Scotland.
, *' Fight on, my men," Sir Andrew saves,
** A little Tm hurt, but yett not slaine,
rie but lye donne and bleede awhlu),
And then Tie rise and fight agame.
Fight on, my men,** Su* Andrew saves,
** And never flinche before the foe ;
And stand fast by St Andrewe*s cross,
Untill you heare my whistle blow."
They never heard his whistlt; Mow,
Which made their hearts waze sore adread,
Then Horseley sayd, "Aboard, my lonl,
For well I wott Sir Andrew's dead.**
They boarded then his noble shipp,
They boarded it with might and maine.
Eighteen score Scotts alive they found.
The rest were either maimd or slaine.
Lord Howard tooke a sword m hand.
And off he smote Sir Andrewe's head,
*' I must ha* left England many a daye.
If thou were alive as thou art dead.**
He caused his bodye to be cast,
Over the hatchborde into the sea.
And about his middle three hundred crownes,
" Wherever thou land tliis will bury thee."
Barton's ship, the Lion, thus captured, was car-
ried into the Thames, and became the second man-
of-war in the Knglisli navy. The Great Hany,
which had been built only seven years before,
namely in 1504, was properly speaking the first.
On this celebrated ship Henry the Seventh ex-
pended £14,000, a gicat sum in those days, equi-
valent to the cost of a modern ship of the line.
With that monarch the rise of a i-oyal navy in
England is said to have originated. Before his
time, when the king wanted a fleet, the five ports,
then the largest in England, and still called the
Cinque Ports, furnished a certain equipment of
ships and men ; vessels were also hired from mer-
chants, and manned and armed for war. Ambi-
tious of being independent of the irregular navy
derived from such various and uncertain sources,
Henry paid great attention to the building of large
ships exclusively for warlike purposes, and he took
cai-e to keep them in a highly efficient and pro-
gressive state. 1 lis son, Henry the Eighth, caused
to be constructed the then largest English ship,
called Henry Grace de Dieu, or the Great Hany
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BASSANTIN,
260
JAMES.
after the ship of the same name, built by his father.
This is said to have beeu the first ship which liad
four masts, and was considered the wonder of the
sixteentli century.
Thus died Andrew Barton. With King James
ho was a personal favourite, and he sent a
herald to King Henry to demand redress for the
death of his ablest officer, and the loss of his ships;
but Henry returned no milder answer than that
the fate of pirates ought never to be a matter of
dispute among princes. He, however, after a
short imprisonment dismissed Barton's crew, with
a small sum each to dcfmy their homeward
charges. This affair was one of the remote causes
of the disastrous battle of Flodden, in which James
the Fourth was slain. — Tytler's History of Scot-
land, vol. y.—Scotfs Tales of a Grandfather,—
Perqfs Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.
Bassamtin, a corruption of Bassendean or Bassingdene, a
surname derived from an estate in the parish of Westmther,
Berwickshire, which seems at one period to have belonged to
a family of the same name, and sabseqnentlj was a vicarage
belonging to the nans of Coldstream. Soon after the Refor-
mation, Andrew Gurrie, vicar of Bassendean, conveyed to
William Home, third son of Sir James Home of Coldenknows,
** terras eoclesiasticas, mansionem, et glebam vicariie de Bas-
sendene;** whereupon, he obtained fivm James the Sixth,
a charter for the same, on the 11th of February, 1673-4.
This William was a progenitor of the Homes of Bassendean,
the most distinguished of which family was George Home of
Bassendean, who suffered much for his zealous attachment to
the cause of civil and religious liberty during the persecuting
reigns of Charles the Second and James the Seventh, and
was one of those expatriated Scotsmen who brought about
the Revolution of 1688.
Of the ancient family of Bassantin, Bassantoun, or Bas-
sendean, was the subject of the following notice :
BASSANTIN, James, an eminent astronomer
and mathematician, the son of the laird of Bas-
sendean, in Berwickshire, was bom in the reign of
James lY.; and, after studying mathematics at
the university of Glasgow, he travelled for further
information 9n the continent. He subsequently
went to Pai'is, where, on a vacancy occurring in
the mathematical chair of the university, he was
elected professor, and he remained there for some
years. He returned to Scotland in 1562, and
spent the remainder of his life on his patrimonial
estate of Bassendean. The prevailing delusion of
that age, particulai'ly in France, was a belief in
judicial astrology. In his way home through
England, as we learn from Sir James Melville's
Memoirs, he met with Sir Robert Melville, tlie
brother of that gentleman, who was at that time
engaged, on the part of the unfortunate Mary, in
endeavouring to effect a meeting between her and
Elizabeth ; when he predicted that all his efforts
would be in vain ; " for, fii-st, they will neuer melt
togither, and next, thei-e will nevir be bot discem-
bling and secret hattrent (hati-ed) for a whyle, and
at length captivity and utter wrak for our Quen by
England." Melville's answer was, that he could
not credit such news, which he looked upon as
" false, ungodly, and unlawful ;" on which Bas-
santin replied, ** Sa far as Melanthon, wha was a
godly theologue, has declared and written anent the
naturall scyences, that are lawfull and daily red
in dyvers Ciiristian universities; in the quhllkis, as
in all othir aitis, God geves to some less, to some
malr and clearer knawledge than till othirs; be
the quhilk knawledge I have also that at length,
that the kingdom of England sail of rycht fall to
the crown of Scotland, and that ther are some
born at this instant that sail bmik lands and heri-
tages in England. Bot, alace, it will cost many
their lyves, and many bluidy battailes will be
fouchen fii*st, and the Spaniailis will be helpers,
and will take a pai-t to themselves for ther labours."
The fii*st part of Bassantin's prediction, which he
might very well have hazarded from what he may
have known of Elizabeth's character and disposi-
tion, and also from the fact that Mary was the
next heir to the English throne, proved true ; the
latter portion showed, in the result, how little faith
should be placed in the pseudo - science of as-
trology, which is now exploded. Bassantin was a
zealous protestant, and a supporter of the Regent
Murray. He died in 1568. His principal work
is a Ti-eatise or Discourse on Astronomy, written
in French, which was translated into Latin by
John Tomaesius, (M. de Toumes,) and published
at Geneva in 1599. He wrote four other treatises.
Although well versed for his time in what are
called the exact sciences, Bassantin bad received
no pail of a classical education. Yossius observes,
that his astronomical discourse was written in
very bad Frcnch, and that the author knew *' nei-
ther Greek nor Latin, but only Scotch." Bassan-
tin's Planetary System was that of Ptolemy. His
works contain a laborious collection of the theories
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BASSOL.
261
BAXTER.
and observations of preceding astronomers, and
are monnments of his own extensive acquirements.
The following is a list of them :
Astronomia Jacobi Bossantini Scoti, Opus absolutissimum,
&0. In which the Obaervations of the most expert Mathe-
matidans on the Heavens are digested into order and method.
Latin and French. Geneva, 1599, fol.
Paraphrase de T Astrolabe, avec une smplification de Tosage
de Tastrohibe. Ljons, 1555 ; and, again, at Paris, 1617, 8vo.
Snper Mathematica Genethliaca ; i. «. of the Calculation of
Nativities.
Arithmetica.
Mnsica Secondnm PLitonem, or Mosic on the Principles of
the Platonists.
De Mathesi in geneie. .
BASSOL, John, the favourite disciple of Duns
Scotus, was bom, according to Mackenzie, in the
reign of Alexander III. In his younger years he
applied himself to the study of philosophy and the
belles lettres, after which he went to the university
of Oxford, where he studied theology under Duns
Scotus; with whom, in the year 1304, he removed
to Paris, and studied for some time in the univer-
sity there. In 1313 he entered the order of the
Minorites. Being afterwards sent by the general
of his order to Rheims, he there applied himself
to the study of medicine, and taught philosophy
for seven or eight years in tliat city. In 1322 he
was sent to Mechlin, in Brabant, where he taught
theology. He died thei*e in 1347. His master.
Duns Scotus, had such a high opinion of him, that^
when he taught in the schools, he usually said,
that " If only Joannes Basstolis were present, he
had a sufficient auditory." The only work he
i^Tote was entitled ' Commentaria sen Lecturae in
Qnatuor Libros Sententiarum,' folio, which, with
some miscellaneous treatises in philosophy and
medicine, was published in Paiis in 1517. Bassol
was a man of great learning, and, in lecturing or
writing, he handled his subject with so much order
and method, that he was styled Doctor Ordinatis-
simusy or the most orderly or methodical doctor;
for, at that period, eminent scholars and divines
were distinguished by such titles. It was objected
to him, however, that, in common with most of
the schoolmen of that and the succeeding age, he
was too subtle and nice in obscure questions; for
they were fond of proposing objections that could
never have occun*ed to any but themselves. So
subtle, indeed, was one of them, called ' The Cal-
culator,* that Cai*dan, an old author, says, only
one of his arguments was enough to puzzle all
posterity; and that, when he grew old, he wept
because he could not understand his own books I —
Mackenzie's Scots Writers.
Bathoatk, a somame derived from what is now the town
and parish of Bathgate in Linlithgowshire. The etymology
of the name itself is onoertain. In a grant by Malcolm the
Fourth to the monks of Holyrood of the church of Bathgate
with a portion of land, it is called Batket, and in other char-
ters and deeds of the twelfth, Uiirteenth, and fourteenth cen-
turies, the name is variously written Bathket, Bathgatt, Bath-
cat and Bathkat The barony of Bathgate formed part of
the dowery of Maijory Bruce, on her marriage with Walter,
High Steward of ScotUnd, in 1316. In the castle of Bath-
gate, the said Walter died in 1828, that being one of his chief
residences.
BAXTER, Andrew, an ingenious metaphysical
writer, the son of a merchant in Old Aberdeen,
was bom there in 1686 or 1687. He was educated
in King's College in his native city, and afterwai'ds
became a private tutor. Among his pupils were the
Lords Gray and Blantyre, and Mr. Hay of Drum-
melzier. About 1730 he published * An Enquiry
into the Nature of the Human Soul,' wherein its
immateriality is evinced from the principles of rea-
son and philosophy. Tliis work, which originally
appeared without a date, was praised in high terms
by Dr. Warburton. In 1741 he went abroad with
Mr. Hay, having also the charge of Lord Blantyre,
and remained for some years at Utrecht, his wife
and family in the mean time residing at Berwick-
upon-Tweed. On the continent he contracted
a very extensive acquaintance, and could speak
the French, Dutch, and Greiinan languages fluently.
He also wrote and read the Italian and Spanish.
It is related of him, that, during the whole of his
residence at Utrecht, he presided at the ordinary
which was frequented by all the young English
gentlemen there, with much gaiety and politeness,
and in such a manner as gave general sntiRfne-
tion. In 1747 he returaed to Scotland, and re-
sided at Whittingham in Enst Lothian, till his
death, which took place April 28, 1750, aged
63. He* left a widow, the daughter of a clergy-
man in Berwickshire, three daughters, and one
son. He wrote, for the use of his pupils, a Latin
treatise, entitled * Matlio, sive Cosmotheoria pu-
erilis Dialogus,' which he afterwards translated
into English, and published in two vols. 8vo. In
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BAYNE,
262
ALEXANDER.
1750 appeared an Appendix to his ' Enquiry into
the Nature of the Human Soul,' in which he en-
deavours to answer the objections that had been
advanced against his notions of the vis inerticB of
matter, by Mr. Colin Maclaurin, in his 'Account
of Sir Isaac Newton^s Philosophical Discourses.'
Hume also controverted his arguments. Mr.
Baxter dedicated the Appendix to his Enquir}' to
the celebrated John Wilkes, whose acquaintance
he had made on the continent, and with whom he
kept up a correspondence till within a short time
before his death. — He left many manuscripts be-
hind him, and would gladly have finished his work
upon the human soul. "I own," saj's he, in a
letter to Mr. Wilkes, "if it had been the will of
Heaven, I would gladly have lived till I had put
in order the second part of the Enquiry, showing
the immortality of the human soul, but infinite
wisdom cannot be mistaken in calling me sooner.
Our blindness makes us form wishes." This, in-
deed, he considered his capital work.
The following is a list of Andrew Baxter's works :
An enquiry into the Nature of tlie Human Soul, wherein
its Immateriality is evinced from the Principles of Reason
and Philosophy. Lond. 4to. 2d edit. 1737, 2 vols. 8vo. Sd
edit. 1745, 2 vols. 8vo. An Appendix to the First Part of
the Inquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul; wherein the
Principles laid down are cleared from some Objections started
against the Notions of the Vis Inertia; of Matter, by Maclaurin,
&c Lond. 1750, 8vo. Edited by J. Duncan.
Miitho: sive Cosmotheoria Puerilis Dialogus. In quo
Prima Elementa do Mundi online et omatu proponuntur, &c
Lond. 1740, 2 vols. 8vo. This work was afterwards greatly
enlarged, and published in English, with the following title,
Matho, or the Cosmotheoria Puerilis, in ten dialogues; where-
in, from the Phenomena of the Material World, briefly ex-
plained, the principles of Natural Religion are deduced and
demonstrated. Lond. 1745, 2 vols. 8vo. A third edition,
1765, 2 vols. 12mo.
The Rev. Dr. Duncan, of South Warmborough, published
The Evidence of Reason, in proof of the Immortality of the
Soul, independent on the more abstruse Inquiry into the
Natnre of Matter and Spirit. Collected from the MSS. of
•Mr. Baxter. I^nd. 1779, 8vo.
BAYNE, Alexander, of Rires, first professor
of the mnnicipal law of Scotland, was tee son of
John Bayne of Logie, Fife, descended from the
old Fifeshire family of Tulloch, to whom he was
served heir in general, October 8, 1700. lie
was the representative of an old family in the
parish of Kilconquhar, and his estate of Rires
is now possessed by his descendant Robert Bayne
Dalgleish, Esq. of Dnra. Mr. Bayue, on the
10th of Jniy 1714 was admitted advocate. In
January 1722 the Faculty appointed him senior
curator of the Advocates* Library, and, on 28th
November succeeding, he was elected by the town-
council to the chair of Scots law, which in that
year was first instituted in the university of Edin-
burgh. In the council register of that date there
is the following entry: "Mr. Alexander Bayue
having represented how much it would be for the
interest of the nation and of this city, to have a
professor of the law of Scotland placed in the uni-
versity of this city, not only for teaching the Scots
law, but also for qualifying of writers to his Ma-
jesty's Signet; and being fully apprised of the fit-
ness and qualifications of Mr. Alexander Bayne of
Rires, advocate, to discharge such a province ;
therefore, the council elect him to be professor of
the law of Scotland in the university of this city."
Although the Faculty of Advocates at first looked
coldly upon the erection of the chair of Scots law,
they soon began to be convinced that it was cal-
culated to work a beneficial change on the course
of examination for the bai*, and on the system of
legal study. In January 1724 the Dean of Fa-
culty, Mr. Robert Dundas of Amiston, afterwards
Ix>rd President of the court of session, proposed
to the Faculty, that all entrants should, previous
to their admission, undergo a trial, not only in the
civil law, as heretofore, but also in the municipal
law of Scotland ; and though this was long resisted,
it was at length determined, by act of sederunt,
February 28, 1750. In the beginning of 172C,
Bayne retired from the oflSce of senior curator of
the library, and the same year he published the
first edition of Sir Thomas Hope's Minor Practicks,
a work of great legal learning, which had lain
nearly a century in manuscript, to which was
added by Professor Bayne, ' A Discourse on the
Rise and Progress of the Law of Scotland, and
the Method of Studying it.' In 1731 he published
a small volume of ' Notes* for the use of the stt-
dents attending his chair, foimed out of his lee*
tures, and which pi-ove that he was thoroughly ac-
quainted not only with the Roman jurisprudence,
but also with the ancient common law. About
the same time, he published another small volume,
entitled ' Institutions of the Criminal Law of Scot-
land,' also for the use of his students. lie died in
I i
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BEATSON.
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BEATTIE.
June 1737, when Mr. Erskine of Carnock was ap-
pointed his successor. He had mnmed Mary, a
yonnger daughter of Anne, only surviving child of
Sir William Bruce of Kinross, by her second hus-
band. Sir John Carstairs of Kilconquhai*, and by
ber he had three sons and two daughters. One of
his daughters was the first wife of Allan Ramsay
the painter, son of the author of the Grentle Shep-
herd. Professor Bayne's works are :
InstitationsoftheCriininfil Law of Scotland. E<L 1747, 12mo.
Notes on the Criminal Law. 1748, 12ino.
Notes for the Use of the Students of the Municipal I^w.
Edin. 1749, 12mo.
Braton, surname of. See Bkthunb.
Bratson, the somame of a family originally situated on
the West Marches. At the end of the 16th and beginning
of tlie 17th centuries they acquired the lands of Kilrie, Vi-
carsgrange, Ghismont, North Piteadie, Powguild, Balbardie,
Pitkeanie, and others, in Fifeahire. Robert Beatson, Esq. of
Kilrie, Royal Engineen, nuuried, 1790, Jean, only child of
Murdoch Campbell, Esq. of Roesend Castle, BnmtiiilHnd,
of the Caithness Campbells. His grandson, Alexander John
Beatson, Esq. of Rossend, died at Malto April 8, 186L
John Beatson Bell, Esq. of Glenfarg and Kilduncan, re-
presents in the female line a younger branch of the family of
Vicarsfrrange, which acquired the lands of Mawhill in Kin-
ross-shire, by marriage with the heiress, Marie Grieve.
Major-general Alexander Beatson, H.E.I.C.S., at one time
governor of St. Helena, was of the Kilrie family. For a
memoir of him see Supplement
BEATSON, Robert, of Vicarsgiange, LL.D.,
author of some useful compilations, eldest son of
David Beatson of Vicarsgrange, and of Jean,
daughter of Robert Beatson of Kilrie, was born at
Djsart 25th June 1741. His paternal and ma-
ternal grandfathers were cousins, the one being
the laird of Kilrie and the other of Vicarsgrange.
His grandmothers were half sisters, daughtei*s of
William Beatson of Glasmont, and cousins of their
respective husbands. lie obtained an ensigncy in
1756, and the following year accompanied the ex-
pedition to the coast of France. lie aflerwai-ds
served as lieutenant, in the attack on Martinique,
and the taking of Guadaloiipe. In 1766, he retired
on half- pay . He obtained the degree of LL.D. from
the university of Edinburgh. He had commenced
writing a Peerage, which he did not live to com-
plete. Part of the material is contained in one of
three volumes of manuscript, entitled ^ Beatson's
Collections,' in the library of the Faculty of Ad-
vocates in Edinburgh. He sold Vicarsgrange in
1787, and during the latter years of his life was
barrack-master at Aberdeen. He was a fellow
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, where he died
January 24, 1818, aged 87. His works ai*e :
Political Index to the Histories of Great Britain and Ire-
land, or a Complete Register of the Hereditary Honours,
Public Officers, and Poi*sons in Office, from the earliest
periods to the present time. KUin.«1786, 8to. The same.
Lond. 1788, 2 vols. 8vo.
Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain, from tlit
year 1727 to the present time. Lond. 1790, 8 vols. 8vo.
Second edition, 1804, 6 vols. 8vo.
A New and Distinct View of the Memorable Action of the
27th July, 1778, in which the aspersions cast on the Flag
Officers are sliewn to be totally unfounded. 1791, 8vo.
An Essay on the Comparative Advantages of Vertical and
Horizontal Windmills. Plates. Lond. 1798, 8vo.
A Chronological Register of both Houses of the British
Parliament, from the Union in 1708, to the Third Parliament
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Irehind in 1807
Lond. 1808, 8 vols. 8vo.
BEATTIE, James, LL.D., a distinguished po-
et, moralist, and miscellaneous writer, was born
at Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire, October 25th,
1785. His father, who kept a little retail shop in
that village, also rented a small farm in the neigh-
bourhood, in which his forefathers had lived for
many generations. He was the youngest ^n, and
bis father dying when he was yet a child, his elder
brother David, on whom, with his mother, the care
of the family devolved, ^aced him at the village
school, where, as he soon began to write verses, his
companions bestowed on him the title of "The
Poet." In 1749 he was removed to Marischal
College, Aberdeen, where he obtained a bursary or
exhibition. He studied Greek under Dr. Thomas
Blackwell, author of *The Court of Augustus,'
and ^ An Inquiry into the Life and Writings of
Homer,* who was the first to encourage Beattie's
genius. He made great progress in his studies,
and acquired that accurate and classical know-
ledge for which he was afterwards so eminent.
In 1753 he obtained the degree of A.M., and
having completed his course of study, he was
appointed in August of that year schoolmaster
and parish clerk to the parish of Fordoun, at the
foot of the Grampians, six miles from his native
village. It is related of him that he loved at this
time to wander in the fields duiing the night, and
watch the appearance of the coming dawn, feeding
his young dreams of poesy " in lone sequestered
spots." His early productions, inserted in the
Scottish Magazine, gained him some local reputn-
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BEATTIE,
2G4
JAMES.
tion; and he attracted the favourable notice of
Mr. Garden, advocate, afterwards Lord Garden-
stone, then sheriflf of Kincardineshire, Lord Mon-
boddo, and othera in the neighbourhood, who
invited him to their houses, and with whom he
ever after maintained a friendly intercourse. He
had at one time an intention of entering the
church ; and in consequence attended the divinity
class at Marischal College ; but circumstances led
him to change his views. In 1757 a vacancy
occurred in the grammar school of Aberdeen, and
Beattie was induced to become a candidate for
the situation, but did not succeed. He acquitted
himself so well, however, that on a second vacancy
in June 1758, he was elected one of the masters
of that school. In 1760 he published at London
a volume of i)oem8 and translations, which, though
it met with a favourable reception, he endeavoured
at a future period, when his fame was established,
to buy up and suppress. Some of these will be
found in the Appendix to Sir William Forbes* Life
of Beattie. By the influence of the earl of Errol
and othera of his friends, he was the same year
appointed professor of moral philosophy and logic
at Marischal college. Among his brother profes-
sors in the Aberdeen universities at that time were
snch men of genius and learning as Dr. Campbell,
Dr. Reid, and Dr. Gregoiy. In 1762 he wrote
his * Essay on Poetiy,' which was published in
1776, with othera of his prose works. In 1765
he published an unsuccessful poem on 'The
Judgment of Paris/ in quarto. He afterwards
reprinted it in a new edition of his poetical works
which appeared in 1766. On the 28th June
1767 he married Mary, daughter of Dr. James
Dunn, the Rector of the grammar school at Aber-
deen, his union with whom was not happy, in con-
sequence of a hereditaiy disposition to madness
on her part, which made its appearance a few
yeare after the marriage, and which subsequently
caused her to be put in confinement.
In 1770 appeared the work which firat Drought
Dr. Beattie prominently into notice, viz, *An
Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth,
in opposition to Sophistry and Scepticism ;' writ-
ten with the avowed purpose of confuting the per-
nicious doctrines advanced by Hume and his sup-
portera, which at that time were very prevalent.
His motives for engaging in this task are fully ex-
plained in a long letter to Dr. Blacklock, which
will be found in Forbes' account of his Life and
Writings. The design, he says, " is to overthrow
scepticism, and establish conviction iu its pkce,
a conviction not in the least favourable to bigotrj
or prejudice, far less to a peraecnting spirit, but
such a conviction as produces firmness of mind,
and stability of principle, in consistence with
moderation, candour, and liberal inquiry." This
work was so popular, that in four yeare five large
editions were sold, and it was translated into
several foreign langnages. The * Essay on
Truth,' which Hnme and his friends treated as
a violent personal attack, was intended to be
continued; but general ill health, and an inveter-
ate disinclination to severe study, prevented him
from completing his design. In the same year he
published anonymously the Firat Book of *The
Minstrel, or the Progress of Genius,' 4to, which
he had commenced writing in 1766. This poem
was at once highly successful. It was particularly
praised by Gray the poet, who wrote him a letter
of criticism, which is preserved in Forbes' Life of
Beattie. Shortly afterwards he visited London,
and was flatteringly received by Lord Littleton,
Dr. Johnson, and other ornaments of the literary
society of the metropolis. In 1773 he renewed
his visit; and owing to the most powerful influ-
ence exerted on his behalf, he obtained a pension
of £200 a-year, on account of his 'Essay on
Truth.' George III. received him with distin-
guished favour, and honoured him with an hour's
interview in the royal closet, when the queen
also was present. Among other marks of respect,
the univereity of Oxford conferred on him tie
degi-ee of LL.D. at the same time with Sir Joshua
Reynolds. That great artist having requested
him to sit for his portrait, presented him with the
celebrated painting containing the allegorical
Triumph of Truth over Sophistry, Scepticism,
and Infidelity. He was also pressed to enter the
Church of England by the Archbishop of York
and the bishop of London, which he declined, on
the ground chiefly lest the opponents of revealed
religion should assert that he was actuated by
motives of self-interest. One prelate offered him
a living worth nearly £500 a-year; which also he
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JAMES.
refdsed, ^^ partly," he says, ^^ because it might be
construed into a want of principle, if, at the age
of 38, I were to quit, with no other €q>parent
motive than that of bettering my circumstances,
that church of which I have Iiitherto been a mem-
ber." In 1774 appeared the Second Book of the
* Minstrel,' wliich has become one of the stand-
ard poems in onr language. A vacancy having
occurred in the chair of natural and experimental
phUosophy in Edinburgh, he was advised by sev-
eral of his friends to become a candidate; but
this he declined, preferring to remain in Aberdeen.
In 1777 he brought out by subscription a new
edition of his * Essay on Truth,' to which were
added some miscellaneous dissertations on ^Po-
etry and Music,' * laughter nnd Ludicrous
Composition,' and ' The Utility of Classical
Learning.' In 1788 he published ' Disser-
tations, Moral and Criticid,' 4to, and In
1786 'Evidences of the Christian Religion,'
2 vols. 12mo. In 1790 he edited an edition
of Addison's papers, which appeared at
E<linburgh that year. The same year he
published the first volume of his ' Elements
of Moral Science ;' the second followed in
1793. To the latter volume was appended
some remarks against the continuance of
the slave-trade. Long bcfoi*e the abolition
of that iniquitous traffic was mooted in par-
liament. Dr. Beatiie had introduced the
subject into his academical course, with the
express hope that the lessons of humanity
which he tanglit would be useful to such of
his pupils as might thereafter proceed to
the West Indies. His last production was
* An Account of the Life, Character,
and Writings of his eldest Son, James
Hay Beattie,' an amiable and promising 3'oung
man, his assi-stant in the professorship, who died
in 1790, at the age of 22, (see next article). This
great affliction was followed in 1796 by the equal-
ly premature death of his youngest son Montague,
in his 19th year. These bereavements, with the
melancholy fate of his wife, quite broke his heart.
Ix)oking at the corpse of his boy, he said, " I am
now done with this world ;" and although he per-
formed the duties of his chair till a short time pre-
vious to his death, he never again applied to
study ; he enjoyed no society or amusement ; even
music, of which he had been passionately fond,
lost its charms for him, and he answered few let-
ters from his friends. Yet he would sometimes
express resignation to his childless condition.
" How could I have borne," he would feelingly
say, '^to see their elegant minds mangled with
madness I" He had been all his life subject to
headaches, which sometimes interrupted his stu-
dies ; but now his spirits and his constitution were
entirely gone. — In April 1799 he was stinick with
palsy, and, after some paralytic strokes, he died
at Aberdeen, August 18, 1803. Subjoined is a
portrait of Dr. Beattie from the painting by Sir
Joshua Reynolds
Dr. Beattie's metaphysical writings are clear,
lively, and attractive, but not profound, and the
'Essay on Truth,' once so much read and ad-
mired, has now fallen into comparative neglect,
from its merits having been much overrated at the
time it appeared. His poem of the 'Minstrel,'
his ' Odes to Retirement and Hope,' and his ' Her-
mit,' will perpetuate his name as one of the most
popular and pleasing poets of the eighteenth cen-
tury, when his philosophical productions ai^e no
longer read. "Of all his poetical works," saya
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BEATTIE,
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JAMES HAY.
Sir William Forbes, ** the Minstrel is beyond all
question the best, whether we consider the plan
or the execution. The language is extremely ele-
gant, the vei*sit1catlon harmonious ; it exhibits the
richest poetic imagery, with a delightful flow of
the most sublime, delicate, and pathetic sentiment.
It bi*cathe3 the spirit of the purest virtue, the
soundest philosophy, and the most exquisite taste.
In a word, it is at once highly conceived and ad-
mirably finished." The descriptions of natural
scenery in this fine poem are not exceeded in
beauty by those of any of his contemporaries.
The following stanza was declared by Gray to
be " true poetry :"
0 ! how can*8t thou renounce the boandless store
Of charms which Nature to her votary yields !
The warbling woodland, the resounding shore,
Tlie pomp of groves, and garniture of iieldc;
All that the genial ray of morning gilds,
And all that echoes to the song of even,
All that the monntaiu*8 sheltering bosom shields,
And all the dread magnificence of Heaven ;
0 ! how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven !
In private life Dr. Bcattie was a man of amiable
aud unassuming mannei's,* and a wai*m attach-
ment to the principles of morality and religion per-
vades all his writings. His life, by Sir William
Forbes of Pitsligo, baronet, an old and intimate
fi'iend ot his, which appeared in two volumes 4to
in 1806, contains some interesting selections from
his private correspondence. In his latter yeai*s
Dr. Beat tie was assisted in the duties of his pro-
fessorship by his relation, Mr. George Glennie,
afterwards D.D , and one of the ministers of Aber-
deen, who succeeded him.
Subjoined is a list of Dr. Beattie^s works :
Original Poems and Translations. Lond. and Edin. 17C1.
Consisting partly of originals, and partly of pieces furmeriy
printed in the Scots Magazine.
The Judgment of Paris ; a Poem. 1765, 8vo.
A new edition of his Poems. Second edition. 1766, 8vo.
To this edition he added a Poem on the Talk of Erecting a
Monument to Churchill, in Westminster- Hall, said by Sir
William Forbes, to have been first published separately, and
without a name.
Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth, in oppo-
sition to Sophistry and Scepticism. 1770, 8vo. Edin. 1771,
Svo. 1772, 1773. I^nd. 1774, Svo. 1776.
The Minstrel, or the Progress of Genins ; a Poem. Book
i. Edin. 1771, 4to. Book ii. Edin. 1774, 4to. Published
together, with a few iuvenile poems. 1777 2 vols. 12mo.
Edin. 1803, 4to. A new edition, with the Life of the Author
by Alex. Chalmers, Esq. 1805, 8vo. Book iii. being a con
tinuation of the Minstrel, appeared in 1807, 4to.
Essays on Poetry and Music, as they affect the mind ; on
Laughter and Ludicrous Composition; on the Utility of
Classical f^eaming. Edin. 1776, 8vo. Lond. 1779, 8to.
Dissertations, Moral and Critical, on Memory and Imagin-
ation; on Dreaming; the Theory of Language ; on Fable and
Romance ; on the Attachments of Kindred ; and Illustrations
on Sublimity. Lond. 1783, 4to.
Evidences of the Christian Religion briefly and plainly
stated. Lond. 1786, 2 vols. 8vo.
The Theory of Language ; in two parts.
Elements of Moral Science. Vol. i. 1790, 8vo ; including
Psychology, or Perceptive Faculties and Active Powers ; and
Natural Theology: with two Appendices on the Incorporeal
Nature, and on the Immortality of the Soul. Second volume.
I^nd. 179^, 8vo. Containing Ethics, Economics, Politics,
and Logic
Remarks on some Passages on the Sixth Book of the iEneid.
Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 1790, 2d vol. This is, in fact, a disser-
tation on the MjTthology of the Romans, as poetically de-
scribed by Virgil, in the episode of the descent of ^neas into
hell.
BEATTIE, James Hay, son of the preceding,
was bora at Aberdeen, November 6, 1768. " He
had reached his fifth or sixth year," says his father,
'^ knew the alphabet, and coold read a little ; but
had received no particular information with respect
to the Author of his being ; because I thought he
could not yet understand such information; and
because I had learat from my own expenence, that
to be made to repeat words not understood, is ex-
tremely detrimental to the faculties of a young
mind. In a corner of a little garden, without in-
forming any person of the circumstance, I wrote
in the mould with my finger the thi*ee initial letters
of his name; and sowing garden cresses in the
fuiTows, covered up the seed, and smoothed the
ground. Ten days after, he came running up to
me, and with astonishment in his countenance,
told me that his name was growing in the gai-den.
I smiled at the report, and seemed inclined to dis-
regai*d it ; but he insisted on my going to sec what
had happened. Yes, said I, carelessly, I see it is
so; but there is nothing in this worth notice;
it is mere chance, and I went away. He followed
me, and taking hold of my coat, said, with some
earnestness. It could not be mere chance, for some-
body must have contrived matters so as to produce
it. So yon think, I said, that what appeal's so re-
gular as the letters of your name cannot be by
chance? Yes, said he, with fii-mness, I thhik so.
Look at yourself, I replied, and consider yonr
111!
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BEATTIE,
267
GEORGE.
liaud uud tiugci*s, your legs aud feet, and otlier
limbs; are they not regnlar in their appeai-ance,
and useful to jou? He said they were. Came
you, then, hither, said I, by chance? No, he an-
swered, that cannot be; something must have
made me. And who Is that something? I asked,
lie said, he did not know. I liad now gained the
p«int I aimed at, and saw that his reason taught
him, though he could not so express it, that what
begins to be must have a cause, and that what is
formed with regulaiity must have an intelligent
cause. I therefore told him the name of the Great
Being who made him and all the world ;* concern-
ing whose adorable nature I gave him such infor-
mation as I thought he could in some measure
compreheud. The lesson affected him greatly,
and he never forgot either it or the circumstance
that introduced it." The first* rules of morality
taught him by his father were to speak truth and
keep a secret, and " I never found," he says, " that
in a single instance he transgressed either." Flav-
Ing received the mdiments of his education at the
grammar school of Aberdeen, he was entered at
the age of 13, a student in the Marischnl College,
and was admitted to the dcgi*ee of M.A. in 1786.
In June 1787, when he was not quite nineteen, on
the recommendation of the Senatus Acadcmicns of
Marischal College, ho was appointed by the king
assistant professor and successor to his father in
the chair of moral philosophy and logic. In this
character, it is stated, he gave universal satisfac-
tion, though so young. I le was so deeply impressed
with the importance of religion, as always to cairy
about with him a pocket Bible and the Greek New
Testament. He studied music as a science, and
performed well on the organ and violin, and con-
trived to build an organ for himself. He early be-
gan to write poetry, and had he been spared, he
would no doubt have proiluced something worthy
of his name. But his days were numbered. In
the night of tiie 30th November 1789, he was
suddenly seized with fever; before moniing a
perspiration ensued, which freed him from all im-
mediate danger, but loft him weak and languid.
Tliongh he lived for a year thereafter, his health
rapidly declined, and he was never again able to
engage much in study. He died November 19,
1790, in the 22d year of his age. Over his grave,
in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, Aberdeen, his
afflicted father erected a monument to his memory,
and, as already stated in the life of Dr. Beattie, his
writings in prose and verse were published by the
latter in 1799, with a memoir of the author. " His
life," says Dr. Beattie in a letter to the Duchess of
Gordon, giving an account of his death, *^ was one
uninternipted exercise of piety, benevolence, filial
affection, and indeed every virtue which it was in
his power to practise." He was an excellent clas-
sical scholar, and his tiUents were considered of
the highest onlcr by all who had an opportunity
of knowing him.
BEATTIE, George, author of * John o' Arn-
ha*,' was bom in the parish of St. Cyrus, county
of Kincardine, in 1785. His parents were respec-
table, and he received a liberal education. In
1807 he commenced business as a writer in Mon-
trose. His abilities soon brought him into notice.
He had a strong turn for poetry, some pieces of
which have been published. In September 1823
a disappointment in love brought on a depression
of spirits, under the influence of which he deprived
himself of life, in the church-yard of St. Cyrus,
where a tombstone has been erected to his mem-
ory, with an appropriate inscription. The fifth
edition of * John o^ AmhaV a humorous and satir-
ical poem, somewhat in the style of ' Tam o' Shan-
ter,* appeared at Montrose in 1826 ; to which was
added ' The Murderit Mynsti-el V and other poems.
The opening lines of *The Murderit Mynstreli,'
which is in the old Scottish dialect, are very
fine:—
How sweitlie shonne the morning sunue
Upon the bonnie Ila^-hoose o* Dun :
Siccan a bien and lorelie abode
Micht wyle the pilgrime a£f hia roade ;
But the awneris* hcarte vras harde as stane,
And his Ladye*8 was harder still, 1 weene.
They nenr gaue araous to the poore,
And they tumit the wretchit frae thair doore ^
Quhile the stminger, as he passit thair yett,
Was by the wardowre and tykkes besett
Oh ! there livit there ane bonnie Maye,
Mylde and sweit as the morning raye,
Or the gloamin of ane suromeris daye :
Hir haire was faire, hir eyne were blue,
And the djrmples o* Inve playit round hir sweit inou ;
Hir waiste was sae jimp, hir anckel sae sma,
Hir bosome as quhyte as tlie new-dnven sn.iwe
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BELFRAGE,
268
HENRY.
Sprent o*er the twinne moantains of sweit Gaterthunnef
Beamand mjlde in the rayes of a wynterie sunne,
Quhair the mjde of a fute has niver bein,
And not a cloud tu the lift is sein :
Quhen the wynd is slomb'ring in its cave,
And the barke is sleeping on the wave,
And the breast of the ocean is as still
As the morning mist upon Moiren Hill.
Oil sair did scho rue, baith nighte and daye,
Hir hap was to be this Ladye*s Maye.
BELFRAGE, Hknry, D.D., an eminent cler-
gyman of the Secession, and author of several es-
teemed religious works, fourth son of the Rev. John
Belfrage, minister of the fii-st Associate Congrega-
tion, Falkirk, was bom there March 24, 1774.
He was early intended for the ministry, and
received the rudiments of his education at the
palish school of his native town. In November
1786 he was sent to the university of Edinburgh,
where he distinguished himself by his diligence
and application. He afterwards studied divinity
at the theological seminary of the Associate
Synod, under the able tuition of Professor Lawson
of Selkirk. In July 1793 he was licensed to the
ministry by the Associate Presbytery of Stirling
and Falkirk, and on 31st August following he
received from his father's congregation a most
harmonious call to be assistant and successor.
He also received a call from Saltcoats and I>och-
winnoch, but was ordained to Falkirk, June 18,
1794, when he was little more than twenty years
of age. He was his father's colleague for four
years. His congregation was large, and scattered
over a considerable extent of country, yet every
year he paid a pastoral visit to every member of
it, and also had regular diets of catechising. He
was likewise very punctual in attending the
Secession Church courts. He regularly visited
the sick, and was always ready to assist the poor.
On his father's death he inherited the estate of
Colliston in Kinross-shire; and for forty -one
years he held the ministerial office in the Secession
Church at Falkirk. In the spring of 1802 his
character as an eloquent and useful preacher
being established, he was induced to visit London,
to supply for a short time a congregation, then
vacant, which met in Miles Lane, when he gave
great satisfaction to all who heard him. In 1814
he commenced that series of devotional and
pi*actical publications which entitle him to au
honourable place in the list of religious writers,
and which, in a collected form, amount to 12
volumes. His first work, published that year,
consisted wholly of Sacramental Addresses. In
1817 he published * Practical Discourses, intended
to promote the Happiness and Improvement of
the Young.' In 1818 he published a ^Practiesil
Catechism,' with an address to children, and
some prayers; in 1821, a second volume of Sacra-
mental Addresses; in 1822, ' Sketches of Life and
Character from Scripture and from Observation ;'
in 1823,*h]s ^Monitor to Families, or Discourses
on some of the Duties and Scenes of Domestic
Life;' also 'A Guide to the Lord's Table.' his
writings procured for him, in 1824, from the
university of St. Andrews, the degree of D.D.;
principally on the recommendation of Sir Henry
Moncreiff Wellwood, Bart., D.D., one of the
ministers of Edinburgh. In June 1825 he again
visited Ix)naon, bemg invited to preach before the
London Missionary Society. In 1827 he published
a series of Discourses * On the Duties and Con-
solations of the Aged.' In September 1828 he
married Margaret, youngest daughter of Richard
Gardner, Esq., comptroller of customs, Edinburgh.
In 1829 appeared his ' Counsels for the Sanctuary,
and for Civil Life,' which concluded the author's
series of illustrations of Christian morality. In
1830 he published an Illustration of the History
and Doctrine of John the Baptist. In 1832
appeared^iis * Practical Exposition of the Assem-
bly's Shorter Catechism;' and the same year
a volume of ' Select Essays,' religious and moral.
Among his other publications may be mentioned
the Life of Dr. AVangh of London, which went
through several editions. Besides those named,
he contributed a great number of Essays and
Reviews to the Evangelical Magazine, and other
periodicals. He died September 16, 1835. Ilia
Life and CoiTCspondence, compiled by the Rev.
John M'Kenx)w and the Rev. John Macfarlanc,
appeared in 1837 Subjoined is a list of Dr.
Belfrage's works : "
Sacramental Addressee and Meditations Ist vol. pnb-
lished in 1814.
Practical Disooursesi, intended to promote the Happinen
and Improvement of the Young. 1817.
A Practical Catechism, intended to exhibit the lea^Unn
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BELHAVEN.
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BELHAVEN.
facts and principles of Christianity, m connexion with their
moral bflaeuoe; to which is added an Address to Children,
and some prayers to guide the Devotions oi the Young.
181S.
Sacramental Addresses and Meditations; with a few Ser-
mons interspersed. 2d vol. published in 1821.
A Funeral Sermon, entitled * The Feelings excited by De-
parted Worth:* preached to Queen Anne-street congregation,
Dunfermline, at the death of the Rev. Dr. Husband. The
text is 2 Kings iL 12. Published in 1821.
Sketches of life and Character, from Scripture and from
Obeervatkm. 1822.
Monitor to Families, or Discourses on some of the Duties
and Scenes of domestic life. 1823.
A Guide to the Lord*s Table, in the Catechetieal form.
To which is added an Address to applicants for admission,
and some meditations to aid their devotions. 1823.
A Sermon preached before the London Missionary Sodety,
on the 11th May, 1825. The text is Isaiah ix. 6.
Disoonrsea on the Duties and Consolations of the Aged.
Published in 1827.
Counsels for the Sanctuary and fbr Civil Life. 1829.
Memoirs of the Rar. Dr. Waugh, of Well-street, London.
This is a joint production of Dr. Belfrage and of bis friend
the Rev. James Hay, D.D. of Kinross. The first edition
made its appearance in 1880.
A Portrait of John the Baptist; or an lUustratioQ of his
Histoiy and Doctrine. 1830.
Practical Exposition of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism.
The first edition was published in 1832, in one volume. A
second edition, considerably enlarged, was published in 1834,
in two volumes. This is a work on which the author bestowed
considerable pains. It is replete with sound views of Scrip-
ture truth, expressed in a pleasing form.
Select Essays on various topics, Reli^ous and Moral 1832.
A Biographical account of the Rev. Dr. Lawson ; prefixed
io a volume of the Doctor's discourses, *0n the History of
David,' &C. Publi^thed in 1833.
In addition to the above, there were found among his
manuscripts, at the period of his death, two volumes of Lec-
tures, in a state of complete readiness for the press, which it
was his intention to pubHsh, but increasing debility prevented
him firom carrying his intention into efiiect. There were also
two small volumes, which he had prepared at the request of
one of his publishers; the one being a series of discourses on
the parable of the Ten Virgins, and having for its title, * The
Visible Church in the Last Days,' the other consisting of
discoonet on the promises, and entitled, * Christian Iniftruo-
tion in Hope, in Warning, and in 'Example.'
Belhayen and Stehtox, Baron, a title in the Scottish
peerage, conferred by King Charies the First on Sir John
Hamilton of Biel, eldest son of Sir James Hamilton of
Broomhin, in con^deration of hiq fidelity to his cause, by pa-
tent dated 15th December, 1647. The title was derived fxx)m
the vilh^^ of Belhaven in Haddingtonshire. In 1648 hu
lordship accompanied the duke of Hamilton in his unfortu-
nate expedition into England to attempt the rescue of the
king, and escaped from the rout at Preston. In 1675 he
rengned his title into the haiTds of King Charles the Second,
who. by patent, dated at Whitehall, 10th February 1675,
conferred the peerage on him for life, with remainder, after
his decease, to the husband of one of his grand-daughters,
John Hamilton, eldest son of Robert Hamilton of Bam-
clnith, one of the principal clerks of council and session,
and after the Revolution one of the judges of the supreme
court, under the titie of Lord Pressmannan, and to the
heirs male of his body; which failing, to his nearest
heirs male whatever. The first Lord Belhaven married
Mai^garet, natural daughter of James, second marquis of
Hamilton, by whom he had three daughters. He died u*
1679. Margaret^ his eldest daughter, married Sir Samuel
Baillie, younger of Lamington, and had issue; Anne, the
second, became the wife of Sir Robert Hamilton of Silverton-
hill, and had two sons and four daughters. Elizabeth, Lord
Belhaven's youngest daughter, was the third wife of Alexan-
der, first Viscount Kingston, but had no issue.
Of John Hamilton, the second Lord Belhaven, the most
distinguished of those who have held the tide, a notice
follows.
John, third Lord Belhaven, the eldest son of the second
lord, succeeded his father in 1708, and at the general
election in 1715 was chosen one of the sixteen representa-
tives of the Scottish peerage. He was about the same time
appointed one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber to George,
Prince of Wales. At the battle of Sherifimuir, 13th Novem-
ber 1715, he commanded the East Lothian troop of horse, on
the side of the government. In 1721 he was appointed
governor of Barbadoes, and sailed for that island on board
the Royal Anne galley, which was unfortunately lost going
down the Channel, on the Stag Rocks, near the Lizard point,
about midnight, 17th November 1721, when his lordship was
drowned, with the whole persons on board, two hundred and
forty in number, with the exception of two men and a boy,
who drifted on shore on pieces of the wreck. He had married
Anne, daughter of Andrew Bmoe, merchant in Edinburgh, ■
cadet of the family of Earishall in Fife, by whom he had four
sons and one daughter, namely, John, fourth Lord Belhaven;
Andrew, an officer in the army, died unmarried in 1786;
James, fifth Lord Belhaven; Robert, a mijor in the army in
the expedition to Carthagena under Lord Cathcart in 1741,
who also died unmarried in 1743; and Margaret, married to
Alexander Baird, son of Sur William Baird of Newbyth.
John, fourth Lord Belhaven, succeeded his father in 1721.
He was general of the mint, and one of the trustees for the
encouragement and improvement of trade, manufactures, and
fisheries in Scotland. He died unmarried at Newcastie-upon-
Tyne, 28th August, 1764.
James, fifth Lord Belhaven, succeeded his brother. He
was bred to the law, and in 1727 he became a member of the
faculty of advocates. In 1733 he was appointed assistant-
solicitor to the boards ot excise and customs, and on the abo-
lition of the heritable jurisdictions in 1747 he was appointed
sheriff-depute of the county of Haddington. He died at
Biel, 25th January 1777.
The titie remained some years subsequently dormant
By virtue of an entail executed by the second Lord Belhaven,
17th October 1701, confirmed by tbe fifth Iqrd by another
entail of 14th May 1765, the husbands of the heirs female
being excluded from inheriting the property, and the whole
male descendants of the second lord's father. Lord Press-
mannan, having entirely failed, the family estates, of great
value, devolved upon Mrs. Mary Hamilton Nisbet of Pen-
caithmd, Saltcoats, and Dechmont, wife of William Nisbet,
Esq. of Dirleton. She was accordingly served heir to James,
fifth Lord Belhaven, 3d December, 1783. The whole male
descendants of James Hamilton of Bamcleuth, from whom
the second lord sprang, having likewise failed, the titie of
Lord Belhaven and Stenton devolved on Robert Hamilton of
Wishaw, he being the nearest male heir existing in the colla-
teral line of John, second Lord Belhaven, according to the
usual course of descent established by the law of Scotiand.
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SECOND LORD.
Bj this course of descent, it is settled that in the case of three
brothers, should the middle brother fail, the younger, and not
the older, is entitled to succeed as heir male.
The title of Lord Belhaven was assumed by William
Hamilton, captain of the 44th regiment of foot, lineal descen-
dant and heir male of John Hamilton of Cktltness, the eldest
of the three brothers, and he voted at the general election in
1790 as Ix>rd Belhaven. An objection was taken to his right,
and evidence was gix'en that there were male descendants of
the body of William Hamilton of Wishaw, the yoimgest of the
three brothern: consequently the character of heir male
whatever of John, second Lord Belhaven, the patentee of
1765, could not belong to the gentleman who had assumed
the title and voted at the election. This argument was sup-
ported by the Attorney-General, attending on behalf of the
crown, and the Ix)rd»' Committee of Privileges, on 5th June
1793, unanimously resolved that the votes given at the elec-
tion by the said Captjun Hamilton, tmder the title of Lord
Belhaven, were not good, and this resolution was confirmed
by the house of peers. Soon after, \\1lliam Hamilton of
Wishaw, eldest son and heir of Robert already mentioned as
the nearest male heir, who had died in 1784, presented to the
king a petition, claiming the title, honours, and dignity of
Lord Belhaven ; which petition was, as is customary, referred
to the House of Peers and the Lords* Committee of Pri\ileges.
The claim was decided in his favour in 1799.
Robert Hamilton of Wishaw, who, as above explained, on
the death of James, fifth Lord Belhaven, in 1777, became, in
the legal course of succession, entitled to the honours, was of
right the nxth I^rd Belhaven, but he did not assume the
title. He married at Edinburgh, Ist February 1764, Susan,
second daughter of Sir Michael Balfour of Denmiln, in Fife,
Baronet, and by her, who died 9th January 1789, he had
three sons and five daughters; the younger children taking
the style of Honourable; as their father was legally entitled to
the peemge of Belhaven.
llie eldest son, William, seventh I>ord Belhaven, was bom
13th January 1765, and succeeded his father in 1784, but
did not assume the title till the decision of the house of peers
in his favour in 1799. His lordship was an ofiicer in the
third, or king's own regiment of dragoons, afterwards colonel
of the Lanarkshire and Dumbartonshire Fendble cavalry, and
lieutenant-colonel of the Royal J.Anarkshu'e Militia. He mar-
ric<l at Edinburgh, dd March 1789, Penelope, youngest daugh-
ter of Ronald Macdonald of Clanronald in Invemess-shire,
and had issue two sons and five daughters, 'namely, Robert
Montgomery, eighth J^rd Belhaven; Hon. William, East In-
dia Company's service, bom in 1797, married Mrs. M. A.
Mendes, widow of J. P. Mendes, Esq., and died in 1838 ;
Hon. Penelope; Hon. Susan-Mary, married 16th November,
1820, to Peter Ramsay, Esq., Banker, Edinbnigh; Hon.
Flora; Hon. Jean, and Hon. Bethia.
Robert Montgomery Hamilton, eighth lx)rd Belhaven, was
bom in 1793, and succeeded his father, on his death, in 1814*
He was one of the sixteen representatives of the Scottish
peerage, and in 1831 was created Baron Hamilton of Wishaw,
ill the peerage of the United Kingdom. For many succes-
sive years Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly
of the Church of Scotland, and always reappointed under the
Whig administration ; Vice-lieutenant and Convener of the
county of I^mark. He mairied, in 1816, Hamilton, second
daughter of Walter Campbell, Esq. of Shaw field, and Mrs.
Mary Hamilton of Pencaitland, Saltcoats, &c. ; without is-
sue. Heir presumptive to the title believed to be James
Hamilton, son of the Hon. William Hamilton, who, as al-
ready stated, died in 1838.
BELHAVEN, second Lord, whose own nanie
was John Hamilton, a distinguished patriot, was
born July 5, 1656. He was the eldest son of Ro-
beii; Hamilton of Barncluith, one of the senators
of the college of justice, under the name of Lord
Pressmaunan, as stated above; and he married
Margaret, grand-daughter of the first Lord Belha-
ven, who died in 1679. After his accession to the
title he took a prominent part in public affairs,
and soon became conspicuous for Iiis opposition to
the tjginnical measures of Charles the Second*^
government in Scotland. In the Scots parliament
of 1681, when the act for the test was brought
forward, Lord Belhaven declared ^^ that he saw a
veiy good act for securing our religion from one
another among the subjects themselves; but he
did not see an act for securing our religion against
a popish or fanatical successor to the Crown."
For these words, he was committed piisoner to
the Castle of Edinburgh, and the King's Advocate
declared that tliere was matter for an accusation
of treason against him. But a few days thereafter
his lordship was, on his submission, restored to
liberty.
After the Revolution, he attended the meeting
of the Scottish nobility in London, held In Januar>'
1689, and concun*cd in the address to the Prince
of Orange to assume the government. He was
present in the subsequent Convention of Estates,
and contributed much to the settling of the Crown
upon AVilliam and Maty, he was chosen one
of the new king's privy councilloi's for Scotland,
and appointed a Commissioner for executing the
office of lord register. At the battle of Killie-
crankie, July 27, 1689, he commanded a troop of
horse. On the accession of Queen Anne he was
continued a privy councillor, and in 1704 was
nominated one of the commissioners of the trea-
sury, which office he only held a \'car.
AVIicn the treaty of union with England was
under discussion, Lord Belhaven was one of those
who principally distinguished themselves by their
determined opposition to the measure: and his
nen'ous and eloquent speeches on the occasion are
pre^rvcd in various publications. In 1708, when
the Pretender, assisted by the Fronch, attempted
to make a descent on Scotland, Lord Belhaven
was apprehended on suspicion of favouring the 'n-
111
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BELL,
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ANDREW.
vasioD, and conveyed to Loudon. I lis bigli spirit
burst at llie disgrace, and he died of inflammation
of the brain, Jane 21, 1708, immediately after his
release from imprisonment. A contemporary
writer says that he was of a good statai*e, well
set, of a healthy constitution, a graceful and manly
presence; had a quick conception, with a ready
and masculine expression, and was steady in his
principles, both in politics and religion. The fol-
lomng is a ]K)rtrait of his lordship from one in
Pinkcrton's Scottish Gallciy
The following are l^ord Belhaven s publications,
in virtue of which he has been admitted intoWal-
pole's Royal and Noble Autiiors :
An Adnce to the Farmers of East Lothian to Cultivate
and Improve their Grounds.
His speech in the Scots Pairliamcnt concerning the imion,
published in 1706
Memorable Speeches in the I^st Parliament of Scotland
1706 reprinted m 17?3
BELL, surname of, see Suppleme.vt.
BELL, Andrkw, D.I), and LL.I)., founder of
the Madras system of education, born at St. An-
drews in 1753, was educated in the university there
Some part of his early life was spent in America,
and havingentered into holy orders, in 1789 he went
to India as chaplain to the lion. E. I Company at
Fort - Grcorge, and minister of St. Mary's at
Madras. Whilst in this capacity he was led by
cii-cumstances to the formation of a new and im-
proved system of education, the advantages of
which were early acknowledged. Having under-
taken the superintendence of the Military Male
Orphan Asylum, which had been instituted by the
Company at that station, he introduced the plan of
mutual tuition by the scholars themselves, and it
is highly honourable to his character that he
declined to receive the remuneration of 1,200
pagodas (£480) allowed by the Company as the
salary of the superintendent ; the institution being
supported chiefly by voluntary subscriptions. It
was while engaged in this pleasing duty, that he
invented that excellent plan of instruction which
IS now known by the name of the Madras System
of elementary education. He i-etnrned to Eng-
land in 1797, on account of his health. On leav-
uig India, the directors of the asylum passed a
resolution for providing him a free passage home,
declaring, at the same time, that, ** under the wise
and judicious regulations which he had established,
the institution had been brought to a degree of
l)erfection and promising utility, far exceeding
what the most sanguine hopes could have sug-
gested at the time of its establishment ; and that
he was entitled to their fullest approbation for his
zealous and disintei-est^d conduct." Soon after
nis annval in England, he published a pamphlet,
entitled ^An Experiment in Education, made at
the Male Asylum of Madras ; suggesting a System
by which a School or Family may teach itself,
under the superintendence of the Master or
Parent.' In 1798 his system was adopted in St.
Rotolph's, Aldgate, and in the Kendal Schools of
Industry. The system, indeed, has been found to
work so well in practice, that it has since been
adopted in every civilized nation in the world.
In Great Britain alone there were, in 1883, " ten
thousand schools, without any legislative assist-
ance, whei'ein six hundred thousand children were
educated by voluntary aid and charity ;" and the
number has been every year since then on the
inci*ease. The most gratifying testimonials were
transmitted to Dr. Bell, in proof of the excellence
of his plan. These he had the satisfaction of
receiving not only from the highest quarters iu
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BELL,
272
ANDREW.
this country, but from several governments and
learned bodies throughout Europe, Asia, and
America. A vast improvement in the religious
and moral condition of the lower classes is found
to take place wherever his system is adopted; and
the labours of this illustrious individual well entitle
him to be considered one of the greatest bene-
factors of mankind. Mr. Lancaster's plan was not
propounded till tlie year 1803, and in his eai-ly
publications he not only admitted the priority of
Dr. Beirs system, but acknowledged his obliga-
tions to him for some improvements which he had
grafted on his own ; although he afterwards
endeavoured to claim the whole merit of the
invention to himself. The original discovery,
however, is now universally allowed to belong to
Dr. Bell, " who," in Lancaster's own words, " so
nobly gave up his time and liberal salary, that he
might peifect that institution, (the Male Asylum
at Madras,) which flourished greatly under his
fostering care." The evening of Dr. Bell's pious
and useful life was passed at Cheltenham, where
his benevolence and many virtues gained him the
affection and respect of all classes of the com-
munity. He had amassed a lai-ge fortune, which,
with the generous feelings which ever actuated
him, he bequeathed for educational purposes to
several institutions in Scotland. To his native
city of St. Andrews he left £10,000, besides a sum
of £50,000 for the building and endowment of a
new college there. Altogether he distributed no
less a sum than £120,000 among various national
institutions and public charities. The mastei-ship
of Sherbom Hospital, Durham, was confen-ed on
him by Bishop Barrington. He was also a fellow
of the Asiatic Society, and of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh. In 1819 he received a Frcbendal
Stall at Westminster. Among the valuable works
which, in his later years, he published on the system
of education, were * The Elements of Tuition ;
'The English School;' and 'Mutual Tuition and
Moral Discipline, or a Manual of Instructions for
conducting schools through the agency of the
scholars themselves, for the use of Schools and
Families. With an Introductory Essay on the
Object and Importance of the Madras system of
Education, a brief Exposition of the Principles on
which it is founded; and an historical sketch of its
Rise, Progress, and Results.' The seventh edition
of the latter work appeared in 1823. These will
ever occupy a distinguished place in the educa-
tional department of our national literature. Dr.
Bell died at Lindsay cottage, Cheltenham, January
27, 1832, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
The committee of the National Society for the
education of the poor passed the following resolu-
tion at its first meeting after his decease : *' That
the committee having learnt that it has pleased
Almighty God to remove from this present life the
Rev. Dr. Bell, the superintendent of the Society's
schools, deem it incumbent upon them to pay a
public mark of respect to the memory of a man
who may justly be regarded as the founder of a
system of education, which, under the divine bless-
ing, has been productive of incalculable benefits
to this church and nation ; and that, as it is un-
derstood that his remains aro to be interred in
Westminster Abbey, the secretary be directed tc
ascertain the day fixed for his interment, and
communicate the same to the committee for the
information of such members as may find it con-
venient to attend." In the funeral procession were
the carriages of the archbishop of Cinterbuiy, and
of several bishops and persons of distlncUoa.
Tlie following is a list of Dr Bell's works :
A Sermon on the Education of the Poor on an improved
sjstem. 1807, 8vo.
An Experiment in Education, made at the Male Asylum of
Madras; suggesting a system by which a school or family
may teach itself, under the superintendence of ths Master or
Parent London, 1797, 8vo
An Analysis of the Experiment in Education made at Eg-
more, near Madras, suggesting a scheme for the better admi-
nistration of the poor laws, by converting Schools for the
lower orders of youth into Schools of Industry. Loud. 1797,
8vo. 8d. edit 1807, 8vo.
Instructions for conducting Schools on the Madras System.
Lond. 1799, 12mo. 8d. edit 1812, 12mo.
The Madras School ; or Elements of Tuition, comprising an
Analysis of an Experiment in Education, made at the Male
Asylum, Madras, with its Facts, Proofs, and Illustrations.
Lond. 1808, 8vo.
National Education; or, a short account of the Efibrts
which have been made to educate the Children of the Poor,
according to the new System of Education invented by Dr.
Bell; including an account of the recent establishment of the
National Society, with a letter on the subject of National
Education. 1812, 12mo.
Ludus Literarius; or Elements of Tuition. Part ilL 1815,
8vo.
Brief Manual of Mutual Instruction and Discipline.
The English School
Mutual Tuition and Moral Discipline. 7th edition, 1833.
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BELL,
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JOTIX.
BELL, Benjamin, an eminent surgeon, the son
of a respectable fwmer, was born at Dumfries in
1749. Ills father, Mr. George Bell, liad in his
youth been engaged in the Levant trade; but,
having met with serious losses, and been made
prisoner by the Spaniards, on his i*etm'n to Scot-
land, he took a farm in Eskdalc, belonging to the
duke of Buccleuch, where he lived to an advanced
age. Benjamin received the rudiments of his edu-
cation at the grammar school of his native town,
the rector of which was Dr. Geoi-ge Chapman,
author of an esteemed work on education, who
paid great attention to the classical instruction of
his scholars. The estate of Blackett House in
Dnmfries-shune, which for several centuries had
belonged to his progenitors, having devolved
on him on the death of his grandfather, he
gave a i-emarkable instance of disinterested ge-
nerosity by disposing of it, and applying the
sum received for it in educating himself and the
younger branches of the family — fourteen in num-
ber. After serving his apprenticeship to Mr.
Hill, surgeon and apothecaiy in Dumfries, in 176G
he proceeded to Edinburgh, and entered upon his
medical studies. In due time he passed the usual
examinations at Surgeons* Hall, and was admitted
a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edin-
burgh. In 1770 he visited Paris and London, re-
maining in each capital for several months, in
order to improve himself in surgery. In 1772 he
returned to Edinburgh, and immediately com-
menced his professional duties. Both as a skilful
operator and consulting surgeon, his reputation
soon rose very high, and in a short time he was
established in an extensive practice. In 1778 he
published the first Aolume of his System of Sur-
gery. The remaining volumes appeared at inter-
vals, until the whole work was completed in six
volumes 8vo, in 1788. For this work there was
an extensive demand, and it reached to seven edi-
tions, the last of which was much improved, and
had an additional volume. In 1793 he published
a treatise on Gonorrhoea, and in the year following
a 'Treatise on Hydrocele,' but these were never
very popular. He died April 4, 1806. A portrait
of him, from a painting by Sir Henry Raebum,
engraved by Bengo, appeared in the Scots Maga-
zine for 1801. The subjoined is from Kay :
He had married, in 1774, the daughter of Dr. Ro-
bert Hamilton, professor of divinity in the univer-
sity of Edinburgh, by whom he had four sons.
Mr. Robert Bell, advocate, procurator for the
Cliurch of Scotland, was his 2d son. See Supplk-
MENT, — Beix, surname of. Dv. Bell's works are*
Treatise on the Theory and .Management of Ulcers, with a
Dissertation on White Swellings of the Joints, and an Kssny
on the Surgical treatment of Inflammation and its conse-
quences. Edin. 1778, 8vo. Sd. edit. 1784, much enlarged.
A System of Surgery. Edin. 1783, vol. I, 8vo. Vols. ii.
and iii. 1784. Vol. iv. 1785, 8vo. Vol. v. 1787. Vol. vi.
and last, 1788, 8vo. A new edition, 1792, 6 vols. 8vo.
Another edition, 1796, 7 vols. 8vo.
Tmtise on the Gonorrhoea Virulcnta, and Lues Venerea.
Edin. 1793, 2 vols. 8vo.
A Treatise on the Hydrocele, or Sarcocele, or Cancer, ami
other Diseases of the Testes. Edin. 179-J, 8vo.
Three Essays; on Taxation of Income; on the National
Debt; the Public Funds, &c Edin. 1799, 8vo.
Essays on agriculture, with a plan for tlic speedy and gene-
ral i)nprovement of Land in Great Britain. Edin. 1802, 8vo.
Case of Epilepsy considerably relieved by Flowera of Zinc.
Med. Com. l p. 2(»4. 1773.
Case in which some of the Vertebne were found dissolved,
lb. iii. p. 82. 1775.
BELL, John, of Antcrmony^ a celebrated tra-
veller, the son of Patrick Bell, who inherited that
estate from an honourable line of anccstore, and of
Anabel Stirling, daughter of Mungo Stirling of
Craigbamet, was born in the parish of Campsic,
Stirlingshire, (where his paternal estate was situ-
s
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BELL,
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JOHN.
ated,) in 1691. Ho received an excellent educa-
lion, and having chosen the medical profession, he
passed physician in tlie twenty-third year of his
age. He soon after i-csolved to travel. Of his
motives for doing so he has himself infoimed us, in
the preface to his interesting book of travels, in
which he says, *' In my youth I had a strong de-
sire of seeing foreign parts, to satisfy which incli-
nation, after having obtained, from some persons of
worth, recommendatory letters to Dr. Areskine,
chief physician and privy counsellor to the Czar
Peter the First, I cmbaikcd at London in the month
of July 1714, on board the Prosperity of Ramsgate,
Captain Emerson, for St. Petereburg." On Bell's
arrival he was introduced to Peter the Great, who
at that very time was preparing an embassy to
Pei*sia; and Dr. Areskine having recommended
him, as one skilled in surgery and physic, to Ar-
temy Petrovich Valensky, the person chosen to go
to the Persian court as Russian ambassador, he
was immediately engaged as surgeon and physi-
cian to the expedition. On the 15th July 1715
the embassy left St. Petersburg. " Tliat city,"
he says, ^* which has since grown so considerable,
was then in its infancy, having been founded only
ten or eleven years before." They pi-oceeded to
Moscow, and thence to Caznn, where the severity
of the weather compelled them to remain till June
4, 1716. They next sailed down the Wolga to
Astracan, and then went by the Caspian sea to
Derbent, and proceeded by Taurus and Saba to
Ispahan; where they anived March 13, 1717.
After remaining in that city about six months,
they set out on their return to St. Petersburg,
which they reached December 80, 1718. In these
long journeys Bell found ample gratification for
his " strong desire of seeing foreign parts," as well
as for his spirit of adventure ; and, accordingly,
the account which he published of the places he
visited, and the scenes he passed through, is full
of interest. At the close of it he informs his read-
ers, that in spite of the Swedish war, in which the
Czar was then engaged, the Russian capital had
been so improved and beautified during his ab-
sence, that he scarcely knew it again. On his
arrival ho learnt, to his great giief, that his pa-
tron. Dr. Areskine, was dead ; but Peter the Great
being about to send a grand embassy to China,
he was recommended by Valensky to Leoff Vasi-
lovich Ismayluff, the ambassador appointed to go
to Pekin, who readily engaged his services. They
departed from St. Petersburg, July 14, 1719, and
travelled by Moscow, and through Siberia and the
great Tartar deserts, to the celebrated wall of
China, arriving at Pekin " after a tedious journey
of sixteen months." They quitted the Chinese
capital March 2, 1721, and arrived at Moscow
Januai-y 5, 1722. His account of this journey,
and pai'ticulaiiy his description of the manners,
customs and superstitions of the Chinese, is the
most intercsting part of his book. Peter the
Great having concluded peace with Sweden, re-
solved to assist the Shah of Persia against the
Afghans, who had invaded his territories, and
seized upon Candahar and other provinces on the
fi-ontiere. In May 1722, Bell, whose services
were engaged in this expedition, accompanied the
Czar and his empress with the army to Derbent, a
celebrated pass between the foot of the Caucasus
and the Caspian sea. He returned to St. Peters-
burg in December 1722. During their march
homewaids the Russians were much annoyed by
the incessant attacks of the half-savago mountain
tribes ; and Peter and his empress were frequently
exposed to great danger on the journey. In his
account of this expedition. Bell gives a brief but
excellent description of Tzercassia, or Circassia.
Soon after, Mr. Bell revisited his paternal estate
in Scotland, wherc he resided for some time, and
seems to have retunied to St. Petersburg about
1734. In 1737, in consequence of the war in
which Russia was then engaged with Turkey, he
was singled out as the fittest pei-son to go to Con-
stantinople to treat of peace, the Czar wishing to
put an end to hostilities. This mission he under-
took at the desire of Count Osterman, grand
chancellor of Russia, and of Mr. Rondean, British
minister at the Russian court. Quitting St. Pe-
tersbui-g, December 6, 1737, he arrived at Con-
stantinople with only one seiTant who could speak
the Turkhih language. He returned to the Rus-
sian capital May 17, 1738. He seems to have
afterwards settled as a merchant at Constantino-
ple, where he continued for some years. About
1746 he married Mary Peters, a Russian lady, and
in 1747 returned to Scotland. The latter part of
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BELL,
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JOHN.
his active life was spent in ease and affluence on
bis est^ite. He is described as a warm-hearted
and benevolent i)erson ; and such was his sincerity
and good faith, that he obtained from his friends
the title of " Honest John Bell." He died at An-
termony, July 1, 1780, at the age of 89. Although
fond of talking about his journeys and adventui*es,
he does not seem to have had any desire to pub-
lish his travels, till urged to it by one distinguished
friend. In his preface, dated Oct. 1, 1762, he tells
us that about four years before, " spending some
days at the house of a right honourable and most
honoured friend," his travels became the subject
of conversation, and he was pressed to prepare his
work for publication, which he diffidently consented
to. Tlie work, under the title of 'Travels from
St. Petersburg in Russia to Various Parts in Asia,*
2 vols. 4to, was published by subscription in Glas-
gow in 1763. A writer in the Quarterly Review
for 1817, who styles this work " the best model
perhaps for travel-writing in the English language,"
adds in a note : — " For many years after Mr. Bell
returned fix)m his travels, he used to amuse his
friends with accounts of what he had seen, re-
freshing his recollection from a simple diary of oc-
currences and observations. The earl Granville,
then president of the council, on hearing some of
his adventures, prevailed on him to throw his
notes together into the form of a narrative, which,
when done, pleased him so much that he sent the
manuscript to Dr. Robertson, with a particular
request that he would revise and put it into a tit
state for the press. The literary avocations of the
Scottish historian at that time not allowing him
to undertake the task, he recommended Mr. Bar-
ron, a professor in the university of Aberdeen, and
on this gentleman consulting Dr. Robertson as to
the style and the book of travels which he would
recommend him to adopt for his guide, the histo-
rian replied, *Take Gulliver's Travels for your
modf.l, and you cannot go wrong.' He did so,
and 'Bcirs Travels* have all the simplicity of
Gulliver, with the advantage which tnith always
carries over fiction.** The latter part of this stoiy
is very unlikely. The simplicity of the style is an
evidence that the book was Bell's own composi-
tion. Of Beirs work there have been various edi-
tions; and a French translation, including a Jour-
nal kept by M. de Lange, attachd to the embassy
to Pekin, was published on the continent, where
it became very popular.— AT CVi>*5 History of
Glasgow. — Quarterly Review for 1817.
BELL, John, an eminent surgeon and anato-
mist, the first who, in Scotland, successfully ap-
plied the science of anatomy to practical surgery,
was bom in Edinburgh, May 12, 1763. His pa-
ternal grandfather was minister of Gladsmuir in
East Lothian ; and he was the second son of the
Rev. William Bell, who, while very yonng, was
induced to become a member, and afterwards a
minister, of the episcopalian church in Edinburgh.
His mother was Miss Morrice, the grand-daughter
of Bishop White. There were eight children of
the marriage, and of these four distinguished them-
selves in their respective professions, namely, his
eldest brother, Robert Bell, Esq., Advocate, pro-
fessor of conveyancing to the Society of Writera to
the Signet, author of the Scots Law Dictionary,
and of several other works on the law of Scotland,
who died in 1816; John Bell, the subject of this
article; George Joseph Bell, Esq., Advocate, pro-
fessor of the Scots law in the university of Edin-
burgh, appointed one of the principal clerks of
Session, in 1831, and author of Commentaries on
the Law of Scotland, of whom a notice immedi-
ately follows ; and Sir Charles Bell, F.R.S., Lon-
don, a distinguished anatomist, a memoir of whom
is also subsequently given.
The following interesting anecdote is told, to
account for John*s being educated for the medical
profession. About a month before his birth, his
father, then 69 years old, had submitted to an
operation for the cure of stone, and his gratitude
for the relief he had experienced led him to devote
to the cause of medicine, and the benefit of mankind,
the talent of the son, bom while he was recovering
from that severe malady. John Bell, after receiv-
ing his education at the High School of Edinburgh,
became the pupil of the late Mr. Alexander Wood,
surgeon there. He entered on his medical studies
with enthusiasm, and was soon distinguished for
his attainments both in midwifery and chemistry.
The Edinburgh university at that period conld
boast of possessing some of the most accomplished
professors in Europe. Of these Dr. Black, Dr.
Cullen, and the second Dr. Monro, were the most
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JOHN.
eminent. Bell stndicd anatomy nnder the latter,
and it was >Yliile attending his classes that the
idea of teaching the application of anatomy to
surgery, a branch of medical instniction which
was overlooked by Moni*o, firat suggested itself
to him. Before entering on his professional
career, ho travelled for some time in Russia
and the north of Europe. On his retuni he
began to lecture on surgery and anatomy. In
1790 he built a theatre in Surgeons' Square, Edin-
burgh, where he carried on dissections, and laid
the foundation of a muscn n. This establishment
of a sepai-ate school on his part was considered at
the time as an encroachment on the rights of the
professors. In 1793 he published the firet volume
of his 'Anatomy of the Human Body,' consisting
of a description of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints.
In 1797 appeared the second volume, containing
the Heart and Arteries; and in 1802 the third
volume, containing the Anatomy of the Brain, de-
scription of the course of the Nerves, and the An-
atomy of the Eye and Ear. Being in the habit of
introducing into his lectures remarks derogatoiy to
Dr. Monro's eminence as an anatomist, as well as of
criticising severely Mr. Benjamin Bell's system of
surgery, a pamphlet was publisl^ed in 1799, en-
titled * Review of the Writings of John Bell, Esq.
by Jonathan Dawplucker;' which, nnder the pre-
tence of eulogising the first volume of his Anatomy,
represented him as a plagiarist, and vindicated
Dr. Monro and Mr. Benjamin Bell from his un-
favourable observations. The author of this pam-
phlet was supposed to be some friend of the latter.
Mr. John Bell replied by publishing a second num-
ber of the Review, under the same name of Jona-
than Dawplucker, addressed to Mr. Benjamin Bell,
in which he i*etaliated in a similar strain on the lat^
ter's system of surgery, which from that time quite
lost its populai'ity with the students. In 1796 he
was induced, by the increase of his practice, to
discontinue his lectures, in which his brother
Charles had been for some time united with him ;
the one taking the surgical and the other the ana-
tomical department. About this time the dispute
as to the right of the junior members of the Col-
lege of Suigeons in Edmburgh to perform opera-
tions in the Royal Infirmary, engrossed the medi-
cal profession in that city almost exclusively, and
led to much bad feeUng among them. By the new
system adopted in the surgical attendance at the
Infii-mary, principally on the recommendation of
Dr. Gregory, Mr. Bell, whose expertnesa as an
operator was universally acknowledged, was with
his pupils excluded from that institution. To the
memorial given in by Dr. James Gregory to the
managers of the Infirmary on this occa^iion, he
wi-ote an answer which was publishe<l in 1800.
He likewise made an appeal personally to the
boai*d of the Infirmary, at the same time produc-
ing, as evidence of the utility and necessity of his
system of teaching, six folio books filled with sur-
gical drawings and cases. But his remonstrance
proving ineffectual, he brought the question before
the courts of law, whether the managers had the
power to exclude him from the Infirmary, and it
was decided against him. In this unfortunate
controversy both Dr. Gregory and Mr. Bell were
indefatigable in writing against each other; the
principal work produced by Bell on the subject
being ' letters on Professional Character and
Manners,' addressed to Dr. Gregory, and pub-
lished at Edinburgh in 1810 ; which is conceived
in a tone of great bitterness and saixasm. In
1798 he went to Yarmouth, and passed some
weeks among the men belonging to Lord Duncan's
fleet who had been wounded at Camperdown;
applying himself with his accustomed activity to
the cure of the sufferei*s. In 1803, when Great
Britain was threatened by Buonaparte with in-
vasion, he made an offer to government for the
embodying of a coitus of young men to be in-
stnicted in military surgery, and in the duties of
the camp and hospital, with the view of their
being of service in defence of the country. The
offer was first accepted, but subsequently declined.
He now devoted himself with increased zeal to his
practice, which was very extensive, his works and
his high character as an operator and consulting
surgeon having made his name celebrated not only
in Great Britain, but on the continent. In 1805
he married the daughter of Dr. Congalton, a re-
tired physician of Edinburgh, but had no family.
Early in 1816 he was thrown from hU hoi-se, and
seems never to have entirely recovered from the
effects of this accident. His constitution was
never very strong, and his health having very
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GEORGE JOSEPH.
much declined, he was iudoced, in the autumn of
tliat year, to travel on the continent. After visit-
ing Paiia he proceeded to Italy, and ultimately
arrived at Rome, where he died of dropsy, April
15, 1820, in the 57th year of his age. In the
conrac of his last journey he had made notes of
his * Observations on Italy,* which were published
by his widow after his decease, edited by the late
Bishop Sandford of Edinburgh. This work shows
that he possessed talents for general literature of
a very superior order, which required onl}' culti-
vation to have made him as eminent in this de-
partment as his professional attainments had ren-
dered him distinguished in his own peculiar sphere.
Mr. Bell was under the middle size, but ex-
ceedingly well-proportioned. He was of a gener-
ous disposition, lively temperament, and indepen-
dent character. In the fine arts his tastes had
been highly cultivated. His anatomical drawings
were remarkable for the correctness and skill with
which they were executed. His musical par
ties were celebrated in their day. Although his
income was large, it was not sufficient for his style
of living, which demanded an expenditure greater
than his resources could at all times meet ; hence
he was sometimes placed In circumstances of great
embarrassment. Endowed with varied talents,
and possessing great energy and industry, with
uncommon facility in communicating his ideas,
and singular acuteness and discrimination in avail-
ing himself of all knowledge essential to surgical
science, this eminent man had yet little acquaintance
with the world, and but small patience with the
prejudices which society and the profession con-
tinned to retain. Popular and eloquent as a
lecturer, he was an entertaining and instructive
writer, and an acute and powerful controversialist,
though often severe and bitter in his remarks, even
beyond his intention and wish.
The following is a catalogue of his works :
The Anatomy of the Human Body; vol. i. containing? the
Bones, Muscks, and Joints. Edin. 1793, 8vo. Vol. ii. con-
taining the Heart and Arteries. Edin. 1797, 8vo. Vol. iii.
oontaining the anatomy of the Brain, Description of the
coarse of the Nerves, and the Anatomy of the Eye and
Ear, 1803. Complete edition, with plates by Charles Bell,
third edition, 1811, 8vo.
Engravings, explaining the Anatomy of the Bones, Bf oscles,
and Joints, drawn and engraved by the Anthor. Edin. 1794.
4to. Second edition, 1804, 4to. 1813, 4to.
Engravings of the Arteries, illustrating the second volume
of the Anatomy of the Human Body, royal 4 to, 1801; 3d
edition, 8vo. 1810.
Discourses on the Nature and Cure of Wounds. Edin.
1795, 2 vols. 8vo. 3d. ed. 1812.
Answer, for the Junior Members of the Royal College of
Surgeons of Edinburgh, to the Memorial of Dr. James Gre-
gory, on the Edinbiu^h Infirmary. Edin. 1800, 8vo.
Memorial concerning the Present State of MiHtary Surgery.
Edin. 1800, 8vo.
The Principles of Snrgeiy. Vol. i. of the Ordinary Duties
of the Surgeon ; containing the Principles of Surgery as they
relate to Wounds, Uk^rs, and Fistulas; Aneurisms, and
Wounded Arteries; Fractures of the Limbs; and the Duties
of the MiUtary and Hospital Surgeon ; with plates, accurately
coloured from Nature. Edin. 1801, 4to. Vol ii. containing
the Operations of Surgery, viz,. The Anatomy and Pathology
of the Skull and Brain; in the form of Discourses on the
Structure and Diseases of the Skull ; the Stmcture and Dis-
eases of the Brain; on Apoplexy, Palsy, Hydrocephalus,
Phrenzy, the various Species of Fractures of the Skull, and
the Operation of Trepan. Edin. 1806, 4to. Vol. iii. being
Consultations and Operations on the more important Surgical
Diseases, containmg a series of Cases, calculated to illustrate
chiefly the Doctrine of Tumours, and other irr^^lar parts of
Surgery: and to instruct the young Surgeon how to form his
Prognosis, and plan his Operations. 37 plates. Edin. 1 807, 4to.
Letters on Professional Character and Manners, on the
Education of a Surgeon, and the Duties and Qualifications of a
Phyncian, addressed to James Gregory', M.D. Edin. 1810, 8vo.
Observations on Italy. Posthumous work, edited by
Bishop Sandford of Edinburgh.
BELL, George Joseph, author of * Priuciples
of the Law of Scotland,* and other le^al works, a
brother of the preceding, was bom at Fountain-
bridge, near Edinburgh, on the 26th of March,
1770. He was educated at Edinburgh, and passed
advocate in 1791. He early turned his attention
to the study of mercantile law, a depai*tnieut of
Scottish jurisprudence at that time almost unre-
garded. His investigations, however, were not
limited to the law of Scotland, as he applied his
powerful mind to the thorough iuvestigatiou of
the principles of the mercantile jurisprudence of
the empire, the value of which in connection with
the growing commercial importance of Great
Britain he clearly foresaw. He was ])orhaps one
of the greatest masters of commercial jurispru-
dence generally that ever lived, and in particular
of that department of it relating to the laws of
bankruptcy ; and the various suggestions for their
improvement, contained in his published and un-
published writings (which have in great part been
adopted into the legislation of the country), claim
the gratitude of posterity. In 1822 he was chosen
by tlie Faculty of Advocates to fill the chair of
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SIR CHARLES.
Scots law in the univereity of Edinburgh. As a
Lecturer on Scots Law lie was unsui-passed. His
style was terse and lucid in a remarkable degree.
In 1823 Mr. Bell was appointed a member of the
commission for inquiring into Scottish judicial pro-
ceedings. He was selected by his colleagues to
draw up their Report; and soon after he was
called up to London in order to assist the Com-
mittee of the House of I^rds in framing the bill.
Subsequently he was named member of a commis-
sion to examine into and simplify the mode of
proceeding in the court of session. The report of
this commission was the groundwork of the Scot-
tish Judicature Act, prepared by Mr. Bell, by
Avhich many important changes were effected in
the forms of process ; the Juiy Court, as a sepa-
rate judicature^ being abolished, and conjoined with
the Court of Session.
In 1831 Mr. Bell was appointed one of the
principal clerks of session, and in 1833 he was
named chairman of the Royal Commission to exa-
mine into the state of the law in general. About
the year 1831 he prepared a bill for the establish-
ment of a Court of Bankruptcy in Scotland, and
in his valuable notes accompanying the Bill for
this Act he paved the way for the introduction of
the institution of Bankruptcy courts with official
assignees in the United Empire, by which ali-eady
some millions have been saved to the commercial
world. He died 23d September, 1843. The fol-
lowing is a list of his works :
A Treatise on the Laws of Bankruptcy in Scotland. Edin.
1804, 2 Tols. 8vo. Enlai^ edition, with the title Commen-
taries on the Laws of Scotland, and on the principles of Mer-
cantile Jurisprudence, considered in relation to Bankruptcy,
Compositions of Creditors, and Imprisonment for Debt Edin.
1810, 4to; fifth edition, 1826, 2 vols. 4to.
Examination of the Objections stated against the Bill for
better regulating the Forms of Process in the Courts of Scot-
land. Edinburj^h, 1825, 8vo.
Principles of the Law of Scotland, for the nse of Students
in the University of Edinburgh. Edin., 1829, 8vo. The
same. Edin., 1830, 8vo. Fourth edition. Edin., 1839, 8vo.
Illustrations, from Adjudged Cases, of the Principles of the
Law of Scotland. Edin., 1838, 8 vols. 8vo.
Commentaries on the recent Statutes relative to Diligence
or Execution against the moveable Estate; Imprisonment;
Cessio Bonorum, and Sequestration in Mercantile Bankruptcy.
Edin., 1840, 4to.
BELL, Sir Charles, a distinguished surgeon,
lecturer, and medical writer, 3'oungest brother of
the preceding, and of John Bell the celebrated sur-
geon, was bom in Edinburgh in 1778. He was edu-
cated at the High School of his native place, and,
while yet a mere youth, he assisted his brother John
in his anatomical demonstrations, and lectured to
some hundreds of pupils on anatomy. In 1799 be
was admitted a member of the College of Surgeons,
Edinburgh. In the year previous, he had pub-
lished the first part of his ^ System of Dissections.*
He was soon afterwards appointed one of the sur-
geons of the Royal Inflrmaiy, where, throughout
all his connection with that hospital, he exhibited
remarkable skill as an operator. In 1806 be left
Edinburgh for London, the latter being a wider
and more promising field for professional exertion.
In 1811, he associated himself with Mr. James
Wilson, in the Hunterian school of Great Wind-
mill Street, as a lectm-er on anatomy and surgery,
and afterwards succeeded to it altogether. Here
he officiated for some yeare with great success.
In 1814 he was elected one of the surgeons of
Middlesex hospital, where, from the first week of
his appointment, he delivered clinical lectures,
which were spoken of with high approbation ir
the Medical Gazette, and obtained the sponta-
neous recommendation of many of the most dis-
tinguished physicians and surgeons of the metro-
polls. This institution he raised to the higiiest
repute, and on retiring from it in 1836, he justly
boasted of leaving it with " full wards, and one
hundred and twenty thousand pounds in thi*
Funds."
Having long been anxious to make himself
acquainted with the subject of gun-shot wounds^
he twice relinquished his engagements in Lon-
don, in order to obtain a knowledge of this de-
partment of practice. One of those occasions
was in 1809, immediately after the battle of
Corunna, vhen the wounded, hurried home in
transports, were landed on the southern coasts
of England, and the other was after the battle
of Waterloo, when he repaired to Brussels. Of
the former opportunity he particulaily availed
himself, and published a useful practical essay
*0n Gun-shot Wounds,' as an Appendix to his
' System of Operative Surgery,* which appeared in
two volumes in 1814. On occasion of his profes-
sional visit to Brussels, after the battle of Water-
loo, he was put in charge of an hospital, and af-
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SIR CHARLES.
forded his assistance to no fewer than 300 men.
•' Tlie drawings," says Mr. Pettigrew, in his Med-
ical Portrait Gallery, "with which he was thns
enabled to enrich his portfolio, have been referred
to as the finest specimens of water-colouring in
the English anatomical school." In 1812 he was
admitted a member of the Royal College of Snr-
(reons of London. It is related, that on this occa-
tion the examiners asked Mr. Bell, with suitable
gravity, what was his opinion of the probable fate of
Napoleon Bonaparte; and immediately on receiv-
ing his answer, declared themselves satisfied " with
the candidate's proficiency!"
Tlie most important of his professional studies
are those which relate to the ' Ncr\*ons System,'
various papers on which from his pen were insert-
ed in the * Philosophical Transactions,' the first of
which appeared in 1821. It was read before the
Royal Society, and excited immediate attention.
The main views there laid down had been printed
In a pamphlet entitled * Idea of a New Anatomy
of the Brain,' issued for distribution amongst his
friends, in 1811. This was fortunate for Mr. Bell,
as various persons, recognising the value of his
discovery, soon came forward to claim the merit
of it. The discovery was, indeed, a most impor-
tant one, and is thns explained by the ^-riter of
his biography in the National Cyclop»dia : " Be-
fore the time of Bell, all nerves were held to be
alike in diaracter, and were considered simply to
give more or less nervous susceptibility to any or-
gan, in proportion to the numbers in which they
were there distributed. Bell discovered, and show-
ed, that the nerves were natnrally distinguished
among themselves and clearly classified ; and that
^the nerves of sense (whether peculiar or general),
and those of motion, were totally distinct in their
character and origin. He, in fact, laid bare, for
the first time, the great fact of a distinction exist-
ing in the nature and quality of the nervous en-
ergy, which, before his Discourses, had been all
huddled together under one interpretation. As
respects the body and spinal marrow, Bell discov-
ered a division of the nerves perfectly analogous
to that detected by him in relation to the brain.
The common nerves distributed over the animal
tmnk fulfil the two grand functions of giving sen-
sation and motion. On cutting a spinal nerve,
the older anatomists found both feeling and mo-
tion to be lost by the part which is thence sup-
plied with nervous energy, and they concluded
that the nerve carried both qualities conjointly.
But Bell looked deeper into the matter ; and he
was rewarded by the discovery that the two roots,
by whidi the spinal nerves are connected with the
vei-tebral medulla, derive and bear from them dif-
ferent qualities — the anterior root conveying the
motor power, and the posterior that of sensation,
or the sensor power. Following up his inquiries,
he discovered, likewise, the special nerve of respi-
ration, and others with particular qualities, as to
which before his time not even a conjecture hnd
been made. Before quitting this subject, in which
Bell may be named as a discoverer equal even
with Harvey, we ought to point to one of his prac-
tical inferences from his own views, which esta-
blishes the existence of a sixth sense — that by
which we attain our knowledge of distance,
siee, weight, form, texture, and resistance of ob-
jects. Two of his essays, * On the Nervous Cir-
cle,' and * On the Eye,' have reference to this the-
ory. The basis of it is, that the nerves of sensa-
tion play the part of reporters on the motor nerves,
and indicate to the central seats of perception the
condition of things within the infinence of these
nerves, thus forming the sixth or muscular sense."
In 1824, he was appointed senior professor of
anatomy and surgery in the Royal College of
Surgeons, London, and he subsequently became a
member of the council. At the request of Lord
Brougham, he had written some papers on the
animal economy, for *The Library for the Difl'u-
sion of Useful Knowledge,' which were published
in 1828-29, and became deservedly popular, par-
ticularly his two dissertations on 'Animal Me-
chanics,' which had formed a portion of his lec-
tures at the'I^ndon College of Surgeons. He
afterwards edited, conjointly with his lordship,
the illustrated edition of 'Paley's Evidences of
Natural Religion,' published in 1836.
On the accession of William the Fourth, in
1831, he was one of the five eminent men in
science on whom the Guelphic Order of knighthood
was confened, the others being Sir John Herschel,
Sir David Brewster, Sir John Leslie, and Sir
James Ivory. On the establishment of the Jjon-
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SIR CHARLES.
i I
(loii nnivei-sity, now Uuivci*sity College, in 1826,
tlie goveniors of tlic new institution offered to
place Sir Charles at the head of their new medical
school. He accordingly delivered the general
opening lecture in this section of the college, and
followed it by a regular coni*se of characteristic
lectures on Physiology. In a short time, how-
ever, he gave in his resignation, and confined him-
self to his practice, which, though veiy extensive,
was chiefly in nei'vous affections. By his valuable
writings, the surgical knowledge of his time was
much advanced, and his discoveries on the nervons
system gave him a European fame.
Sir Charles was one of the eight eminent men
who were selected to write the celebrated Bridgc-
Avater Treatises, On the Power, Wisdom, and
Goodness of God, as manifested in the Works of
Creation ; his contribution being on * The Hand,
its mechanism and vital endowments, as evincing
design,' which was published in 1834. For this
^vork he received the premium of one thonsand
pounds.
In 1836 he was elected professor of surgery in
the university of Edinburgh, in the room of Dr.
Turner, when he removed to Edinburgh, having
been absent from that city thirty yeare. His
opening lecture as surgical professor was numer-
ously attended by professional and non-profea-
Bional men of eminence, and he held that chair
with great distinction till his lamented death,
llio only great work which, in his later years,
he was enabled to finish, was a new edition of
his * Anatomy of Expression,' lai-gely increased
and improved by his observations on an Italian
journey undertaken by him in one of the intervals
betwixt his sessions at college. Sir Charles died
suddenly of an attack of spasms or angina pectoris^
to which he was subject, on the morning of April
28, 1842, at Hallow Park, neai- Worcester, the
scat of Mrs. Holland, with whom he and Lady
Boll were making a short stay on their way to
I/Ondon. His boly was inten-ed on the 2d of
May in Hallow churchyard. He was a Fellow of
the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, and
a member of some other leamed bodies. He
maiTied, in 1811, the second daughter of Charles
Shaw, Esq., of Ayr. His wife sui'vived him.—
Subjoined is a portrait of Sir Charles :
The following is a list of Sir Charles BelPs
works
A Sy.stem of Dissections, explaining the Anatomy of the
Human Body, the manner of displaying the parts, and their
varieties in disease. Plates. Lond. 1798, 2 vols. fol. 2d
edit, in fol. illustrated with engravings. 3d edit. 1809, 2
vols. 12mo.
Engravings of the Arteries, illnstrating the two vols, of Uie
Anatomy of the Human Body, by John Bell, ana aening as
an introduction to the Surgerj* of the Arteries. Lond. 1801,
4 to. 8d edit. 1813, 8vo.
The Anatomy of the Brain explained, in a aeries of En-
gravings. Lond. 1802, 4to. 12 plates.
A Series of Engravings, explaining the course of the
Nen-es. Lond. 1804, 4to.
Essays on the Anatomy of Expression in Painting. Plates.
Lond. 1806, 4to. A nevi^ and enlarged edition was pablisbed
after his death* under the title of The Anatomy and Philo-
sophy of Expression as connected with the Fine Arts. J>onil.,
1844, 8vo.
A System of Operative Surgery, founded on the basis of
Anatomy, vol. i. Lond. 1807, royal 8vo. Vol. iL 1809
royal 8vo. 2d. edit. 1814, 2 vols. 8vo.
Idea of a new Anatomy of the Brain, printed fur private
circulation. 1811.
Account of the Muscles of the Ureter, with their eflfccts in
the irritable states of the Bladder. Med. Chir. Trans, tiu
171. 1812.
letters concerning the Diseases of the Urethra. I^nd.
1810, 8vo.
Engravings of Morbid Parts. Lond. 1813, fol.
Dissertation on Gun-shot Wounds. I^nd. 1814, 2 vols. %\tK
Anatomy and Physiology of the Human Body. 3 vols. 18' 6
Surgical Observations, a Quarteriy Report of Cases m Sur-
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BELL,
2^1
THOMAS.
p*i7 treated in the Middlesex Hospital. Lond. 1816, 8ra
4th Qtuirteriy Report. 1817, 8vo. Vol. ii. part i. 1818, 8vo.
Essay <« the Forces which CHrcoUto the Blood, 1819.
Treatise on the Diiieases of the Urethra, &c, 1820.
Various papers on the Nervous System, which originally
appeared in the Philosophical Transactions; commencing in
1><-21; published separately.
Illustrations of the Great Operations of Surgery, Trppnn,
Hernia, Ampntation, Aneoristn, and Lithotomy. liondon,
1821, 4to.
Observations on the Injuries of the Spine and of the Thigh
Bone, 1824, 4to.
Exposition of the Natural System of the Nerves of the
Human Body, 1824.
Paley*s Evidences of Natural Religion, edited conjointly
with Lord Brougham. London, 1886.
Institutes of Surgery. Edinburgh, 2 vols., 1838, 12mo.
Animal Mechanics; contributed to the Library for the
Didusion of Useful Knowledge.
Nen'ous System of the Human Body, 1830, 4to, new and
tomplete edition. Edinbui^h, 1836, 8vo.
Bridgewater Treatise on *The Hand, its Mechanism and
vital Endowments, as evincing design.^ I^ondon, 1834.
Practical Essays. Edinboi^gh, 1841, 8vo.
BELL, IIbnby, the first snccessful applier of
steam to the purpo.scs of navigation in Europe,
was the fiftli son of Patrick Bell, a mechanic, and
was bom at Torpliichen, in llie county of Linlith-
gow, April 7, 1767. He received what little edu-
cation he ever possessed at the parish school; and
in 1780 was sent to learn the art of a stone mason.
Disliking this employment, in 1783 he was bound
apprentice to his uncle, a millwright in the neigh -
bonrhood. He afterwards went to BoiTowstoun-
ncss, to be instructed in ship-modelling; and in
1787 he engaged with Mr. James Inglis, engineer
at BelPs Hill, with the view of completing his
Knowledge of mechanics. Having snbseqnently re-
paired to London, he was for some time employed by
the celebrated Mr. Rennie. About the year 1790
lie returned to Glasgow, and for several yeai-a
worked there as a house-carpenter. In 1808 he
removed to Helensburgh, nearly opposite Green-
ock, where, while his wife kept the principal inn,
he employed himself chiefly in pursuing a series of
mechanical projects and experiments, which gen-
erally ended in failure and disappointment ; but he
at last hit upon the important discovery of the
successful application of steam to the purposes of
navigation. Dr. Cleland, in his work on Glas-
gow, states, that it may be said, without the hazard
of impropriety, that he " invented" the steam-pro-
pelling sjrstem, ** for he knew nothing of the prin-
ciples which had been so successfully followed out
by Mr. Fulton," a Scottish engineer in America,
who, on Oct. 3, 1807, launched his first steamboat
on the Hudson. In 1811, Bell caused a vessel, 40
feet in length, to be built on a plan entii-ely his own,
which was named ^ the Comet,* that year being
remarkable for the appearance of a large comet.
He constructed the steam-engine himself, and in
January 1812, the first trial in Europe of a steam -
vessel took place on the river Clyde. Dr. Cleland
adds, " After various experiments, the Comet was
at length propelled on the Clyde by an engine of
three -hoi*3e power, which was subsequently in-
creased to six. Mr. Bell continued t3 encounter
and overcome the various and indescribable diffi-
culties incident to invention, till his ultimate suc-
cess encouraged others to embark in similar under-
takings." Bell himself did not realize any advan-
ta<^ from his discovery. In his old age he would
have been in a very destitute condition, had it not
been for the liberality of the citizens of Glasgow,
and other places, who benevolently came to his
aid. A public subscription having been entered
into on his behalf, a considerable sum was raised.
Besides this, he received from the trustees of the
river Clyde an annuity of one hundred pounds,
which he enjoyed for several yeai-s, and the half of
which at his death was continued to his widow.
He died at Helensburgh, November 14, 1830.
BELL, Thomas, the Rev., author of several
religious works, and father of James Bell, the
geographical writer, was l>orn at Moffat, Decem-
ber 24, 1738. After having studied at the unl-
vei-sity of Edinburgh, he was in 1767 licensed as
a pi-eacher by the presbytery of Relief, and the
same year became the minister of the Relief con-
gregation at Jedburgh. In 1777 he obtained the
pastoral charge of a congregation in the Relief
communion in Glasgow, in which city he died,
October 15, 1802. He published in 1780 a work
entitled ^Tlie Standard of the Spirit lifted up
against the Enemy coming in like a Flood,' being
the substance of several sermons preached at
Glasgow. In 1785 appeared * A Proof of the trae
and eternal Godliead of the Lord Jesus Christ,* a
translation from the Dutch. He likewise tnms-
lated a work from the Latin, * On the Controver-
sies agitated in Great Britain under the unhappy
names of Antinomians and Neonomians,* with
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BELL.
282
BELLENDEN.
uotes, which, with ^Sermons oh various iinpor- |
taut Subjects,' and ' A View of the Covenants of
Works and Grace,' were published at Glasgow
after his death. He left several works in manuscript.
BELL, Jame?, an eminent geographical writer,
son of the preceding, was born at Jedburgh in
1769. In 1777, he removed with his father to
Glasgow, where ho received a liberal education,
and afterwards served his apprenticeship to the
weaving business. In 1790 he commenced trade
on his own account, as a manufacturer of cotton
goods upon a lai'ge and respectable scale, and with
every prospect of success. In consequence, how-
ever, of the mercantile depression that occuiTcd in
1793, Mr. Bell was obliged to give up business;
and he subsequently acted for a number of years
as a common warper in the warehouses of different
manufacturers. About the year 1806 he quitted
the warping, and became a teacher of the classics
to young men attending the university, which he
continued for some years; he himself, with untir-
ing zeal, pursuing at the same time a course of
study in various branches, particuUu'ly in history,
systematic theology, and especially in geography.
About the year 1815 he was engaged to edit a new
edition of the Glasgow System of Geography, an
original work in two volumes, which had met
with deserved encouragement, and which was now,
by his valuable additions and improvements, ex-
tended to five volumes. This afterwards formed
the basis of his principal work, * A System of Po-
pular and Scientific Geogi-aphy,* which was pub-
lished at Glasgow in six vols. Previous to the
latter publication he had brought out * Critical
Researches in Geography,' and also an elegant
edition of Rolliu's 'Ancient History,' copiously
illustrated with notes. Besides these works, he
had commenced preparing a general gazetteer,
upon a new and improved plan. His Gazetteer of
England and Wales was m course of publication
at the time of his death. He had resided for some
years for the benefit of his health at Lukeston,
near Campsie, where he died. May 8, 1833.
Bellcndicx, Baron, a dormant title in the Scotch peer-
age smce the death in 1805 of William, foorth duke of Rox-
burgh, seventh Lord Bellenden.
On the 26th March, 1499, Patrick BcUenden, the ancestor
of the Anchlnonl family, obtained a charter from John, earl
oi Morton, of the lands of Auchnolnyshill in the comity of
Edinburgh, to him and his spouse, Mariota Donglaa, and
their hdrs. IDouffkui' Peerage^ voL L p. 209.] He had a son,
Thomas, and a daughter, Catherine. The latter married
Oliver Sinclair, the favourite of King James the Fifth, and
general of the Scottish army at the unfortunate rout of Sol-
way in 1542.
Thomas Bellenden of Auchinoul, the son, succeeded hti
father, and in 1535 he was appomted by James the Fifth a
Judge of the Court of Session, which had been instituted only
two years previously, his appointment taking place at the
same time with that of Mr. Arthur Boyoe, brother of Henry
Boyce, the historian. On the 10th September, 1588, he was
appointed director of Chancery, and on 26th December 1539,
the king conferred on him the office of Justice Clerk, which
was held after him by both his son and his grandson. In
January 1541 he and Henry Balnaves of Hallhill were sent as
commistdoners to meet Sir William Eure, the English com-
missioner, for the settlement of some of the interminable dis-
putes of the borders. Writing to the keeper of the privy seal
m EngUnd, 26th January of that year, Eure narrates some
conversations which he had had with Bellenden, conoemini;
the court and character of James the Fifth, and describes
him as **a man of aged experience and eminent ability.**
[PinkeriOfCs Scotland^ vol. ii. p. 240.] He died in 1546,
leaving two sons; Sir John Bellenden and Patrick Bellenden.
designed of Stenhouse in Orkney, sheriff of Orkney.
Sir John Bellenden of Auchinoul, the elder of the two
brothers, was appointed Justice Clerk 25th June 1547, and
according to Haig and Brunton he appears as an ordinary
lord of session for the first time 4th July thereafter. [Semt-
tan of the CoUege of Justice^ p. 91. J Douglas, however,
states that he was not admitted a lord of session till 13th
November 1554. {Peerage^ vol. i. p. 211.] He had a cliaiter
to himself and Barbara Kennedy his wife, of certain lands in
the regality and barony of Broughton, from Robert, comroen-
dator of Holyroodhouse, 1st May 1559. He was employed
by the queen regent, Mary of Guise, as a mediator between
her and the lords of the Congregation, but he soon joined the
Reformers. On the young queen Mary's arrival in Scotland
in 1561, he was, 6th September of that year, sworn a privy
councillor. He obtained the office of usher of exchequer 81st
May 1565. Being implicated in the assassination of Rizxio,
he fled from Edinburgh, 18th March 1566, on the approach
of Mary and Damley at the head of an army, but was shortly
afterwards restored to favour. He carried Mary's commands
to Mr. John Craig to proclaim the banns of marriage between
her miyesty and Bothwell, and **had lang reasoning** with
the kirk, ** to induce them to obey the royal orders.** [^KatKs
Histf p. 587.] Notwithstanding this, he joined the associa-
tion against the queen and Bothwell, and in consequence, on
the imprisonment of Maiy, he was continued in his office.
Ho was also one of the members of the privy council of the
regent Murray, with whom he was a favourite. He is said
to have obtained the lands of Woodhouaelee fix>m Hamilton of
Bothwellhaugh, on condition of his procuring for that mdivi-
dual a remisaon for some crime which he had committed, a
transaction which indirectly led to the assasanation of Mur-
ray. [See Stuart, Jamks, earl of Murray.] In the be-
ginning of 1573, Sir John Bellenden was employed in framing
and completing the well-known pacification of Perth. Ac-
cording to Home of Godscrofl, he was, the same year, occu-
pied in the difficult task of convincing the General Assembly,
on behalf of the regent Morton, that the supreme magistrate
should be the head of the church as well as of the state.
The dispute, after being continued for twelve days, was ad-
journed "till a more convenient season.** He died bcfon
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BELLENDEN,
283
JOHN.
A&ril 1577, and Thomas Bellenden of Newtyle was appointed
• lord of session in bb place. Sir John Bellenden was twice
married, first to Barbara, daughter of Sir Hugh Kennedy of
Gii-vemnains, bj whom he had two sons, Sir Lewis and
Adam; and, secondly, to Janet Seton, said to be of the family
of Touch, and by her he had three daughters; Elizabeth, the
eldest, married, first, James Lawson of Humbie; secondly,
Sir John Cockbum of Onnistoun, Lord Justice Clerk. Mar-
garet, the second daughter, married William Stewart, writer
in Edinburgh, and was the mother of Sir Lewis Stewart of
Kirkhill, the famous adTOcate; Marion, the youngest daugh-
ter, became the wife of John Bamsay of Dalbowde, but had
no issue.
The eldest son. Sir Lewis Bellenden of Auchinoul, was ap-
pointed Justice Clerk in 1578, the year following bis father*8
death. He was one of the conspiratOTS in the treasonable
affair known as the Raid of Ruthven, and Godscrofl repre-
sents him as extremely violent on the occasion, {p. 866. J
He managed, however, to keep free of the ruin in which the
other conspirators were involved, and on the 17th July 1584,
he was appointed an ordinary lord of session, in place of Sir
Richard Maitland of Lethingtou. In 1585 he was resident
in London from James the Sixth, when he was much in the
interest of Queen Elizabeth. [^Robertson's History^ vol. iL p.
801.] He had a principal share in the downfall of Arran,
and the return of the banished lords, although he had been
despatched by the former, then ignorant of his intentions, to
accuse the latter at the court of Elizabeth. He was at Stir-
ling the same year (1585) when, as had been agreed upon,
the banished lords surprised the kmg and Arran there. The
latter intended to have slain the Justice Clerk, the Master of
Gray, and the Secretary, " but they drew to their armes, and
stude on their awn defence.** In 1589 he accompanied
James on his matrimonial excursion to Norway, and in the
following spring he was sent as ambassador to the court of
Elizabeth, probably to nqtify the nuptials. Among other
charters of Unds which he obtained was one of the barony of
Broughton and other lands erected into a free barony, 15th
August 1591. He died the same month and year. By his
wife, Margaret, second daughter of William, sixth lord
livingstone, he bad Sir James, his heir, and Mariota, mar-
ried to Patrick Murray of Fallahill, ancestor of Philiphaugh.
His widow afterwards married Patrick Stewart, second eairl
of Orkney
Adam Bebenden, the brother of Sir Lewis, was bishop of
Aberdeen. He was, first, minister of Falku^ in 1608, In
1615 he was promoted to the see of Dunbbine, and in 1635
WIS transferred to that of Aberdeen. In 1688 be was de-
prived of his bishopric, on the overthrow of episcopacy by the
Glasgow Assembly; after which be retired to England, where
he soon after died^ [Keith's Scottish Bishops^ p. 132.]
Scott of Scotstarve*: states that Sir John Bellenden by a
third marriage bad another son, named Thomas, to whom he
left the barony of Cariowrie and Kilconqnh<nr in Fife, with
certain other lands about Brechin, and that he was
drowned in the loch of Kilconquhar. [Staggermg State^
p. 131.] A Thomas Bellenden was admittea kv. ordinary
lord of session I4th August 1591, but does net seem to
have retained bis seat long, as his pbice was declared vacant
on the 17th November following. Scotstarvet^s statement
is oidently a mbtake, as the oldest tombstone in the church-
yard of Kilconquhar, bearing an inscription, is upon the grave
of William (not Thomas') Bellenden, hurd of Kilconquhar,
who was drowned while skating on the loch, 28th February
1593, aged twenty-eight years. [New Statistical Account,
vol. ii . p. 3 1 7. ] According to Scotstarvet, his son dying young,
the estate went to Adam, bishop of Aberdeen, who sold it to
Sir John Carstairs. He says also that Sir John Bellenden,
his father, was archdeacon of Murray and canon of Ross, but
this was a different person from Sir John Bellenden of Auch-
inoul. Of this John Bellenden a notice is given below.
Sir Lewis* son, Sir James Bellenden of Broughton, married
Margaret, daughter of Sir William Ker of Ceasford, and sister
of Robert first earl of Roxburgh, by whom be had a son, Sir
William, and a daughter, Margaret, married to the Hon.
Henry Erskine, third son of John, seventh eari of Mar and
mother of David Lord Cardroes, ancestor of the eari of
Buchan, heir of line of the Bellenden family. Sir James
Bellenden died 8d November 1606.
His son, Sir William Bellenden of Broughton, was treasurer
depute in the reign of Charles the Second. During the civil
wars be adhered to the royal cause, and was created a peer by
patent dated at Whitehall 10th June 1661, by the title of
I.ord Bellenden of Broughton, and sworn a privy councillor.
He adopted John Ker, fourth son of William, second earl of
Roxburgh, and settled his estate upon him. On the death of
his lordship, nnmarried, in 1670, Ker assumed the name and
arms of Bellenden, and inheriting the estate and honours, be-
came second lord Bellenden. William, the seventh lord, suc-
ceeded, as heir of entail, to the dukedom of Roxburgh, on
the death, without issue, of the third duke, and on his own
death, in 1805, the title of Lord Bellenden became dormant,
and is claimed by Mr. Thomas Bellenden Drummond. [See
RozBUBOH, duke of.]
The bart*s head carried by the Bellendens of Broughton,
the armorial bearing of the abbacy of Holyroodhouse, and the
baronies belonging thereto, as the Canongate and Broughton,
was assumed by them on account of the last barony.
BELLENDEN, or BALLANDEN, sometimes
written BALLENTYNE, John, archdeacon of
Moray and canon of Ross, often confounded with
Sir John Bellenden of Auchinonl, a distingnished
lawyer, referred to in the above article, is supposed
to have been a native of the county of Hadding-
ton or Berwick, and appears to have been bom
towards the close of the 16th century. The exact
year of his birth is uncertain, and very little is
known of his pci*sonal histor}-. He received the
first part of his education at the univei-sity of St.
Andrews, where a student of his name, described
as belonging to the Lothian nation, was matri-
culated la 1508. He completed his studies at
Paris, and took the degree of D.D. at the Sor-
bonne. He returned to Scotland during the
minority of James V., with whom he became a
great favourite, and at whose command he was
employed in 1530 and in 1531 in translating from
the Latin into the Scottish vernacular, * The His-
tory and Chroniklis of Scotland,' being the first
seventeen books of Hector Boece, which had been
published in Paris in 1526. Some writers assert
that he had the superintendence of the education
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BRLLENDEN,
284
JOHN.
of bis young sovereign, but this is evidently a
mistake; his office in the royal honsehold being
clerk of the accounts. Tlie manuscript copy of
liis translation was delivered to the king in the
summer of 1533. Into this work he introduced
two poems of some length, entitled * The Proheme
of the Cosraogmphe,* which is the most poetical
of his works, and * The Proheme of the History/
He closed the whole by a pmse * Epistil dircckit
be the Translatoure to the Kingis Grace.' Ac-
cording to Mackenzie, this work was printed in
1536. The book bears to be "imprcntit in Edin-
burgh be me, Thomas Dauidson, prenter to the
Kyngis uobyle Grace." An elegant edition of
this translation, edited by Mr. Maitland, was pub-
lished in 1821 by Mr. William Tait of Edinburgh.
Bellenden seems to have been dismissed from
the king's service, as we learn from the Proheme
of the Cosmographe:
** And fyret occurrit to my remembringi
How that I wes in seraice with the kyng,
Put to his grace in zeri« tenderest.
Clerk of his comptis, thoaclit I wes inding,
With hart and hand, and euery other thing
That mycht liyin pleis in ony manner best,
Q^/ull hie imuf me from his seruice ktst^
Be thaym that had the court in gouermng
As bird but plomes heiyit of the nest."
He is supposed afterwards to have entered into
the service of Archibald, earl of Angus, because a
pei-son of the same name was the earl's secretary
in 1528; but this individual is stated by Hume to
have been Sir John Bellenden, with whom his
name has so frequently been mistaken. [Ilistoi-y
of tJie Houses of Douglas and Angus^ p. 258.]
He was soon afterwards an attendant at court, and
at the request of the king he translated the first
five books of Llvy's Roman History; and from
the manuscript copy preserved in the Advocates'
Library, his version was printed in 1822 by Mr.
Maitland. In the treasurer's book there are va-
rious entries of the sums paid to Bellenden, \^ be
the Kingis precept," for these translations. He
seems to have received in all £114; that is, £78
for the translation of Boece, and £36 for that of
Livy. Nor Avas this the whole of bis remunera-
tion. He received from the king the archdeaconry
of Moray, during the vacancy of the see; and two
clergymen, of the names of John Duncan ami
Alexander Harvey, having solicited the Pope i»
favour of James Douglas, were convicted of trea-
son, and their property escheated to the Crown.
The annual emoluments arising from the pension?
and benefices of Duncan, who was parson of Glas-
gow, and from all the property belonging to Alex-
ander Harvey for the two years 1536 and 1537,
were bestowed upon Bellenden ; he paying a com-
position, for the first gi*aut, of 350 merks, and for
the second of 300. It is supposed that about the
same period he was appointed a canon of Ross.
In the succeeding reign, being strongly attached
to the Roman catholic religion, he opposed the
progi'css of the Reformation. Afterwards quit-
ting Scotland, upon what account we are not in-
formed, he visited Rome, where he died in 1550.
John Bellenden has been eulogised as one of the
greatest scholars of his time. Sir David Lindsay,
in a poem supposed to have been written in the
year 1530, thus mentions him *
*' Bot now of late is starte up haistelie
Ane cunnyng dark quhilk wrytith craflelie,
Ane plant of poetis callit Ballendyne,
Quhose omat warkis my wit can noclit def\-ne :
Oct he into the court aoctoritie.
He will preccll Quint}Ti and Kennedie."
Many of his original compositions have been
lost. " He was unquestionably," says Dr. Camp-
bell, " a man of great parts, and one of the finest
poets his country had to boast. So many of his
works remain as fully prove this ; in as much as
they arc distinguished by that noble enthusiasm
which is the vei^ soul of poetry." In the ' Pro-
heme of the Cosmographe ' the principal incidents
are boiTOwed from the ancient allegory of the
Choice of Hercules. His poem entitled *Vertne
and Vyce ' was also addressed to James V. Some
specimens of Bellenden's style will be found in
Carmichael's 'Collection of Scottish Poems.' —
Irving^s Scottish Writers.
The following is a list of his works.
The History and Chronicles of Scotland, oompilit and newiy
correctit and amendit be the Rercrend and Noble Clerk. Mr
Hector Boeis, Chanon of Aberdene, translated, &c Edin.
1536, fol. Again in 1541, folio, with the following title. The
History and Croniklis of Scotland, with the Cosmography and
Description thairof. Compilit be the Noblo Cleric, Maister
Hector Bocce, Channon of Aberdeene. Translatit laitly in
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BELLENDEN,
285
WILLIAM.
our vulgar and common langage, be Maister Johne Bellendenf
Arcbedene of Murrajr, and Cbannon of Ross ; at tbe command
of the richt hie, richt excellent, and noble Prince, James the
5th of that name, king of Soottia. Another, without date.
AU the above were printed by Thomas Davidson. The edi-
tion of 1821, edited by Mr. Maitland, was in 2 vols. 4to.
'llie first Ave books of the Roman Histor}* : translated from
the Latin of Titos Livius by John Bellenden. Edinbai^h,
1822, 4to; now first printed.
lie is likewise author of several poems in MS. Two copies
of his unpublished prolusion on the conception of Olirist are
to be found in Bannatyue^s MS., from which Allan Ramsay
published his Evergreen.
BRLI^NDEN, William, an author eminent
for liis learning, was, in 1602, professor of huma-
nity in the univei*sity of Paris; and, according to
Dempster, ndvocate in the parliament thci*e. He
appears to have been tbe son of John Bellenden
of Lasswade, near Edinburgh, and is supposed to
have been bom between 1550 and 1560. Demp-
ster also states that both Queen Mary and James
the Sixth employed liim in some diplomatic ser-
vices, and that the lattei* nominated him master
of requests, or examiner of petitions. As he
spent the greater part of his life in France, this
appointment must have been a sinecure. As he
practised at the bar, says Dr. Irving, his eai'ly
education must have been Fi*ench ; and as he was
a regent or professor in one of the colleges, he
may be supposed to have adhered to the Popish
religion. After the massacre of St. Bartholomew,
which had proved fatal to Ramus and other men
of learning, there pi*obably had been no Protestant
professor in any college in Paris. His nephew,
William Bellenden, was a popish priest. Anxious
to return to Scotland, he addressed a French letter
to the King, with the object of obtaining some
regular establishment at court, but his application
seems to have been unsuccessful. His death is
supposed to have taken place before 1630.
Bellenden's first work, published in 1608, was
entitled ' Ciccronis Princeps,* being a selection of
passages from the works of Cicero on the duties
of a prince. To this was prefixed an original
essay, entitled ' Tractatus de Processu et Sci-ipto-
ribus Rci Politicie.' His next treatise, entitled
* Ciceroub Consul, Senator, Senatusquc Romanus,'
consisting, like the former, of passages from Cicero,
regarding the duties of constd, senator, and senate,
among the Romans, appeared in 1612, and was
dedicated to Hcniy Prince of Scotland and Wales.
The most original of his works, styled ' De Statu
prisci Orbis in Religione, Re Politica, et Literis,*
was pnnted in Paris in 1615, dedicated to Charles
Prince of W^ales, his brother Heniy being now
dead. 1lie work describes the fii-st origin of
states, their progivss in politics, philosophy, and
religion, and in what respects they differ from
each other. These three treatises were, in 1616,
collected into a volume, bearing the title of '• Do
Statu, Libri Tres.' The last book published by
himself consisted only of two short Latin poems.
He had commenced another work of a very elabo-
rate nature, intended to be finished in three parts,
one of which only was completed, under the name
of * De Tribns Luminibus Romanorum,' whom he
conceives to be Cicero, Seneca, and the elder
Pliny; it was published in 1633 or 1634, some
yeara after the author's death. It extends to
824 pages, closely printed, and gives a compre-
hensive account of the history of Rome, from the
foundation of the city to the time of Augustus, in
the precise words of Cicero, as extracted from
his writings. From this work, Dr. Conyers Mid-
dleton, keeper of the library of Cambridge uni-
versity, borrowed, without acknowledgment, the
matter and aiTangement of his * Life of Cicero;'
a barefaced plagiarism which was deservedly ex-
posed by Warton and Dr. Samuel Parr ; the latter
of whom, in 1787, brought out an edition of Bel-
lenden's * De Statu, Libri Tres,' with a Latin pre-
face of some length. — Irving' s Scottis/i Writers.
The following is a catalogue of William Bcllcn-
den's writings.
Ciceronis Prinoeps. Paris, 1608. This is a collection of
select sentences and passages from Cicero, comprised into
one body, consisting of Rules of Monarchical Government,
and the Duties of the Prince. To the first edition is pre-
fixed, Tractatus de Processu et Scriptoribos Rei Politics.
Ciceronis Consul, Senator, Senatusquc Romanas. Paris,
1612, 8vo. A Treatise on the dignity and authority of the
Consuls, and on the constitution of the Roman Senate.
De Statu Prisci Orbis in Religione, Re Politica et Literis ;
Ciceronis Princeps, sive de statu Principis et Imperii ; Cicer-
onis Consul, Senator, Senatusquc Romanas. Paris, 1615,
8vo. This work was immediately republished with his Tracts,
De StHtu Principis ; De Statu Republican, et de Statu Orbii».
Republished by Dr. PaiT in 1787.
Two short poems, entitled Caroli Primi et Henricac MarisD,
Regis et Regime Magnaj Britannia:, &c., EpithaUmium ; et
in ipsas augustissimas Nuptias, ooleberrimamque Legationem
eanun causa obitam, &c., panegyricum Carmen, et Elogia.
Paris, 1625, 4to. Also republished by Dr. Parr.
De Tribns Luminibtis Romanonun, libri xvi. seu Hbtoris
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BERNARD.
286
BERRY.
Romana, ex ipsissimis Ciceronis, et aliorum vetenim verbis,
expressa. Paris, 1634, foL A posthumous work.
Bkl9CU£S, surname of, see Supplkmknt.
BERNARD, abbot of Arbroath in 1303, the
fii-st chancellor of Robert the Bruce after his ele-
vation to the throne in 1306, is supposed to have
composed the remonstrance, so remarkable in the
history of Scotland, which, in 1320, was sent by the
Scottish nobility to the Pope. He held the gi*eat
seal till his death in 1327. Crawford supposes
the abbot's surname to have been Linton.
Berkirdale, Lord, the second title of the noble family of
Sinclair, earls of Caithness, irom the district of Berriedale or
Berrindale in Caithness -sliire. See Capthness, earl of.
BERRY, William, an ingenious aitist, was
bora about the year 1730. He was bred to the
business of a seal engraver, having served his ap-
prenticeship with a Mr. Bolton of EdMburgh. On
commencing business on his own account, he soon
became distinguished for the superiority of his
workmanship, particularly for the elegance of his
designs, and the clearness and sharpness of his
mode of cutting coats of arms and other devices.
For many years he did not attempt any thing
higher in his art than the common routine of the
trade at the time. His first essay in the style of the
antique intaglios was a head of Sir Isaac Newton,
which he executed with astonishing precision and
delicacy. Nevertheless, the gi'eatcr part of his
life was occupied in cutting armorial bearings, as
he found a greater demand in this branch of the
art than for fine heads, and there were vei*y few
that could afford to pay the price. During the
course of his life, he did not execute more than a
dozen heads in all, any one of which was suflBcient
to insure him lasting fame. Among these were
Thomson the poet, Mary queen of Scots, Oliver
Cromwell, Julius Cassar, a young Hercules, and
Hamilton of Bangour. Of these, only two were
copies from the antique, and they were executed
in the finest style of the art. Wherever the^e
heads were known, they were admired as superior
to anything produced in modem times. Piccler,
a famous artist in the same line at Rome, who had
had more practice, was the only person that could
be compared to him; but each, in the true spirit of
genius, gave the palm of superiority to the other.
Berry possessed not merely the art of imitating
busts or figures set beforo him, but he could exe-
cute with fidelity a figure in relievo, copied from a
drawing or painting upon a flat surface ; as was
proved with the head he executed of Hamilton of
Bangour, who had been dead for some years, and
which he finished fi*om an impeifect sketch, being
all the likeness that remained of him. Besides
these heads he executed some full-length figures
both of men and other animals, in a style of supe-
rior elegance. But the interests of bis fiunily
made him pursue rather the more lucrative em-
ployment of cutting heraldic seals, which may
be said to have been his constant employment
for forty ycai-s. In this depai-tment he was,
without dispute, the first ai'tist uf his time. The
following anecdote is told of his excellence m
this branch of ai't : Henry, duke of Bucdench, on
succeeding to his estate, was desirous of having a
seal cut with his arms, &c., properly blazoned
upon it. But as there were no less than thirty-
two compartments in the shield, which was of ne-
cessity confined to a very small space, so as to
leave room for the supporters, and other orna-
ments, within the compass of a seal of an ordinary
size, he found it a matter of great difiiculty to get
it executed. Though a native of Scotland himself,
his grace never expected to find a man of first
rate eminence in Edinburgh ; but applied to the
most celebrated seal engravers in London and
Pai'is, all of whom declined it, as a thing exceed-
ing their power to execute At this the duke was
highly disappointed : and having expressed to a
gentleman, who was on a visit to him, the vexa-
tion he felt on this occasion, his visitor asked if he
had applied to Mr. BeiTy. " No," said his grace,
*^ I did not think I should find any one in Edin-
burgh who could execute a task that exceeded the
powers of the fii*st artists in London and Paris."
The gentleman advised his grace to take it to
Berry, who, he would undertake, could execute it.
The duke accordingly went to Edinburgh with bis
visitor next morning, and called upon Mr. Berry,
whom he found, as usual, sitting at his wheel.
Without introducing the duke, or saying anything
particular to Beiry, the gentleman showed him an
impression of a seal that the duchess dowager
had got cut many years before by a Jew in Lon>
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BETHUNE.
287
BETHUNE.
dou, who was dead, and which had been shown to
the others as a pattern, asking him if he could cut
a seal the same as that. After examining it a
little, Berrj answered readily that he could. Tlie
duke, pleased aud astonished at the same time,
exclaimed, "Will you, indeed!" Berry, who
thought this implied a doubt of his abilities, was a
little piqued at it ; and turning round to the duke,
whom he had never seen before, said, " Yes, Sir,
if I do not make a better seal than this, I shall
take no payment for it." His grace, highly
pleased, left the pattern with him, and went away.
The pattern seal contained indeed the various de-
vices on the 32 compartments, distinctly enough
to be seen, but none of the colours were expressed.
Berry, in due time, finished the seal, on which the
figures were not only done with superior elegance,
but the colours on every part so distinctly marked,
that a painter could delineate the whole, or a her-
tild blazon it, with the most perfect accuracy. For
(his extraordinary exertion of talent he charged no
more than thirty-two guineas, though the pattern
seal had cost seventy-five ! Notwithstanding his
great talents, his unequalled assiduity, and the
strict economy observed in his family, his cir-
cumstances were far from affluent. He was highly
respected on account of the integrity of his char-
acter, and his strict principles of honour. He
married a daughter of Mr. Andrew Andei*son of
Dressalrig, by whom he had a numerous family.
He died July 3, 1783, in the 53d year of his age.
Bethuke, or Beaton, a sarname of French origin, which
belonged to an iUostrioos house in France, from which spmng
the duke de Snlly the celebrated minister of Henry IV. It
was derived from Bethune, a town in French Flanders. The
Bethones came into England with William the Conqneror.
One of them was the companion of Richard Coem' de Lion,
on his return from the Holy Land, and was made prisoner
along with him by the duke of Austria. Duchesne, in bis
^Htstotfe de la Maison de Bethune,* derives the Scottish
branch finora a certain Jacobin de Bethune, who, he says,
came to Scotland about 1448, but there are authentic docu-
ments to prove that the family were settled in tbis conntiy
as early as 1165. In the end of the reign of William the
Lion, or beginning of that of his son, Alexander the Second,
Robert de Beton is witness to a charter by Rogerus de Quin-
cj, comes de Wincestre (incorrectly called Winton and some-
times Wigton, in the current genealogies of ancient families),
constabularius Scotie, to Sejerus de Seton, of an annuity out
ni the miln and miln lands of Travement or Tranent In a
charter of mortification of lands "in territorio de Kermuir"
(now Kirriemuir) in the county of Angus, to the monks of
Aberhrothwick, David de Beton and Joannes de Beton are
wituesses. It was in that county that the family of the Be-
thnnes then had their principal possd^ons. The chief of
them was the laird of Westhall, of whom the rest are de>
scended. In the b^nmng of the reign of Alexander the
Thu^ about 1250, Dominus David de Betun and Robertus
de Betun are, with several others, witnesses to a charter of
Christiana de Valoines, Lady Panmnre, to John Lydell, of
the lands of Balbanin and Panlathine. Among those who
swore fealty to Edward the First of England, and were pre-
sent at the discussion of the pleas for the crown of Scotland
betwixt John Baliol and Robert Bruce was Robert de Betune.
[See Prymte^s Histtny] ; and amongst the seals, yet presen-ed,
that are appended to Kmg Edward's decision, 1292, is " sigil-
lum Roberti de Betune de Scotia, which is a fesse, and on a
chief a file of three pendants." Several of this name are wit-
nesses to charters by Duncan eari of Fife.
David de Betun, miles, and Alexander de Betun, were at
the parliament held at Gambuskenneth, 6th November 1314;
and to the act of forfeiture passed m that parliament is ap-
pended one of their seals, which is the same coat of arms that
is on the forementioned seal of Robert de Betune. Alexander
de Bethune continued faithful to the family of Bruce, and
was knighted for his valour. He was slam in the battle of
Dupplin 12th August, 1332.
As stated in the article on the surname of Balfour [which
see, tttUe, page 208, first column], m the fifth year of the
rdgn of Robert the Second, Robert de Bethune, styled
*' familiarius regis," a younger son of the above-named Sir
Alexander, married the daughter and heiress of Sir John
Balfour of that ilk, and his son succeeding to the estate, the
£imily was afterwards designed Bethune of Balfour. Of that
family several of the Fife heritors were descended, and James
Bethune, archbishop of St Andrews and chancellor of Scot-
land ; his nephew Cardinal Bethune ; and the cardinal's ne-
phew, James Bethune, archbishop of Glasgow, were all sons
of this house of Balfour. Notices of these three remarkable
personages follow this article in their order. In all our his-
tories the name is incorrectly spelled Beaton. The descend-
ants of the family prefer it in its original and more illustrious
form of Bethune.
In the reign of James the Fourth, the estate of Crdch in
the parish of that name in Fife was acquired by Sur David
Bethune, second son of Sir John Bethune of Balfour and
Maijory Boswell, daughter of the laird of Balmuto. Sir
David was brought up from his youth with James the Fourth,
who held him m great favour. He was first appointed comp-
troller of the exchequer, and subsequently lord high treasurer
of the kingdom, which office he retained till his death. [Oato-
/onTa Officera of State, p. 368.] He acquired the lands of
Creich from the Littles or liddels, in 1502. He married a
daughter of Duddingston of Sandfbrd in Fife. Janet, their
elder daughter, from whom many of the chief nobility and
gentry in Scotland are descended, was married first to Sir
Thomas livmgston of Easter Wemyss, and after his death
she became the third wife of James, the first earl of Arran
of the Hamiltous, and nephew of King James the Third.
Her eldest son by the latter marriage was James, second
eari of Arran and duke of Chatelherault, who became regent
of the kingdom. Mary, the younger daughter, married Lord
Lyle. This Sir David Bethune was an unde of the cardinal,
being a younger brother of his father, the laird of Balfour.
His son and heir, Sir John Bethune, the second proprietor
of Creich of the name of Bethune, married Janet Hay, daugh-
ter of John Hay, provost of Dundee, and niece of the Uurd of
Naughton in Fifeshire, by whom he had four sons and seven
daughters. Janet, their eldest daughter, married, first, the
laird of Cranston, secondly, the laird of Cralgmillar, and
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BETHUNE,
288
ARCHBISHOP.
tUirdly, Sir Walter Soutt of Buccleuch, ancestor of the dukes
of Buocleuch [see Bucci.kucii, duke of J. To her hist hus*
•bnnd she bore four daughters. She appears to have been a
wonum of a masculine spirit, as she rode at the head of the
clan when called out to avenge the death of Buocleuch.
" She possessed also," sa}-* Sir Walter Scott, '* the hereditary
abilities of her family in such a degree that the superstition
of the vulgar imputed them to supeniatunil knowledge."
This belief in her witchcraft and the spirit of faction led to
the foul accusation against her of having instigated Queen
Mary to the- murdm* of her husband. This daughter of the
house of Cre4ch bf\s become familiarly known from the pro-
minent place ^he occupies in Sir Walter Soott*8 poem of the
I^y of Uie Last Minstrel. A copy of a letter of hers, to the
queen-regent, Mary of Guise, is published in the Mftitland
Club Miscellany. Sir John Bethune was keeper of the palace
of Falkland, as his father had been, and steward of Fife, dur-^
ing part of the reign of Jaines the Fifth.
He was succeeded by h'ls eldest son, David, who died, un-
married, in 1539, when the second son, Robert Bethune, in-
herited the family estate. The latter was 6aHy attached to
tlie royal household, and attended the young 4^oen, Mary, to
France as a page. On her retucD to Scotland. in 1561, he
was appointed master of the hoasehold, heritable steward of
Fife, and keeper of Falkland palace. He married a French
lady, Joanna Renwall or Gryssoneir, a maid of honour to the
queen. By her he had two sons aiid eij^t dauj[^ters. His
eldest daughter, Mary Bethune, was one of the queen^s ** four
Maries," whose extraordinai^ beanty has been ne.orly as much
celebrated as her own. An original portrait of Mary Bethune,
m full court dress, is stjU preserved at Balfour house in Fife,
as is also one of the Cardinid. She married, in 1566, Alex-
ander Ogilvy of Boyne, the ^representative of an old and re-
spectable branch of the noUe family of Findlatcr. Both she
and her husband were ullve in 1606. The marriage contract
between these parties has been published by the Maitland
Club, in Part I. of their Miscellany. It is subscribed by the
queen and Henry Damley, and by the earls of Huntly, Ai^le,
Bothwell, Murray, and Athol, as cautioners for the bride-
groom ; by Ogilvy himself as Boyne and by Mary Bethune.
The signatures of the bride s father and Blichael Bcdfour of
Burieigh, his eautioner, are wanting. The beauty of Mary
Uethune has been celebrated by Oeorge Buchanan in his
David Bethune, the eldest son of Robert, succeeded kim as
fifth proprietor of Creich. He married Euphan P. B. Leslie,
daughter of the eari of Rothes, by whom he had an only
daughter, but being desuous that the estate of Creich should
continue to be possessed only by those of the name of Bethune,
he disponed it to his brother, James, parson of Roxburgh,
who married, first, Helen Leslie, heiress of Kinnaird, and
after her death, Margaret Wemyss, eldest daughter of David
Wemyss of that ilk, from whom it is said the earls of Wemyss
are descended. Their eldest son and grandson succeeded to
the estate as the seventh and eighth proprietors.
The latter, David Bethune, married Lady Margaret Cun-
ninghame, third daughter of the eighth earl of Glencaim ; but
she having no family to him, and his brother William having
no male children, he sold the estate of Creich to James Be-
thune, then fiar of Balfour, reserving to himself the liferent
of the most part, and to his lady the liferent of thirty-two
chalders of victuaL Lament, in hb Diary of Fife, mentions
that this laird of Creich, soon after disponing his property,
died at his dwelling-house at Denbough, 4th March 1660.
Ihe estate was afterwards united to that of Balfour
During the period in which the Bethunes of Creich flour-
ished probably no fkinily of their rank in Scotland formed so
great a number of matrimonial connexions with the noble and
more powerful families of the kingdom than did its roemlicrs.
BETHUNE, BEATON, or BETON, James,
Archbishop of St. Andrews in the reign of
James V., was the sixth and youngest son of
JoIhi Bethune of Balfour, by Mary, daughter of
Sir David Boswell of Balmuto. Being a younger
brother, lie was early destined for the church ;
and, while yet young, was by the earl of Angus
appointed provost of the collegiate church of
Bothwell. lie i-ecelved his first benefice in 1503,
and next j-ear was advanced to the rich preferment
of abbot of DunfeiTriline, or Dumfcrling, as it was
then called. In 1505, upon the death of his bro-
ther, Sir David Bethune, the king bestowed upon
him the staff of the high treasurer, and he
was thereafter considered one of the principal
ministers of state. In 1508 he was promoted
to the bishopric- of Galloway, and before he
had held that see a year, he was made arch-
bishop of Glasgow, on wTiich he resigned the
ti-easnrer*8 staff, tJint he might have more lei-
sure to attend to \m diocese. It does not appear
that he had any share in the counsels that drove
King James IV. into a war with England, which
led to the fatal and disastrous battle of Floddcii
Field, where that unfortmiate monarch was slain.
On the king's death, the regent duke of Albany
appointed Archbishop Bethune to be high chan-
cellor; and gave him fbr the support of his dignity
the two rich abbeys of KHwinning and Ar-
broath« which he held with his archbishopric in
commendam; and by this means drew him over from
the faction of the Douglas to his own party. In
1517, on the duke of Albany going to France, the
archbishop was appointed one of the governors of
Scotland, but the kingdom was in such confusion,
that they were glad to devolve their whole power
upon the earl of Arran. A convention of estates
being summoned to meet at Edinburgh, April 29,
1520, the carl of Arran, with the chief of the
western nobility, assembled together in the arch-
bishop's house, at the bottom of Blackfriars Wyud,
where they resolved to apprehend the eari of
Angus, alleging that his power was so great, that
so long as he was free, they could not have a free
parliament. Angus, informed of their design, sent
his uncle, Douglas, bishop of Dunkeld, to the
!■ t
I '
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(• A R n I N A I. B E T H U N E OR b E A T O N
David Cardinal aiui ClxancelloT*
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BETHUNE,
ARCHBISHOP.
archbishop, offeriDg, if he had failed in any point
of his duty, to submit hiHiself to the convention
then about to meet, and the bishop earnestly re-
commended a compromise to prevent the efiiision
of blood. Bethune, who had pat armour on under
his cassock, laid the blame wholly on the earl of
Arraa, but concluded with saying, ^* There is no
remedy! Upon my conscience, I cannot help it!"
And striking his breast with his hand, to give force
to his asseveration, his concealed coat of mail rat-
tled so loud as to be heard by Bishop Douglas,
who exclaimed, ** How now, my lord, methinks
your conscience clatters; we are priests; and to
put on armour, or to bear arms, is not consistent
with our character,'* and so left him. The two
factions having come to an engagement in the
streets, Arran's party wera defeated, when the
archbishoii fled for sanctuary to the chmch of the
Blackfriars, and was taken out from behind the
altar, part of his dress being torn, and would cer-
tainly have been slain, had not the bishop of Dun-
kcld interceded for him. In 1523 he was appoint-
ed archbishop of St. Andrews by the duke of Al-
bany, who had returned from France two years
before and resumed the regency. On the abro-
gation, soon after, of the regent^s power by par-
liament, the earl of Angus having placed himself
at the head of the government, the archbishop
was dismissed the court, and obliged to resign the
office of chancellor. When the Douglases were
driven from court, the archbishop came again into
power, but did not recover the office of chancellor.
He now resided principally at the palace of St.
Andrews, where at the instigation of his nephew,
the cardinal, he proceeded violently to persecute
the protestants, and caused Patrick Hamilton, the
protomartyr of Scotland, a young man of piety,
talents, and noble birth, to be burned to death.
The sentence was subscribed by the two arch-
bishops, three bishops, six abbots and friai*s, and
eight divines. It is stated that the archbishop
was himself averse to these severities, and the fol-
lowing two stories are told to show that he was
not naturally inclined to such proceedings. It
happened that, at one of the consultations of the
clergy, some vehemently pressed for the continu-
ance of rigorous measures against all who preached
the reforming doctrines, when one Mr. John Lind-
say, a mail in great credit with the archbishop,
said, " If you bum any more of them, take my
advice, and bum them in cellars, for I dare assui-e
you, that the smoke of Mr. Patrick Hamilton has
infected all that it blew upon." The other case
was of a more serious nature. One Alexander
Seton, a Black Friar, proached openly in the
church of St. Andrews, that, according to St.
Paul's description of bishops, there were no bishops
in Scotland; which being reported to the primate,
not in very precise terms, he sent for Seton, and
reproved him sharply for having said, according to
his information, '^That a bishop who did not
preach was but a dumb dog, who fed not the flock,
but fed his own belly." Seton said that those
who had reported this were liars, upon which wit-
nesses were produced, who testified very positively
to the words having been uttered. On which
Seton, in reply, delivered himself thus: "My
lord, you have heard, and may consider, what
cars these asses have, who cannot discern between
Paul, Isaiah, Zechariah, MaUchi, and Friar Alex-
ander Seton. In timth, my lord, I did preach
tliat Paul saith, it behovetli a bishop to be a
teacher. Isaiali saith, that they that feed not the
flock are dumb dogs; and the prophet Zechariah
saith, that they are idle pastors. Of my own head
I affirmed nothing, but declared what the Spirit of
God before pronounced; at whom, my lord, it
you be not offended, you cannot justly be offended
with me." How much soever the bishop might be
incensed, he dismissed Friar Seton without punish-
ment, who soon after fled out of the kingdom.
The archbishop in future, instead of acting him-
self, granted commissions to those who were more
inclined to proceed against such as preached the
doctrines of tlie Reformation, which seems to justify
the remark of Spottiswood: "Seventeen years,"
says that writer, " he lived bishop of this see, and
was herein most unfortunate, that, under the
shadow of his authority, many good men were put
to death for the cause of religion, though he him-
self was neither violently set, nor much solicitous,
as it was thought, how matters went in the
church." He had, in fact, committed the cha;ge
of all church matters to his nephew the cardinal.
For the promotion of learning, he founded the New
College in the university of St. Andrews, which
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BETHUNE,
290
CARPTNAL.
he did not live to finish, and to which he left the
best pai-t of his estate, but, after his death, it was
misapplied, and did not come, as he intended, to
that foundation. One of the last acts of his life
was the being present at the baptism of the young
prince, born at St. Andrews the veiy year in
which he died. The king retained to the last so
great an affection for the archbishop, that he al-
lowed him to dispose of all his preferments as he
thought proper. He died in 1539, and was inter-
red in the cathedral church of St. Andrews, be-
fore the high altar, having held the primacy of
Scotland sixteen years. — Keith's Scottish Bishops.
— Pitscottie's History.
BETHUNE, BEATON, or BETON, David,
cardinal, primate, and lord high chancellor of
Scotland, nephew of the preceding, was the third
son of John Bethune of Balfour, elder brother of
the archbishop, by Isobel, daughter of David Mony-
penny of Pitmilly. He was bom at the mansion-
house of Balfour in 1494, and in October 1611
became a student at the university of St. Andrews.
He was afterwards sent to Paris, where he studied
theology and the canon and civil laws for some
years. In due time he entered into holy orders,
and was preferred by his uncle to the rectory of
Campsie in Stirlingshire, in the diocese of Glas-
gow. In 1519 the duke of Albany, regent during
the minority of James V., appointed him resident
for Scotland at the French court. In 1523 his
uncle, being translated from Glasgow to St. An-
drews, and become primate of Scotland, resigned
in his favour the abbey of Aberbrothwick, or Ar-
broath, retaining for himself one half of the rents
thereof. On hi3 return to Scotland in 1525, he
took his place in parliament as superior of the ab-
bey of Arbroath, the yearly revenues of which
exceeded £10,000 sterling of our money. In Oc-
tober 1527, as we learn from Pitcaim's * Criminal
Trials,' John Bethune of Balfour, and others, hav-
ing been indicted for an assault upon the sheriff of
Fife, and bail found for their appearance, the ab-
bot of Arbroath became bound to relieve John
Wardlaw of Torry of the cautionaiy obligation.
In 1528 he was appointed by the young king, to
whom he had recommended himself by his address
and abilities, lord privy seal, in the place of the
bishop of Dunkeld. He is said to have been the
adviser of James in instituting the college of jnii-
tice, or court of session, in 1580, the idea of which
was suggested by the constitution of the parlia-
ment of Paris. In February 1533, Bethune, now
prothonotary public, was sent ambassador U
France, with Sir Thomas Erskine, to obtain a re-
newal of the ancient league between the two na-
tions, and to negotiate a marriage between James
and the Princess Magdalene. His skilful pene-
tration enabled him to transmit to James much
important intelligence respecting the plans of his
uncle Henry "VTII., by which he avoided a serious
quarrel with the English monarch. He returned
to Scotland with James Y. and his young queen,
whom he had manied in France, January 1, 1537.
On Queen Magdalene's death, of consumption, on
the 7th July following, he was again sent to
France to negotiate a second marriage of Jamea
with Mary, daughter of the Duke of Guise, widow
of the duke of Longueville. Returning with that
princess, he solemnized the marriage in the cathe-
dral church of St. Andrews. It is supposed that
when he was in France on this occasion, he pro-
cured the papal bull, dated February 12, 1537,
for the erection of St. Mary's college, St. Andrews.
In November of the same year, Francis I. confer-
red upon him all the privileges of a native-bom
subject of France, and gave him the rich bishopric
of Mirepoix, in Languedoc, to which see be was
consecrated in the succeeding December. On his
return home, he became coadjutor to his uncle,
now much advanced in years, in the see of St.
Andrews. On the 28th of December 1538, on
the recommendation of the king of France, and in
consideration of his zeal, talents, and influence in
his native country. Pope Paul HI. advanced him
to the dignity of a cardinal, by the title of Cardi-
nal of St Stephen in Monte CceHs; and June 20,
1539, the king of France renewed his letters of
naturalization, allowing his heurs, though bom in
Scotland, to inherit his estate in that country.
In the autumn of 1539, on his uncle's death, he
succeeded him in the primacy, and soon after his
instalment he commenced a furious persecution of
the Reformers, for the total extirpation of the
Protestant doctrines. In order to be invested with
supreme authority in all matters ecclesiastical, he
obtained from the Pope the appointment of Icgatus
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BETHUNE,
291
CARDINAL.
tuUuSy and legate a latere^ in Scotland. In May
1540, accompanied by the leading nobility and
clergy, he made a public entrance into St. An-
drews with great pomp and splendour, and from
his throne in the cathedral delivered a long ad-
dress to those assembled, declaring the dangers
which threatened the Holy Catholic Church fix)m
the proceedings of Henry VIII. in England, and
the increase of heresy in Scotland, which, he said,
had invaded the precincts of the royal court. Sir
John Borthwick, provost or captain of Linlithgow,
denounced for heresy, whom he had caused to be
cited to answer there before him, not appearing,
was condemned aQ a heretic and seditious incendi-
ary, his goods confiscated, and all intercourse pro-
hibited with him on pain of excommunication.
Borthwick was accordingly buraed in effigy, both
at St. Andrews and Edinburgh ; but he himself
had taken refuge in England, and so escaped the
fury of the cardinal. To remove the odium of the
persecutions, on which he had now entered, from
the clergy, the cai*dinal had the address to induce
the king to appoint a Court of Inquisition to inquire
after heretics in every part of the kingdom, prom-
bing him a yearly sum of 30,000 crowns of gold
Grom the clergy, and persuading him that he could
add to his revenues at least 100,000 crowns per
annum more, by annexing the estates of convicted
heretics to the crown. Of this court of inquisition,
Sir James Hamilton*, natural brother of the earl of
Arran, was appointed Judge ; but he was the same
year executed for high treason. The cardinal had,
it is said, prepared a black list, which was pre-
sented to the king, of three hundred and sixty of
the chief nobility and gentiy suspected of heresy,
at the head of which was the earl of Arran ; but
the disastrous overthrow of the Scots at Solway
Moss prevented the contemplated prosecutions
and confiscations being carried into execution.
On the king*s death at Falkland soon after, De-
cember 14, 1542, the cardinal, who, with some
others, was with him at the time of his decease,
was accused of having forged his will, by which
he and the earls of Hnntly, Argyle, and Mwray,
were appointed regents during fhe minority of
the infant Queen Mary. His scheme was, how-
ever, defeated. Within a week after, the earl
of Arran, being supported by most of the nobi-
lity, was proclaimed regent and governor of the
kingdom.
On January 20, 1542-3, the cardinal was ar-
rested, and imprisoned m the castle of Blackness,
charged with writing to the duke of Guise to
bring a French army into Scotland, drive Arran
from the regency, and overthrow the negotiations
which were then forming between the English
monarch and the ruling party in Scotland, for a
maniage between the young Prince of Wales, af-
terwards Edward VI., and the infant Queen of
Scots. For this charge Arran admitted to Sir
Ralph Sadler, the English ambassador, that there
was no evidence; "but," he said, "we have other
matters to charge him with, for he did forge the
late king^s testament; and when the king was
even almost dead, he took his hand in his, and
caused it to subscribe a blank paper; and, besides
that, since he has been a prisoner, he has given
special and secret command to his men to keep
his stronghold and castle of St. Andrews against
us, which is plain disobedience and rebellion."
The cardinal's imprisonment created great con-
sternation among the clergy. "The public ser-
vices of religion," observes Mr. Tytler in his His-
tory, "were instantly suspended, the priests re-
fused to administer the sacraments of baptism
and burial, the churches were closed, a universal
gloom overspread the countenances of the people,
and the country presented the melancholy appeai--
ance of a land excommunicated for some awful
crime." He was soon after liberated, and recon-
ciled to his cousin the regent, who was induced
publicly, in the church of the Franciscans at Stir-
ling, to abjure the protestant faith, which he had
for some time professed. On the young queen's
coi-onation, the cardinal was again admitted of the
council, and the regent appointed him chancellor
of the realm.
In January 1545-6, the cardinal, accompanied
by the regent and several of the nobility, made a
diocesan visitation of the counties under his juiis-
diction, with the object of punishing with the ut-
most severity all the protestants he could find.
On his an-ival at Perth, a number of persons were
accused of heresy by a friar named Spence. Of
these, four citizens and a woman were, on the 25th
Januaiy, cnielly put to death; the men being
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hanged and the woman drawned. The names of
these martyrs were, William Anderson, Robert
Lamb, James Ronald, and James Finlayson, and
Helen Stark, the wife of Finlayson. The crime of
three of the men consisted, according to Knox
and others, in having ^* eaten a goose on Crood
Friday." The woman was accused of having re-
fused to invoke the Virgin during her labour, de-
claring that she would direct her prayers to Grod
alone in the name of Christ. The cardinal is said
to have witnessed the execution from a window in
the Spy tower, a building in the earl of GrOwrie*s
garden. Some of the citizens of Perth were ban-
ished from the city. Lord Ruthven, the provost,
was deposed from his office; and Charteris of
Kinfauns, a neighbouring proprietor, although by
no means friendly to the cardinal, or averse to the
pi-otestant doctrines, appointed in his place. The
citizens of Perth, however, would not acknow-
ledge him as provost, and, urged by the cardinal
and regent to take possession of the city by force,
he was compelled to retire, after a fight where
sixty of his followers were slain. The cardinal
and regent now proceeded towards Dundee, where
the New Testament in the original Greek had been
some time taught; but within a few miles of that
town, they were stopped by the approach of the
carl of Rothes and Lord Gray, both noblemen
favourable to the Reformation, at the head of a
large body of their armed retainers. In conse-
quence, they returned to Perth, where, by a ma-
noeuvre of the cardinal, both Rothes and Gray,
who had followed them, were arrested and lodged
in prison. Rothes soon obtained his liberty, but
Gray was not released for some time. At Arbroath,
whither the cardinal and his party next went, he
succeeded in apprehending a Black Friar named
John Rogers, who had been going about preaching
the protestant doctrines, and whom he confined in
the sea tower of the castle of St. Andrews. A few
mornings thereafter Rogers was found dead among
the rocks under the castle, as if he had fallen and
broken his neck while attempting to make his
escape during the night. But there were not
wanting those who stated and believed that the
cardinal had caused the friar to be privately
murdered, and thrown over the wall.
Shortlv after Bethune presided at a provincial
council of the clergy held in the church of the
Black Friars, I^nburgh, when he enforced upon
them the necessity of proceeding vigorously against
all those who either encouraged, or were suspected
of encomaging, the protestant doctrines, at the
same time recommending to them to reform their
own lives, that no further complaints might be
heard against the church. In the midst of their
deliberations, the cardinal received intelligence
that the celebrated George Wishart, the most em-
inent protestant preacher of his time, was residing
at the house of Cockbum of Ormiston, in Hadding-
tonshire. A ti*oop of horse was immediately
sent off to secure him, but Cockbum refusing to
deliver him up, the cardinal himself and the re-
gent followed, blocking up every avenue to the
house, so as to render escape impossible. The earl
of Bothwell being sent for, pledged his faith to
Cockbum, that he would stand by Wishart, and
see that his life and person would be safe, on which
Wishart delivered himself up; and Bothwell hav-
ing basely surrendered him to the cardinal, he was
conveyed first to Edinburgh Castle, and after-
wards to St. Andrews, where he was committed to
the castle prison. Being brought before the ec-
clesiastical ti'ibunal, he was condemned for heresy,
and burnt with great cmelty. The cardinal and
other prelates witnessed the scene ftt)m a window
in the castle, and, according to Buchanan and
others, the following prediction was uttered by
Wishart in the midst of the tortwing flames : " He
who now so proudly looks down upon me from
yonder lofty place, (pointing to the cardinal,)
shall in a few days be as ignominiously thrown down
as now he proudly lolls at his ease." This crael
execution was conducted in defiance of a letter
which the regent had written to him, to stay the
proceedings until he should come himself to St.
Andrews, and threatening that, if he did not, the
blood of Wishart would be required at his hands.
Wishart died with great firmness, constancy, and
Christian courage; and his death caused great ex-
citement in the kingdom, which, however, the
cardinal, conceiving that he had done a meritori-
ous action, paid no attention to.
In April 1646, shortly after the martyrdom of
Wishart, the cardinal proceeded to the castle of
Finhaven, to the marriage of the eldest of his iUe-
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gitimate daughters by Mrs. Marion OgiWy, of the
house of Airly, with whom he had long lived in
scandalous concubinage, and there, with infamoas
effrontery, married her to the eldest son of the
eaii of Crawford, giving with her 4,000 merks of
dowry. The marriage -contract, subscribed by
him, in which he styles her " my daughter," is yet
extant. In the midst of the marriage rejoicings,
intelligence was received that an English fleet had
appeared off the coast, and he immediately return-
ed to St. Andrews, and began to fortify his castle,
but while thus engaged preparing against foreign
enemies, he had no suspicion of any at home. He
bad procured from Norman Leslie, eldest son^of
the earl of Rothes, a bond of manrent or feudal
service for the estate of Easter Wemyss, which
liCslie had resigned to the cardinal on a promise
of an advantageous equivalent. Demanding the
fulfilment of the bargain, the proud priest refused,
on which, dreading the primate^s vengeance, Nor-
man concerted measures with his uncle, Mr. John
Leslie, a violent enemy of the cardinal, and some
other persons, to cut him off. There were very
few concerned in this conspiracy, the principal
persons being the two Leslies, William Rirkaldy
of Grange, Peter Carmichael of Fife, and James
Melville of Raith, most of whom had some private
cause of wrong against the cardinal. On the 28th
of May 1546, Norman Leslie entered St. Andrews
with some followers, but not so many as to excite
suspicion. The others assembled in that city dur-
ing the evening; Kirkaldy came there on the pre-
vious day ; John Leslie arrived late, lest his ap-
pearance should excite alarm. Next morning
they assembled early in the vicinity of the castle,
and on the porter lowering the drawbridge, to ad-
mit the workmen whom the cardinal had been
employing incessantly at the fortifications, Nor-
man Leslie entered with three men ; and while
speaking to the porter, as to the hour when the
cardinal would be stirring and could be seen, Kirk-
aldy of Grange and his party also gained admission
into the court-yard. John Leslie now appeared
with a few attendants, but when the porter saw
him he suspected the design, and attempted to lift
the drawbridge. He was prevented by Leslie,
who sprang across the gap with his attendants,
slew the porter, threw the body into the foss, and
seized the keys of the fortress. The workmen and
domestics, about one hundred and fifty individu-
als, were then ejected, and being now in full pos-
session of the fortress, before there was even an
alarm in the town, they dropped the portcullis, and
closed the gates. The cardinal, roused by the
noise, arose from his couch. According to Knox,
Marion Ogilvy had been with him the preceding
night, and she was " espy'd to depart from him by
the privy postern that morning." Opening the
casement, he inquired the cause of the noise. A
voice answered him that Norman Leslie had taken
the castle. He ran to the postern, but finding it
locked, he returned to his apartment, and seizing
a sword, proceeded to barricade the door with the
heaviest furniture, assisted by the page or attend-
ant who waited on him. John Leslie now ad-
vanced to the prelate^s room, and demanded ad-
mittance. "Who is there?" inquired the car-
dinal. " My name is Leslie," replied the assail-
ant. "Which of the Leslies?" asked the car-
dinal; " are you Norman? — I must have Norman,
he is my friend." " Content yourself with those
who are here," was the reply, " for you will get
no other." They then insisted that the cardinal
should open the door, which he refused to do.
While they were attempting to force it, the prelate
concealed a box of gold under some coals in a cor-
ner of the room, and then sat down on a chair,
exclaiming to those outside, " I am a priest; I am
a priest." Finding them resolute to gain admit-
tance, he at length asked them if they would save
his life. " It may be that we will," replied John
Leslie. " Nay," said the cardinal, " swear unto
me by God*s wounds, and I will admit you." The
elder Leslie now called out for fire^ the door from
its strength resisting all their exertions. A
quantity of burning coals was brought to bum
the door, when the cardinal, or his chamberlain,
seemg farther resistance hopeless, opened the
door, on the strongest assurances of personal
safety. On their entrance he cried out, " I am
a priest, I am a priest; you will not slay me!"
They rushed on the cardinal, and John Leslie,
and another conspirator named Carmichael, re-
peatedly struck him. But Melville of Raith, who
had been intimately acquainted with Wish art,
perceiving them in a furious passion, pushed them
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CARDINAL.
aside, saying, " This work and judgment of God,
althongh it be secret, ought to be done with greater
gi-avity," and presenting the point of his sword,
he thus addressed the wounded prelate : — " Repent
thee of thy former wicked life, but especially the
shedding of the blood of that notable instrument
of God, Mr. George Wish art, who, although
the flame of fire consumed before men, yet cries
for vengeance upon thee, and we from God are
sent to avenge it. Remember that neither the
hatred of thy person, the love of riches, nor the
fear of thy power, moved or moveth me to strike
thee, but because thou hast been an obstinate ene-
my of Christ and the holy gospel." Melville then
passed his sword through the cardinal's body seve-
ral times, who sunk into his chair, and saying, " I
am a priest, fie, fie, all is gone!" instantly ex-
pired. The alarm had by this time been given in
the town; the bells were rung, and the citizens,
headed by the provost, surrounded the entire wall
of the castle. " What have you done with my lord
cardinal?" they clamorously demanded: "Have
you slain my lord cardinal? " They were answered
by the conspirators from the battlements, that it
would be as well to retura to their houses, for the
man whom they called the cardinal had received
his reward, and would trouble them no more.
This reply having only the more enraged them, they
were addressed by Norman Leslie as unreasonable
fools, who demanded an audience with a dead man.
Dragging the bleeding body of the murdered pri-
mate to the spot, they suspended it by a sheet
over the wall, by the same window from which he
had but a short time before witnessed the martyr-
dom of Mr. George Wishart, exclaiming, " There
is your God ; and now that you are satisfied, get
home to your houses," — a command wUh which,
in horror and amazement, they eventually complied.
The body of the cardinal was salted, and after
being treated with disgusting indignity, was thrown
into the ground-floor of the sea- tower. His death
excited joy among the Protestants, and conster-
nation among the Catholics ; the feelings of the
more moderate being well expressed m Sir David
Lindsay of the Mount's oft-repeated verse
" Ab for the cardinal, I grant
He was a man we well might want —
God will forgire it soon
But of a truth, the sooth to say
Although the loon be well awajr,
The deed was foully done.**
The engraving given of Cardinal Bethune is
from a rare portrait at St Mary's College, Blairs,
near Aberdeen. With him fell the last prop 0/
the papal church in Scotland. He understood
well the policy of the courts of France and Rome,
and thought that the interests of Scotland could
only be promoted in accordance with it. In times
of danger he evinced resolution of mind, steadi-
ness of purpose, and a firm and unswerving at-
tachment to the principles which he conceived to
be Jhe most fitted for the prosperity of his native
country. He was a man of commanding talents,
and a politician of the highest order — one thor-
oughly acquainted with the temper, influence, and
weight of the whole feudal nobility of Scotland;
but, says Keith, (Hisi. p. 45,) " it were to be
wished the same praise could be given him with
respect to his morals. Mrs. Marion Ogilvy, a
daughter of the predecessora of the earls of Aii-lie,
bore htm several children / some of whose descend-
ants, both of the male and female line, are known
to be persons of good note in our couutiy at this
day." A contemporary writer, Paulus Jovius,
says of him : ** His pride was so great, that he
quarrelled with the old archbishop of Glasgow
(Dunbar) in his own city, and pushed this quarrel
so far that then* men fought in the very church.
His ambition was boundless, for he took into his
own hands the entire management of the affairs of
the kingdom." He was haughty, cniel, licentious,
and intolerant in the extreme. Devoted to the
Church of Rome, he upheld her doctrines by the
most sanguinary measures. He possessed little
learning, and knew scarcely anything of the con-
trovei-sial writings of the age. Dempster men-
tions that he wrote * Memoira of his own Embas-
seys;' a * Treatise on »St. Peter's Supremacy;'
and * Lettei-s to several Pfei-sons,' of which that
author obsei-ves there are several copies extant in
the national libraries at Paris. His great riches
he bequeathed to his natural children, having
three sons and three daughters. One of his sons
became a* Protestant ; his daughters were man*led
into families of distinction.
BETHUNE, James, Archbishop of Glasgow,
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BETHUNE,
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ALEXANDER.
a nephew of the cardinal, was odacated chiefly
at Paris. In 1552 he was raised to the archie-
piscopal see of Glasgow; and, according to some
writers, was consecrated at Rome, whither it is
conjectured he was sent to give the Pope an
account of the ecclesiastical affairs of Scotland
after the murder of his uncle the cardinal. In
1557 he was one of the commissioners appointed
to witness the marriage of the young Queen Mary
to the Dauphin of France, and was present at the
ceremony in the cathedral church of Notre Dame^
April 24, 1558. On his return, he acted as a
privy counsellor to the queen-mother, Mary of
Guise, appointed regent by her daughter on her
going to France. Owing to the disputes about
religion which then agitated the kingdom, and the
proceedings of the Reformers, the archbishop
retired to France in July 1560, carrying with him
the treasures and records of his archiepiscopal see,
and carefully deposited them in the Scots college
at Paris. On his departure the protestants in
Scotland appointed a preacher in Glasgow, and
seized all the revenues of the aix^hbishopric. As
his capacity and fidelity were weU known to the
queen his mistress, she resolved, after the death
of the king her consort and her return to Scot-
land, to leave her affairs in France in his hands.
Accordingly, in 1561, he was declared her am-
bassador to Fi*ance, and, in June 1564, his com-
mission was renewed. He resided in Paris as
ambassador, first from Queen Mary, and after-
wards from King James, till his death in 1603,
enjoying all that time the highest confidence of
his sovereign. Having carefully preserved Queen
Mary's letters, and other papers communicated to
him, these would have formed valuable materials
for history, had the greater part of them not been
taken away or destroyed. While in France, he
i*eceived scarcely any money from Scotland ; but,
when King James came of age, he restored him
both to the title and revenues of his archbishopric.
Previous to this, he had obtained several ecclesi-
astical preferments in France. He died April 24,
1603, aged 86. He is represented as a prelate of
great prudence, moderation, loyalty, and learning.
He was succeeded in his see by the celebrated
Spottiswood. According to Dempster, he wrote
*A Commentary on the Book of Kings;' *A
Lamentation for the Kingdom of Scotland; *A
Book of Controversies against the Sectaries;'
* Observations upon Gratian's Decretals;' and
*A Collection of Scotch P*roverbs,' — none of
which were ever printed. — Spottiswoods History,
BETHUNE, Alexander, a literary peasant,
of unpretending worth and rare talent, was the
son of an agricultural labourer of the same name,
and was bom at Upper Rankeillor, in the parish
of Monimail, Fifeshhre, about the end of July
1 804. From the extreme poverty of his parents,
lie received but a scanty education, having, up to
the age of twenty-two, been only four or hve
months at school, while his brother John, the sub-
ject of the following article, who was a few years
younger, was at school but one day. To their
mother, whose maiden name was Alison Christie,
they were mainly indebted for the cultivation of
those talents which subsequently obtained for them
a very respectable standing in the literary world
At the age of fourteen Alexander was engaged in
the occupation of a labourer. He describes him
self as having been set to dig at raw fourteen, and
for more than a year afterwards, his joints, in
first attempting to move in the morning, creaked
like machinery wanting oil. Previous to this his
parents had removed to the hamlet of Lochcnd,
near the loch of Lindores. At the age of twenty-
one, he enrolled himself in the evening classes
taught by the Rev. John Adamson, afterwards
of Dundee, who about 1825 kept a school at
IxKjhend. With the view of improving his condi-
tion, he commenced learning the weaving business,
under the instruction of his brother, (see next ar-
ticle,) but after expending all their savings in the
purchase of the necessary apparatus, they were
compelled, from the general failures which took
place in 1825 and following year, to seek employ-
ment as outdoor labourers, at the rate of one shil-
ling a-day. In 1829, while employed in a quarry,
Alexander was thrown into the air by a blast of
gunpowder, and so dreadfully mangled that those
who came to his aid after the accident, anticipated
his speedy death. He, however, recovered, and
in four months after he was able to resume his
labours. Three years thereafter he met with an
accident of a similar kind, by which he was agm
fearfully disfigured, and from the effects of which
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BETHUNE,
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JOHN.
he never altogether recovered. His leisure hours
were diligently devoted to literary pursuits, and
besides contributing several tales and other pieces
to the periodicals of the day, he completed a se-
ries of ' Tales and Sketches of the Scottish Pea-
santry,' a work which, on its publication in 1838,
was justly admired for its truthfulness and vigo-
I rous delineation of rustic character, as well as for
; the author's general knowledge of human nature.
Tlie risk of the publication was undertaken by
i Mr. Shortrede, then a printer in Edinburgh, who
' gave for the copyright the price of the firet fifty
copies sold, an airangement with which the author
was perfectly satisfied.
His bix)ther John having, in the meantime, ob-
tained the situation of overseer on the estate of
Inchrye, he accompanied him as his assistant.
Before the end of a year, however, that estate
passed into the hands of a new proprietor, and
their engagement came to an end. As they were
obliged, at the same time, to quit the house at
Lochend, which formed part of the Inchrye pro-
perty, the brothers came to the resolution of feu-
ing a piece of gix)und near Newburgh, and imme-
diately set about building a house for themselves.
In concert with his brother, he had prepared a series
of ' Lectures on Practical Economy,' which were
published in 1839, but did not meet with the suc-
cess which had been anticipated. After the death
of his brother the same year he undertook the re-
vision of his poems, which he published in a vol-
nme, with a memoir, and the first impression of
seven hundred copies having been disposed of, a
second edition was soon called for. A copy of
the work having fallen into the hands of Mrs.
Hill, the wife of Mr. Frederick Hill, inspector of
prisons, that lady wrote to Alexander Bethune,
offering to use her influence to procure him a situ-
ation as teacher or in some other way connected
with the prisons ; but after a week's probation as
a turnkey at Glasgow in March 1841, he declined
the proposal, and wrote that he did not wish an
application to be made for one who had no quali-
fications above the average rate of a common
labourer. In 1842 he visited Edinburgh, and en-
tered into arrangements with the Messrs. Black
for the publication of *The Scottish Peasant's
Fhneside,' which appeared early in the following
year. Previous to this he had been seized with i
fever, from which he never thoroughly recovered,
the disease merging into pulmonary consumption.
During his partial recovery, an oflfer was made to
him to undeitake the editorship of the Dumfries
Standard, a newspaper then about to be started ;
but after conditionally accepting of the situation,
should his health permit, he felt himself compelled
to abandon all hope of ever being able to enter on
the duties of editor. He died at Newburgh at
midnight of the 13th June 1843. Previous to his
death he consigned his manuscripts to his friend
Mr. William M'Combie, a farmer in Aberdeen-
shire, and like himself a writer on social economy,
who in 1845 published at Aberdeen his Life, with
Selections from his Correspondence and Literary
Remains. In as far as regards character and
conduct, Alexander Bethune and his brother were
as fine specimens of the Scottish peasantry as
could anywhere be found. They were, in fact,
models of the class ; humble, without meanness ;
frugal. Industrious, persevering, and unostentati-
ously religions, without bigotry or intolerance.
The productions of his intellect caused him to be
courted and esteemed by many in the upper ranks
of society. This, however, did not make him
vain, or tura him from the even tenor of his way.
He was, all his life, a sturdy independent peasant,
never ashamed in the least of his calling; diggmg,
quanying, felling wood, breaking stones on the
highway, or building dry-stone walls, as long as
he was able, by his own hands, to minister to his
own wants ; and on wet days and intervals of lei-
sure, turning his attention to literary composition,
as a relaxation from his ordinary toil.
BETHUNE, John, the author of several po-
ems and tales, younger brother of the preceding,
was bom in 1812, in the parish of Monlmail,
Fifeshire. At Martinmas 1813, his father re-
moved to a place called Lochend, near the loch
of Lindores, where the greater part of John Be-
thune's short life was passed. He never was but
one day at school. He was taught to read by his
mother, and received lessons in writing and arith-
metic from his brother, Alexander Bethune, who,
soon after his death, published a selection from
his poems, with a sketch of his life. WTien yci
scarcely thirteen years of age, he and his brother
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BETHUNE,
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SIR HENRY.
earned their subiiistence by breaking stones on the
road between Lindores and Newburgh. Having
been apprenticed to the weaving business in the
village of Collessie, he soon became so expert at
the loom, that at Martinmas 1825 he commenced
business on his own account, in a house adjoining
liis father^s, with his brother as his apprentice.
Bnt, not succeeding, he and his brother resumed
their former occupation of outdoor labourers.
Most of his pieces were written amidst great pri-
vations, and, as we are told by bis brother, upon
such scraps of paper as he could pick up. Before
the year 1831 he had produced a large collection
of pieces ; he also wrote and planned a number of
tales, the gi'eater part of which was left in manu-
script. In October 1829 he was engaged on the
estate of Inchrye as a day-labourer; and after-
wards in 1835, on the death of the overseer, he
was appomted in his place, at a salary of twenty-
six pounds yearly, with fodder for a cow, when he
engaged his brother as his assistant. There he
remained for one year. To his brother's * Tales
and Sketches of the Scottish Peasantry,* published
in 1838, he contributed five pieces. In the fol-
lowing year appeared * Lectures on Practical
Economy* by both brothers, on the title-page of
which he designated himself a ^^ Fifeshire Forest-
er." Thb work, though designed to teach poor
people habits of thrift and saving, and well spoken
of by the press, did not succeed with the public,
as stated in the life of his brother. As a ^* Fife-
shire Forester *' he contributed a number of poems
to the * Scottish Christian Herald.' He also wrote
some pieces for the ^Christian Instructor.' In
1838, having received some small remuneration
for one or two contributions to a periodical, and
finding his health failing him, he determined to
give up manual labour, and trust to his pen for
his future support. He did not long fish in the
uncertain waters of literature, as he was cut off
by consumption on the forenoon of Sunday the 1st
of September 1839. He died at the early age of
27. He was a man of considerable powers of
mind. His whole life seems to have been a scene
of constant disappointment and suffering, but he
possessed a cheerful, contented disposition, and a
spuit of so much independence, that when an
Edinburgh friend offered to exert his influence to
procure him a government situation, he at once
declined it, choosing rather to support himaelf by
his own unaided industry.
BETHUNE, Sir IIknry Lindesay, of Kil-
conquhar, baronet, a distinguished general in the
Persian service, was bom 12th April, 1787. He
was descended from the ancient family of the
I^rds Lindsay of the Byres, who afterwards be-
came earls of Crawford and Lindsay. The im-
mediate ancestor of the branch of the noble and
ancient house to which he belonged was William
Lindsay, second son of Patrick fourth Lord Lind-
say, who obtained a charter of the lands of Pyet-
ston In Fifeshire, in March, 1529. The durect
line of Pyetston had failed towards the close of
the seventeenth century, but a younger branch
survived in the Lindsays of Wormestone, of which
the subject of this notice was the representative.
He was the son of Mi^or Martin Ecdes Lindesay
Bethune, by the daughter of General Tovey. He
entered the military service of the East India
Company in early life, and in it attained the rank
of major. Being sent from Madras to Persia for
the purpose of instructing and assisting the cele-
brated Abbas Mirza, crown prince of Persia, the
eldest son of Futteh Ali Shah, in the organisation
of his artillery, the talent, resolution and perse-
verance exhibited by him, in the execution of this
arduous duty, gained him the entire respect and
confidence of the prince, and his heroism and in-
trepidity In the field established his fame through-
out Persia. An instance of this is recited during
the hostilities with Russia which preceded the
peace negociated by Sir Gore Ouseley. Abbas
Mirza had quitted his camp with his staff and
suite on a shooting excursion, taking with him the
artillery horses to beat for game. The Russians
took advantage of his absence to surprise the
camp, and carry off Major Lindesay's six brass
guns. Lindesay, on his return, seeing with a glass
his cannon ranged in front of the enemy's lines,
instantly harnessed his horses, and, galloping
across the intervening plain through the hostile
advanced posts, cut down the guards, and brought
off the guns in the face of the whole Russian ar-
my. Repeated feats of this daring character, his
lofty and commanding stature, being six feet seven
inches in height, and his great personal strength,
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SIR HENRY.
always highly admired by Orientals, justified the
epithet- familiarly applied to him in the Persian
armies, of " Rustum^—the Hercules of ancient
Persian story; while his humanity and justice,
and regular distiibution of pay to the troops un-
der his command — too often withheld or delayed
by native officers— secured their personal attach-
ment and esteem.
After a period of about sixteen years thus use-
fully spent in the service of Persia, Major Linde-
say returned to his native country, where he had
inherited the estate of Kilconquhar, in Fifeshire,
having succeeded his grandfather, who assumed
the name of Bethune, by virtue of a deed of entail
made by David Bethune of Balfom- in 1779. He
married, in 1822, Coutts, eldest daughter of the
late John Trotter of Dyrham Park, county Herts,
and with her lived in domestic retirement till 1834,
when the critical state of affairs in Persia called
him once more into active service.
On the demise of Futteh Ali Shah, in that year,
the throne devolved on Mahomed - Mirza, his
grandson, the son of the gallant Abbas Mirza,
who had died during his father^s lifetime. But
Mahomed^s succession was opposed by ZuUi Sul-
tan, the younger brother of Abbaj and uncle of
Mahomed ; he raised the standai-d of revolt, and
Persia was involved in a civil war. Mahomed
appealed to England; and Sir Henry Bethune
simultaneously repaured to London, and offered
his services to government. The foreign secre-
tary, Lord Palmerston, accepted them, conferred
on him the local rank of colonel in Asia, and de-
spatched him as an accredited agent of the British
government. He was received with delight by
the Shah, and his arrival was instantly noised
throughout Persia. The "magical influence" of
the name of " Lindesay Sahib," still powerful after
80 many years* absence, spread confidence through-
out the royal army, and consternation through
that of the rebel Zulll Sultan, who set a price of
four thousand tomauns on his head. Some diffi-
culties at first arose, in consequence of Sir Henry's
juniority in the service to certain British officers
already high in station ; but they were soon re-
moved by his nobly consenting to take an inferior
command, having solely at heart the public inter-
ests, and placing himself under the orders of the
chief of those officers as a temporary arrange-
ment.
An expedition was sent against the rebel uncle,
headed by Sir Henry Bethune, who commanded
the advanced guard of the Shah's army, and, by a
singularly rapid march — or, as it is described in a
letter in the St. Petersburg Gazette, "dragging
the army after him" — ^he surprised, attacked, and
defeated the rebel force, and took Sulli Sultan
prisoner, enabling the Shah to make his trium-
phal entry into Teheran in December, 1834. His
services were acknowledged by a firman from the
Shah, investing " the high in degree and rank, the
wise and prudent, the zealous and brave, the sin-
cere and devoted, the great among Christians,
Sur Henry Bethune, descended from the Linde-
says," with the rank of general and Ameer-i-Toop
Kama, or master general of artillery; and re-
questing him to select the best Arab horse in his
stables ; which being done, the Shah mounted the
fiery animal, rode him into Teheran, and then
dismounted, and presented him to Sir Henry.
The ministers and courtiers, on hearing of this
gift, petitioned the Shah not to allow so famed
a steed to leave the royal stud ; but the Shah re-
plied, that he would rather lose fifty such horses,
if such could be found, than disappoint Sur Henry.
The Shah further conferred upon him, by a dis-
tinct firman, a "Medal of Fidelity," with five
others in pure gold, as rewards for services ren-
dered on particular occasions, declaiing, at the
same time, that he had surpassed all others in his
bravery in the field ; and commanding that this
testimony to Su* Henry's worth and good service
should be inscribed in the books of the records of
the kings of Persia.
Nor was the testimony of the British envoy.
Sir John Campbell, less marked and gratifying.
In his despatch to Lord EUenborough, dated 6th
May, 1835, he refers to the "unbounded confi-
dence reposed in Sir Henry Bethune by the Per-
sian government, and by the military of all classes,"
to the "fame which he had acquired during his
former services in Persia," to the " very extraor-
dinary influence of his name and reputation," to
" his knowledge of the language and of the habits
of the people," and to " the successful result, be-
yond what could possibly have been anticipated,"
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BETHUNE.
BINNING.
of all hla operations, as folly jnstifyiDg his (Sir
John's) accession to the wish of the Shah and the
conrt of Persia, *^ that the direction of all hostile
operations should be intrusted to him." **His
proceedings," he states in another letter, of the
80th April, 1835, ^^ have been energetic as well as
conciliatory, and his effoii» have been seconded by
the British officers attached to his force. Owing
to the subordination preserved, little or no injury
has been done to the country. The ryots (or
peasantry) have appealed to him against the op-
pression of their own native authorities, and have
duly appreciated the contrast between the conduct
of an army marching under British, and one
marching under native commanders; and num-
berless letters and verses have been received by
the Persian goyemment in praise of the English
name." We may add to this the following ex-
tract from a private letter from Persia, printed in
the United Service Gazette : — ^* Great is the name
of Lindesay in this country, and great ought it to
be, for certainly he was just formed for service in
Persia in troubled times like these. The confi-
dence the soldiers have in him is quite wondciful,
and all classes talk of him as if there never had
appeared on eai*th before so irresistible a con-
queror."
Having thus seated the son of his eariy friend
and leader on the throne of his grandfather. Sir
Henry Bethune returned to his native country and
liis family in September 1885. Soon after his ar-
rival, he received a letter from Lord Palmerston,
then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in-
forming him that his Majesty, the late King Wil-
liam the Fourth, had conferred upon him the
honour of a baronetcy, (7th March 1836,) " as an
acknowledgment of the brilliant and important ser-
vices" which he had performed in Persia, and in
accordance with a request of Mahomet Shah, ex-
pressed in a letter to the king,* that his Majesty
would confer some rank upon Sir Henry, ** which,
in the English State, may descend lineally to his
posterity, and always remain in his family."
Sir Henry Bethune remained in Scotland till the
year 1850, employing himself in adding to and de-
corating his venerable mansion of Kilconquhar—
celebrated in local story as the scene of the murder
of Macduff's wife and children — and fulfilling in other
respects the quiet and unostentatious duties of a \
private country gentleman. During the last year I
of his life, his health having been much shaken, and
thinking that a change of air and a milder climate
might restore it, he went to Persia, to the laud of
his early exploits and affections, there to spend
the winter. He died at Tabrees on the 19th of
February, 1851, in his sixty- fourth year — sur-
rounded by friends, even in that distant clime.
Nothing could exceed the marked kindness of the
Shah and the Ameer during his illness. The in-
terest and anxiety of the queen-mother were not
less marked and considerate.
He was interred in the churchyard of the Ar-
menians, with the full service of their church, and
with every military honour which Persia could be-
stow. The bazaars and the streets were thronged
with spectators, and the whole Christian popula-
tion of Tabrees attended the ceremony. He lef^
three sons and five daughters, and was succeeded
in his title and estate by his eldest son. Sir John
Trotter Bethune.
BiNNDfO and Btres, Lord, the second title of the earl oi
Hftddington, derived from an ancient parish in the county ol
Linlithgow. See Haddington, earl of.
The somame of Binnib or Binnt is evidently a contrac-
tion of Binning, which appears to have been originally
French, Beniffne being the name of several persons of learning
and distinction both in France and Italy. The first arch-
bishop of Dijon was named St. Benigne. In the county of
linlithgow there is an eminence called Binnie Crag, which
rises to the height of about four hundred and fifty feet in
1807, during the wars of independence under Robert the Bruce,
a peasant named Binny, styled the William Tell of Scotland,
by a successful stratagem, obtained possession of the Castle
of Linlithgow, which was held by an English garrison under
Peter Lubard. This daring exploit is thus related by Tytler
in his Histoiy of Scotland, (vol. L p. 291) • " Binny, who was
known to the garrison, and had been employed in leading hay
into the fort, conmiunicated his design to a party of Scottish
soldiers, whom he stationed in ambush near the gate. In
his large wain he contrived to conceal eight armed men, cov-
ered with a load of hay, a servant drove the oxen, and Binny
Iiimself walked carelessly at his side. When the portcullis
was raised, and the wain stood in the middle of the gateway,
interposing a complete barrier to its descent, the driver cut
the ropes which harnessed the oxen ; upon which signal the
ruined men suddenly leapt from the cart, the soldiers in am-
bush rushed in, and so complete was the surprise that with
little resistance the garrison were put to the sword, and
the place taken." According to tradition six of the armed
men concealed in the wain were Binny*8 sons. Bruce re-
warded the brave peasant with a grant of the lands of Easter
Binmng, and his descendants long survived, bearing in their
coat of arms a hay wain, with the motto, *' virtute doloque.**
From the Binnmgs of Easter Binning were descended the
Bmnings of Wallifoord and the Binnings of Carlowryhall,
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BINNING,
300
HUGH.
both of which b«,ve been for a long period extinct. In Wal-
lifoord*8 charter-chest Nisbet states there was a charter by
King James the First of the lands of Easter Binning to David
de Binning, upon the resignation of William de Binning, his
father. Sir Thomas Hamilton, the first Lord Binning and
Bjres (created, in 1619, earl of Melrose, a title which he re-
linquished for that of earl of Haddington), besides other lands
in Linlithgowshire, had charters of the lands of West Birtnj
and the ecdeuastical lands of Easter Binny, 11th Not. 1601.
About 1722, when the first volume of Nisbet*s System of
Heraldry was published, Mr. Charles Binning of Pilmuir,
advocate, was one of his Majesty*s solicitors-general. He was
a younger son of Sir William Binning of Wallifoord, sometime
Lord Provost of Edinburgh.
BINNING, Lord, see Hamilton, Charles.
BINNING, Hugh, the Rev., a preacher of the
seventeenth century, of extraordinary eloquence
and learning, the son of John Binning of Dalven-
nan, a gentleman of landed property in Ayrshire,
was bom about 1627. His mother was Margaret
M'Kell or M'Kail, a daughter of Mr. Mathew
M*Kail, minister at Bothwell, the brother (some
accounts say the father) of Mr. Hugh M^Kail, one
of the ministers of Edinburgh, and uncle to the
celebrated Hugh M^Eail, the young licentiate who
was executed at Edinburgh, 22d December 1666,
for being concerned in the insurrection at Pentland.
At the grammar school he made so great profi-
ciency in the Latin that he outstripped all his fel-
lows, and before he was fourteen years old be
entered upon the study of philosophy at the uni-
versity of Glasgow, in which he made considerable
progress. After taking the degree of master of
arts, which he did on the 27th July 1646, he be-
gan the study of divinity. A vacancy having oc-
cuiTcd in the chair of philosophy in Glasgow col-
lege, by the resignation of Mr. James Dalryraple,
afterwards Lord Stair, who had been his master,
Binning was induced to become a candidate, and
his great acquirements and extraordinary genius
caused him to be elected to the vacant professor-
ship before he was nineteen years of age. At the
expiration of his third year as professor of philo-
sophy he received a call from the parishioners of
Govan, in the immediate vicinity of Glasgow, to
be their minister, and in January 1650, he was
ordained to that charge. Soon after he married
Barbara (or Mary) Simpson, the daughter of a
presbyterian clergyman in Ulster, in Ireland.
When the unhappy division took place in the
church into Rcsolntioners and Protesters, (for an
explanation of these terms, see life of James
Guthrie, minister of Stirling,) he sided with the
latter ; but with the view of bringing about a re-
conciliation, he wrote his * Treatise on Christian
Love.' The eloquence, fervour, and great theo-
logical attainments he displayed in the famous
dispute which Oliver Cromwell caused to be
held at Glasgow, in April 1651, between bis own
Independent clergymen and the "Scottish Pres-
byterian ministere, astonished even the protector
himself. Finding that Binning had completely
nonplussed his opponents, Cromwell asked the
name "of that learned and bold young man.''
On being told it was Mr. Hugh Binning, he re-
plied in the tnie spirit of Alexander with "the
Gordian knot," " He hath bound well, indeed, bat
(putting his hand on his sword) this will loose alt
again !'' Binning died of consumption in 1653, in
his 26th year. He was buried in the churchyard
of Govan, whei-e Mr. Patrick Gillespie, then princi-
pal of the university of Glasgow, caused a monu
ment to be erected to his memory with a Latin
inscription. It is a simple marble tablet, sur-
mounted with a heart, and the emblems of mor-
tality. It was placed in a niche in the front wall
of the old parish church ; but, in 1826, when the
present church was erected, it was removed to the
vestibule. The Inscription may be turned into
English, thus : " Mr. Hugh Binning is buried
here, a man distinguished for his piety, eloquence,
and learning, an eminent philologist, philosopher,
and theologian ; in fine, a faithful and acceptable
preacher of the gospel, who was removed from this
world in the 26th year of his age, and in the year
of our Lord 1658. He changed his country, not
his company, because when on earth he walked
with God. If thou wish to know anything beyond
this, I am silent as to anything further, since nei-
ther thou nor this marble can receive it."
Binning's miscellaneous writings, which are
chiefly of a religious nature, were published in one
volume, in 17S2. A selection from these, entitled
' Evangelical Beauties of Hugh Binning,' with a
memoir of the author by the Rev. John Brown of
Whitburn, was published In 1829. Binning, says
a reviewer in * The Edinburgh Christian Instruc-
tor' for that year, was "a writer of no common
order. There is a depth and solidity of thinking
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BINNING,
301
BIRNIE.
Rbont his works, a richness of scriptural and pions
sentiment, coupled with an exuberance of beauti-
ful and striking illustration, such as none but a
very highly gifted and sanctified mind could com-
mand. We see in them, in fact, a delightful
union of true genius with the most exalted piety ;
of the fervour and the flow of youth, with the
riper judgment and experience of age. We are
not conscious of overrating his power, when we
say that neither in the richness of his illustrations,
nor in the vein of seraphic piety which pervades
his writings, is he at all iufe^or to Leighton,
whom, perhaps, on the whole, he most resembles."
Binning^s widow was afterwards married to one
Mr. James Gordon, presbyterian minister of Com-
ber, in the county of Down, Ireland. His only
son John inherited the estate of Dalvennan at the
death of his grandfather, after whom he was
named ; but having been engaged in the insurrec-
tion of Both well Bridge in 1679, his estate was
forfeited, and he continued dispossessed of it till the
year 1690, when the forfeiture and fines were by
act of parliament rescinded. It appears, however,
that one Roderick Mackenzie, who had been a
depute advocate in the reign of James the Sev-
enth, contrived to obtain possession of the estate,
on the pretext of having advanced money for the
benefit of John Binning, far exceeding the value
of his land, and that the lattei*, having fallen into
poverty, taught a school for some time. The
General Assembly showed kindness to him, on
different occasions, for his father's sake. In 1702,
the commission of the Assembly being informed
by a petition from himself of his ^^ sad circumstan-
ces,** recommended him to the provincial synods of
Lothian and Tweeddale, and of Glasgow and Ayr,
"for some charitable supply." In 1704 he ap-
plied for relief to the Creneral Assembly, and
stated that he had obtained from the privy coun-
cil a patent to print his father's works, of which
twelve years were then unexpired, and that it
was his intention to publish them in one volume.
The Assembly recommended "every minister
within the kingdom to take a double of the same
book, or to subscribe for the same." They like-
wise called upon the different presbyteries in the
church to collect among themselves something for
the petitioner. The last application he made to
the Assembly for pecuniary aid was in 1717, when
be must have been far advanced in life. ILife oj
Btnmng pr^ed to FtiUarton's edition of hi» works,
with Notes by Dr, LeishmanJ]
The following is a catalogue of Binniiig's works,
all of which were published posthumously :
The Common Piindplee of the Christian Religion dearlj
proved and singularly improved; or a practical catechism,
wherein some of the most concerning fomidations of our faith
are soUdlj laid down, and that doctrine which is according to
godHnew is sweetly yet pnngentiy pressed home, and motft
aatisfyingly handled. Glasgow, 1659, 12mo. 6th Impres-
sion, Glasgow, 1666. Edm. 1672, l2mo.
The Sinner's Sanctnaxy; being finrty sermons upon the
eighth chapter of Romans, from the first verse to the six-
teenth. Edin. 1670, 4to.
Fellowship with God, being twenty-eight sermons on the
First Epistle of John, chap. Ist and 2d, verses 1, 2, 8. Edin.
1671. •
Heart Humiliation, or Miscellany Sermons, preached - upon
cnoice texts at several solemn occasions. Edin. 1671, 12mo.
An useful Case of Conscience, learnedly and accurately dis-
cussed and resolved, concerning associations and confederacies
with idolaters, infidels, heretics, malignanta, or any other
known enemies of truth and godliness. 1693, small 4to, pp. 51 .
Neither the name of the printer, nor the place where it was
printed, is mentioned in the titlepage; hence, it has been
questioned whether this was really a work of Mr. Hugh
Binning, but his own name is given as the author, and it
camiot reasonably be doubted that the Case of C<mscience
was written by him.
A Treatise of Christian Love. John xiiL 85. First printed
at Edmburgh in 1743, 8vo. pp. 47.
Several Sermons upon the most important subjects of Prac-
tical Religion ; first printed at Glasgow in 1760.
The Works of the Rev. Hugh Bumrng, M. A, collected and
edited by the Rev. M. Lebhman, D.D. minister of the parish
of Govan. Third edition, A Fullarton and Co. 1851. Imp.
8vo.
Binning's Common Principles of the Christian Religion was
translated into Dutch by the Rev. James Coleman or Koel-
man, minister at Sluys in Flanders, and published at Amster-
dam in 1678, with a Memoir of the Author, furnished in a
letter to him irom Mr. Robert MacWard, at one time secre-
tary to Mr. Samuel Rutherford, and afterwards one of the
ministers of GUsgow. All the other works of Binning which
were printed in Mr. Koelinan*s lifetime were also translated
by him into the Dutch language. No fewer than four edi-
tions of these have been published at Amsterdam.
BiRNiE, a surname derived from a parish of that name m
the county of Elgin. About the beginning of the thirteenth
century this parish was named Brenuth, " a name probably
derived from Brae-nut^ that is,' *high land abounding in
nuts ;* for many hazel trees once grew upon the sides of the
hills and banks of the nvulets, and the general appearance of
the parish is hiUy. The natives pronounce it Bunt-^h^
that is, * a village near the bum or river.* This etymology is
descriptive enough of the particular place now called Bimie.'*
lOld Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. ix. p. 155.]
As a specimen of the absurd and oftentimes fabulous ac-
counts given by genealogists of the origin of old families,
we find in Nisbet^s Heraldry (Appendix, vol ii. page 68,)
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BIRNIE,
302
SIR RICHARD.
the following Sennachy^s tradition of the origin of Che family
of Birnie, said to have been formerly in the possession of the
Bimies of Brocrahill : — One Bimie (an Irish word signifying
bright^ a name bestowed upon him from his glittering ar-
mour), with hb two sons, were in the army of Kenneth, the
Second, king of the Scots, raised to avenge the death of his
father, Alpin, by the Picts in 838 or thereby, and when
pressing furiously one evening into the thickest of the Pictish
force, were all made prisoners, and chained by the leg to a
stock of wood. To obtain their freedom, says the legend,
they cut off their bound leg, and in the next battle were ob-
served— upon their remainbg leg— to behave themselves with
extraordinary courage. In reward of their valour, a barony of
lands near Elgin was bestowed upon the father by the victor,
which stiir bears his name. And in confirmation of the fable,
it is gravely added, that<— (in anticipation, we suppose, of an
institution and of terms not known in Scotland until centuries
afterwards)— he gave them for their arms Guies^ in resem-
blance of a bloody battle, a Fesse, the mark of honour^ be-
twixt a bow and arrow in full draught, and three legs oouped on
the thigh. It might have been nearer the truth to have conjec-
tured that as Byrne or Bimie is obviously derived from Biron
(the origin of the modem English Byron) pronounced short
as in France, Bimie may have been the usual diminutive
of Birony, as Barry, from Bar, and that Buony, like Ban^'
and others, may have been the name of some Anglo-Norman
follower of Malcolm IV., who received a grant of lands in
Moray (Elgiu) on the occasion of the conquest and transpor-
tatiou thence of the native inhubitanta.
The estate of Bimie continued in the possession of the
Bimies till about the end of the dvil wars in the mmority of
King James the Sixth. The last proprietor of this family
was William Bimie, who married Margaret, daughter of
Frazer of Philorth ; after her husband's death she was by
Queen Mary made Mistress of the Mint Their only son, Mr.
William Bimie, when he came of age, and after three years'
study abroad, entered the church, and on the 28th December
1597, he was presented by King James the Sixth, to the
church of Lanark. He was also appointed by the king a
member of both the courts of high oonmi ission . It is recorded
of him that "because of the several quarrels and feuds
amongst the gentlemen of his parish, he not only learnedly
preached the gospel, but was obliged, many times, as he well
could, to make use of his sword.** He was the author of an
old and leamed work published in Edinburgh in 1606, quarto,
entitled * The Blame of Kirk-Buriall, tending to persuade to
Cemeterial Civilitie,' an interesting reprint of which was, a
few years ago, made by \Villiam Tumbull, Esq., Advocate.
In quaint but powerful language the author inveighs against
the practice of burying, in the area of churches, but delivers
many admirable sentiments on the honour due to the resting-
places of the dead. He married Elizabeth, a niece of Lindsay
of Covington, and had issue, John, a merchant, who died
without heirs male ; James, a merchant in Poland, afterwards
secretary to John Cassimir, king of Poland, who had no male
issue; and Robert, who, by presentation from King Charles
the First, of date 23d November 1643, was also, like his
father, made minister at Lanark. Robert married Christian,
the daughter of Dr. Patrick Melville, professor of the oriental
languages at St Andrews, of the family of Raith, a lady of so
great proficiency in the Hebrew language, that she was able
to English it in any part, even without the points. They
bad issue, a son and a daughter. The daughter, Janet, mar-
ried John Irvine of Saphock, ancestor of the Irvines of Dram.
The son, John Bimie, styled of Bimie, married Jean, daughter
of James Hamilton of Broomhill, Bishop of Galloway, second
son of Sir James Hamilton of Broomhill, baronet, a younger
brother of Lord Belhaven, from whom the bishop seems to
have acquired the lands of Broomhill The bishop had two
sons, both of whom died without issue, and the estate ''
Broomhill came into possession of his daughter Jean above-
mentioned, through whose right it devolved upon the Bimies
She was succeeded by her eldest son, John Bunie of
Broomhill.
Sir Andrew Bimie of Saline, her second son, was admitted
advocate 14th June 1661, elected dean of faculty 1st Februaiy
1675, and became a lord of session, under the title of Lord
Saline, 28th November 1679. He retained his seat on the
bench till the Revolution.
Isabella Bimie, his only sister, married Geoi^ Muiihead of
Whitecastle.
The estate of Broomhill, which is in the parish of Dalser^
Lanarkshire, renuuned in possession of the Bimies till about
1825, when, from the death of the last direct descendant, a
lady, the estate was sold by her heirs to James Brace, Esq., h
native of the parish, who had retumed from India, with a
fortune.
BIRNIE, Sir Richard, chief magistrate of the
public office, Bow-street, London, was bom in
Banff, of comparatively humble but respectable
parents, about the year 1760. He was bred to
the trade of a saddler, and, after serving bis ap-
prenticeship, went to London, and obtained a situ-
ation as journeyman in the house of Macintosh
and Co., then saddle and harness makers to the
royal family, in the Haymarket His application
and industry soon recommended him to the favour-
able notice of his employers, but his subsequent
advancement in life was in some degree the effect
of accident. Upon one occasion, when both the fore-
man and the senior partner in the firm were absent
on account of illness, a command was received from
the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., for
some one to attend him, to take his orders to a
considerable extent; and young Bimie was direct-
ed to wait upon his Royal Highness. The orders
of the prince were executed so completely to his
satisfaction, that he afterwards, on similar occa-
sions, specially desired that " the young Scotch-
man** should be sent to him. At that period Sir
Richard occupied a furnished apartment in Whit-
comb Street, Haymarket. By his diligence, per-
severance, and honesty, he at length became fore-
man of the establishment, and eventually a partner
in the firm. Previous to the latter event, he had
made the acquaintance of the lady to whom he
was aftenvards united. She was the daughter of
an opulent baker in Oxendon Street, and on mar-
rying her, he received in her right a considerable
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BreNIE.
803
BISSET.
Bom of money, a cottage and a piece of valnable
land at Acton, Middlesex. He then took np house
in St. Martinis parish, and soon distinguished him-
self by his activity in parochial affairs. He served
successively, as he has often been heard exultingly
to state, every parochial office, except watchman
and beadle. He was always a warm loyalist, and
during the troublesome times of the latter part of
the Pitt administration, he gave a proof of his de-
votion to the constitution, by enrolling himself as
a private in the Royal Westminster Volunteers,
in which corps, however, he soon obtained the
rank of captain. After serving the offices of con-
stable, overseer, auditor, &c. of the parish, he be-
came, in 1805, church warden. In conjunction with
his colleague in office, Mr. Klaim, a silversmith in
the Strand, and Dr. Anthony Hamilton, then
vicar of St. Martin's parish, he founded the estab-
lishment of a number of almshouses, together with
a chapel, called St. Martin's chapel, for decayed
parishioners, in Pratt's Street, Camden Town, aii
extensive burying-ground being attached thereto.
As St. Martin's parish is governed by a local act
of parliament, two magistrates require to be resi-
dent in the parish ; and at the special request of
the late duke of Northumberiand, Mr. Bimie was
placed in the commission of the peace. From this
period he began to give frequent attendances at
Bow Street office, and at the same time employed
himself in studying the penal statutes and magis-
terial practice in general. He was in the habit of
sitting in the absence of Sir Richard Ford, Mr.
Graham, and other stipendiary magistrates of the
day, and was considered an excellent assistant.
He was at length appointed police magistrate at
Union Hall. In February 1820 he headed the
peace officers and military in the apprehension of
the celebrated Cato Street gang of conspirators.
Sir Nathaniel Conant, the chief magistrate at Bow
Street, died shortly after, and Mr. Bimie was
much disappointed at Sur Robert Baker, of Marl-
borough Street, being preferred to the vacant
office, saying to a brother magistrate publicly on
the bench, while the tears started from his eyes,
^* This is the reward a man gets for risking his
life in the service of his country I " He soon after-
wards, however, attained what might be fairly
said to be the summit of his ambition. In August
1821, at the frineral of Queen Caroline, Sir Robert
Baker having declined to read the riot act, which
Mr. Bimie deemed necessary, in consequence of the
riotous disposition of the mob, he took the respon-
sibility upon himself, and read it amid great tumult.
Sir Robert retired from the chair immediately
afterwards, having given great offence to the min-
istry by his want of decision, and Mr. Bimie was
appointed to the office of chief magistrate at Bow
Street. On the 17th September following, he re-
ceived the honour of knighthood. He died April 29,
1 832, leaving a son and two daughters. Sir Richard
was an especial favourite with George the Fourth.
He was ever ready to assist the needy, especially
where he discovered a disposition to industry. As
a magistrate his loss was severely felt. In all
matters of importance connected with the peace
and welfare of the metropolis, he was for years
consulted by those who filled the highest offices in
the state. He was remarkable for his close appli-
cation to business.
BissKT, Btsbt, or Bisskrt, originallj an Anglo-Norman
name, belonging to a ftunilj which came into Scotland about
the reign of William the Firstf and settled in two branches,
the one m the province of Moray, and the other in Berwick-
shire. After Malcohn the Fonrth had sabdaed, in 1160, the
tnrbolent and rebellions inhabitants of Moray, and trans-
ported to Galloway all who had taken np arms against him,
which indnded the greater portion of the population, he be-
stowed their hinds upon strangers ; and among the new set-
tlers, besides the earls of Fife and Stratheam, and other
powerful families, were the once potent Comyns and Bisset
Ostiarii, who obtained large estates in the province, especially
in that part which now forms a portion of InTemess-shire.
Dugdale, in his Baronage (vol L p. 632), says that the
first mention of the name of Bibset in England was in the
nineteenth year of the reign of King Stephen, when Manser
Bisset was one of the witnesses to that accord then made be-
twixt Stephen and Heniy duke of Normandy, touching the
succesnon of the latter to the crown of England. After this,
being sewer to that king, he founded an hospital at Mayden-
Bradley, in Wiltshire, for leprous women and secular priests.
He was succeeded by his son Henry, who, dying without
issue, another Henry, his nephew, became his heir; to whom
succeeded John Bisset, brother and heir of William Bisset.
This John, being chief forester of England, was in the great
tournament held at Northampton in 1241, (2dth Heniy the
Third,) occasioned by Peter de Savoy eari of Richmond
against earl Roger Bigod. On his death he left three daugb-
ters but no son.
In the reign of Alexander the Second one Walter Bisset
was a witness m a charter by that king to the abbacy of
Paisley ; and also with William Bisset was witness in another
charter of the same monarch to the abbacy of Dunfermline.
By the Chartulary of Melrose Walter Bisset, in the year 1238,
married a daughter of Roland, lord of Galloway. These poi*
ties appear to be of the branch of the Bissets established in
Berwickshire, to whom the following stoiy refers : — In 1242
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BISSET.
3(H
BISSET.
Walter de Bisaet was accused of the murder of Patrick^ sixth
earl of Athol, at Haddington. [See life of Alexander II.,
ante, p. 75.] That the murder might be concealed, the as-
sassins set fire to the house in whidi the earl lodged. The
murdered earl had been victor in a tournament with Walter
Bisset, and it is remarked by Mr. Burton, [Life of Lord Lovat^
p. 5,] as probable that he had no farther concern with the
murder than his inability to restrain the fiery spirit of bis
Celtic followers, burning for vengeance. But in this he seenns
to be mistaken, as the Berwickshire Bis-
sets were not likely to have Celtic fol-
lowers, nor even those of Moray of that
epoch, most of the native inhabitants
having, as stated above, been transport-
ed to Galloway. The Scottish nobility,
headed by Patrick, earl of March, and
instigated by David de Hastings, who
had married the aunt of Athol, raised
their followers, and demanded Bisset*s
life. Bisset sought and obtained the
protection of the king, Alexander the
Second, who, however, could not shield
him long, so powerful was the oombma-
tion against him, and he was compelled
to leave the kingdom, when his estates
were forfeited, and all his family were
involved in his ruin. The Bissets fied
to Ireland, from whence Bisset him-
self proceeded to England, and incited
Henry the Third to take up arms
against the Scottish king, which led
to the treaty of Newcastle, 13th August 1244. [See ante,
life of Alexander II., p. 76.] Henry the Third bestowed
upon Bisset large possesuous in the barony of Glenarm,
county of Antrim, Ireland. In 1316, after Edward Bruce
had been crowned king of Ireland, and was endeavounng to
secure himself in that country, we find one Hugh Bisset men-
tioned as having, with John Loggan, defeated the Scottish
force in Ulster with considerable slaughter. The castle Older-
fleet, in the vicinity of Lame, the ruins of which still exist, is
supposed to have been erected by one of the Bissets. The
monastery of Glenarm was founded in 1465. by another of
them, named Robert Bisset
About the year 1400, John Mor Macdonald of Isla, founder
of the clan Ian Vor, second son of the Lord of the Isles and
Lady Margaret Stewart, daughter of King Robert the Second,
acquired large possessions in Ulster, by his marriage with
Mary or Maijory Bisset, daughter of Sir John Bisset, and
heiress of the Glens in the county of Antrim, a district which
included the baronies of Carey and Glenarm. On his death
in 1427, the territory of the Glens was inherited by his eldest
son, Donald, sumamed Balloch, a celebrated Highland chief,
who, in 1481, defeated the earls of Mar and Caithness at Inver-
lochy, and who, having, by a stratagem, escaped the ven-
geance of King James the First, aflerwards took so promi-
nent a part in the rebellions of John, earl of Ross and Lord
of the Isles. [Gregon/'s Highlands and Isles ofScotlandj p.
61.] The footing which this branch of the Macdonalds thus
obtained in Ulster, waA, in later times, improved by their suc-
cessors, and thus it was that the Macdonells, earls of Antrim,
became entitled to the Bissefs property in Ireland.
The property in Inverness - shire which aflerwnrds came
into the possession of the Frasens, lords Lovat, formed a por-
tion of the large territories in the north of Scotland belonging
to the Bisset family. John Bisset, in 1230, founded a priory
of the order of ValUs CauUum. or Val des Choux, in Ross-
shire, which, from the beauty of its ntuation he called Beau-
lieu, now Beauly, and which gave name to the small river
which flows past. A cut of the ruins of this edifice, from the
rare work of Adam de Cardonell, is subjoined, as they existed
in 1788. It is one of many instances of Norman, or rather
French, names, given at this early age to localities in the
north of Scotland. The tower and fort of liovat, founded b
the same year, near the eastern bank of the Beauly, was
anciently the seat of the Bissets.
In 1245, Su- John Bisset of Lovat was imprisoned m the
castle of Inverness for the imputed crimes of connection with
the murder of the earl of Athol, and of fealtyship to the Lord
of the Isles. In 1258 Sir John Bisset of Lovat mortified an
annuity out of his lands to the bishop of Moray. He died
without heirs of his own body, leaving his estate to his three
daughters; the eldest of whom married David Grabame,
thereafter designed of Lovat, as in an agreement betwixt him
and the bishop of Moray, concerning the fishing of the water of
Tom. The second daughter became the wife of Sir William
Fenton of Beaufort, and the third of Sir Andrew de Bosoo.
In 1291, amongst the barons convened at Berwick, at the
desire of Edward the First of England, as arbitrators between
the competitors for the crown of Scotland, was W^illiam Bis-
set, probably the same person who, in the regulations adopted
for the government of Scotland by Edward the First in 1304,
is mentioned as sheriff and constable of Stirlingshire. His
grandson, Sir Thomas Bisset, lord of Upsethjrnton, became,
in 1362, fifteenth earl of Fife, by his marriage, he being her
third husband, with the Countess Isobcl, eldest daughter and
heiress of Duncan MacDuff, earl of Fife, she having the earl-
dom in her own right Bisset, on his marriage, reoeivod
from David the Second a charter granting to him and his
heirs male by Isobel, his countess, the earldom of Fife, with
all its pertinents. He died in 1366, without issue, and in
1371 the countess resigned the earldom to Robert Stuart,
earl of Menteith and duke of Albany, the brother of Walter
Scott, her second husband, who died young, without issue.
In the accounts of the High Treasurer of Scotland, daring
the reign of James the Fifth, quoted in Pitcaim's Criminal
Trials (vol. i. parL L Appendix, p. 286), under date Septem-
ber 25, 1537, there is the following entry : ** Item, to James
BissAT, Messinger, to pas with Letteris to the Provest and
Bailleis of Dundee and Sanct Jonestoune (Perth) to serche
and seik John Blacat and George Luwett, suspect of the
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BISSET,
305
CHARLES.
hangeing of the Image of Sanct Francis ; and to hia wage,
Uabakkuk Bisset, writer to the signet, clerk to Sir John
Skene, lord derk register in the reign of James the Sixth, is
the reputed author of * Ane Short Forme of Proces, presently
nsed and obsen'ed before the Lords of Counsell and Session/
appended to Skene's Scottish translation of the Begiam Ma-
jestatem, published in 1609. This work forms one of the ar-
ticles in a scarce volume entitled, *A Compilation of the
Forms of Process in the Court of Session, during the earlier
periods after its establishment; with the variations which
thej have since undergone, and likewise some ancient tracts
concerning the manner of proceeding in Baron Courts ; pub-
lished by order of the Commisaoners lately appointed by his
majesty for inquiring into the administration of justice in
Scotland.* 8vo. Edinburgh, 1809. [Piicairn's Crmmal
Tiiak. Vol L part ii. page 286, note,]
BLSSET, BissAT, or Bissart, Peter, professor
of canon law in the university of Bologna, in Italy,
was bom in the county of Fife, in the reign of
James the Fifth. He stndied grammar, philoso-
phy, and the laws at St. Andi*ews, whence he re-
moved to Paris ; and having completed his edn-
cntion in that university, he went to Bologna,
where he received the degree of doctor of laws,
and was afterwards appointed professor of canon
law in that city. He continued there for several
years, and died in the latter part of the year 1568.
He possessed a high reputation not only as a civil-
ian, but also as a poet, an orator, and a philoso-
pher. Bisset has frequently been confounded by
Scottish biographical writers with an Italian poet
and historian of the 16th century, named Peter
Bisari, who was in Scotland during the regency
of the earl of Murray, and some of whose minor
poems will be found in 6ruter*s * DeliciflB Poeta-
rum Italorum.' A quarto work, entitled * Patricii
Bissarti Opera Omnia, viz. Poemata, Orationes,
Lectiones Feriales, et Liber de Irregularitate,' was
published at Venice in 1565. Bisset is said by a
recent biographer [Chambers^ Scottish Biography]
to have been a descendant of Thomas Bisset or Bis-
sert, earl of Fife in the reign of David the Second.
But this Is probably a mistake; or if he were so, it
must have been by a previous marriage, as the Sir
l*homas Bisset who married the widowed countess
of Fife, and received from the crown a charter
of the earldom of Fife, to be held by him and his
heirs-male by the countess, left no issue by her.
BISSET, Charles, M. D., an able medical
and military writer, the son of an eminent lawyer
and scholar, was born in 1717 at Glenalbert, near
Dunkeld. He studied medicine at the university
of Edinburgh, and in 1740 was appointed second
surgeon in the military hospital, Jamaica. During
the years he passed in the West Indies, he devoted
his attention to acquiring a knowledge of the dis-
eases peculiar to the torrid zone ; and the result
of his inquiries appeared at Newcastle in 1766, in
a volume entitled * Medical Essays and Observa-
tions,' the principal papers in which treated
particularly of the diseases of that climate. In
1745, in consequence of ill health, he resigned his
situation, and returned to England. In May 1746
he purchased an ensigncy in the gallant 42d
regiment ; when he began to improve his natural
ingenuity, by studying engineering, in which
department he soon distinguished himself. In
September 1748 the regiment was unsuccessfully
employed on the coast of Brittany, but on the
commencement of the ensuing compaign, it was
ordered for foreign service against the French in
Flanders. Some sketches made by Dr. Bisset of
the enemy's approaches at the action of Sandberg,
and at Bergen-op-Zoom, were presented by his
colonel, Lord John Murray, to the duke of Cum-
berland, the commander-in-chief, who thereupon
ordered him to attend the siege of the latter place,
with the view of keeping a regular journal of the
attack and defence ; when he was frequently ob-
served to walk on the ramparts, with the utmost
unconcern, amidst the enemy's shot, the more
nearly to observe the exact position of the French
attacks. His journal, illustrated with plans, was
duly forwarded to the duke, then at the head of
the allied army, at Macstricht. On the recom-
mendation of his royal highness, the duke of
Montagu, then master-general of the ordnance,
appointed him engineer extraordinary to the
brigade of Engineers. He also at the same time
received his commission as lieutenant. On the
conclusion of the war he was placed on half-pay,
when he visited several of the principal fortified
places on the continent. In 1751 he published
his fii-st work, being an * Essay on the Theory
and Construction of Foitifications.' Having now
retired from active service, he settled as a phy-
sician at the village of Skelton, in Cleveland,
Yorkshire, where his practice became very exten-
sive. In 1755 appeared his 'Treatise on the
u
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BISSET,
306
ROBERT.
Scarvy,' dedicated to the lords of the admiralty. In
1762 he published * An Essay on the Medical Con-
stitutioii of Great Britain,' inscribed to his friend,
Sir John Pringlo. In 1765 ho received from the
univei-sity of St. Andrews the degree of M.D. A
few years before his death, he placed in the library
of the Infirmary at I^eds a manuscript, extending
to nearly 700 pages, of medical observations, for
which he received a vote of thanks. A manuscript
treatise on Fortification, which he presented to
the prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., was
deposited in his royal highness's private libraiy.
Dr. Bisset wrote also a small treatise on Naval
Tactics, and a few political papere on subjects of
temporary importance. He died at Knayton, near
Thirsk, in May 1791, in the 76th year of his age.
— Gentlemen's Mag. vol. Ixi.
The following is a catalogue of his works : —
Essay on the Theory and Construction of Fortifications
London, 1751, 8vo.
Treatise on the Scorvy, with Rem.irks on the Cnrc of Scor-
butic Ulcers ; designed chiefly for the use of the BritiBh Navy.
I»nd. 1756, 8vo.
KssAy on the Medical Constitution of Great Britain; to
which is added, Observations on the Weather, and the Dis-
eases which appeared in the period included between the 1st
of January 1768, and the summer solstice 17C0. Together
i»ith an Account of the Throat Distemper, and Miliary Fever,
%« hich were epidemical in 1760. Likewise, Observations on
Anthilmantus, particulariy the Great Bastard Black Helle-
Dore, or Bear's Foot. Lond. 1760, 8vo.
Medical Essays and Observations. Newcastle upon Tyne^
1766, 8vo.
Observations on Lymphatic Incysted Tumours. Mod.
Com. ix. p. 244. 1785.
A Case of an extraordinary, irritable, sympathetic Tumour.
Memoirs Med. ill p. 68. 1792.
Treatise on Naval Tactics.
BISSET, James, an eccentric but ingenious
artist, was bora in Perth about 1742. When he
was about fifteen years of age he went to Biraiing-
ham, where he resided for about thirty-six years,
having established there a museum and shop for
the sale of curiosities. In 1813 he removed to
Leamington, where he had opened a news-room
and picture gallery the preceding year. His col-
lection consisted principally of articles in natural
history, particularly birds, the costume and arms
of savage nations, models in wax and rice paste,
&c. In 1814, we find him styling himself Modeller
to his Majesty. lie had a remarkable facility in
writing rhymes, which he indulged in on all occa-
sions. Even his Guides and Directories were hah
prose and half verse. To the works subjoined, of
which he was the author, might be added a long
senes of ephemeral verses, which his loyal and
patriotic muse poured forth on every public occa-
sion, and particularly on the periodical recurrence
of the Shaksperian jubilee at Stratford ; a few of
which were admitted into the pages of the * Gen-
tleman^s Magazine.' In a letter to the editor of
that periodical, dated in 1831, he said that there
was not a single newspaper taken in, in Leaming-
ton, till he established public rooms there. 1 1 is
mind was ever active in suggesting public im-
pi-ovements, and there is no doubt that that now
fashionable and increasing watering-place owes
much to Bisset's enterprise and public spirit. He
collected many paintings of value, and executed
some very good pieces himself. On his death, his
pictures were disposed of by auction. He died
August 17, 1832.
The following are Bisset's principal productions •
A Poetic Survey round Birmingham, with a brief Descrip-
tion of the dlfTerent Curiosities and Manufactures of the Place,
accompanied by a Magnificent Directory, with the names and
professions, &c., superbly engraved in emblematical plates,
12mo, 1800.
Songs on the Peace, 1802.
The Converts, a Moral Tale, recommending the practice d
Humanity, &c. 8vo, 1802.
The Patriotic Churion, or Britain's Call to Glory ; origina.
songs written on the threatened Invasion. 1804.
Critical Essays on the Dramatical Essays of the Young
Rosdus; by Gentlemen of Literary Talents, and Theatrical
Amateurs, opposed to the Flypercriticisms of Anonymous
Writers. Interspersed with Interesting Anecdotes. 8vo,1804.
Birmingham Directory, with 45 Copperplates, 1805.
A Guide to Leamington, 1814.
Comic Strictures on Birmingham's Fine Arts and Conver-
zationes, by an Old Townsman, 1829.
BISSET, Robert, a miscellaneous writer, the
son of the Rev. Dr. Bisset, minister of Logierait,
Perthshire, was born about 1759, and studied at
Edinburgh for the ministry. Aftei' taking the de-
gree of LL.D., he went to England, and was first a
schoolmaster at Chelsea, near London, but after-
wards became a writer for the press. He died in
1805, aged 46. Besides a Life of Burke, in 2
vols., he published various works, of which the
following is a list-
Sketch of Democracy. London, 1796, 8vo.
The IJfe of Edmund Burke, &c Lond. 1798, 8vo.
Douglas, or The Highlander; a Novel. 1800, 4 vols. 12iiia
The History of the Reign of George IIL to the tenninatioa
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BLACK,
307
JOSEPH.
-^ the late War; to which U preiixedf a View of the progres-
Mve Improvement of England, in Prosperity and Strengths
to the aooession of his Majesty. Lond. 1804, 6 vols. 8vo.
Modem Literature. A Novel. 1804, 3 vok. 12mo.
An edition of the Spectator, with lives of the authors, in 6
vols.
Black, a name, lik^ Brown, White, &c, originally given,
when surnames began to be iirst used, which in Scotland
was not till about the beginning of the twelfth oentuiy, to
peisons in the middle or lower ranks who had no lands,
firoro the colour of the visage or hair, or some peculiarity in
I the mental or personal character, and when the surname was
I not assumed from a trade or occupation, as Smith, Cook,
I Hunter, &c, or from the name of the father, with the addition
I of son, as Williamson, Johnson, Robertson, &c.
BLACK, Joseph, M.D., the founder of pnea-
matic chemistry, though not a native of Scotland,
was of Scottish descent, and long resided in this
conntiy. He was bom on the banks of the Ga-
ronne in France in 1728. His father, John Black,
who was a native of Belfast, but of a Scottish
family, had settled at Bordeaux, as a wine mer-
chant, and lived in intimacy with the celebrated
Montesquieu, who expressed his regret in strong
terms on Mr. Black's quitting Bordeaux, when he
retired from business, as appears by several of his
letters. His mother was a daughter of Mr. Robert
Gordon of Hillhead, Aberdeenshire, and by her
Dr. Black was nearly related to the wives of
Dr. Adam Fergusson and Mr. James Russell,
professor of Natural Philosophy at the Univer-
sity of Edinburgh. In 1740, when he was twelve
years old, he was sent to Belfast, to receive
the rudiments of his education. In 1746 he en-
tered as a student at the university of Glasgow,
where Dr. Cullen the same year became professor
of chemistry. He prosecuted his studies, particu-
larly in physical science, with so much assiduity
and success that he soon attracted the notice of
this eminent man, who made him his assistant in
all his chemical experiments. In 1751, having
chosen the profession of medicine, to complete his
medical studies he went to the university of Ed-
inburgh, at that time rising into reputation as a
medical school, where in 1754 he took the degree
of M.D. His inaugural thcois on this occasion
was entitled ^ De Acido a Cibis orto, et de Mag-
nesia Alba,' in which was contained an outline of
his celebrated discovery ofjixed air^ or carhoiiic
acid gas; which he now, for the first time, showed
to be the true cause of the causticity of alkalies.
This important discovery, with that of hteni hecU^
for which we are also indebted to Dr. Black, laid
the foundation of modem pneumatic chcmistiy,
which has op^ed to the investigation of the phi-
losopher a fourth kingdom of nature, viz. the gase-
ous kingdom. In 1755 he published his ^ Experi-
ments on Magnesia, Quicklime, and other Alka-
line Substances,' which more fully developed
his views on the subject he had touched upon
in his thesis. His opinions, of course, gave
rise to considerable discussion, particularly in
Germany, but he was enabled satisfactorily to
answer and refute all objections. In 1756, Dr.
Cullen having removed to Edinburgh, Dr. Black
was appointed his successor, as professor of ana-
anatomy and lecturer on chemistry, in the univer-
sity of Glasgow. The former chair he soon ex-
changed for that of medicine, for which he was
better qualified. One of his pupils at Glasgow
was Watt, the celebrated inventor of the improved
steam-engine, who was led by Dr. Black's views
and theories respecting the nature of steam, and
particularly on the subject of evaporation, to make
those great impi*ovements which have been of so
much benefit to science. Between the years 1759
and 1763, Dr. Black matured those speculations
on latent heat which had for some time engaged
his attention. An observation of Fahrenheit's,
recorded by Dr. Boerhaave, that water would be-
come considerably colder than melting snow, with-
out freezing, and would freeze in a moment if
disturbed, and in the act of freezing emit many
degrees of heat, seems to have suggested to Dr.
Black the notion that the heat received by ice
during its conversion into water was not lost, but
was contained in the water. The experiments by
which he demonstrated the existence of what ho
termed IcUent heat in bodies will be found fully de-
tailed in his ^ Lectures.' The result of these he
first read, in April 1762, to a select society in
Glasgow, and afterwards before the Newtonian
Society in Edinburgh. He remained in Glasgow,
occasionally practising as a physician, till 1766,
when Dr. Cullen being appointed professor of
medicine in Edinburgh, Dr. Black was removed
to the chemical chair in that university, where he
continued for about thirty years. He contributed
a paper to the * Philosophical Tmnsactions ot
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BLACK.
808
BLACKADDER.
London/ fur 1774, entitled ^Observations on tlie
more ready freezing of water that has been boiled.'
The only other paper written by hiin was pub-
lished in the second volume of the * Transactions
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh/ being an * An-
alysis of the Waters of some boiling Springs in
Iceland/ in which he found a considerable quan-
tity of silica. The following portrait of Dr. Black
is engi'aved from the painting by Sir Henry Rae-
bnrn
Dr. Black was never married. He long residcil
in the house in Nicholson Street, Edinburgh, which
now forms the Blind Asylum. He was simple in bis
habits, and very abstemious in his diet. Ho died
suddenly November 2G, 1790, while sitting at table
with his usual fare, viz., some bi'ead, a few prunes,
and a measured quantity of milk diluted with
water. Having the cup in his hand, feeling the
approach of death, be set it carefully down on his
knees, which were joined together, and kept it
steady in his hand, m the manner of a person per-
fectly at ease; and in this attitude expired, with-
out spilling a drop, and without a writhe in his
countenance, as if an experiment had been wanted
to show to his friends the facility with which he
departed. He was in the 7l8t year of his age.
l)v. Black was of a cheerful and sociable disposi-
tion, and, as his mind was well stored with infor-
mation, li£ was, at all times* an entertaining com-
panion. His company was therefore much conrtnl,
and as his circumstances were afiluent, he dedi-
cated as much time to the pleasures of society as
was consistent with his avocations. He left the
principal part of his fortune, which is said to
have been considerable, among the children of bis
brothei-s and sisters. After his death his ' Lectures
on Chemistry' were published from his
notes in 2 vols. 4to, by his friend and col-
league, Dr. Robison, late professor of natu-
ril philosophy in the university of Eiliu-
burgh. — Thomson's History of Chemistry.
-^Scots Mag. for 1803.
Subjoined is a catalogue of the works of
Dr. Black :
Kxperiinents on Mngnesia Aibn, Quick IJiii€,
Hiid other AlkMliiie SaUtRnces ; to wlitdi is adtleti,
An Essay on Cold, prodaced by Kvaponiting Fluii*,
and some other means of proihicing Cold, l>,v Dr.
Cnllen. Kdinbnrgh, 1776-82, 12mo. AH tlieM
Papers were previously published in the Lattijf
Piiysical and Liternry, vol. ii. p. 167.
The Supposed Effect of Boiling on Water, lu
disposing it to freeze more readily ; aaoertained by
Experiment. Phil. Tnms. Abr. xiii. 610. 177.*».
An Analysis of the Waters of some Ilot-Sprin^^
m leelnn.l. Ed. Phil. Trans, iii. Part ii. 96.
1794.
I^ecturcH on the Elements of Chemistry, <te-
livered in the University of Edinburgh, by tlie lata
Joseph Black. M.D., now published from liisUaoc-
i«cript8, by John Robison, LLD. Edin. 1803,2
vols. 4to.
Blackaddkk, a surname derived from lands on the stream
of that name in the Merae divisioii of Berwickshire. The true
meaning of the word is Blackwater, — adder^ from the Cani-
bro-British awedur^ signifying 'a running water.* When
applied to the stream, the word is usually pronounced, and
sometimes written, BlackaUr.
There was an ancient family named Blacader, or BhuJcad-
der, who possessed the lands of Tulliallan in Perthshire. The
ruins of the old castle of TuiliuUan, which formerly bdonged
to them, are still standing, llie modem castle of that name
belongs to the baroness Keith, by marriage Countes Fbbaut
in France.
The original family was Bhickadder of that ilk in Berwkk-
shire, who distinguished themselves in the Border fends so
early as the nunority of James the Second, towards the mid-
dle of the fifteenth century. They received the Unds whence
they derived their name from that monarch, confeiTed as a
reward for defending the eastern frontier against the incur-
aons of the English. Beatrice, eldest daughter of one of the
two portioners of Robert Blackadder of Bladcadder, marrieJ
John Home, fonrtli of the seven sons of Sir David Hrn-e
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•r Wedderbum, so well known in border song as *" the seven
Bfieftrs of Wedderbunif** and thereby got the estate of Black-
adder.
ITiis marriage^ however, was brought about in a very vio-
lent manner on the part of the Homes, with the view of ac-
quirifig the lands of Blackadder, having, bj rapacity and
fraud, appropriated to themselves, in course of time, the
greater part of Berwickshire. The person on whom James
the Second conferred the lands, and who from them took
the sunianM of Blackadder, as a reward for military ser-
vices, was named Cuthbert, styled the ^'Chieflain of the
South " The royal grant is dated in t4o2. On his ex-
peditions agiunst the English who crossed the borders fur
plunder he was accompanied by his seven sons who, from
the darkness of their complexion, were called the ** Black
band of the Blackadders." [ Wriia of the Fantify, quoted in
CrickiofCt Ltfe of the Rev. John Blackadder.^ When the
country required to be put in a posture of defence against the
preparations of Edward the Fourth, the Blackadders raised a
body from among their kindred and retainers, the Elliots,
Armstrongs, Johnstons, and other hardy and warlike border-
ers to the number of two hundred and seventeen men, all
accoutred with jade and spear. Their castle, a fortress of
some strength, was planted with artillery, and furnished with
a garrison of twenty soldiera. [Ibid. Redpatk^i Border His-
tory.'] Cuthbert and his sons joined the train of adventurers
from Scotland, who had embarked in the wars of York and
Uncaster, marshalling themselves under the banner of the
Red Rose, and fightmg for the earl of Richmond, afterwards
Ucnry the Seventh, at Bosworth, where the father and three
if his sons were left dead on the fieki. Andrew, the eldest
of the survivmg brothers, succeeded to the barony of Black-
adder. Robert and Patrick entered into holy orders. The
former became prior of Goldingham, the latter was made dean
•f Dunblane. The fourth brother, William, remained in Eng-
Und, where he obtained a title and opulent pomessions.
[Write of the FamUy of Blachadder.'] In memorial of their
services at Bosworth, King James granted the family permis-
sion to carry on their shield the roses of York and I^ancaster.
It was afterwards quartered with the house of Edmonstone ;
6eld, azure; cheveron, aigent; upper left hand, gules; crest,
a dexter hand holding a broadsword ; motto, *■ Courage helps
fortune.*
Andrew Blackadder, the proprietor of the estate, married a
daughter of the house of Johnston of Johnston, ancestor of
the earis of Annandale, and had two sons, Robert and Patrick.
Robert, the elder son, espoused Alison Dougbs, fourth daugh-
ter of Gcoige, Mnifter of Angus, and sist«r of Archibald, earl
(if Angus. He followed the standard of the Douglases at
Flodden in 1513, and was sliun with his father-in-hiw and
two hundred gentlemen of the name of Douglas, on that dis-
astrous field, leaving a widow and two daughters, Beatrix
and Margaret, who, at the time, were mere children. [Red-
path^i Border Hietonf.] Of Patrick, the younger son, de-
scribed as a man of chivalry, who obtained by marriage the
estate of TullialUn in Perthshire, the succeeding paragraph
gives an account. From the unprotected state of Robert's
daughters, the Homes of Wedderbum formed the design of
seizing the lands of Blackadder, and the way in which Uiey
succeeded in their villanous project is but too illustrative of
the manners of those rude times to be omitted, especially as
by it the patrimonial estate of the Blackadders was for ever
wrested from the rightful owners. They began by cutting off
all within their reach, whose affinity was dreaded as an heredi-
tary obstacle. They attacked Robert Blackadder, the prior
of Coldingham, at the village of Lamberton, while following
the sports of the chase, and assassinated him and six of his
attendants. [lAeUe't Hist of Scotland, p. 389. JJietory oj
the Ilomee,'] His brother, the dean of Dunblane, shared the
same fate. Various others were despatched in a simihir
manner. Patrick Blackadder, the cousin of the late prior,
endeavoured to obtain the priory of Coldingham; but on the
active interference of the Homes, it was bestowed on William
Douglas, brother of the eari of Angus. They now assaulted
the castle of Blackadder, where the widow and her two young
daught«ra resided. The garrison refused to surrender, but
the Homes succeeded in obtaining possesaon of the fortress,
and seized the widow and her children, compelling them to
marriage by foroe. Sir David Home of Wedderbum married
the widow. The two daughters were contracted to his
brothers, John and Robert, in 1618, and as they were then
only in their eighth year, they were confined, by John Homo,
in the castle of Blackadder till they came of age. [DougUu*
Peerage, vol. ii. p. 174.] The estate, however, had been en-
tailed in the male Une, and should have passed to Sir John
Blackadder, then baron of Tnlliallan, the cousin and tutor of
the ladies, aa nearest heir of tailzie: But the Homes, who
obtiuned the sanction of the earl of Angus to marry his
nieces, refused to quit possession of the lands, or deliver up
the fortress. Sir John applied to the legislature for redress
against them: bnt at that period there was no regular admi-
nistration of justice in Scotland, and both parties had recourse
to the sword. During the long minority of James the Fifth,
they were involved in mutual hostilities. Sir John Black-
adder was beheaded in March 1531 for the murder of James
Inglis, abbot of Culross, ** because, when he was absent at
Edinburgh, the said abbot gave ane tack above his head to
the Lord Erskine of the lands of Balgownie.** Happening to
meet with him on his return, he resolved to be avenged.
Both parties being of equal number, about sixteen horse, a
rencontre took place, *■ at the Lonhead of Roeyth, near Culross,*
which ended in the slaughter of the abbot Patrick, arch-
deacon of Glasgow, succeeded his brother in Tnlliallan. He
held also, by the king's spedal commission, the wardenship of
Blackadder, to which he had been appointed, under warrant
and command from the governor of Scotland. While arch-
deacon he had authority granted him by the Pope, in 1510,
to visit all kirks and monasteries within the bounds of the see
of Glasgow. He got also, in 1521, the priory of Coldingham,
(which William Douglas had forcibly held,) by the king's seal,
with consent of the duke of Albany, protector and governor
of Scotland. In this office, he was succeeded by his brother,
Adam Blackadder, abbot of Dundrennan in Galloway; the
first worth two thousand pounds, the latter one thousand
pounds a-year. For bearing Sir Patrick's expenses in travel-
ling to France to procure these appointments from Albany,
who was there at the time, the said Adam botmd himself to
pay three thousand pounds; for which he gave in pledge two
massy silver cups, till the debt was discharged. [ Write of
the Family^ quoted in Crichions Life of the Rev. John Black-
adder,'] Sir Patrick renewed the process against the Homes,
for the recovery of Blackadder. Under pretence of submitting
the dispute to friends, to have all difierences settled in an
amicable way, the Homes appointed a day to meet Sir
Patrick at Edinbtugh. Thither accordingly he repaired,
without suspicion of treachery, haring received warrant of
safe convoy from Archibald, eail of Angus, under the great
seal, and accompanied by a small retinue of domestics, fifteen
or sixteen horsemen, who usually rode in his train, but was
clandestinely waylaid by a body of fifty horse, that lay in am-
bush near the Dean, within a mile of Edinburgh. Being well-
mounted, he made a gallant chnrge, and broke tlirough the
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ambuscade, killing several with his own hand. Overpowered
with numbers he fled, taking the road towards the West
Purt, fiercely pursued. On approaching the city, he was sur-
prised bj a fresh troop of horse, secretly posted in a hoUoyr,
where St. Cuthbert's church now stands. These joining in
the pursuit, he made the best of his speed to gain the en-
trance by the Nether Bow, or the Canongate; but before he
could reach the ford of the Loch a party of foot sallied out
from another place of concealment to intercept him. Finding
himself beset on all hands, he ventured to take the North Loch,
near to the place called Wallaoe^s tower (properly Well-house
tower) on the Castle brae, when his horse becoming embog-
god, he and all his attendants were basely murdered. This
was in the year 1526. Hume of Godscroft has recorded thb
affray, {HisL of House of Angw^ voL ii. p. 86,) but he makes
the archdeacon the aggressor. This was the last attempt
that the Blackadders made to obtain redress. The estate of
Blackadder, of whidi they were thus fraudulently dispos-
sessed, remained in the family of Home. Both Hume and
Buchanan, mistakenly, call Patrick archdeacon of Dunblane
instead of Glasgow, and the brother of Robert heir of Bhick-
addcr, whereas he was his nephew.
As above stated. Sir Patrick, younger son of Andrew
Blackadder, acquired the Unds of Tulliallan in Perthshire, by
his marriage with Klizabeth, one of the daughters and coheirs
of Sir James Edmonstone of Edmonstone. Her dowery was
only half the lands, but Sir Walter Ogilvy, who had married
bcr younger sister, " excambed his moiety with Sir Patrick,
in 1493, for the thanedom of Boyne.** Robert Blackadder,
his son, was, in 1480, being then at Rome, with a public
character from King James the Third, consecrated bishop of
Aberdeen by Pope Sixtus the Fourth. In 1484 he was
translated to the bishopric of Glasgow. He had so much fa-
vour at Rome that he obtained from the Pope the erection of
the see of Glasgow into an archbishopric He was frequently
employed in the public transactions of Ihe period with the
English, and particularly in the year 1505. With the earl of
Both well, and Andrew Forman, prior of Pittenweem, be
negotiated the marriage between King James the Fourth and
Mcjgaret, eldest daughter of Henry the Seventh, which laid
the foundation for the union of the two kingdoms of Soot-
land and England. He stood, likewise, wit'i the eari of
Bothwell, godfather to the young princ^ who did not long
survive. The archbishop died in 1508, while on a journey to
the Holy Land. ^Keith's Scottuh Bishops, p. 254.]
In the Appendix to Pitcaim*s Criminal Trials, (vol. i. part
I page 100,) under date August 18, 1499, there is a ' Remis-
non to Andro Blacatar of that Ilk and Niniane Nesbit, for
the forthocht felony done be thaim apone Philip Nesbit of
Wester Nesbit, and Johns, his brother, Patrick Nesbit in
Mongols Wall, &c And for the cruell slauchter of umquhile
the said John Nesbit, and Philip Nesbit in Mongols Wall,
apone forthocht felony oommittit: And for the spulzeing of
thair gudis, &c And of all crimes that in onywise may be
imput to thaim for the committing of the said slauchter and
forthocht felony, in the kingis palace and residence, quhare
his hienes was personallie present* In the same valuable
work [^PUcakm^s Criminal Trials, vol i., part i., p. 41] is
given in full, a special respite, granted by James the Fourth,
on 28th August, 1504, in favour of the * men, kin, tcnentis,
fuctouris, and sen'andis of Robert, archbishop of Glasgow,
(then about to proceed to Rome on the kingis business,) and
espedally fdNr the slauchter of umquhile Thomas RuthiHurde
withm the abbaye of Jedworthe.* Among the persons men-
tioned in the said * Respuyt,* as taken under the special pro-
tection of the king in the archbishop's absence, are * Andro
Blacader of that ilk, Schirris Johne Forman of Rutbirftirde,
Baldrede Blacader, knychtes; Adam Blacader, Charlis Blac-
ader, Dame Elizabeth Edmonstoune lady of TuUyallane, Pa-
trick Blacader hir sone and aire, Maigaret Blacader lady of
Carnschallo, Johne Maxwel hir sone and aire, Master Johne
Blacader, Persone of Kirkpotrick-Flemyng, Schir Patrik
Blacader, Persone of Ranpa^trik, Robert Blacader, sone and
apperand aire to Andro Blacader of that ilk,* &c
The name properly should be Blackader, but according to
modem orthography it is usually spelled with two ds. Be-
sides the noble family of Angus, the house of Blackadder formed
intermarringes with tlie ftunily of Graham, earls of Menteith,
and Bruce of Clackmannan, whose line still survives in the earls
of Elgin and Kincardine. ** They espoused the part of the
unfortunate Mary, and sided with the cavaliers in the par-
liamentary wars of Charles the First. There was a cadet of
this family in the Spanish serrice, under Ludovic, eari ci
Crawford, and another served with Gnstavus Addphus.
king of Sweden, in his campaigns f'lr the relief of the dis-
tressed protestants in Germany. One of their last lineal
representatives raised a body of tnops, and joined the eari of
Glencaim, who, with some of the Highland chiefs, in 1653,
assembled a considerable force in the north to repel the UBar-
pations of CromwelL" ICrichton's LAfe and Diary of CoL J.
Blackadder^ p. 15.]
The estate and castle of Tulliallan continued to be possessed
by the Blackadders for five generations. The next baroi
after Sur Patrick was John. In 1532 he undertook a pil-
grimage, probably to expiate his father's sacrilege, and during
his stay beyond seas. King James granted a warrant of protec-
tion to all his domestics, tenants and vassals. He adhered te
the interests of the ill-fated queen Mary, and an insuirectioD
having taken place of some of the nobles who were discon-
tented at her marriage with Damley, she addressed a lettei
to him, with her own hand, " to meet her at Stirling, on the
ISth of August, 1565, with his kin, friends, and household,
to pursue the rebels, [as they were called,] who had directei
their nuurch southward.*' Disagreeing among themselves,
however, the insurgent nobles durst not hazard an engage-
ment with the queen's forces, but fled firom Edinborgh, and
took their way through Biggar to Dumfries, ** the Idng all
the while dogging them at their heels." This was called the
Runaway Raid, or Wild Goose Chase. IHisL of ihe House
(if Angus, vol. ii page 155.] John Blackadders son, Captain
William Bhudcadder, was with the queen's army at Laogside.
After that event he was taken and executed, being also ac-
cused of having been concerned in the murder of Damley.
With three others, he was drawn backward on a cart to the
cross of Edinburgh, and there hanged and quartered, on the
24th of June 1567. Roland Bhickadder, subdean of GUsgow,
was a younger brother of John. The next laird of TblHalUa
was James Blackadder, who married Alison, daughter of
Brace of Clackmannan. His only son inherited his estate
about 1602. The latter married Elizabeth Brace of Balfouls,
by whom he had Sir John Blackadder, bom in 1596. He
was, in 1626, created a baronet of Nova Scotia — a dignity
which none of his posterity ever enjoyed. Being of a waste-
ful and extravagant turn he impoverished his estate, and
retired to the Continent He bore a commission for some
time in the French guards, and died in America about 16oL
He married Elizabeth Graham, dangliter of John, sixth eari
of Menteith, and had two sons and a daughter, Marriott, mar-
ried to I^urence, eldest son of Laurence Oliphant, Esq. of
Condie, Perthshire.
To the title of baronet, the Rev. John Blackadder, the sub-
ject of the immediately succeeding menooir, lived to be the
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lioeal heir, having survived all nearer claimants, but as the
prodigality of its first possessor had redaced it to an empty
honour, it was never assumed either hj himself or any of his
descendants. He was of a younger branch of the TuHiallan
family, who possessed the lands and barony of Blairhall, near
Cnlross. His grandfather, Adam Blackadder of Blairhall,
married Helen, daughter of the celebrated Robert Pont, minis-
ter of St Cnthbert*s, near Edinburgh, and one of the last of
the clerical order that sat as a Lord of Session. The only
fruit of this marriage was John, father of the Rev. John
Blackadder, minister of Troqueer. The minister himself bad
seven children, five sons and two daughters.
The eldest son, William, was bom in 1647, and studied
medicine. In 1665, he was sent to the University of Edin-
buigfa. He was present at Bothwell Brig, and took an active
part in that affair. He graduated at Leyden in Holland in
1680. In 1685 he returned to Scotland with the eari of
Aigjle in his unfortunate expedition, and was taken prisoner
on his landing at Kirkwall in Orkney. After he had been
more than a year in prison, a remission came down from
London in his favour, and he was set at liberty, on which he
proceeded to Holland, where he remained till 1688, some
weeks before the prince of Orange came over. In the month
of August that year, he and Colonel Cleland were sent to
Scotland, to prepare the way for the Princess landing in the
subsequent November. Having imprudently ventured up to
the castle of Edinbuigh, to see one Captain Mackay, a patient
of his, he was apprehended by the duke of Gordon, the gov-
ernor of the castle. Afler being subjected to several exami-
nations before a committee of the council, on rumours of the
prince of Orange's invasion reaching Edinburgh, he was set at
liberty, without being put to the torture, though it was frequently
threatened. After the Revolution Dr. Blackadder was ap-
pointed physician to King William, and died, without issue,
about the year 1704.
The second son, Adam, was bred to the mercantile profes-
aon in Stirling, and in the month of November 1674, while
yet an apprentice, was, with several others, apprehended for
not subscribing the black bond, as it was called, and for at-
tending conventicles. His brother, Dr. Blackadder, presented
a petition to the council, and after some time obtained his
freedom. He was twice afterwards imprisoned, once in Fife,
and another time in Blackness. The latter was for being at
his father's preaching at Borrowstounness, where he baptized
twenty-six children. He was afterwards a merchant in Swe-
den, where he resided for about nine years, and married a
Swedish womAn, whom he converted from Lutheranism to
Calvinism, on account of which he was obliged to fly with
her from her country, escaping with great difficulty, it being
at that time death in Sweden for a native Swede to turn
either Catholic or Calvinist About the end of 1684 he re-
turned to Scotland, and settled in Edinburgh. He wrote an
account of his father's sufferings, which he transmitted to the
historian Wodrow, and some political tracts concerning the
Darien expedition, and the state of partis in Scotland. The
late Mr. John Blackadder, accountant-general of excise, was
his grandson.
Robert, the third son, studied theology at the university of
Utrecht, where he died in 1689.
Thomas, the fourth son, appears also to have been a mer-
chant. He went to New England shortly after his father's
imprisonment, and died in Maryland before his father.
The fifth and youngest son was named John after himself,
and became a lieutenant-colonel in the army. His Life and
Diary, by Andrew Crichton, the biographer of his father, was
published at Edinbuigh in 1824. He was bom at Bamden-
noch, in the parish of Glencaira, Dumfnes-shire, September
14, 1664. He very early evinced a religious disposition, and
at the age of twelve b said to have partaken of tlie Lord's
Supper. He entered the army in 1689, in his twenty -fittn
year, as a cadet, at sixpence a-day, in the regiment (now the
26th of the Line), raised at the Re\*olntion by the Cameron -
ians, under the command of tlie earl of Angus, only son of
the nuupquis of Doughu, of which the accomplished soldier
and poet, William Cleland, was the lieutenant- coloneL In
less than two months he became lieutenant He was engaged
m the affair at Dunkeld, 21st August 1689, when the Camc-
ronians were attacked by the HigfaUmders, and in which thdr
galhmt lieutenafit-colonel, Cleland. fell, an interesting account
of which, in a letter to bis brother, written on the spot, was
printed in the periodical papers of the time, and is inserted in
Crichton's Life and Diary of CoL Bhwkadder, (pp. 102—105.).
On this occasion the Highlanders, victorious at Killiecrankie in
the previous month, were signally defeated and repulsed. It
is stated that an attempt was made by Colonel Cannan, their
commander, to induce the Highlanders to renew their attack
on the Cameronian regiment, but they declined, for this res-
son, that although still ready to fight with men, they would
not again encounter devils. ILife and Dianf of Colonel
Blackadder^ p 98.] Blackadder afterwards accompanied his
regiment abroad, and gradually rose to the rank of lieutenant-
colonel. He served vmh distinguished honour under the great
duke of Marlborough in the wars of Queen Anne. He was
present at the battles of Donawert, Blenheim, Kamilies, and
most of the engagements of that celebrated campaign. He
was a member of the General Assembly in 1716, and died
deputy-governor of Stirling castle in 1729. He had the char-
acter of a brave soldier and a devout Christian.
One of Mr. Blackadder's daughters died young in Glencaim
The other, Elizabeth, married, in 1687, a Mr. Young, a writer
in Edinburgh. Having fallen into difficulties, he went to
London, with a design to improve his circumstances. While
there he wrote an excellent consolatory letter to his wife in
Edinburgh, which has often been printed under the title of
* Faith Promoted, and Fears Prevented, from a proper view
of affliction as God's rod.' Mrs. Young appears to have been
a lady of remarkable piety and superior learning. She kept
a diary or ' Short Account of the Lord's providence towards
her/ which gives a Rimmary of the memorable events of her
life from 1700 until 1724. She died in 1782. The descend-
ants of ber family still survive. — CrickUm's Memoirs of Vie
Rev. John Blackadder,
BLACKADD£R, John, an emincut minister of
the Church of Scotland, was born in 1615. He was
the representative, as above-stated, of the Black-
.addei*s of TuUiallan, and the grand nephew of the
celebrated topogi-apher Timothy Pont. He studied
divinity in Glasgow, under the eye of his mother's
brother, Principal Strang of that university. Having
been duly licensed, in 1652 he received a call to the
parish church of Troqueer, in tlie neighbourhood
of Dumfries. In 1662, when episcopacy was at-
tempted to be forced on Scotland, Mr. Blackadder,
in his sermons on several Sundays, energetically
exposed its unlawfulness, and, to use his own
phrase, "entered his dissent in heaven" against
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it. In conseqaence of this, and the refusal of the
presbytery of Dumfries to celebrate, by order of
parliament, the anniversary of the Restoration, he
and some of his brethren wei-e conducted to Edin-
burgh, by a troop of fifty horee sent for the pur-
pose; but after a few examinations, he soon ob-
tained his liberty. An episcopal incumbent hav-
ing got possession of his charge, he and his wife,
who was a Miss Haning, daughter of a merchant
in Dumfries, and their numerous family, went to
reside at Caitloch, in the pai-ish of Glencaini,
where he occasionally preached to large assem-
blages of people ; which coming to the knowledge
of the authorities, he was obliged once more to
remove. For several years after this he seems to
have led a wandering life, preaching in the fields
wherever he could get it done without molesta-
tion. His exertions were not confined to Dum-
fries-shire or Galloway, but extended to almost
every county south of the Tay. There was scarce-
ly a hill, we are told, a moor or a glen in the
southern and western districts of Scotland, where
ho did not hold a conventicle, or dispense the sa-
crament. In these excursions he was frequently
the companion and coadjutor of Welsh, Peden,
Cargill, and other undaunted Covenanters, who
in the face of peril and the sword unflinchingly
mniutiuned the right and the liberty of the na-
tional worship.
In 1670, having conducted divine worship at a
place near Dunfermline, where the people had
aimed themselves in self-defence, he was sum-
moned before the privy council, but did not obey
the citation. When the seai'ch for him had be-
come a little relaxed, he renewed the custom of
preaching wherever opportunity offered. On one
particular occasion he delivered a^ermon at Kin-
kell, near St. Andrews; when, notwithstanding
the injunctions of Archbishop Sharp, the people
all flocked to hear him. It is stated that when
Sharp desured the provost to march out the mili-
tia, to dispei'se the congregation, he was told it
was impossible, as the militia had gone there al-
ready as worshippei-s. In 1674 Blackadder was
outlawed, and a rcwai*d of a thousand merks
offered for his apprehension. In 1680 he pro-
ceeded to Holland, and settled his eldest son
at the university of Ley den, to gi-aduate as a
doctor of medicine. After a few months* ab-
sence he returned to Scotland, and in 1681 waa
an*ested in his own house at Edinburgh, and
confined in the state prison on the Bass Rock,
whei*e he remained about four years. His health
being much impaired by the dampness and close-
ness of his place of confinement, his fi-iends applied
to government for his liberation ; but unwilling ti
grant him his release, it was at first proposed to
remove him to the jail either of Haddington or
Dunbar. At length he was offered his freedom,
with pei-mission to reside at Edinburgh, on condi-
tion of his gi'anting a bond for five thousand merks.
So much delay, however, took place, that, before
he could regain his liberty, he sunk under the
cruel hardships to which he was subjected, among
which "hope dcfen-ed" was not one of the least.
He died in the prison of the Bass in December
1686, in his 70th year, and was buried in North
Berwick churchyard. His cell in the Bass is still
pointed out to the visitor. Of his children an ac-
count has been given in the preceding article
Blackadder's Life, by Dr. Andrew Crichton, waa
published in 1823.
BLACKLOCK, Thomas, D.D., an ingenious
poet and divine, the son of poor but industrious
parents, natives of Cumberland, was bom at An-
nan, in Dumfries-shire, November 10, 1721. Be-
fore he was six months old, he was deprived of
sight by the small-pox. As he gi*ew up, his
father educated him at home to the best of his
ability, and read to him instructive and entertain-
ing books, particularly the works of Spenser, Mil-
ton, Prior, Pope, and Addison. He was also par-
tial to those of Thomson and Allan Ramsay. By
the aid of some of his companions who attended
the grammar school, and pitied his misfortune, and
were won by the gentleness of his disposition, he
acquired an imperfect knowledge of the Latin
tongue. He began to compose poetry when he
was only about twelve years of age ; and one of
his early pieces is preserved in the collection pub-
lished after his death. When he was little more
than nineteen, his father, a bricklayer, was killed by
the falling of a malt kiln. Some of his pieces hav-
ing, about a year thereafter, come into the hands
of Dr. John Stevenson, an eminent physician in
Edinburgh, that gentleman, struck with his tal-
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BLACKLOCK,
813
THOMAS.
cuts, took upon himseli' the charge of his educa-
tion, and invited bira to tiiat city, where he ar-
rived in 1741. After attending a gi*ammai- school
for a short time, he was eui-ollcd as a student at
the university, where he continued till the year
1745 ; when, in consequence of the Rebellion, and
the disturbed state of the metropolis, he retired to
Dumfries, to the house of Mr. M'Murdo, who had
married his sister. At the close of the civil com-
motions he returned to Edinburgh, and pursued
his studies at college for six years longer, lie
not only made considerable progress in the sci-
ences, but obtained a thoix>ngh knowledge of the
Greek, I^in, and French languages ; the latter of
which he acquired by conversation with the lady
of Provost Alexander, who was a native of Fi-ance.
Although the chief inlets to poetical ideas were
closed to him, the beauties of creation and all
external objects being hid from his view, he wrote
poetry, not only with facility, but with success.
In 1746 he published at Glasgow an 8vo volume
of his poems, and in 1754 he brought out at Edin-
burgh another edition, which was very favourably
received, and attracted the notice of the Rev. Jo-
seph Spence, professor of poetiy at Oxford, who
wrote an account of his life and writings, with the
design of introducing his name and character to
the English public. In 1756 a quarto edition of
his poems was published in London by subscrip-
tion, which yielded him a considerable sum.
After the completion of his university course, he
began to prepare himself for giving lectures on
oratory to young men intended for the bar or the
pulpit : but by the advice of Hume the historian,
who interested himself warmly in his behalf, he
abandoned the project, and turned his attention
towards the church. Having devoted the usual
time to the study of divinity, he was, in 1759,
duly licensed for the ministiy by the presbyteiy of
Dumfries. t)n the alarm of a French invasion, in
1761, he published a discourse ^ On the right im-
provement of Time,* and in the same year he con-
tributed some poems to the first volume of Don-
aldson's collection of original poems, published in
ICdinburgh. In 1 762 he married Sai-ah, the daugh-
ter of Mr. Joseph Johnston, surgeon in Dumfries.
The earl of Selkirk obtained for him from the
Ci-own a presentation to the church of Kirkcud-
bright, and his ordination took place a few days
after his marriage ; but his appointment was op-
posed by the parishioners, and after nearly two
years* legal contention, he resigned his living, by
the advice of his friends, for a moderate annuity.
He returned to Edinburgh in 1764, and added to
his income by receiving, as boarders into his house,
a number of young gentlemen, whom he assisted
in theur studies. This system he continued till
1787, when age and increasing infinnities obliged
him to give it up. In 1766 he obtained the de-
gree of D.D. fi-om the Marischal college, Aberdeen.
In 1767 he published ^ Paraclesis, or Consolations
deduced from Natural and Revealed Religion,* in
two dissertations ; and in 1768 ^ Two Discourses
on the Spu'it and Evidences of Christianity,* trans-
lated from the French of M. Armand, minister of
the Walloon church in Hanau. In 1774 appeared
his last publication, ^ The Graham,* a heroic bal-
lad, in four cantos, intended to promote a good
feeling betwixt the inhabitants of England and
Scotland ; but this poem, being considered of infe-
rior merit, has been excluded from Mackenzie*3
collection of his works.
Dr. Blacklock was one of the first to appreciate
the genius of Bums the poet ; and it was owing to
a letter from him to the Rev. Dr. Laurie, minister
of Loudon, Ayi-shire, that Buras, in November
1786, relinquished his design of quitting his native
land for Jamaica, and trying his fortune in Edin-
burgh. On his aiTival in the metropolis, the doc-
tor treated him with gi*eat kindness, and intro-
duced him to many of his literary friends. ** There
was, perhaps, never one among all mankind,'*
says Heron, in a Life of Bums, in the Edinburgh
Magazine, ^^wliom you might more tmly have
called an angel upon earth than Dr. Blacklock.
He was guileless and innocent as a child, yet en-
dowed with manly sagacity and penetration. His
heai*t was a perpetual spi'ing of ovei-flowing benig-
nity ; his feelings were all tremblingly alive to the
sense of the sublime, the beautiful, the tender, the
pious, and the virtuous. Poetry was to him the
dear solace of perpetual blindness ; cheerfulness,
even to gaiety, was, notwithstanding that irreme-
diable misfortune, long the predominant colour of
his mind. In his latter years, when the gloom
might otherwise have thickened aiound him, hope,
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BLACKWELL,
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THOMAS.
faith, devotion, the most fervent and sublime, ex-
alted his mind to heaven, and made him maintain
his wonted cheerfulness in the expectation of a
speedy dissolution."
Dr. Blaclclocic died at Edinburgh, July 7, 1791,
and was buried in the ground of St. Cuthbert's
chapel of ease. A monument was erected to his
memory, with an elegant Latin inscnption, fix>m
the pen of his friend and frequent correspondent.
Dr. Beattie. Next to conversation, music was
his chief recreation. He was a performer on sev-
eral instruments, particularly the flute. He gen-
erally carried in his pocket a small flageolet, on
which he played his favourite tunes. He com-
posed with taste ; and one of his pieces in this
department was inserted in the Edinburgh Mag-
azine and Review for 1774, under the title of
* Absence, a Pastoral, set to Music, by Dr. Black-
lock.' He left a great many sermons in manu-
script, together with a ti-eatise on morals ; which
were never published. The article * Blind,' in the
* Encyclop»dia Britanuica,' was conti-ibuted by
him in 1783. He published in 1756 ^ An Essay
towards a Univei*8al Etymology,' besides one or
two sermons. In 1793 appeared a quarto edition
of his poems, with his life by Henry Mackenzie.
His attainments in science and in general know-
ledge, considering his blindness, were truly won-
derful ; and ia all respects he must be considered
one of the most singular Hte]*ary phenomena that
has ever appeared in this or any other country.
BLACKWELL, Thomas, an eminent scholar
and author, was born at Aberdeen, August 4, 1701.
His father, the Rev. Thomas Blackwell, was for
some time one of the ministers of Aberdeen. In
1717 he was appointed principal of Marischal Col-
lege in that city, and died in 1728. He bestowed
the greatest attention on the education of his sons,
Thomas and Alexander, a notice of whom follows.
After receiving the rudiments of his education at
the grammar school of his native city, Thomas
was sent to study in Marischal College, where he
took the degi-ee of master of arts in 1718. Being
deeply versed in the Greek language and litera-
ture, he was, in December 1723, appointed by the
Ciown, profes^r of Greek in the university where
he had been educated. In 1737 he published at
Ixiudon, without \i\6 name, * An Inquiry into
the Life and Writings of Homer,* 8vo ; *^ a pro*
duction," says Dr. Irving, ^^ which displays more
cmdition than genius, and more affectation than
elegance." In 1748 he published anonymously,
*• Letters concerning Mythology,' 8vo, which, saya
the same anthor, may be classed among pompom
trifles. The same year, on the death of Principal
Osbom, he was appointed principal of Marisdial
College by the Crown, on whom the patronage had
devolved on the forfeiture of the Marischal family in
1716. Soon after he married the daughter of a mer-
chant in Aberdeen, by whom he had no children. At
the commencement of the session, 1752, on his re-
commendation, a new oi'der in teaching the sciences
was introduced into Marischal College, being that
now in operation ; the plan of academical educa-
tion previously in use being found insufficient. In
the same year he took the degree of doctor of laws,
and in 1753 he published the first volume of his
'Memoii-s of the Court of Augustus,' 4to. Tlie
second volume appeai-ed in 1755, and the third,
which was posthumous, and left incomplete by
the author, was prepared for the pi-css by John
Mills, Esq., and published in 1764. This work
was severely criticised by Dr. Johnson, and, like
all BiackwcU's productions, is now seldom looked
into. On account of declining health, Dr. Black-
well was advised to travel, but could proceed no
fai'ther than Edinburgh, where he died of a con-
sumptive disease, March 6, 1757, in his 56th year.
His widow survived him for many years, and in
1793, she founded a professorship of chemistry iu
Mai'ischal College. She also left a pi*cmium of
£10 sterling to be annually given to the person
who should compose and deliver the best discourse
in the English language upon a certain specified
subject. — Biog, -BnV.— Blackwell's works are:
Inqniiy into the Life and Writings of Homer. Lond. 1735.
2d. edit 1786, 8vo.
The Dangers of the Rebellion, and oar happy Deliverance,
considered, and a suitable consequent behaviour rcoommcnded.
Psalm cxxix. 5. 1746, 4to.
Proofii of the Inquiry into the Life and Writings jf Honiec
Lond. 1747, 8vo.
Letters concerning Mythology. Lond. 1748, 8vo.
Memoirs of the Court of Augustus. Edin. 1763 — 1755, 2
vols. 4to. Lond. 1764, 3 vols. 4to. The same work contin-
ued and completed from the Author's original papers, by John
Mills, Esq., forming a 8d volume. 1764, 3 vols. 4ta
Letter to Mr. J. Ames, relating to an andcnt Greek la
scription. See Ardueologia, vol. L p. 333. 1770.
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BLACKWELL,
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ALEXANDER.
BLACKWEL^ Alexander, a man of great
Datural genius, and an accomplished Gi'eek and
J^atin scholar, brother of the preceding, was bom
in Aberdeen abont the beginning of the eigliteenth
century. In the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th
edition, he is stated to have been the son -of a
dealer in knit-hose in Abci*dccn ; bat this is evi-
dently a mistake, his father, as stated in the
preceding life, being one of the ministers of Aber-
deen, and principal of Marischal College. After
completing his academical edacation at Marischal
College, he went to Leyden, where he studied phy-
sic under the celebrated Boerhaave, and took the
degree of M.D. Elizabeth, his wife, the author-
ess of the most extraordinary botanical work of
her day, was the daughter of a stocking merchant
in Aberdeen of the same name, and probably a
relative of her hnsband, to whom she was secretly
married; and some accounts say that he eloped
witl; her to London ; but it appears that he had
fii-st endeavoured to establish a practice in his na-
tive city, and not succeeding, he removed to the
British metropolis, and became corrector of the
press to Mr. Wilkins, a printer. He afterwards
commenced the printing business himself in the
Strand; and continued to carry it on till 1734,
when, in consequence chiefly of an action being
brought against him for not having served a regu-
lar apprenticeship to the trade, he became involved
in debt, and was thrown into prison. Luckily his
wife possessed a taste for the drawing and colour-
ing of flowers, which she now turned to account.
Engravings of flowers were then very rare, and
Mrs. Blackwell thought that the publication of an
Herbal might yield her such a remuneration as
would enable her to discharge her husband's debts.
Having submitted her first drawings to Sir Hans
Sloane and Dr. Mead, these eminent physicians
encouraged her to proceed with the work. She
also received the kindest countenance from Mr.
Philip Miller, then well known as a writer on hor-
ticulture. She was also patronised by Mr. Rand
of the botanical garden at Chelsea, by whose ad-
vice she, in the year 1735, took lodgings in the
neighbourhood of this garden, for more ready ac-
cess to those flowers and plants which she required
for her work, and proceeded to make drawings of
them, thereafter engraving them on copper, and
colouring the work herself. Her husband added
the Latin names of the different plants, and a
brief description of each, chiefly taken, by permis-
sion, from Miller's ^Botanicum Officinale.' The
first volume of her Herbal, containing 262 plates,
appeared in 1737; and the second, with 248
plates, in 1739. It was published in a complete
form, under the title of ' A curious Herbal, con-
taining five hundred Cuts of the most useful
Plants which are now used in the practice of
Physic, engraved on folio copperplates, after draw-
ings taken from the Life, by Elizabeth Black-
well ; to which is added a short Description of the
Plants, and their common uses in Physic,' folio.
This work raised Mrs. Blackwell very high in
public estimation, and by it« means she was en-
abled to free her husband from prison. The col-
lege of physicians, to whom she was pennltted to
present in person the fli*8t volume on its comple-
tion, not only made her a handsome present, but
gave her a testimonial, signed by the president
and censors of the institution, strongly recommen-
datory of her work.
After his release, the duke of Chandos employed
Blackwell to superintend some agricultural opera-
tions at Cannons. Having published a work on
agriculture, a copy of it was transmitted to the
king of Sweden by his ambassador in this country;
in consequence of which he was offei-ed an engage-
ment at Stockholm, which he accepted. About
1740, leaving his wife and child in Jx)ndon, he
sailed for the Swedish capital. On his arrival he
was orderod apartments in the house of the prime
minister, and allowed a pension. Having, during
a dangerous illness of the king, prescribed with
success for his majesty, he was, on his recovery,
appointed one of the king's physicians. At this
time he was in the full enjoyment of the favour of
the court, and having submitted to the king a
scheme for draining certain large fens and marsh-
es, this was tried, and found to he successful. To
his wife, who was on the point of joining him, he
i-emitted large sums of money ; but his career in
Sweden was destined soon to come to a fatal close.
He was aiTCsted on suspicion of l}eing concerned
in a plot with Count Tessin to overturn the gov-
ernment, and alter the line of succession. After
being subjected to the torture, he was tried before
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BLACKWOOD,
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ADAM.
a royal commission, and sentenced to be broken
alive on the wheel, for which beheading was after-
wards snbstituted. He was executed August 9,
1748, protesting his innocence to the last. Hav-
ing prayed for a short time, he laid his head on
the block, but in a wrong posture, on which, in
the spirit of jesting which distinguished Sir Tho-
mas More at his execution, he excused himself
for his awkwardness, as it was his first experiment
in that way. The date of his wife's death is un-
known. An edition of her work was published on
the continent.
BLACKWOOD, Adam, a learned but bigoted
writer of the sixteenth century, who distinguished
himself as the antagonist of Buchanan and the de-
fender of Queen Mary, was bora at Dunfermline
in 1539. He was the son of William Blackwood,
a gentleman by birth, by his wife, Helen Reid,
granddaughter of Jolin Reid of Alkenhead, who
was slain at Flodden. Her uncle, Robert Reid,
bishop of Orkney and president of the coui-t of
session, bequeathed eight thousand merks for the
foundation of a college in Edinburgh, and has,
therefore, some claim to be considered the founder
of that university. [See Reid, Robert, an emi-
nent prelate.] Black wood^s father was slain in
battle before he had reached his tenth year, and
his mother did not long sui'vive him. His grand-
uncle, the bishop of Orkney, having undeitaken
the charge of his education, sent him at a proper
age to the university of Paris. At the age of
nineteen he lost his relative and benefactor, who
died at Dieppe, on the 15th September 1558.
Soon after, young Blackwood returned to Scotland.
By the munificence of Queen Mary, at that time
residing with her fii*sc husband, the dauphin, at
the court of France, he was enabled to resume his
academical career at Paris. He now applied
himself to the study of mathematics and philoso-
phy, and also to the acquirement of the oriental
languages. He afterwards attended a coui'se of
law at the university of Toulouse, where he resided
for two years. On his retura to Paris he sought
for employment as a teacher of philosophy. In
1574 he published his earliest work, a poem on the
death of Charles the Ninth of France, whose reign
has been for ever rendered infamous by the mas-
sacre of St. Bartholomew. In the following year
appeared his first two books on the connexion of
religion and goverament. A third book was added
in 1612. On the recommendation of James Be-
th une, archbishop of Glasgow, then living in exile
in Paris, Queen Mary bestowed upon him the
office of a counsellor, that is, judge, of the parlia-
ment of Poitiers. The province of Poiton had
been assigned to her for the payment of her dow-
ry, and her letters patent were confirmed by the
French king, Henry the Tliird. According to Dr.
Mackenzie [Lives of Scots Writers^ vol. iii. p. 488]
he was likewise appointed professor of the civil
law in the univei'sity of Poitiers, but this is evi-
dently a mistake. A list of his works is given
below. Among them is his ^ Apologia pro Rcgi^
bus,^ which appeared in 1581, intended as an an-
swer to the eloquent and masterly dialogue of Ba-
chanan on the rights of the crown of Scotland. He
inscribed his work to the queen, who had nomi-
nated him a privy councillor, and to her son, af-
terwards James the Sixth. When Mary was a
prisoner in England, in the hope of rendering her
some material service during her captivity, he
made more than one voyage to England ; and soon
after her tragical death he published in French a
long account of her treatment, under the title of
^ Martyre de la Reyno d^Escosse,^ with a zealous
vindication of her character. In this work he bit-
terly reviles the enemies of Mary, not sparing
John Knox and Queen Elizabeth in his wrath ;
describing the former as *^a ti*ue member and
apostle of Satan," and recommending a general
crusade of Christian princes against the latter as
" a foul murderess." To this work was added a
collection of poems in Latin, French, and Italian,
upon Mary and Elizabeth, those on the latter writ-
ten in a style of the most intense vituperation.
In 1604, Blackwood again visited London, and
having been presented to King James, he wa^
honoured with a very gi*aciou3 reception. In 1606
he published a Latin poem which he had written
on the accession of James the Sixth to the throne
of England. He also wrote some pious medita-
tions in prose and verse, and projected a continu-
ation of Boyce's History of Scotland, which, from
his extreme and bigoted views, it is as well that
he did not live to finish. He died in 1613, in the
74th year of his age, and was iuleiixid in St. Per-
L
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BLACKWOOD,
817
WILLIAM.
cliarios* church at Poitiers, wlierc a mnrble moua-
meiit, with a long inscription, was erected to his
memory.
He had married Catherine Conrtinier, daughter
of tlic "procureur dc roi" of Poitiers. His wife
bore to him four sons and seven daugliters. One
of his sons became a judge of the same court. An-
other fell in battle during the civil wars of France.
One of his daughters was married to his couutiy-
man, George Crichton, doctor of the canon law,
royal professor of Greek in the university of Pa-
ris; after whose death, she became the wife of
Francois de la Motlie le Vayer. Of the rest of the
family there are no memorials. In France the
name is Blacvod. llrving^s Lives of Scottish Wri-
ters^ vol. i.]
Adam Blackwood's works are :
Caroli IX. Pompa FanebrU yeniculis expressa per A. B.
J. C. [Juris Gonsalttun.] Paris, 1574, 8vo.
De Vinculo; seu Conjnnctione Religionis et Imperii libri
doo, quibos conjurationum tradacimtnr insidisB fhco religionis
adom^ratsD. Ad illostrissiinam serenissimamqne principem,
D. Mariam Sootis Reginain, et Galliae Dotariam. Paris,
1575, 8vo.
Apologia pro Regibus, Adversos Georgii Bnchanani Dialo-
gum, de Jore Regni apud Sootos. Pictavis 15S1, 4to. Pari-
siis, 1588, 8ro.
Martyre de hi Repe d^Escosse, Dooariere de France; con-
tenant le Tray discours des tralsons k elle faictes k la suscita-
tion d'KUxabet Angloise, par Icquel lea mensonges, calomnies,
et fanlaes accusations drese^ centre oeete tresrertneuse,
trescatboKqne, et treidllastre princesse son eeclarcies, et son
innocence arer^ This work is said to have been printed
^ A Edimbonrg, chex Jean Nafeild,** 1587, 8vo; but this was
not the case, and the publisher's name is fictitious. It was
reprinted at Antwerp in 1588, and again in 1589. It is to
be found in the collection of Jebb, De Vita et Rebus gestls
Maris Scotomm Reginae Autores sedecim, tom. iL p. 175.
I^ndon, 1725, 2 tom. foL
Sanctarum Precationum Proemia, seu maris, Ejaculationes
Aninue ad Orandum se praeparantis. Dedicated to Arch-
bishop Bethune of Glasgow. Augustoriti Pictorium, 1598,
12mo. Aug. Pict 1608, 16to.
Inangnratio Jacobi MagnsB Britannia Regis. Paris, 1606,
8vo.
In Psalmum Davidis quinqnagesimum, ci\jns iniUum est.
Miserere mei Deus. Adnmi Blacrodaei Meditatio. Aug.
Pict 1608, 16to.
Varii generis Poemata. Per Adam. Bhicrodaemn, m Pre-
sidiili Pictonnm Consessu. et in Metropolitano Decurionnm
CoUegio ConsiKarium. PicUvis, 1609, 16to.
An elegant edition of Blackwood*s works in Latin and
French, appeared at Paris in one volume, thirty-one years
afler his death, under the title of *Adami Blacvodaei, in
Curia PncsidiaU Pictonum, et Urbis in Decurionnm CoUegio,
Regis ConsiKarii, Opera Omnia, cum ejus Vita, k Gabriel
Naudeo, Paris, 1644, 4to. This volume, says Dr. Irving,
eontaint a portrait of the author by Picart He i^pears in
kia official robes.
BLACKWOOD, Henry, physician, elder bro-
ther of the preceding, was, about the year 1661, a
teacher of philosophy in the university of Pari.^,
wliere he had been educated. Having applied
liimself to the study of medicine, and taken the
degree of M.D., he became dean of that faculty
and was at one time physician to the duke of Ix>n-
gueville. He died about 1613, at an advanced
age. He was the author of various medical and
philosophical treatises. His son, who bore the same
name, and followed the same profession, became
professor of physic in the Royal College, and died
at Rouen in 1634. According to the Biographie
Universelle, (tom. iv. p. 649,) the younger Henry
Blackwood ^* ^tait nn homme de beauconp de ta-
lent, mals tr^ inconstant, philosophe, orateur,
m^ecin, soldat, courtisan, voyageur, et intriguant
dans tout ces ^tats.** He published an edition of
Hippocratis Coi Prognosticoinim libri tres, ad vet-
erum exemplarinm fidem emendati et recogniti
Paris, 1626, 24to.
Another brother of Adam Blackwood was George
Blackwood, who was also educated at Paris, and
taught philosophy in that city about the year
1671 ; but having subsequently entered into holy
orders, he obtained considerable preferment in the
French church. [Irving^s Lives of Scottish Writeis^
vol. I. p. 168.]
BLACKWOOD, William, an eminent pub-
lisher, and founder of the magazine that bears his
name, was bom at Edinburgh, November 20, 1776.
Hia parents were respectable, though in a humble
station ; and he received an excellent education.
In 1790 he entered on his apprenticeship with
Messrs. Bell and Bradfute, the well known pub-
lishers ; and while in their employment he stored
his mind with reading of all sorts, Cf^pecially Scot-
tish history and antiquities. In 1797, after the
expiry of his apprenticeship, he was engaged by
Messrs. J. Mundell and Co., extensive booksell-
ers in Edinburgh, to go to Glasgow to take the
superintendence of a branch of their business iu
that city ; where, having the sole charge, he ac-
quired those habits of decision and promptitude
for which he was so remarkable. At the end of a
year he returned to Bell and Bradfute, with whom
he continued another year. In 1799 he entered
into partnership with Mr. Robert Ross, bookseller
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BLACKWOOD.
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BIAIK.
and book aactioneer, bat this connection being
dissolved in the course of a few years, he went to
London, to the shop of Mr. Cnthell, where he ob-
tained a thorough knowledge of the old book trade.
In 1804 he returned to Edinburgh, and commenced
business on his own account, on the South Bridge,
as a dealer in old books, in which department his
knowledge was allowed to be unusually great.
lie soon after became agent for several of the Lon-
don publishers, among whom were Messrs. Mur-
ray, Baldwin, and Cadell, and also commenced pub-
lishing for himself. Among other works brought
out by him were 'Grahame's Sabbath,' *KeiT's
Voyages and Travels,' 18 vols. 8vo, and the
* Edinburgh Encyclopedia,' 18 vols. 4to. In 1812
appeared his celebrated catalogue, containing up-
wards of fifteen thousand books in various lan-
guages, all properly classified, which, we are told,
continues to the present day to be a standard au-
thority for the prices of old books. In 1816 he
disposed of his extensive stock of classical and
antiquarian books, and removed to the New Town
of Edinburgh, where he thenceforth devoted his
energies to the business of a general publisher. In
April 1817 he brought out the first number of
' Blackwood's Magazine,' which speedily acquired
a high character and an extensive circulation.
Among its fii*st contributors were Mr. John Wil-
son, author of * The Isle of Palms,' elected in 1820,
professor of moral philosophy in the university of
Edinburgh, and Mr. John G. Lockhart, Advo-
cate, afterwards editor of the * Quarterly Review.'
Mr. Blackwood himself never wrote more than
two or three articles for its earlier numbers ; but
the whole management and arrangement of the
magazine devolved upon him, and he executed
the editorial duties with unusual tact, skill, and
vigour. Besides the publications already men-
tioned, he published the principal works of Messrs.
Wilson, Lockhart, Hogg, Gait, Moir, and other
distinguished contributors to his magazine, as well
as several of the productions of Sir Walter Scott.
He was twice chosen a magistrate of Edinburgh,
and while in that capacity, he took a prominent
part in the affairs of the city. Mr. Blackwood
died at Edinburgh, September 16, 1834, in the
68th year of his age. He was a man of straight-
forward and independent character, enlarged un-
derstanding, and liberal disposition. *^ No man,'
says the obituary notice which appeai*ed in th«
magazine after his decease, " ever conducted buH-
ness in a more direct and manly manner than Mr
Blackwood. His opinion was on all occasions
distinctly expressed ; his questions were ever ex-
plicit; his answers conclusive. His sincerity
might sometimes be considered as rough, but no
human being ever accused him either of flattering
or of shuffling ; and those men of letters who were
in frequent communication with him soon con-
ceived a respect and confidence for him, which,
save in a very few instances, ripened into cordial
regard and friendship. The masculine steadiness,
and imperturbable resolution of his character, were
impressed on all his proceedings ; and it will be
allowed by those who watched him through his
career, as the publisher of a literary and political
miscellany, that these qualities were more than
once very severely tested. He dealt by parties
exactly as he did by individuals. Whether Lis
principles were right or wrong, they were Aw, and
he never compromised or complimented away one
tittle of them. No changes, either of men or of
measures, ever dimmed his eye, or checked liis
courage." He left a widow, seven sons, and two
daughters. His two eldest sons succeeded to his
business. His third son was an officer in the ser-
vice of the Hon. East India Company. — Black-
woods M(igazine for 1834.
Blair, a surname of great antiquity in Scotland, au<i
like 80 many others in that kingdom, is territorial. The
word Blair or Bhr properly signifies a plain dear of
woods, bat the Celtie in general choosing such plaint
for their hostile encounters, the word came at length to
signify a field of battle. The family of Blair of Blair in
Ayrshire, have maintained since the thirteenth century »
high position in that county, and a branch of it ncquin^
the Unds of Dunskey, in Wigtonshure, by purchase in the
year 1658. The Bhiirs of Blair and the Bhurs of Balthyock
in Pertlishire long disputed the honour of the chiefship.
James the Sixth, to whom the pomt was referred, decided
that *the oldest man, for the time being, of cither family,
should have the precedency.* Both families have bad several
considerable landed families descended from them. Thobe
from Balthyock are settled m Perthshire, Forfarshire, and
the north; those from Bhiir of that ilk in the counties of Ayr,
Wigton, Renfrew, &c., in the south and west Their arras
bear no affinity, but as it will afterwards appear, it does not
follow that they may not have descended from the same stock.
Of the family of Blair of BUir, the first on record wa»
William de Blair, who, in 1205, during the reign of WiUiarii
the lion, is mentioned in a contract of agreement, in thi
charter diest of the burgh of Irvine, betwixt Ralph de E|f-
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BLAIR.
lingtoon and the vilUige of Irvine. It is well-known that
many Normans and English came into Scotland daring this
»nd the previous reigns, who received grants of lands from the
crown. The drcmnstance of his son being a witness to a
royal charter (which only tenants-in-chief of the crown,
nobles, and ecclesiastics, were privileged to do), proves that
the lands he held were a royal fief, and his Norman surname
of William, which was also that of his son, never having been
borne by natives in Scothuid untU after Prince Henry, eldest
son of David I. had bestowed it upon his second son, (the
then reigning monarch), along with the Norman prefix de,
lends probability to the conjecture that William was an Anglo-
Nonnan warrior, on whom had been bestowed these lands of
Blair. He died in the reign of Alexander II., and lefl a son,
William de Blair. A William de Blair is witness in a diar-
ter of King Alexander IIL to the abbacy of Dunfermline,
about the year 1260, but it is unoertitin if this la the same.
William de Bkir is said to have had two sons, Sir Bryce, hiit
heir, and Da>id.
Sir Biyce, the elder son, was treacherously slain by the
English, with other Ayrshire barons, at Ayr in 1296. He
left no issue, and was succeeded by his brother, David Blair
or Blare, who was compelled to swear fealty to King Edward
I. of England, in 1296, the year of his brother's death. In
the critical remarks on the Ragman Roll (Prynne*s copy) he
is mentioned as one of the progenitors of the family. Da-
rid's son, Roger de Blair of that ilk, was a firm friend of
King Robert the Bruce, from whom he obtained a charter un-
der the great seal, * Rogero de Blair, dilecto et fideli noetro'
of four chalders of victual yearly out of the lands of Bour-
trees, in the barony of Cunningham, Ayrsliire, to him and
his heirs for ever. Roger died in the reign of David II.
His son, Hngh de Blair, is said to have succeeded him. A
UugoM del Blart^ et Johne/nUre tuo^ are mentioned in a
charter of confirmation during the reign of David II., to the
monastery of Kilwinning, as witnesses.
Hugh was succeeded by his son, James BUir of that ilk,
an adherent of King David Bruce, from whom he got a grant
of several tenements of land about the town of Ayr, which
had fallen into the king's hand by forfeiture. This is con-
firmed by a charter under the great seal from the said King
David, dated at Edinburgh, 8d February, 1368, in the 89th
year of his reign. Robertson, in his * Ayrshire Families,* states
that he had two sons, James, who succeeded him, and Sir
John, progenitor of the Blairs of Adamton, Ayrshire. The
lands of Adamton appear, from a charter of David IL, to have
been acquih^d in or before 1363, by their father in excambion
with Sir Robert de Erskine, for the lands of Malerbe and
others in Perthshire. I1ie BUirs of Adamton flouriahed for
a long series of years until Catherine, only daughter and heir-
ess of David Blair of Adamton, married, in 1776, Sir Wil-
liam Maxwell, baronet, of Monreith. She sold Adamton to
Robert Reid, Esq., and died in 1798.
Tlie next laird, James Blaur of that ilk, son of the former,
obtained a charter from Robert II., dated 8th May 1875, con-
firming a charter, granted to his father by David II., of tlte
lands of Corehogyll, &c., in Dumfnes-shire, and another, of
*i3d July, the same year, of the lands of Hartwood, &o. He
died in the reign of James the Fust, leaving a son, called
David l>y DougUis m his Baronage (p. 194), but his name was
mora probably Hugh, as Sir Hugh Blair of that ilk appears
as witness to several charters of the period in which he lived,
the commencement of the fifteenth century.
It is supposed that he was succeeded by a son of the name
of James, and he by his nephew (Sir Hugh*s grandson), John
BUir of that ilk, who was served heir to his grandfather, and
obtained from James the Third a charter, ' Johanni Bhiir, de
eodem, ncpoti et hairedi Jacobi, &c, terrarum baronias de
Blair, 19 January 1477.* He lefl, with two daughters, Egi-
dia, married to James Kennedy of the family of CassiUis, and
Elizabeth, married to Ninian Stewart, of Bute, a son, John
Blair of that ilk, who married Lady Elizabeth Montgomery,
fifUi daughter of Hugh first eari of Eglinton, and had issue
John his heir, and Margaret, married to John Crawford of Craw-
furdhmd. In Pitcaim*s Criminal Trials, there is an entry un-
der date May 18, 1545, the fourth year of Queen Mary, that
John Blair and Patrick his son, both then at the horn, found
security to underly the law for abiding from the queen*s ar-
mies at Ancrum, on the previous February 27, and Colding-
ham on December 31, and from other raids.
John BUir of that ilk, his son, died in the early part of the
reign of James the Sixth, and was succeeded by his son,
John Bliur of BUir. In the work just quoted, under date
May 21, 1577, John Blair of that ilk, WUliam Bhur his
brother, Robert Blair, brother of William Blair of Halie, with
twenty-five others, their servants and followers, are indicted
for shooting with pbtolets, following and chasing one Thomas
Crawford and his servants, for their sUughter, upon fore-
thought felony. The laird of Blair, and his brother, WillUm,
being found guilty, they respectively found security to enter
their persons in ward within the castle of Blackness by eight
o*clock m the evening, and not to escape therefrom until they
were relieved, John Blair under the penalty of five thousand
pounds, and William Blahr, under that of two thousand
pounds. By his wife, Grizel, daughter of Robert, third Lord
SempiU, this John Blair of BUir had, with three daughters, five
sons, viz., John, who married Isobel, daughter of Thomas,
fifth Lord Boyd, and who predeceased his father, leaving three
daughtera all well married ; Bryce, who succeeded to the estate
on the death of hU father in 1609 ; Alexander, who married Eli-
zabeth, only daughter and heir of William Cochrane of that ilk,
when he took his name and arms, and thus became ancestor
of the noble family of Dundonald, hU grandson. Sir William
Cochrane, knight, being created earl of Dundonald in 1669,
[See Dundonald, earl of J; James; and Robert of Bogtown,
father of Sur Adam Blair of Bogtown.
Bryce BUir of BUur, the second son, married Annabell
Wallace, and had two sons and five daughters, the latter of
whom were all well married. He died 4 th February 1639,
and was succeeded by his elder twin-son, Sir Biyce BUir,
who was knighted by Charles the Fu^ He nuurried, in 1618,
Marian, daughter of Walter Dundas of Dundas, and died a few
months after his father. He was succeeded by his son, John
Blair, who died soon after without issue, and was succeeded by
hU uncle, John Blair, who married Lady Jean Cunningham,
daughter of William, eighth earl of Glencaim, and dying in
1662, was succeeded by hU son, William Blair of Blahr. ThU
gentleman was named by the restoration government of Scot-
land a member of the Commission ia Ayrshhre for holding
courts on the Coveuanters, but he eariy jouied the Revolution
party, and was a member of the Convention of estates, 16th
Maroh 1689, and one of the committee for settling the govern-
ment Having raised a troop of horse in support of King
William, he marched with it into Perthshire. Information of
this having reached the Viscount Dundee, then in arms in
Athol for King James, he determined to surprise them, and
accordingly he left Athol, and proceeded with celerity during
the night towards Perth, which city he entered unawares
early next morning, and seized both the lautl of BUir and the
Uird of Pollock, who was with him, and two other officers, hi
theur beds, and carried them off prisoners to the Highlands,
where the laird of BUir died very soon after. He had mar-
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BLAIR.
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OF BALTHYOCK.
lied Ladj Margaret Hamilton, fourth daughter of William,
bcoond duke of Hamilton, and was succeeded by his son,
William Blair of Blair, who was a commissioner of supply
for the county of Ayr, in the Convention parliament which
met in 1689. He married Magdalene daughter of James
Campbell of Cargunnock, by whom, besides a daughter,
Magdalene, he had a son, John, to whom he disponed his
estate, reserving to himself a liferent. His son predeceased
him, unmarried, and was succeeded by his sister, Magdalene
Blair, who married William Scott, Esq., advocate, second
son of John Scott, Esq., of Mallcny, in Mid Lothian, (an an-
cient branch of Bncdench,) and had a son, William, her heir.
The heiress of Blair b supposed to have died before the year
1715, and Mr. Scott, her widower, who had assumed the
name and arms of Blair, the latter quartered with those of
Scott, married, secondly, Catlierine, only daughter of Alex-
ander Tait, of Edinburgh, merchant, and bad by her five sons
and six daughters. Hamilton, the eldest, succeeded his half-
brother, William, on the death of the latter, unmarried, in
1732. He had early entered the army, and in 1760 was
major of the Scots Greys. He married Jane, daughter of
Sydenham Williams, Esq. of Herringston, Dorsetshire, and
had a son and 2 dnuglitera. William Blair of Blair, his son.
succeeded him in 1782. The latter married Bfagdiilene,
daughter of John Fordyce, Esq. of Ayton, Berwickshire, for
many years commissioner of the woods and forests and land
revenue, and had 5 sons and 7 daughters. His eldest sons
having predeceased him, he was succeeded in 1841, by his 3d
son, William Fordyce Blair, Captain R N. The latter married,
July 23, 1840, Carol! ne-Isobella, youngest dr. of John Sprot,
Exq , London ; issue, 2 dr«., Mary and Caroline-Madalina, and
2 sons, William Augustus, bom June 24. 1848; and Frederick
Gordon, bom Nov. 11, 1852. Mrs. Blair died Oct. 24, ia57.
The ancestor of the Blairs of Balthyock, Perthshire, was
Alexander de Blair, who flourished in the reigns of William
the Lion and liis son Alexander the Second. He married Ela,
daughter of Hugh de Nyden of that ilk, in Fifeshire, and got
a charter of the lands of » Konakin in Fifeshire, holding of the
bishop of St. Andrews, to which Malcolm, seventh earl of
Fife, and Duncan and David, his brothers, are witnesses.* This
charter bears no date, but Malcohn, seventh earl of Fife, suc-
ceeded his (ather in 1203, and died in 1229. A comparison
of dates makes it not impossible that this Alexander de
Blair may have been a son of William de Blair of Blair, in
which case he appears to have called his son after the name
of his grandfather William. By his mh, FAa, he got also a
part of the lands of Nyden or Nydie, which remained a long
time in possession of the Blairs. The arms borne by this
family may have been those of de Nyden, as at that period
they generally followed the lands, irrespective of the name
of the possessor. As this fact has not been hitherto re-
cognised by genealogical writers, and a contrary opinion as
to the connection of the two families from the one now indi-
cated has, in consequence, been held, we annex an instance in
illustration taken from that mteresting relic of chivalry * The
Siege of Karlaverock,* premising that what is there said of
banners must needs hold trae of family bearings in general,
masmuch as the banners formed their chief features in such
bearings. * Ralph de Monthenner, a private baron, became
earl of Gloucester by marriage with Joan, daughter of Ed-
ward I., and widow of Gilbert de Clare, eari of Gloucester, by
tohich title he was frequently summoned to parliament. On
the occasion of the siege of Caeriaverock, a. d. 1300, he led
his followers, not under his own banner but under that of
Clare, the earl of Gloucester, whiUit he was himself vested in |
a surcoat of his patemol arms, which he also bore in hit
shield. On his decease, his successor in the earidom (a un
of his wife by her first husband) assumed the arms and dig-
nities of the estate of Clare, and Monthermer was sum-
moned in the very next parliament as a private baron
only. This practice probably contmued— and in the case ck
heiresses particularly — until quarterings by marriage were in«
troduced.* Alexander de Blair's son, Sir William de Blair,
was steward of Fife under Alexander the Second, who confer-
red on him the honour of knighthood. This is instructed
from the chartulary of Dunfermline, where * dominus Wil-
llelmus de Blair, senschallus de Fife,* is partioilariy men-
tioned in 1235. He was also a witness in a charter of Mal-
colm, eighth earl of Fife, together with Andrew, bishop of
Moray, who died in 1242. He appears to have died in the
beginning of the reign of King Alexander the Second. He
had two sons, Sir Alexander, his heir, and Walter, who is
mentioned in a charter of Friskln de Moravia in 1260.
Sir Alexander Blair, the elder son, is designed * dominus
Alexander de Blair, miles,* in a charter of Malcolm, dgfatb
eari of Fife, ' de ecclesia de Innerawn,* &c, in or before the
year 126G, in which year earl Malcolm died. By his wife
Helen, sister of Sir William Ramsay, Sir Alexander had a
son, John Blair, who succeeded bun. The son of the lattrr,
David de Blair, is said by Douglas in his Baronage (p. 187),
in his fathcr*s lifetime, and when but a young man, to hare
been, with many of his countrymen, compelled to swear fealty
to King Edward the First of Engbmd, when he had overros
Scotland in 1296.
David de Blair, of the Balthyock family, died in the reign
of' David the Second. He left two sons, Patrick, the first
who was designed of Balthyock, and lliomas, progenitor ol
the Bliurs of Ardblair.
Patrick de Blair, besides the estate of Balthyock in Perth-
shire, of which he obtained a charter from Nicholas de Er-
skine, lord of Kinnoul, the superior, dated 22d October 1370,
appeara from charters quoted by DougUa, to have posaewd
also the lands of Quilt in Fife, and Balgilloch or BalgiUo in
Forfarshire. He married the daughter and coheiress of Joba
Ardler of that ilk, and died soon after 1393.
His son, Thomas Blair, second baron of Balthyock. re-
ceived a charter under the great seal, from King Robert the
Third, of the lands of Ardblair, Baldowie, and BalgiUo in For-
farshire, dated in the tenth year of his reign, which is 1399.
His grandson, Thomas Bhur of Balthyock, was one of the
gentlemen upon several inquests in settling the marches «f
the lands of the abbacy of Arbroath with their neighbours in
1488 and 1484. He died ia the begmning of the reign of
James the Fourth. He had two sons, Alexander his heir,
and John of Balmyle and Potento. Alexander married Jean,
daughter of Andrew third lord Gray, and had a son, Thomas,
who succeeded him in 1509.
In Pitcaim's Criminal Trials, under date March 10, 1540,
there is a remission to * Thomas Blaire of Bathyok/ for twa-
sonably abiding from the army at Solway. From nnroerow
cases in the same work it appeara that about this period the
various families of the Blaire of Balthyock and Ardblair, the
Charteris of Kinfauns and Cuthilgurdy, the Drammon»j,
and other barons and lairds in Perthshire, were constantly in-
volved in feuds with each other, and occasionally with bur-
gesses and citizens of Perth, and others. On 7th Mareh
1549, * Thomas Bhire of Balthyock,* Thomas his son, and
others, found security to underly the law for the slaugh-
ter of Sir Henry Dempster, chaplain, and six others. John
Blair of Ardblair, Andrew Blair and Thomas Blair, hb sow.
Peter Blaur, Alexander Blair, half brother to John Butter oi
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BLAIR.
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JOHN.
Gormok, who was also im).Iicated, David Blair of Knockma-
heir, with John and Patrick Blair, his sons, and various others,
were, on the 3d Jane 1554, summoned for being art and part
in the slaughter of George Dmmmond of Leidcrieff, and Wil-
liam, his son. Various of the accused made satisfaction and
obtained pardon, but Patrick Blair in Ardblair, and Robert
Smyth in Oramlochj, were beheaded on 12th December there-
after. Under date May 2, 1 562, Thomas Blair, of Balthyock,
Alexander, William, and Patrick Blair, his sons; Thomas, hb
grandson, and Alexander Blair, tutor of Balmyle; with forty-
six others, found sureties to appear for the * crewell sUuchter
of umquil Alexander Raa, bnrges of Perthe, and diverse utheris
crymes oontenit in the Letteris;* while on the same day John
Charterisof Kinfauns, David, his brother, and thirty-nine others,
found surety for the convocation of various persons, to the num-
ber of twenty-four, and coming upon Thomas BUir, laird of Bal-
thyock, and his accomplices, and giving uf them injurious words.
Thomas Blair of Balthyock, above mentioned, had two
sons and three daughters. His eldest son, Alexander Blair
of Balthyock, is described as a man of parts and integrity,
and highly esteemed by King James the Sixth, who, with his
own hanJ, wrote a friendly letter to him, 18th September
1579, concerning his teinds and other affairs in his part of
the country, wherein he expressed himself in the kindest
manner, saying that he confided chiefly in him for the man-
agement of all his concerns in that neighbourhood. He mar-
ried Elisabeth, daughter of Sur Laurence Mercer of Aldie, by
whom ho had three sons and one daughter, the latter married
to George, son and heir apparent of John Charteris of Kin-
fauns.
Ijturence, his eldest son. died before his father, leaving a
son, Alexander Blair, younger of Balthyock, one of the wit-
nesses in the Gowrie conspuacy; his depomtion is given in
Pitcaim^s Criminal Trials, vol ii. p. 188.
Thomas, the second son, married a lady of rank in France,
and settled in that country. His posterity retained the name
of BUir, and became allied with some of the most considera-
ble families in France, as De Gevres, de la Rochefoucauld, de
Nonailles, de Agrcmont, de Champignelle, de Brimont, des Gil-
bert, des Jolly, de Fleury, &c The third son, Patrick Blair,
Aras progenitor of the BUirs of Pittendreich, Glasclune, &c
Sir Thomas BUir of Balthyock, the grandson of Laurence
Blair, and son of the above-named Alexander Blair, by his
wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Geoi^ Haliburton of Pitcur,
had the honour of knighthood conferred on him by King
Charles the First He married first, Margaret, daughter of
Sir John Ayton of Ayton, in the county of Fife, by whom he
had three sons and five daughters; secondly, Margaret,
daughter of Sir Alexander Gibson of Durie, relict of Su: ITio-
mas Fotheringham of Powrie, by whom he had no issue. He
died about 1652, and was succeeded by his eldest son. Sir
Alexander BUir. Andrew, the second son, obtained from his
father the lands and estate of Inchyra in Perthshire, which
became the title of his family. John, the third son, was de-
signed of Balmyle. Sir Alexander married Elizabeth, daugh-
ter of Thomas Fotheringham of Powrie, heir of line of that
family, and by her he had three sons and two daughters.
He died in 1692.
His eldest son, Thomas Blair, died without issue, and was
succeeded by liis brother John BUir, who married Margaret,
daughter of Patrick Buttei of Gonnack, by whom he had
only one daughter, Margaret, his sole heiress, who succeeded
to the estate of Balthyock, and in 1728 married David, son
of Mr. David Drummond, advocate, who in consequence as-
sumed the name and arms of Blair of Balthyock. He died
m 1728, and his son John BUir succeeded to the estate. The
latter married Patricia, daughter of John Stevens, Ktsq. of
Edinburgh, and had a son, David, and five daughters.
The eldest daughter, Margaret BUir, married Miyur John-
ston, and had an only daughter and heir, Jemima Johnston,
who became representative of the family of Blair of Balthy-
ock. She married, 26th November lAll, Adam Fer^cusson,
Esq., and had issue, Neil-Jaines Fergusson of Balthyock, and
six other sons.
BLAIR, John, the chaplain of Sir WilllaiL
Wallace, was bom in Fifesliire in the reign of Al-
exander the Third, and was educated in the same
school with Wallace at Dundee. He afterwards
stndied for some time in the university of Paris,
and became a monk of the order of St. lienedlct
On his return to Scotland he was appointed chap-
lain to Wallace, then governor of the kingdom,
whom he accompanied in almost all his battles,
and after his cruel death wrote his life and exploits
in T^tin verse, a chronicle from which Blind Harr}*
derived most of his materials for his heroic poiin
on Wallace. Of this work, which might have
been of great value in illustrating the history of
that troubled period, an inaccurate fragment only
is left, which was copied by Sir James Balfour out
of the Cottonian library, and published in 1705,
with a commentary, by Sir Robert Sibbald.
Hume, in his 'Histoiy of the Douglases,' intro-
duced a translation of it. Blair, who, on becom-
ing a Benedictine, adopted the name of Arnold,
belonged to the monastery of that order in Dun-
fermline. The exact period of his death is un-
known. He was the author of anothei* work, en-
titled *De Liberata Tyrannide Scotia,' which is no
longer to be found. — Mackenzie's Scots Writers,
BLAIR, Robert, an eminent minister of the
Church of Scotland, in the daj's of the Covenant,
was born at Irvine, Ayrshii*e, in 1593. He was
the sixth and youngest son of John Blair of Win-
dyedge, in that county, a branch of the family of
Blair of Blair, and of Beatrix Muir, of the family
of Rowallan. He studied at the univei-sity of
Glasgow, and was for a short time employed as
assistant to a teacher in that city. In his twenty-
second year he was appointed a regent or profes-
sor in the college. In 1616 he was licensed as a
preacher of the gospel. Having, in 1622, resigned
his charge, in consequence of the appointment of
Dr. Cameron, who favoured episcopacy, as princi-
pal of the university, he went over to Ireland, and
was for some ycai-s minister of a presby teriun con-
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BLATR.
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ROBERT
f^rcgation at Bangor. The bishop of Down having
expelled hhn from his charge, he, with various
other clergymen, fitted out a ship, and set sail
with the intention of emigrating to New Enghuid.
Being driven back by a storm, Blair preferred re-
turning to Scotland, where he arrived at a vciy
critical period. He preached for some time at
Ayr, and was afterwaids settled by the General
Assembly at St. Andrews. In 1640 he accompa-
nied the Scottish ai-my into England, and assisted
at the negotiations for the peace of Rippon. After
the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Blair again went over
to Ireland, with several other clergymen, the
Presbyterians of that country having solicited a
su[)ply of ministers from the General Assembly.
He did not long remain there, however, having
returned to St. Andrews, where he proved himself
to be a useful and zealous preacher. In 1645 he
was one of the Scottish ministei's who went to New-
t-iistle to reason with the king, and, on the death
of Hendei-son, he was appointed by his majesty
Ills chaplain for Scotland. After the restoration,
he was subjected, like many other worthy men of
God, to the pci-secutions of Archbishop Sharp, and
for yeare had no regiUar place of woi-sbip, but
preached and administered the sacraments wher-
ever opportunity offered. He was prohibited from
coming within twenty miles of St. Andrews, and
during his latter yeai*8, he found a refuge at Meiklc
Couston, in the parish of Aberdour, where he died,
August 27, 1666. He was buried in the church-
yard of that parish, where a tablet was erected to
his memory. He was the author of a Commentary
on the Book of Proverbs, and of some political
pieces, none of which have been pi*eserved. His
descendants, Robert Blair, author of * The Grave,'
Dr. Hugh Blair, the celebrated sermon writer, and
the late Right Hon. Robert Blair, lord president
of the court of session, added fresh lustre to the
family imme.—Scots Worthies.
BLAIR, Robert, the Rev., autlior of *The
Grave,' a poem, eldest son of the Rev. Dn vid
Blair, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, chaplain
to the king, and grandson of the eminent minister
of St. Andrews of the same name, the subject
of the preceding notice, was born at Edinburgh
in 1699, and studied for the church at the uni-
vereity of his native city. After spending some
time on the Continent, he was, on January 5,
1731, ordained minister of Arhelstaneford, in East
Lothian, where he continued till his death. He
was an anxious and animated preacher, and nn
accomplished scholar, and evinced a peculiar pre-
dilection for the natural sciences, particularly
botany, in which he was allowed to excel. He
carried on a correspondence with Mr. Heniy
Baker, F.R.S., author of several works on the
microscope. From this, it should seem, that he
employed part of his time in optical researches.
His fii-st poem (originally published in Dr. Ander-
son's collection) was one dedicated to the memory
of Ml*. William Law of Elvingston, in East l>o-
thian, professor of moral philosophy in the univer-
sity of Edinburgh, whose danghter, Isabella, he
afterwards married. She was the sister of Mr
Law, who succeeded to the estate of Elvingston,
and was sheriff of Haddington for fifty years
Among the most respected of his friends was the
lamented Colonel Gardiner, who was killed at the
battle of Prestonpans in 1745 ; and who appenrs
to have been the medium of his opening a cor-
respondence with Dr. Watts and Dr. Doddridge,
on the subject of his 'Gi'ave.' On the 25th
February 1741-2, he addressed a letter to Dr.
Doddridge, the following extract fi-om which con-
tains some interesting information as to the com-
position and publication of his celebrated poem:—
'* About ten months ago," he says, " Lady Frances
Gardiner did me the favour to transmit to me
some manuscript hymns of yours, with which 1
was wonderfully delighted. I wish I could, on
my part, contribute in any measure to yom* enter-
tainment, as yon have sometimes done to mine in
a very high degree. And that I may show how
willing I am to do so, I have desii-ed Dr. Watts
to transmit to you a manuscript poem of mine,
entitled *The Grave,' written, I hope, in a way
not unbecoming my profession as a minister of the
gospel, though the greatest part of it was com-
I>oscd several years before I was clothed with so
sacred a character. I was urged by some fiienda
hei*e, to whom I showed it, to make it public; nor
did I decline it, provided I had tiie approbation oi
Dr. Watts, from whom I have received many
civilities, and for whom I had ever entertained the
highest regard. Yesterday I had a letter fjx)m
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the Doctor, signifying bis approbation of the piece
in a manner most obliging. A great deal less
from him would have done me no small lionoui*.
But at the same time, he mentions to me that he
had offered it to two booksellers of his acquaint-
ance, who, he tells me, did not care to ran the
risk of publishing it. They can scarce think, con-
sidering how critical an age we live in, with re-
spect to such kind of writing, that a person living
three hundred miles from I^ndon could write so
as to be acceptable to the fashionable and polite.
Perhaps it may be so ; though at the same time I
must say, in order to make it more generally liked,
I was obliged sometimes to go cross to my own
inclinations, well knowing that whatever poem is
written upon a serious argument, must, upon that
very account, be undei* peculiar disadvantages;
and, thei*efore, proper arts must be used to make
such a piece go down with a licentious age, whicii
cares for none of those things. I beg pai'don for
breaking in upon moments precious as youi*s, and
hope you will be so kind as to give me your opin-
ion of the poem." The * Grave' was not published
till after the author's death. The first edition of
it was printed at Edinburgh, in 8vo, in 1747.
It '* is unquestionably," says Pinkerton, " the best
])iece of blank verse we have, save those of Milton."
Mr. Blaur died of a fever, February 4, 1746, in
rtie 47th year of his age. He was succeeded at
Athelstancford by Mr. John Home, author of
* Douglas.' By his wife, who sui*vived him for
several years, Mr. Blair had five sons and one
danghtor. The late Robert Blair of Avontoun,
lord president of the court of session, of whom a
notice follows, was his fourth son. An edition
of ^ the Grave, and other poems, to which ai*e pre-
fixed some account of the author's life and obser-
vations on his writings, by Robert Andei'son,
M.D.,' was published at Edinburgh in 1826, 12nio.
BLAIR, Hugh, D.D., an eminent divine and
sermon writer, a great grandson of Robert Blair,
minister of St Andrews, and a descendant of the
Blau-s of Blair, was born at Edinbtu-gh, April 7,
1718. His father, John Blair, cousin to the author
of ^ The Grave,' was at one time a respectable mer-
chant in that city, but afterwards, from impaired
fortune, he held an office in the Excise. Hugh, the
subject of this article, was educated for the church
at the univei-sity of Edinbm-gh, whicli he entered
in October 1730, and spent eleven years in his
studies. In his sixteenth year, while attending
the logic class, an ^ Essay on the Beautiful,' writ-
ten by him in the usual course of academical ex-
ercises, attracted the particular notice of Profes-
sor Stevenson, who appointed it to be read in
public at the conclusion of the session, a mark of
distinction which determined the bent of his genius
to polite literature. About this time, for the more
accurate acquirement of knowledge, he commenced
making regular abstracts of the most important
books which he i-ead, particularly in history ; and,
assisted by some of his fellow-students, he con-
structed a veiy comprehensive scheme of chrono
logical tables, which, devised by him for his own
private use, was afterwards improved, filled up,
and given to the public by his learned relative, Dr
John Blair, prebendary of Westminster, (a notice
of whom is given subsequently) in his valuable
work, 'The Chronology and History of the World.'
In 1739 Dr. Blair took his degi*ee of M. A., and in
October 1741 was licensed to preach by the pres-
bytery of Edinburgh. Soon after the earl of
Leven presented him to the paiish of Collessle in
Fifeshire, to which he was ordained September 23,
1742. In less than ten months thereafter he was
elected second minister of the Canongate Church,
Edinburgh, to which he was inducted July 14,
1743. Here he continued eleven yeai-s. Not-
withstanding an inveterate burr^ which somewhat
impeded his pronunciation, he soon became the
most populai* preacher of his day, from the care
and attention to style which he bestowed on his dis-
coui-ses. In 1745, on the breaking out of the re-
bellion, he preached a sermon, strengly inculcating
the principles of loyalty to the reigning family,
which was afterwards printed. In October 1754 he
was translated by the town council to Lady Tes-
ter's, one of the parish churches of Edlubm*gh. In
June 1757 he received the degree of D.D. from the
university of St. Andrews. In June 1758 he was
promoted to the High Chureh of Edinburgh, at the
request of the lords of session and other distin-
guished persons who officially sat in that church.
Hitherto Dr. Blair had published nothing but
two occasional sermons, some translations in verse
of passages of Scripture for the psalmody of tlie
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cimrcli, and contributed one or two papers, among
which was a review of Dr. Hutchcson's System of
Moral Philosophy, to the first Edinburgh Review,
begun in 1755, two unmbei's only of which were
published. In December 11, 1759, having obtain-
ed tlie sanction of the university, he commenced a
course of lectures on literary composition in the
college, which was so much approved of, that the
town council, the patrons of the university, agreed
in the following summer to institute a rhetoric
class, as a permanent pai*t of their academical
course ; and April 7, 1762, the king was graciously
pleased, on then* recommendation, to erect and
endow a professorship of rhetoric and belles lettres
in the university of Edinburgh, and to appoint Dr.
Blair regius professor thereof, with a salary of
seventy pounds. In 1788, when inci*easing yeara
obliged him to retire from the duties of his cliair,
he published the lectures he lunl delivered; and
they were universally acknowledged to contuin a
most judicious and comprehensive system of rules
for the formation and improvement of stylo in
composition.
His first publication of importance was, *A Criti-
cal Dissertation on the poems of Ossian,' defend-
ing their authenticity, which, published in 1763,
was prodigiously overrated on its first appearance,
being declared " one of the finest pieces of critical
composition in the English language." Dr. Blair
took gi'eat credit to himself for his exertions in
rescuing Ossian^s Poems fix)m oblivion. In a
letter to Bums, the poet, dated May 4, 1787, he
says : " I was the firet pei-son who brought out to
rhe notice of the world the Poems of Ossiau, fii-st,
by the 'Fi'agments of Ancient Poetry' which I
[)ublished, and afterwards by my setting on foot
I the undertaking for collecting and publishing ^ the
Works of Ossian ;' and I have always considered
this as a meritorious action of my life." We are
informed by his biographer, that it was at his
solicitation and that of Home, the author of Doug-
las, that Mr. MTherson was induced to publish
the * Fragments of Ancient Poetry,' and that their
patronage was of essential service in procuring the
subsciiption, which enabled him to make his tour
through the Highlands to collect the ti^aditionary
poetry which bears the name of Ossian's Poems.
The first volume of his famous sermons was
published in the year 1777. " It was not till that
yeai'," says his colleague and biographer, Dr. Fiu-
layson, '^ that he could be induced to favour the
world with a volume of the sermons which had so
long furnished instruction and delight to his own
congregation. But this volume being well re-
ceived, the public approbation encouraged him to
proceed ; tlu*ee other volumes followed at difierent
intervals ; and all of them expeiienced a degree of
success of which few publications can boast. They
circulated rapidly and widely wherever the English
tongue extends; and were soon translated into
almost all the languages of Europe." Soou after
its firet publication, the first volume attracted the
notice of George the Third and his consort ; a
portion of the sermons, it is said, having been first
read to their majesties in the royal closet, by the
eloquent earl of Mansfield ; and the king was so
highly pleased that by a royal mandate to the ex-
chequer in Scotland, dated July 25, 1780, be con-
ferred a pension of two hundred pounds a-year ou
the author, which continued till his death. Bos-
well, in his ^Life of Johnson,' states that Dr.
Blair ti'ansmitted the manuscript of his first volume
of Sermons to Mr. Strahau, the king^s printer in
London, who, after keeping it for some time, wrote
a letter to him discouraging the publication. Mr.
Strahan, however, had sent one of the sermons to
Dr. Johnson for his opinion, and after his letter to
Dr. Blair had been sent off, he received firom
Johnson, on Christmas eve, 1776, a note in which
was the following paragraph : *' I have read over
Dr. Blair's fii*st seimon with more than approba-
tion : to say it is good is to say too little." After
a conversation with Dr. Johnson concerning these
sermons, Mr. Strahan candidly wrote again to Dr.
Blair, enclosing Johnson's note, and agreeing to
purchase the volume, for which he and Mr. Cadell
gave one hundred pounds. ITie sale was so rapid
and extensive, that the publbhei*s made Dr. Blair
a pi*esent of fifty pounds, and afterwai-ds of the
same sum ; thus voluntarily doubling the stipulated
price. For the second volume they gave hiui at
once three hundred pounds; and we believe for
the othera he received six hundred pounds each.
A fifth volume was prepared by him for the press,
and published after his death, in 1801, with ^ A
Short Account of his Life,' by James Finlayson,
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D.l). A larger Life, by Dr. Hill, appeared in
1807. Dr. Blair died at Edinburgh, December
27, 1800. He was heard at times to say that ** he
was left the kst of his contempoi*aries."
His celebrated sermons wre little more than
moral discoaraes, and they never could have at-
tained their popularity, a popularity unprecedented
in the history of theological literature, withont that
high polish of stylo so peculiar to the author.
They are now comparatively neglected. Nor can
wo wonder at this. In his desire for elegant dic-
tion and correctness of language, he was too apt
to lose sight of the illustration of scriptural doc-
trines; and in many instances the tniths of revela-
tion were made to give place to cold and unsatis-
fying moral disqnii^itions. In church politics. Dr.
Blair was attached to the moderate party, bnt he
did not take a prommeut part m ecclesiastical dis-
cussions. From natural diffidence he never conld
be prevailed upon to become moderator of the
(icneral Assembly. He was very fond of reading
novels, and was scrupulously particular as to his
di*ess and appearance. He was likewise rather
vain, and not unsusceptible of flatteiy. One of
the most effective sennons he ever delivered he
composed and preached in 1790, when past his
eightieth year, in behalf of the fund for the benefit
of the sons of the clergy. He had married, in
April 1748, his cousin Catherine, daughter of the
Rev. James Bannatine, one of the ministers of
Edinburgh. Mre. Blair died in 1795 ; by her he
had a son, who died in infancy, and a daughter,
who lived to her twenty- first year. Tlie above is
a portrait of Dr. Blair, taken from one by Kay in
1799.
Dr. Blair^s works are :
The Importance of Religious Knowledge to Mankind; a
Sermon on Isa. xi. 9. 1750, 8vo.
Dissertations concerning the Antiquity, &c., of the Poems
of Ossian, the son of Fin^al, to be found prefixed to the edi-
tion of Ossian's Poems of Fingal, printed 1762, 4to.
Sennons. Edin. 1777-1800, 5 vols. 8vo. To vol v. ir
anneze<l, A Short Account of the Ijfe and Character of the
Author, by J. Finlayson, D.D. Numerous editions.
Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. Lond. 1783, 2
vols. 4to. Numerous editions.
The Compassion and Beneficence of the Deity; a Sermon
preached for the benefit of the sons of the clergy of the esta-
blished Church of Scotland. To which is added, An Account
of the Objects and Constitution of the Society. Edin. 1799,
8vo.
Sermon on the Duties of the Yonng. Edin. 1800, 8vo.
Translated into French, by Lenoir. Par. 1811, 12mo.
Sermons, with a Short Account of liis Life and Character,
by .1. Finlayson. Lond. 1801, 8vo.
Adrice to Youth, containing a Compendium of the Duties
of Human Ufe, in Youth and ^Linhood. 1807.
BLAIR, Robert, of Avontonn, a distingnished
lawyer and judge, fourth son of tiie author of
*Tlie Grave,* and also a great-grandson of the
minister of St. Andrews of the same name, was
born at the manse of Athelstancford in East Lo-
thian in 1741, and educated for the bar. After i-e-
ceiving his elementary education at the High school
of Edinburgh, he entered the university, where,
among others, he commenced a friendship with
Henry Dundas, afterwards I-.ord Melville, which
Insted during their lives. Ho was admitted advo-
cate in 1764 ; and his great talents soon acquired
for him an extensive practice. He eai-ly became
a leading counsel, and had generally for his oppo-
nent in Important cases the Hon. Henry Ei*skine;
he and Mr. Blair being at that time the two most
eminent membera of the Scottish bar. He was
for several years one of the assessors of the city of
Edinburgh, and an advocate-depn.te, and in 17^9
he was appointed solicitor-general for Scotland.
In 1801 he was unanimously elected dean of the
faculty of advocjites. In 1806, on the change of
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ministry, lie was succeeded as 8oIicitor-genei*al by
the late John Clerk, afterwards Lord Eldin. On
this occasion he received a polite apolog}' from the
new minister, stating the necessity he was under
of promoting his own political friends. Far from
beuig out of temper at the change, Mr. Blair
showed his magnanimity by offering his successor
the use of his gown until the latter should get one
prepared for himself. In 1807, on the return of
the Tories to power, he was again offered the soli-
citor-generalship, but he declined both this and the
higher office of lord advocate. In 1808, on the
resignation of Sir Islay Campbell, he was ap-
pointed lord president of the court of session; and
his conduct as judge gave universal satisfaction.
lie did not long enjoy that high office. He died
suddenly, May 20, 1811, aged 68, only a few day?
before his friend Lord Melville, who had come to
Edinburgh to attend his funeral. On returning
from his usual walk on the day of his death, when
the door of his house in George's Square was
opened, he fell into the aims of his servant, and
expired in a few minutes. In an ably written
character of President Blair which appeared in the
Caledonian Mercury, May 23, it is said; — **0f
the fii-st years of his life, or of the conrse of severe
study by which he prepai-cd himself to be what he
became, little is known beyond the circle of his
private friends; but never surely was there ex-
hibited upon the great theatre of public business,
a more profound enidition, gi*eatcr power of dis-
crimination, nor a more stem and invincible recti-
tude, combined with a degree of personal dignity,
that commanded more than respect, even from his
equals. If any one indeed were to be selected
from many great featni'es as peculiarly distinguish-
ing his character, we should ceitainly be apt to
tix upon that innate love of justice, and abhor-
rence of hiiquity, without which, as he himself
emphatically declared, when he took the chair of
the coui-t, all other qualities avail nothing, or rather
they are worse than nothing, a sentiment that
seemed to govern the whole course of his public
duty. In the multiplicity of transactions, to
which the extended commerce of the country
gives rise, cases must occur to illustrate the darker
side of the human chai*acter. Such questions
Bcemcd to call forth nil hu* energy, and they who
heard the great principles of integrity vindicated
and enforced, in a strain of indignant eloquence,
conid scarce re^tist the impression that they beheld,
for a moment, the earthly delegate of Etemnl
Justice. During the short period for which his
lord.ship filled the chair of the court, it seemed to
be his object to settle the law of Scotland upon
gi'eat and permanent foundations. Far from seek-
ing to escape from the decision of points of law.
under an affected delicacy, which he well knew
might be a cloak for ignorance, he anxiously
dwelt upon such questions ; and pointed them out
for discussion that, by means of a deliberate judg-
ment, he might fix a certain rule for the guidance
of future times. With all his knowledge of Uw,
his opinions upon these subjects were formed with
singular caution, and what was at first thrown
out merely as a doubt, was found, upon examina-
tion, to be the result of profound research, ma-
tured by the deepest reflection." In * Peter's I-.et-
tere to his Kinsfolk,' President Blair is thus refer-
red to : " It would appear as if the whole of his
clear and commanding intellect had been fi*amed
and tempered in such a way as to qualify him pe-
culiarly and expressly for being, what the Stagy-
rite has finely called * a living equity ' — one of the
happiest, and perhaps one of the rarest, of all the
combinations of mental powers. By all men of
all parties the merits of this great man also were
alike acknowledged, and his memory is at this
moment alike held in reverence by them all.
Even the keenest of his political opponents (the
late Lord Eldin)— himself one of the greatest law-
yers that Scotland ever has produced — is said to
have contemplated the superior intellect of Blair
with a feeling of respectfulness not much akin to
the common cast of his disposition. After hear-
ing the President overturn, without an effort, in
the course of a few clear and short sentences, a
whole mass of ingenious sophistry, which it had
cost himself much labour to erect, and which ap-
peared to be regarded as insurmountable by all
the rest of his audience, this great barrister is said
to have sat for a few seconds, niminating with
much bitterness on the discomfiture of his cause,
and then to have muttered between his teeth —
* My man 1 God Almighty spared nae pains when
he made yonr brains i' Those that have seen Mr.
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Clerk, and know his peculiarities, nppi*eciate the
value of this compliment, and do not think the
\mss of it because of its coarseness.'^
President Blair was an acconiplistited scholar,
8 lid retained, at an advanced Hge, a keen relish
and fresh remembrance of the beauties of Greek
and Roman literature. As a pleader he was not-
ed for a command of sarcastic wit and raillery ;
but he never left the case to seek fur opportuni-
ties to indulge in this vein, and his wit was always
to the point. He was above the middle size, and
of an erect and portly a.<«pect. His
countenance was a very fine one,
expressive of dignified composure ;
his eye in purticular was full and
penetrating : and on occtisions which
engaged his feelings, it had a slow
turn of emotion that was peculiarly
noble. As a judge he possessed nil
the high qnalifications for discharg-
ing to the best advantage the duties
of President of the Supreme Court
of Justice; — a profound and com-
prehensive knowledge of the law,
tlie 'purest honour and integi'ity,
abilities of the liighct<t class, a sound
and sagacious judgment, uiiweariiMl
patience and assiduity, candour ainl
impartiality that were proof against
every trial, propriety and elevation
of feeling on all subjects, a frank
and liberal and independent tuni of
iiitnd, and a generous contempt of
ever3'thing low or disingenuous ;
these high endowments being gi*aced
and seasoned by an earnest and vivid
elocution, and by a natural dignity
of manner and animated majesty of
countenance, which struck the evildoer with awe,
and gave assurance of the native worth and ener-
gy of the spirit that reigned within. A statue of
I^rd President Blair, by Chantr}-, formerly in the
first division of the court of session, has been re-
moved to the outer house. He married Isabella,
youngest daughter of Colonel Halkett of LaMiill,
Pifeshire, by whom he had one son and three
daughters. His eldest daughter became the wife
of Alexander Maconochie of Meadowbank, ap-
pointed one of the ioixis of session and justiciary
in 1819, resigned in 1813. About twenty yeai-s
previous to his death, the Lord President pur-
chased the small estate of Avontoun near Lin-
lithgow, which continued always to be his favour-
ite residence, and as he took great pleasure in
agricultural improvements, he brought it to the
highest state of cultivation.
The following porti*ait of Lord President Blair
was taken in 1799, and represents him in the act
of pleading .
BLAIR, JoiiN, LL.D., an eminent chronolo-
gist, and descendant of the Rev. Robert Blair of St.
Andrews, falls to be noticed in connection with his
eminent relatives whose lives have now been given.
He was bom at Ediiiburgh where he was edu-
cated. He afterwards went to London, and was
for some time usher of a school in Hedge Lane,
having succeeded his friend and countryman, Mr.
Andrew Henderson, author of a History of the
Rebellion of 1745, in that situation. In 17«Vi ho
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bronght out a valuable and comprehensive work,
entitled 'The Chronology and History of the
World, from the Ci*eation to the Year of Christ
175?, Illustrated in fifty six Tables,* and dedicated
to Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. It was published
by subscription, on account of the great expense
of the plates. In his preface the author acknow-
ledged his great obligations to the earl of Bath,
and announced some chronological dissertations,
in which he proposed to illustrate the disputed
points, to explain the prevailing systems of chron-
ology, and to establish the authorities upon which
some of the particular eras depend. The hint of
this work was, as we have already shown in the
life of his relative, Dr. Hugh Bhiir, taken from the
latter's ingenious scheme of chronological tables.
At this time he seems to have taken orders in the
Chureh of England. In January 1756 he was
elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In Septem-
ber 1757 he was appointed chaplain to the princess
dowager of Wales, and mathematical tutor to the
duke of York. In March 1761, on Dr. Towns-
hend^s promotion to the deanery of Noi-wich, Dr.
Blair's services were rewarded with a prebendal
stall at Westminster. Six days after, the vicai-age
of Hinckley happening to fall vacant. Dr. Blair
was presented to it by the dean and chapter of
AVestminster. The same year he was chosen a
follow of the Antiquarian Society. In September
1763 he attended the duke of York in a tour to
the continent, and returned with him to England
in 1764. In 1768 he published an improved edi-
tion of his Chronological Tables, which he dedi-
cated to the princess of Wales. To this edition
were annexed fourteen maps ; with a dissertation
prefixed, on the Progress of Geography. In
March 1771 he was transferred by presentation
of the dean and chapter of Westminster to the
vicarage of St. Bride's in the city of Ix)ndon,
and again in April 1776, to the rectory of
St, John the Evangelist, Westminster. He was
also rector of Horton in Buckinghamshire. He
died of influenza June 24, 1782. While suffer-
ing under this malady, he received intelligence
of the death of his brother, Captain Blair, in
the preceding April, and the shock is supposed
to hare hastened his own. This able officer,
for his gallant conduct in the Dolphin frigate
in the engagement with the Dutch on the Dog-
ger Bank, August 5, 1781, was promoted to the
command of the Anson, a new ship of 64 guns.
He distinguished himself under Sir George Rod-
ney, in the memorable sea-fight with Count de
Grasse, April 12, 1782, and in this action fell
gloriously in the service of his country. He was
one of the three to whom parliament on this occa-
sion voted a monument. With this brief notice of
Capt. Blair we close the series of the descendants of
the worthy presbyterian divine. Dr. Blair's * Lec-
tures on the Canons of the Old Testament ' were
published after his death. — ChahMri Biog, Dici.
His works nre :
The Chronology and History of the Worid, from the Crea-
tion to the Year of Christy 1758. lUostntted in 56 Tables;
of which fonr are Introdnctory, and contain the Centoiies
prior to the First Olympiad; and each of the remaining fifty-
two, contain, in one expanded view, fifty yean, or half a cen-
tury. Lond. 1756, fol. The same continued to 1761, and
enlarged and improved. Lond. 1768, fol. Continued abo to
the year 1814. Uhistrated in 69 Tables.
Fourteen Maps m{ Ancient and Modem Geography, for the
Illustration of the Tables of Chronology and Hbtoiy. To
which is prefixed, A Dissertation on the Rise and Progress ot
Geography. Lond. 1768, laxge foL
The History of the Rise and Progress of Qeogriphy. Lond
1784, 12mo.
Lectures on the Canons of the Old Testament, ctanprehend-
ing a Dissertation on the Septuagint Version. Lond. 1785, 4U
Agitation of the Waters near Readmg. PhiL Trans. Abr.
X. 651. 1756.
BLAIR, Jamrs, an emiueiit episcopalian divine,
the projector of the uuiveraity of WUliamsbarg iu
Virginia, was bom and edncated in Scotland, but
the date of his birth is not mentioned. Having
entered into holy ordei*s sometime in the reign of
Charles the Second, he was dnly appointed to a
benefice in his native country ; but becoming dis-
couraged in conseqnence of the dislike manifested
by the Scottish people to the establishment of
episcopacy, he resigned his living, and removed to
England. Being introduced to Dr. Compton,
then bishop of London, that prelate prevailed upon
him, in 1685, to go ont to Virginia, as a mission-
aiy, and by his conduct and ministerial labours he
was eminently serviceable in promoting the cause
of religion in that colony. In 1689, he was ap-
pointed by the same prelate his commissary for the
province, the highest office in the churdi there.
Finding that the want of proper seminaiies for the
advancement of religion and learning proved a
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great obstacle to all attempts for the propagation
of the gospel, he formed a design of erecting and
endowing a college at Williamsbnrg, then the cap-
ital of Virginia, for professors and students in
academical learning. With this view he raised a
considerable sum of money bj volantar>' subscrip-
tion ; and in order the more effectually to accom-
plish his object, ho sailed for England in 1693.
The design met the approval of King William and
Queen Mai7 ; and a patent was passed for erect-
ing and endowing a college by the name of ^^ the
college of William and Mary */^ the establishment
of which was aided by an endowment from the
king of two thousand pounds, and twenty thou-
sand acres of land from the royal domain, toge-
ther with a tax of a penny a pound on tobacco
exported from Virginia and Maryland to other
plantations, as the American colonies, now form-
ing the United States, were then called. Of the
new college, Mr. Blair was appointed president,
and enjoyed that office nearly fifty years. He
was also rector of Williamsbnrg, and president
of the council in that colony. lie wrote 'Our
Savionr*s Divine Sermon on the Monnt explained,
and the practice of it recommended, in divers ser-
mons and discourses/ which was published with a
recommendatory preface, by the Rev. Dr. Watcr-
land, in 4 volumes octavo, I^ndon, in 1742. Mr.
Blair die<l in 1743.— CKriMff* Hist of his Own
T^imeMy vol. iii, page 165, octavo edition.
BL.AIR, Patrick, an eminent physician and
botanist, was bom, it is supposed, in Dundee,
where he practised physic and surgery. In the
year 1706, having dissected an elephant belonging
to an exhibition, which had died in that town, he
wrote an account of its anatomy and osteology,
which was published in 1710 in the Philosophical
Transactions, Numbers 326 and 327. Tliis first
made him known as nn anatomist. In a subse-
quent number of the Transactions, he gave a de-
scription of the ossicula audit us, accompanied with
engravings. His account of this dissection was
also published separately in 1711, 4to, with figures.
It contains an accurate description of the probos-
cis and its muscles, and confirms, according to
Haller, the opinion formerly given that the ele-
phant has no gall-bladder. In 1715, when the
rebellion broke out in Scotland, Dr. Blair, being
of well-known Jacobite principles, was for a short
time imprisoned on suspicion. He afterwards re-
moved to London, and acquired considerable repu-
tation by some discourses on the sexes of flowci-8,
which he read before the Royal Society. He also
republished his ^ Anatomy of the Elephant.' In
1718 he brought out a volume of ^ Miscellaneous
Observations on the Practice of Physic, Anatomy,
Surgery and Botany,' in 8vo. In 1720 he pro-
duced the work by which he rendered the greatest
service to botany, being * Botanical Essays,' 8vo,
in two parts, with illustrations ; containing the
* Discourses on the Sexes of Plants,' which he had
read before the Royal Society, much enlarged, and
published at the request of several of its members.
It is divided into five essays. The three first
treat of what is peculiar to plants, and the two
last on what is common to them and animals. He
coufirms the arguments in favour of the sexes of
plants by sound reasoning and several additional
experiments. Some of his notions are now aban-
doned by botanists ; but his work contains infor-
mation which, even at this advanced period of the
science, is considered useful and coirect. Having
removed to Boston, in Lincolnshire, where Dr.
Pulteney conjectures he practised as a physician
during the remainder of his life, he published a
work, entitled ^ Pharmaco-Botanologia, or an Al-
phabetical and Classical Dissertation on all the
British Indigenous and Garden Plants of the New
Dispensatory,' London, 1723-1728. Tliis work,
in which he Introilnced several of the rarer plants
discovered by himself in the vicinity of Boston,
came out in decades, and extends only to the let-
ter H. He wrote various papers for the Philoso-
phical Transactions ; pai-ticularly a * Method of
Discovering the Virtues of Plants by their exter-
nal Structui-e,' and * Observations on the Genera-
tion of Plants.' The time of his death is not
known, but it is supposed to have taken place
soon after 1728. — Pulteney* s Sketc/ies.
BLAIR, Sir James Hunter, Bart., an emi-
nent banker, descended paternally from the
Hunters of Hunterston, in Ayrshire, the second
son of Mr. John Hunter of Brownhill, merchant
in Ayr, was born there February 21, 1741.
In 1756 he was placed as an •apprentice in the
banking-house of Messrs. Coutts, Edinburgh,
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BLAIR.
830
BLANK.
where Sir William Forbes was also a clerk. In
1763, on the death of Mr. John Contts, he and Sir
AVilliam were admitted to a share of the business,
and ultimately became the principal partners. In
December 1770 he married Jane, eldest daughter
of John Blair of Dunskey, in Wigtonshii-e, in right
of whom he acquired, in 1777, the family estate,
when he assumed the name of Blair in addition to
his own. The improvements which he introduced
on the estate of Dunskey were of the most exten-
sive and judicious kind. The writer of his me-
moir in the Edinburgh Mag. for 1794, says, ** He
nearly rebuilt the town of Portpatrick ; he repaired
and greatly improved the harbour; established
packet boats of a larger size on the much fre-
quented passage to Donaghadee in Ireland; and,
lastly, while the farmers in that pait of Scotland
were not veiy well acquainted with the most ap-
proved modes of farming, he set before them a
successful example of the best modes of agricul-
ture, the greatest service, perhaps, which can be
performed by a private man to his country." In
September 1781 he was chosen M.P. for the city
of Edinburgh, and at the general election in 1784
was re-elected ; but he soon resigned his seat in
favour of Sir Adam Jergusson, Baronet. At
Michaelmas 1784 he was elected lord provost of
Edinburgh; and to him that city is indebted for
many improvements, particularly the rebuilding of
the college, and the plan and erection of the South
Bridge, the foundation-stone of which was laid
August 1, 1785. lie was created a baronet in
1786, and died at Harrowgate, July 1, 1787, in
the 47th year of his age. He is buried in the Grey-
friars' churchyai'd, Edinburgh. Hunter Square
and Blair Street, Edinburgh, are called after Sir
James, and a portrait of him in his robes as lord
provost of that city, is given in Kay's Edinburgh
Portraits. He had fourteen children, twelve of
whom survived their infancy. His eldest son, Sir
John, died in 1800, unmarried, when his next
brother, Sir David, succeeded to the title and
estate of Blairquhan in Ayrshire. The third son,
James, lieutenant-colonel of the Ayrshire militia,
inherited the estates of Dunskey and Robertland.
He was for a considerable time M.P. for Wigton-
shire, and died in 1822, when his next sui-viving
brother, Forbes, succeeded to his estates. The
latter became a candidate, on the conservative
interest, for the representation in parliament, of
Edinburgh, in the first election after the passing
of the Reform bill, and died soon after in 1838.
His younger brother, Thomas, an officer in the
army, then became proprietor of Dunskey. Tliis
gentleman was wounded at the battle of Talavera,
where he was made prisoner, and detained in
Fi-ance till the peace in 1814. He was a secoml
time wounded at the battle of AVaterloo in 18L5,
and promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
He subsequently served as brigadier-general in
the Burmese war. Two views of old Dunskey
castle are given In the second volume of Grose's
antiquities of Scotland, accompanied with a brief
description.
Blane, the nrntie of a faunily in tlie county of Ayr, said
to be descended from St Blane, one of the most diitin-
gaiiihed saints in the Scotch Calendar. It is, howerer, more
probably territorial, and derived from lands— of which there
were many in the west of Scotland— bestowed for support of
an establishment, or a place of worsliip, called after hia native
BLANE, Sir Gilbert, of Blanefield. bart., an
eminent physician, the fonitli son of Gilbert Blane,
Esq. of Blanefield, in Ayrshire, an opulent merchant
who had been long settled in London, was bom in
the family mansion in the county of Ayr, Angnsi
29, 1749. One of his brothers, Andrew, had stu-
died for the law, and became a respectable writer
to the signet in Edinburgh. Gilbert was origi-
nally destined for the church, and with that ob-
ject he stndied for five years at the university of
Edinburgh, which he entered at the age of four-
teen ; but in the course of his academical career
his views changed, and he resolved to study med-
icine. He accordingly puraned his medical studies
for five years more, and his character stood so
high among his fellow-students that he was elect-
ed one of the presidents of the Medical Society.
On November 25, 1767, he was admitted a mem-
ber of the Speculative Society, then in its infancy.
The essays he read to the society during the time
that he was a member, were on the following sub-
jects:— ^The Influence of situation on Character;
The comparative faculties of Man and other ani-
mals; Beauty.
After obtaining his degree of doctor of me<li-
cine, he repaired to London, where he spent two
yeai*s longer in study. Being recommended b>
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BLANE,
331
GILBERT.
Dr. Cnllcn to Dr. William Hunter, at tliat time
the most eminent teacher of anatomy in I^ndon,
throngh his influence he was appointed private
physician to the earl of Holdemess. This appoint-
ment inti*oduced him to the notice of many dis-
tinguished individuals, and among others to Ad-
miral Sir George Rodney, afterwards I^rd Rod-
ney, who nominated him his privnte physician, in
which capacity he accompanied him, when, in
1780, he assumed the command of the squadron
in the West Indies. He was present at no less
than six general engagements with that renowned
commander. In tlie course of the first engage-
ment, every officer being either killed, wounded,
or employed, Dr. Blane was intrusted by the ad-
miral with the duty of conveying his orders to the
officers at the gims, and in one of these dangerous
missions he was severely wounded. As a reward
for his services on this occasion, on the recommen-
dation of the admiral, he was, without going
throngh the subordinate grades, appointed at once
physician to the fleet, a situation which he held
till the conclusion of the war in 1783. He was
present at the engagement between the English
ind French fleets, April 12, 1782, when Rodney
gained the celebrated victory over Count De
Grasse, of which he wrote an account. For this
victory Sir George Rodney was created a baix)n of
the United Kingdom, under the title of I^rd Rod-
ney.
While on board the fleet, Dr. Blane kept a reg-
ular account of his discoveries, experience, and
practice in the service, which, with the conclusions
drawn fi-om the returns of the surgeons of the
ships, he published, in 1783, under the title of
'Observations on the Diseases incident to Sea-
men,^ a work several times reprinted, with addi-
tions. On the conclusion of the war, on the unan-
imous recommendation of the Flag officers and
captains of the West India fleet to the board of
admiralty, his majesty conferred on him a pension,
half-pay not being then established.
On settling in I^ndon as a physician, he was,
by the influence of the duke of Clarence, after-
wards William the Fourth, whom he had frc-
qnently met in the West Indies when his royal
highness was serving as a midshipman on board
the Prince George, appointed physician extraordi-
nary to the prince of Wales. Soon after he was
nominated physician to the Household, and in
1785 he was elected physician to St Thomas' Hos-
pital.
On the appointment of Earl Spencer as fii*st
lord of the admiralty, Dr. Blane was nominatinl
one of the commissioners of sick and wounded
sailors, the duties of which important office he
continued to execute till the peace of Amiens,
when a reduction of all the naval establishments
took place. Soon after this his pension was dou-
bled, on a representation of the board of admi-
ralty to the king in council.
In 1786 Dr. Blane was elected a fellow of the
Royal Society, and in 1788 he was chosen to de-
liver the Croouian lecture, when he selected for
his subject, * Muscular Motion.' The lecture was
published in 1791, and reprinted in his * Select
Dissertations,' 1822. He also wrote in the year
1790, for the Transactions of the Royal Society,
volume Ixxx., an essay on the * Nardus Indica,'
or spikenard of the ancients. In 1795 he was
placed at the head of the Nav}' Medical Board ;
and during the time that Earl Spencer remained
in office, with the assistance of that nobleman, he
effected the introduction into every ship, of the
use of lemon juice, as a preventive and cure of
scurvy. This measure has had the beneficial ef-
fect of almost completely eradicating scurvy at sea.
On 'several important occasions. Dr. Blane's
professional opinion was solicited and followed by
government. In conjunction with the king's phy-
sicians and other leading characters, he was called
upon to draw up the regulations on the subject of
quarantine, which formed the basis of the act of
parliament on this head. In the year 1800, his
advice was likewise resorted to on the pi*oper
mode of accommodating the convicts in the hulks
at Woolwich, to prevent the progress of infection.
For the same puipose he officially visited New-
gate by the authority of the secretary of state for
the home department. The army from Egypt
was transported to Britain, in the manner pointed
out by him, at the desire of the secretary for wai
and colonies, to avoid the danger of importing the
plague into this country. The Board of Control
applied for his suggestions, in ameliorating the
regulations of the medical sei*vice in India ; :uid
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BLANE,
382
Gn.BERT.
fc!ie transiwrts carrying the convicts to Botany
Bay were, under his direction, fitted up so as to
lessen the mortality of former voyages, by a fi'ee
ventilation and cleanliness, which he was called
upon to do bj' a warrant from the home secretary.
Daring the scarcity of 1799 and 1800, his opinion
was requested by a committee of the House of
Commons, and to correct the popular prejudices
then entertained, he published a small ti*act on the
subject of forestalling and combination. In the
unfortunate Walcheren expedition in 1809, when
the government were undecided what measures to
adopt, Dr. Blane was despatched to give his opin-
ion as to the troops remaining on the island, and
his report, which was afterwards published, made
with the concurrence of the army physicians, de-
teimined govenmicnt to abandon the expedition.
Besides a liberal remuneration from government,
he received the thanks of the commander-in-chief,
uificially conveyed to him through the war-office.
In consequence of his great merit and public ser-
vices he was created a baronet by patent, dated
December 26, 1812.
In 1805. his private practice having become
very extensive, he resigned his office of physician
to St. Thomas' Hospital ; and in the fourth vol-
ume of the * Ti-ansactions of the Medical and Chi-
rurgical Society' he published an * Exposition of
the prevailing Diseases of the Metropolis,' during
the twenty yeara that he had held that situation.
This paper was reprinted in his ' Select Disserta-
tions.' In 1813 he succeeded Sir Heniy Halford
as president of the Medical and Chirurgical So-
ciety. In 1819 he published his * Elemeuts of Me-
dical I^gic,' in which he gives his ideas respecting
medical education, and certain topics connected
\\ith it. This work has reached several editions.
In 1826 he was elected a member of the Institute
of France. In November 1829, with the sanction
of the lords of the admiralty, he founded a prize
medal for the best jounial kept by the surgeons of
the navy. The medal is awarded every second
year, the Commissioners selecting four journals;
and the president of the college of physicians,
with the pi-esident of the college of surgeons, de-
ciding which of such four is best entitled to this
honorary distinction. In 1830, on the accession
of' King William the Fourth, he was nominated
first physician to his majesty. In 1831 he pub-
\hheil a ^ Waniing to the British public against
the alarming approach of the Indian Cholera.' Sir
Gilbert was a Fellow of the College of Physicians,
and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh as well a.«
of I^ndon, a proprietor of the Royal Institution,
and a meml)er of the Imperial Society of Sciences
at St. Petersburgh. Having been consulted by
the sovereigns of Russia and Prussia^ and the
president of the United States of America, on sub-
jects of public police and national interest, he re-
ceived from the two former gold medals, expres-
sive of their high sense of hi» professional merit,
and from the last a letter of thanks. His latter
years were spent in retirement from professional
laboni*s. He died June 27, 1834, in his 85tli year.
Besides Blanefield in the county of Ayr, Dr.
Blane possessed the estate of Culverlands in Berk-
shire. He had married July 11, 1786, Elizabetli,
only daughter of Abraham Gardner, merchant, by
whom he had six sons and three daughters. Ilia
two eldest sons having predeceased him, he was
succeeded by his third son, Sir Hngli SejTuonr
Blane, who served with distinction at Waterloo,
as an officer of the third guards. One of Sir Gil-
bert's daughters, Louisa, was accidentally drowned
in a piece of water on her uncle's estate at Wink-
field Paik, August 24, 1813, aged 19. His other
daughters died in infancy. Sir Gilbert Blanc's
works are :
A Sliort Account of the most effcctiud Means of prewiring
the Health of Seamen. Lond. 1780, 4to.
Obserx-ntions on the Diseases incident to Seamen. I^ntl
1 785, 8vo. 3d edition, with corrections and additions. 17JW.
8vo.
A I-ccture on Muscular Motion, read at the Uoyal Sodety,
the 13th and the 20th November, 1788. Lond. 1791, 4to.
Elements of Medical Logic, illustrated by practical proofs
and examples. London, 1818.
Account of. a Case in which Death was brought on by a
Haemorrhage from the Liver. Trans. Med. and Chir. n. p.
18, 1800.
On the Kflfcct of the Pure Fixt Alkalies, and of Lime Wa-
ter, in several Complaints, Ibid. p. 132.
History of some C.^ses of Disease in the Brain, with an
Account of the Appearances after Death, and some general
Observations on Complaints of the Head. Ibid. p. 192.
An Account of the Hurricane at Barbadoes on the lOth of
October 1780. Ed. Phil. Trans, i. Part First, 30, 1788.
Facts and Obsenrutions respecting Intennittont Fevcra, and
the F^halatioDs which occasion tliein. Med. Chir. Trans, iil
1. 1812.
Olmervations on the comparative Prevalence, Mortality,
and Treatment of diflercnt Diseases. Ibid. iv. 89. 1813.
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BLANTYRE.
833
BLANTYRE.
Blantykb, Baron, a title in tho peerage of Scotland, pc«-
spssed bj a branch of the illustrioua house of Stuart The
ancestor of this noble family was Sir Thomas Stuart of Minto,
who lived in the beginning of the reign of James the Thurd.
He was the third son of Sir AVilliam Stuart of Dalswinton
and Garlics, progenitor of the earls of Gallowaj [see Galixj-
WAY, earl of]. Ho received from hb father the lands of
Biinto, Sinlaws, and Merbottle in Roxburghshire, of whicli
he had two charters under the great seal, 2d November 1476,
and hy his marriage with Isabel, eldest daughter and oo-hcir
of Walter Stewart of Arthurly, of the Gastlemilk familjr, he
acquired extensive estates in the counties of Lanark and Ren-
frew. He died ui 1500, leaving three sons and three daugh-
ters.
"iSir John, the eldest son, styled of Minto, married Janet
Fleming, of Lord Fleming^s family, by whom he had a son,
named Robert. Sir John had a charter to himself and Janet
bis wife, of the barony of Minto and lands of Busby, which
had belonged to his father, 2dd February, 1502-<8. He was
kiUed at the baUle of Flodden, 9th September, 1513. WU-
liam, the second son, an eminent churchman of his day, was,
whilst dean of Glasgow, 2d October, 1530, appointed high
treasurer of Scotland, and about the same Ume was made
provost of linduden, an ecclesiastical title, under which he
sat in parliament, 26th April 1531. In November of the fol-
lowing year, he was elected bishop of Aberdeen, and in Feb-
mary 1584, akmg with Sir Adam Otterbum of Redhall, his
Miijesty*s advocate, he was sent on an embassy to Engbnd,
to treat of a pacification which was happily concluded. In
1537, he resigned the office of high treasurer, and died 17th
April 1545. [CravforcTs Officers o/Staie, page 878.]
Sir John Stuart's son, Sir Robert Stuart of Minto, married
Janet Murray, of the house of Touchadam and Polmaise. He
Iiad four sons; Sur John, his heir; Walter; Robert, prior of
Wliithom; and Malcolm; and a daughter.
His eldest son. Sir John Stuart of Mmto, assisted at
the coronation of King James tho Sixth in 1567. He was
provost of Gla^ow, and had the command of tho castle of
that town. He married, first, Joanna Hepburn, by whom he
had a son, Matthew, whose male line became extinct in the
person of Sir John Stuart, who died in the expedition to
Darien in 1697; secondly, Margaret, second daughter of
James Stewart of Cardonald, heir to her brother James, and
had a son, Walter, who became first Lord Blantyre, and four
daughters.
Walter Stuart, Sir Julm*s only son by the second marriage,
and the first Lord BUmtyre, was educated, along with King
James the Sixth, under the eye of George Buchanan, and
had the prioiy of Blantyre in Lanarkshire bestowed upon
him by that monarch. Tlie name Bld-an-Ur^ is Gaelic, sig-
nifying * a warm retreat,' descriptive of the whole district of
BUmtyre, now a parish. The priory was founded by Alexan-
der the Second, sometime before 1296, and the ruins still re-
mun. They are situated in a most retired situation, on the
top of a roA, which rises perpendicularly from the Clyde,
exactly opposite the noble ruins of Bothwell Castle. The re-
venues were in 1561, £131 6s. 1\A.
In 1580, Walter Stuart was nominated a * minion,* or gen-
tleman of the king's bed-chamber, on which occasion he was
designed commendator of Blantyre. On 14th November,
1582, he was sworn a privy councillor, whereby he became
one of the lords of the secret council ; he was also constituted
keeper of the privy seal, vacant by the death of Thomas
Buchanan of Ibest ICrawforxTs Officers ofStaie^ page 393.]
The feuing-ont of his Majesty's Unds within the regality of
Glasgow having been committed to his care, he performed this
duty to good purpose. Aocordmg to Spottiswood [Histonfy
page 348.], he was instrumental in procuring the pardon of
Archibald Douglas, titular parson of Glasgow, for having in-
truded himself into the parsonage. On 28th May, 1593, he
was sppointed an extraordinary lord of session, in the room
of Sir Thomas Lyon of Auldbar, and on 12th January, 1596,
he was constituted one of the eight commissioners of the
treasury and exchequer, called from their number Octavians,
to whom King James intrusted the management of his afiairs.
In the distribution of offices which this body made amongst
themselves, be received the office of high treasurer, which was
formally conferred upon him by letters patent, under tho
great seal, dated 6th March, 1596, with a preamble very hon-
ourable to him. [CVot^/brcf, page 395.] On this occasion he
resigned the custody of the privy seal to Lindsay of Balcarres.
In the expediti<m against Kmtyre and Isla, resolved upon
by King James the Sixth in 1596, under the leadership of Sir
William Stewart of Houston, commendator of Pittenweem,
liord Bhuityre, as high treasurer, took an active part Early
in October he was in the west, superintending the progress
made in the preparations for it, and from a letter addresned
by him to the secretary of State, it appears that the sum of
seven thousand meriu were still wsnting to enable the expe-
dition to sail. \^Bdtearres papers^ quoted in Gregortf's His-
tory of ike Highlands and Jsles^ page 268.J Having pur-
chased the barony of Blantyre, on 18th January 1598, he had
a charter of it, as well as of Wrightslands and Cardonald in
Renfrewshire, when he was designated * Walter Lord BUm-
tyre, our treasurer.' On 17th May 1699, he incurred the
displeasure of the king by a decision in a cause between Mr.
Robert Bruce and the ministers of Angus, and besides being
deprived of his offices of treasurer and extraordinary lord oi
session, was committed prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh.
According to Crawford he was soon released and restored to
favour. In 1604, he was nominated one of the commissioners
for a proposed treaty of union with England, and on 10th
January 1606, he was one of the lords of secret council who
assisted, as assessors, at the famous trial of John Welch and
the other five ministers at Linlithgow, for treason, in declin-
ing the jurisdiction of the privy council, and holding a general
assembly, after being charged not to do so, when they were
found guilty, and banished from the kingdom. On 10th July
of the same year (1606) he was created a peer of Scotland,
under the title of Lord BUmtyre. On the trial of George
Sprot, notary in Eyemouth, 12th August, 1608, for conceal-
ment of Earl Cowrie's conspiracy, he formed one of the asses-
sors, and on 13th January, 1610, he was restored to his for-
mer post as an extraordinary lord of session.
I^rd Blantyre died 8th March 1617. He had married
Nicolas, daughter of Sir James Somerville of Cambusnethan,
by whom he had a daughter, Anne, married to John, eighth
Lord Abemethy of Salton, and three sons, William, who suc-
ceeded him; James; and Walter.
William, second Lord Blantyre, married Helen, daughter of
Sir William Scott of Ardross, by whom he had three sons,
viz., Walter, Alexander, and James; and two daughters,
Jean and Margaret, the latter married, in 1645, to John
Swinton of Swinton, and had issue.
The second eon of tho first lord, the Hon. Sir James Stuart,
was named after James the Sixth, who conferred on him the
order of the Bath. Some reproachful words having passed
between him and Sur Geoige Wharton, son of Lord Wharton,
a duel ensued at Islington, 8th Nov. 1609, when both were
killed on the spot, and two days thereafter they were interred
m one grave m Islington churchyard. The letters written
from one to the other previous to the duel are printed in the
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BLANTYRE.
834
BLANTYRE.
Gentleman's Magazine for November 18(H)f from the Harleian
MS. 787, fol. 596. The challenge was sent bj Sir George,
and accepted by Sir James, who thus wrote : *' To that end
1 have sent 3:0a tho length of my rapyer, which I will nse
with a dagger, and so meet yoa at the farther end of Isling-
ton, at three of the docke in the afternoon." He married
Lady Dorothy Uatitings, second daughter of George, fourth
carl of Huntingdon, but had no issue by her.
The Hon. Walter Stuart, the third son of the first lord, nnd
a doctor of medicine, was the father of the celebrated court
beauty, Frances Theresa Stuart, who became Duchess of
Richmond, and of another daughter named Sophia, married
to the Hon. Henry Bulkeley, master of the household to
Charles the Second, and also to his brother James, fourth son
of lliomas, first Viscount Bulkeley. Of the eldest daughter,
the ' la belle Stuart,* of Grammont*s Memoires, King Charles
the Second was supposed to have been desperately enamoured,
aud that he might be at liberty to marry her, he is said to
have entertained the design of getting divorced from his queen.
This scheme, however, was, to his great indignation, rendered
abortive, by Miss Stuart's privately marrying Charles, fourth
Duke of Richmond and I^nnox, a match which is thought to
have been promoted by Lord Clarendon, to prevent the king
c:irrying his intention into effect, llie marriage was publicly
declared in 1667. In the Memoires de Grammont is a fine
portrait of this famous beauty, from an original picture by
Sir Peter liely, of which the following is a woodcut*
Chit ot oomphment to her, Charles ordered her figure to be
perpetuated as Britannia on our copper coins. The youngest
daughter, Sophia, was tho mother of Anne, wife of James,
duke of Berwick, natural son of King James the Second, and
other children.
On the death of William, second Lord Blantm, 29th No-
V(;niber 1638, he was succeeded by his eldest son. Walter,
Uiii-d lord, who married Margaret, daughter of Sir WilUam
Mure of Rowallan, but had uo issue. He died in OUoIwi
1641, when his brother, Alexander, became fourth Lord BUn-
tyre. By his wife, Margaret, daughter of John Shaw of
Greenock, he had a daughter, Helen, married to James Muir-
head of Bredishohu, and a son. Alexander, who sacoeeded
him as fifth lord.
The fifth ]x>rd Blantyre was very zealous for the revoJutioiu
He raised a regiment to support King William, from wboni
he received a pension. At the meeting of the convention, 9tli
June 1702, his lordship was one of the seceding members who
protested against its legality, and was by them sent up to
London, with an address to Queen Anne, containing the rea-
sons of their proccdtuv. This her majetity refused to reoeire,
but allowed Lord Blantyre to wait upon her. Hb lordsliip
took the oaths and bis seat in the Scottish parliament Vlth
July 1703, the day the act of security was discussed. Rar-
ing given utterance to some intemperate and undutiful expres-
sions, in presence of her m:ijesty*s advootte, agauist the high
commissioner, a compkunt was exhibited against him by the
I^rd Advocate, and he was in consequence placed in custody
by order of the Lord High Constable. On the 13th Augmi
a petition from his lordship was read, entreating the commis-
sioner and the estates of parliament to accept of his submis-
sion and most humble acknowledgments of the expresaons oi
whidi he had been guilty. On the petition being read, bf
was ordered to the bar of the house, to the end that he might
there, kneeling, beg pardon of the commissioner and tU
estates for his said offence, pay a fine of five thousand pounds,
and continue in custody until the fine be paid, or a vdid bond
be given for the payment thereof. (>n being brought to the
bar accordingly, the Ixml CbanoeUor decUred that the Com-
missioner was pleased to dispense with his making bis
acknowledgments on his knees, to which the estates agreed.
His lordship gave obedience to the rest of the sentence, sod
thereupon was dismissed from the bar, and allowed to take
his place. He died 20th June 1704. Macky describes hioi
as a little active man, very low in stature, shortsighted, fair
complexioned, towards fifty years old. {^Maciys Memoin, p.
282.] He was twice married, first to Maigaret, eldest
daughter of Sir John Henderson of Fordel, in Fife, baronet,
without issue, and, secondly, to Anne, daughter of Sir Robert
Hamilton, Lord Prcssmennan, sister of John, second lord
Belhaven, and by her he had five sons, Walter, and Rotert,
who both succeeded to the title; John, an advocate; Jaiiies
who died at sea; and Hugh; and four daughters.
The eldest son, Walter, sixth Ix>rd Blantyre, was bom Ut
j February 1683. He took the oaths and his seat in the Soots
parliament 5th August 1704, and strenuously opposed the
miion, adhering to all the protests against it. At tlie general
election in 1710 he was chosen one of the representatives ot
the Scottish peerage. He died at London, 23d June 1713.
His brother, Robert, seventh Lord Blantyre, was a captain
in the army, and fort major of Fort St Philip in Minorca.
I when the title devolved upon him. He died at Lennoxlove,
a seat of the family in Haddingtonshire, 17tli November 1743.
He married, first. Lady Helen Lyon, eldest daughter of John,
fourth eari of Strathmore, by whom he had a son, who died
young; secondly, Margaret, daughter of the Hon. William
Hay of Drummelzier, brother of the first marquis of Tweed-
dale, and by her he had six sons; Walter, William, Alexander,
who all succeeded to the title; John, died unmarried; James,
captain in the third regiment of foot guards, with the rank of
lieutenant-colonel in the army, killed at the battle of Goiki-
ford, in North Carolina, 15th March, 1781; and Charles, in
the dvil service of the Hon. East India company, a membrr
of the Supreme Council of Bengal, particularly mentioned in
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BOECE,
385
HECTOR.
Dironi*8 narrative of the campaign in India, 1792, «£ gi>'ing
efBciencT to the measures of Lord ComwiUlis iu his campaign
against Tippoo; and four daughters.
Walter, eighth Lord BlantjrOf resided much on the conti-
nent, and died unmarried at Paris 2l8t Majr 1751, in the
25th rear of his age. Contemporary accounts represent him
as a Tonng nobleman of great promise, accomplished manners,
and amiable character, and in the Scots Magazine for 1751
are two poedcal tributes to his memory.
His next brother, William, ninth Lord Blant^rc, was a
eolonel in the service of the states of Holland. He died, un-
married, at Rrskine, lOth January 1776.
Alexander, tenth I^rd Blantyre, on succeeding to the title,
went to reside at Endcine house, in Renfrewshire, the priiid-
pa] seat of the family. ** He had,** says the author of the
Old Statistical Account of that parish (vol. xiz. page 68),
**fbr a nnnnber of years before that time, been engaged in a
conise of practical farming in East Lothian, in consequence
of which he had not only acqmred an accurate and extensive
knowledge of the general principles of agricultui^, but was
able to descend into detail, and to direct and oversee every
minute operation." He died at Cliilon, 5th November, 1788.
He had married Catherine, eldest daughter and heiress of
Patrick Lindsay of Eaglescaimie, Haddingtonshire, an ancient
brunch of the noble family of Haly burton, and had a daugh-
ter, bom 26th December 1775, married, 5th October 1809, to
Kev. Dr. Andrew Stewart, minister of Bolton, and four sons,
riz., Robert Walter, who succeeded to the title; Patrick,
who inherited Eaglescaimie, lieutenant-colonel of the 19th
regiment of foot; William, captain in the 1st regiment of
foot-guards, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, who served
in the expedition to Holland in 1799 ; and Charies, barrister-
at-law.
Robert Walter, eleventh Lord Blantyre, was bora 10th
June 1777, and at the age of eighteen entered the amiy, hav-
ing obtained an ensign's commission in the dd regiment of
foot-guards in 1795. He was afterwards captain in the dlst
regiment of foot, and became lieutenant-colonel of the 42d.
He rose to the rank of lieutenant-general, and was a compa-
nion of the Bath. He served in Holland in 1799, in Egypt m
1801, as aid-de-camp to General Stuart, in the expedition to
Pomerania and Zealand in 1807, and with Lord Wellington
in Spain and Portugal in 1809. At the general election of
1806, he was chosen one of the sixteen representatives of the
Scottish peerage. He was for some time lord-lieutenant of
Kenfrewshirc. After having escaped the dangers of many a
bloody battle-field, his lordship was accidentally shot by a
musket ball when looking from the window of his hotel dur-
ing the commotions at Brussels, 22d September, 1830. He
married Frances, second daughter of the Hon. John Rodney,
grand-daughter of the celebrated Admunl Ix>rd Rodney, by
whom he bad six sons and five daughters. His eldest son.
Alexander, died young in 1814, and he was succeeded by liis
second son, Charies Walter, twelfth Lord Blantyre, bora 21st
December 1818. He was a lieutenant in the Grenadier
Guards. He married, 4th October, 1843, Lady Evelyn Leve-
ion-Gower, second daughter of the Duke of Sutherland, and
has issue a son, Hon. Walter Stuart, bom at En^kine House
in 1851, and sc^'end daughters.
BOECE, BOEIS, BOYCE, or BOETHIUS,
Hector, a celebrated historian, was born at Dun-
dee about 1465, or, as other accounts say, 1470.
He was descended from an ancient family, who
had possessed the barony of Paiibride, or Balbride,
in Foifai'shire, since the reign of David the Second.
From the place of his bii*th ho had the appellation
of Deidonanus, being so styled in the edition of his
histoiy published by Ferrcrius. After receiving
the rudiments of his education in his native town,
and studying for some time at Aberdeen, he went
to the univei-sity of Paris, where he took the de-
gree of bachelor of divinity. Having applied
himself to the study of divinity, philosophy, and
history, he >vas in 1497 appointed professor of
philosophy in the college of Montagu in that nui-
versity. Amongst other eminent persons with
whom he there became acquainted was Erasmus,
who maintained a con*espoudcnce with him, and
who, in one of his epistles, styles him *^ a man of
an extraordinary happy genius, and uf great elo-
quence."
On the erection, in 1600, of King's College,
Aberdeen, by William Elphinstone, bishop of the
diocese, Boece was by that prelate invited back to
Scotland, and appointed principal of the new uni-
versity, in which he was also professor of divinity.
His sub- principal, William Hay, also a native of
Forfarshii*e, and his fellow-student at Dundee and
Paris, succeeded him as head of the college. His
brother, Arthur Boece, chancellor of the cathedral
of Brecliin, was appointed professor of canon law,
and June 22d, 1535, became a judge of the court
of session. His talents and high reputation tend-
ed very much to the prosperity and success of the
institution. Besides being principal of the college,
Boece was a canon of Aberdeen, and i-ector of Ty-
rie, in the same county. On the death of Bishop
Elphinstone, in 1514, Boece wrote his life in La-
tin, with those of his predecessors in the see of
Aberdeen. This work, published, under the title
of * Episcopornm Murthlacensium et Aberdonen-
sium,* at Paris in 4to in 1522, has been reprint-
ed by the Bannatyne Club. Muithlack in Banff-
shire was originally the seat of the bishops, before
it was removed to Aberdeen ; which accounts for
the title of the work. He next wrote, also in La-
tin, his more celebrated work, the History oi
Scotland, introduced by a copious geographical
description of the country. This work first ap-
peared at Paris in 1526, under the title of * Scoto-
rum Historia ab illius Gcntis Originc.' The first
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BOECE.
SS6
BOGUE.
edition contained seventeen books, and ended
with the death of James the First. Another edi-
tion, containing the eighteenth book, and part of
the nineteen til, bringing tlie Iiistory down to the
reign of James the Tliird, was pnblished in 1574
by Joannes Ferrerius, a Piedraontese, who had
i-esided several yeara in Scotland, and who added
an appendix of thirty-five pages. It was printed
at Lansanne, and published at Pai'is. Boece's
History was translated into the Scotch language
for the benefit of James the Fifth, by John Bel-
lenden, archdeacon of Moray, as already stated in
the life of that author. A metrical version of it,
containing about seventy thousand lines, done by
some one whose name has not been ascertained, is
pi-eserved in the librai^ of the univereity of Cam-
bridge. In 1527 James the Fifth bestowed npon
Boece a pension of fifty pounds Scots yearly, to
be paid by the sheriff of Aberdeen out of the royal
casualties, until the king should promote him to a
benefice of a hundred merks Scots of yearly value.
This benefice was the i-ectoiy of Tyrie, which he
held till his death. In 1528 Boece took the de-
gree of D.D. at Aberdeen ; and we learn from the
Burgh nRecoi*ds of that city, under date 5th Sep-
tember of that year, that on this occasion the ma-
gistrates voted him a present of a tun of wine
when the new wines should arrive, or the sum of
twenty pounds Scots, " to help to by him bonatis,
quhilk of thame he thinkis maist expedient, at his
a win plesour. And the said couusail to convein
this day efternowne, in the prowest innis, to se
and devise quhar this mony sal be esiast gotten."
[Extract from Council Register of Aberdeen pub-
Ushedfor the Spalding Club, 1898—1570, p. 121.]
Boece died at Aberdeen, it is supposed, about
the year 1536, aged about seventy, and was bur-
ied in the chapel of the college, near to the tomb
of Bishop Elphinstone. In the front of the chapel
is his coat of anus, with 'H. B. ob. 1536/ His
History of Scotland, considering the age in which
he wrote, is remarkable for its elegance and pu-
rity of style, but his credulity and fondness for the
niar\ellous detract greatly from its value, and de-
prive him of all title to be considered an authority.
He adopted, without inquiry, and without even
seeming to have any doubt of their authenticity,
the fables of the monastic chroniclers that pi*cced-
ed him, as well as the no less absurd fictions and
traditions of his own age. Some writers accuse
him of having Invented many details in the earlier
part of his history ; but from this charge of fabri-
cation he has been vindicated by Mr. Maitland,
in his biographical introduction to Bellendcn's
translation. It is enough that he has to bear the
imputation of having been the great stumbling-
block to a tinithful history of his own times, for
his falsehoods, after having been once and again
disproved, come up again fresh, as if uncontradict-
ed, to garnish the tales of the novelist, the tale-
writer, and the would-be historian. In his pri-
vate character Boece is described as having been
discreet, generous, affable, and courteous.
Boece's works are •
Vit» Episcoporum Murtblaoensium et AbenJonenshiin
Paris, 1522, 4to. He begins at Beanus the first bishop, and
ends with Gawin Dunbar. Reprinted for the Bannat}'De
Club. Edinburgh, 1825, 4to.
Scotorura Historis a prima gentis origine. Libri xviL per
Jodocnm Badinm, Asoensium. Paris, 1526, fol. Sootoroo.
Historiao. Libri xix. cum oontiiiuatione Johannis Ferreri Fe
demontaiii. Paris, 1574, fol. A rare edition, llie same.
Paris, 1575, 1577, fuL In Eng. by B. Hollinshed. Lond.
1587, foL The same translaatit laltljr by Maister Johne Bel-
lenden, Archedene of Murray, Channon of Rosso; at the com-
mand of the richt hie richt ezoellant and noble I'rinoe James
V. of that name, King of Scottis; and imprinted in Edin-
burgh, be Thomas Davidson, without date, fol. ; again 1536,
1541, this translation is contained in 17 books, and made
from the first edit, of Hector Boethius, at Paris, 1526, fol.
Explicatio quorundara vocabuloram ad cognitionem dialec-
tices conducensium, et introductio ad logicen Aristotelis.
Toleti, 1616, 4U).
BoouB, BoAQ, and Booo, varieties of a surname common
in the south of Scotland. From its similarity, as used in the
most ancient families, to the old French name De Bogue, it is
probably of French or Norman origin. The word Bogue, io
old Norman-French and Spanish, signifies a mouth (Bocca),
and is used in Spanish topography to desTibe a narrow chan-
nel or passage of water, as Bogtte ChitOy (little mouth,) in
Ix)uisiana. It is met with also in the names of a few places
in Scotland, but all in the province of Moray; as iii the old
residence of Bog o* Gight, now Gordon Castle, near the new
or small mouth of the Spey, and which may be the same as
Bogue Chito, even when pronounced in modem Spanish; |l
Boat-of-Bog, the vilUge of the old fenry at the above mouth
or channel of the Spey; and perliaps the wat^ of Bogie itself,
which is not so much a river as a mouth, channel, or passage,
by which tlie two streamlets Craig and Corchinnan, after a
short course, reach the Devcron. It would almost appear
from this nomenclature as if, when Malcolm IV. dru^-e out
the ancient inhabitants of Moray, and introduced a new
colony in their stead, that these latter were natives ci
Toulouse or of the neighbourhood of the Pyrenees, where the
Spanish tongue was spoken; a circumstance the loss unlikely,
as it was for having served under Henry II. at Toulouse, and
in defence of that people against the king of France^ that tb«
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BOGUE.
837
BORTHWTCK.
kloravians profesaed to baive rebelled agninst him. llie word
ocean in English in disemboguej to discharge by a month.
Embogu^ the opposite of this latter word, is naed as a noon in
an old writer (Florian, in 1618) in a sense so rimilar to bog
— which originally implied not a soft mud bat a body, and
ifUimes a large body, of water, tnthoui m (mtiet^uB to sug-
gest its being the original of the latter term. The subject
of the following notice is the only individual who has obtained
a place in Biography, but the name is common in old writings:
BOGUE, David, the Rev., one of the fathers
and founders of the London Missionary Society,
was bom at Hallydown, parish of Coldingham,
Berwickshire, February 18, 1750. He was the
fourth son of John Bogne, laird of Hallydown, and
Margaret Swanston, his wife. He commenced his
classical education at the school of Eyemouth, and
afterwards studied for the church at the univer-
sity of Edinburgh, and in due time was licensed
as a preacher of the gospel. In 1771 he went to
London, and was for some time employed as usher
in an academy at Edmonton; afterwards in the
same capacity at Hampstead, and ultimately went
to the Rev. Mr. Smith's at Camberwell, whom he
assisted also in his ministerial duties. He subse-
quently became minister of an Independent chapel
at Gosport. In 1780, besides his clerical charge,
he undertook the duties of tutor to an institution
in that town, for the education of young men des-
tined for the ministry, in connection with the In-
dependent communion. At the same time, he
originated the design of a grand missionary scheme,
which afterwards led to the formation of the Lon-
don Missionary Society. Soon after he took an
active part in the establishment of the British and
I Foreign Bible Society, and the Religious Tract
Society. To the latter body he contributed the
first of a scries of very useful publications. In
1796, he and the Rev. Greviile Ewing of Glas-
gow, and the Rev. William Innes of Edinburgh,
who, like himself, had left the Church of Scotland
and become Independent ministers, agreed with
Robert Haldane, E^q. of Airthrie, who sold his
estate to furnish funds for the purpose, to go out
to India to preach the gospel to the natives. The
East India Company, however, refused their sanc-
tion to the undertaking, and the design was in
consequence abandoned ; providentially for them,
as a massacre of Europeans afterwards took place
at the exact spot which had been fixed upon for
the missionary station, where a seminary was to
I.
have been built for the education of missionaries
In 1815 the Senatus Academicus of Yale college.
North America, conferred upon him the degree ol
D.D. Dr. Bogue was in the practice of making
an annual tour to the country in behalf of the
Missionary Society. In one of these journeys, in
which he had been requested to assist at a meet-
ing of the Sussex Auxiliary Society, he became
unwell at the house of the Rev. Mr. Goulty of
Brighton; and after a short illness, died there,
October 25, 1825, in the 75th year of his age. At
the time of his death he was president of the sem-
inary of missions at Gosport. He was an emi-
nently amiable, energetic, and pious man, and
contributed much towards a revival of religious
feeling In the age and body with which he was
connected. His history of Dissenters is written
with considerable feeling of dislike to the perse-
cuting party, as he called them. It is mentioned,
and it is creditable to him, that before his death
he expressed regret for the harsh manner in which
he wrote respecting some members of the English
church. His works are :
Reasons for seeking a Repeal of the Test Acts, bj a Dis*
rienter. London, 1790, 8vo.
An Essay on the Divine Authority of the New TestMment,
written at the request of the London Missionary Society.
liOndon, 1801, 8vo. This work has been translated into the
French, Italian, German, and Spanish languages.
A Catechism for the use of all the Churches in the French
Empire; from the French. London, 1807, 12mo.
A Sermon preached before the Promoters of the Protestant
Dissenters, Grammar School, Mill-hill. Hendon, 1808.
Discourses on the Millennium.
History of the Dissenters, from the Revolution in 1689, to
the year 1808 ; in conjunction with Mr. Bennet 1809, 3
vols. 8vo. Lond. 1812, 4 vols. 8vo. Another edition, 1883.
Sermons by the Rev. Dr. Grasomer ; with a PrefHce. 1809.
On the 6rst appearance of the Evangelical Magazine in 1793,
Dr. Bogue contributed several powerful articles to its columns.
BoxAE, a surname. See Supplemknt.
BoRTHWicK, Baron, a title, at present dormant, in the
peerage of Scotland, formerly possessed by a family of that
name in the county of Edinburgh. Douglas is of opinion that
the surname is local, assumed " from lands <fr that name on
Bortbwick water, in the county of Selkiiic'* The name of
the water of B»rthwick, like that of most streams in Scotland,
is of immemorial antiquity, and like the similar one of Bor-
thoc in Forfarsiiire, is also of British Celtic origin. It is
said, but on no reliable authority, that the ancestor of the
noble house of Borthwick was one Andreas, a son of the lord
of Burtick in Livonia, who accompanied Edgar Atheling
And his two sisters, Margaret, afterwards wife of Malcolm
Canmore, and Christina, to Scotland in 1067, and obtain-
ing possession of some lands in this country, settled here
V
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BORTHWTCK.
338
BORTHWICK.
His poeteritjf accordingly, with some small alteration in the
spelling, are stated to have assmned the surname of Borth-
wick, fipom the birthplace of their progenitor. The territorial
origin of the name is, however, by far the more probable one.
In the reign of King David the Second, Thomas de Borth-
wick obtained, probably by excambion, or exchange with his
patriiAony of Borthwick, some lands near Lauder in Berwick-
shire, from Robert Lauder of Quarrelwood, and in that of
King Robert the Second, Sir William Borthwick was posses-
sor of the lands of Catkune in Edinburghshire, as appears by
a charter dated in 1378. These lands he called Borthwick
after his own name. On the estate of Harvieston in the
parish of Borthwick are the ruins of a very ancient castle,
known by the name of the old castle of Catkune, which are
traditionally assigned as the seat of the family before it be-
came possessed of the domain of Locherworth. Previous to
their assumption of the title of Borthwick of that Ilk, they
were promiscuously designed as of Catkune, Legertwood, and
Herriot-muir.
During the fifteenth and followmg centuries, the lords of
Borthwick had immense possessions and great influence in
that portion of Edinbtughshire which now forms the parish
of Borthwick, a district &med for its romantic scenery.
The first Lord Borthwick was Sir William Borthwick of
Borthwick, in the reign of James the First ; but previous to
him there seems to have been two persons of the name of Sir
William Borthwick, occupiers of the castle of Catkune. A
Sir William de Borthwick is repeatedly mentioned by Rymer
m his Foedera, vols. 8 and 9; and Douglas (Peerage^ App.
vol. ii. page 65 L) enumerates several grants of Und, charters,
Rnd public appointments held by a personage of this name.
About 1887 Su* William de Borthwick witnessed a charter of
James, second eari of Douglas and Mar, of the barony of
Drumlanrig. In the reign of King Robert the Third, William
de Borthwick obtained, from Margaret, countess of Mar and
Angus, a charter of the lands of Ludniche and Wester Drum-
canachy in the barony of Kirriemuir, Forfarshire. In Octo-
ber and November 1898 Sir William of Borthwic was one of
the commisdoners on the part of the duke of Rothesay, to con-
clude a treaty for a truce and the liberation of prisoners, with
commissioners on the part of John, duke of Lancaster, at
Haudenstank and Glochmjibaneslane. William Borthewyk,
chivaler, was a conunissioner to treat with the English 2l8t
December 1400, and had a letter of safe conduct as such into
England, 26th April 1401. On 24th August 1404, WilUam
de Borthwick, miles, was a commissioner to treat with the
English, and again 8th March and 27th August 1405. On
the 21st of September the same year William de Borthwick,
miles, was one of the hostages fur the earl of Douglas, who
had been taken prisoner at the battle of Homildon. On 27th
April 1409, a safe conduct was granted to William de Borth-
wick de Lidgertwood, knight, as a commissioner from Scot-
land to England ; and William do Borthwik, miles, was one
of the commissioners to treat with the English, 2l8t April
1410. Robert^ duke of Albany, granted a charter, dated 4th
June of that year, * dilecto nostro Willielmo de Borthwick,
militi,* of the knds of Borthwic and Thoftcotys in Selkirk-
shuB, on the resignation of Robert Scott, (probably a seoond
ezcambion by which he resumed the andent patrimony of the
family). On 23d May and 24th September 1411, and 7th
August 1413, Sir William de Borthwick was a Commissioner
for treating with the English. William, dominus de Borth-
wick, in the year 1421, was one of the hostages for the return
of James the First, when it was proposed that his Majesty
should visit Scotland, 31st May of that year, on his parole.
A safiB conduct was gmnted to Wilham de Borthwic de eodem,
miles, to proceed to Enghind as a commissioner to treat fu
the release of Jamek the Fint, 12th May 1423, and to Wil-
liam de Borthwick, dominus de Heriot, to repair to that
kingdom to meet his miyesty, 13th February 1424. WiDiel-
mus Borthwick ejusdam, miles, was one of the jnxj on the
trial of Murdoch, duke of Albany, in May 1425.
Sir William Borthwick, father of the first Lord Borthwick,
besides his son, had two daughters ; Janet, married, fint, to
James Douglas, Lord Dalkeith, and secondly to George
Crichton, earl of Caithness. The seoond daughter became
the wifiB of Sir John Oliphant
The son appears to have been created Lord Borthwick be-
fore 1430, — it is supposed in 1424, — for in October of the
former year, at the baptism of the twin sons of James thA
First, several knights wefe created, and among the rest Wil-
liam, son and heir of Lord Borthwick. In the records there
is no pat«nt found constituting this peerage. The first L(»d
Borthwick was one of the substituted hostages for the ran-
som of King James the First. He was sent to England 16th
July 1425, and remained there till 9th July 1427, when an
order was issued for his liberation, he being then in the cus-
tody of the bishop of Durham. By a charter under the great
seal, of date June 2, 1430, he obtained a license from James
the Fust, to build a castle on the spot called the Mote of
Lochwarret or Locherworth, which he had bought from Sir
William Hay. In the description of Borthwick parish in the
new Statistical Account of Scotland [vol. L p. 162] it is
stated that the family of Hay, afterwards of Yester, ancestor
of the Marquises of Tweeddale, were at that time occupiers of
the domain of Locherworth. The Borthwicks and the Hayi
appear to have thus been neighbours, and there is a tradition
relating to the old castle of Catkune, that in consequence of
the then possessor of it, of the Borthwick family, having mar-
ried a lady of the fSunily of Hay, the Hays consented to part
with a portion of their property to the knight of Catkune.
Another version of the tradition is, that the lady bebnged to
the house of Douglas. Lord Borthwick erected a stately
castle on the spot indicated, and, under the name of Borth-
wick castle, it became the chief residence of the family, ^vuig
its name to the parish in which it is situated. " Like many
other baronial residences in Scotland, he built this magnifi-
cent pile upon the very verge of his own property. The usual
reason for choosing such a situation was hinted by a northern
baron, to whom a fnend objected this circumstance as a de-
fect, at least an inconvenience: * We'll brizz yont* (Anglic^
press forward,] was the baron's answer; which expressed the
policy of the powerful in settling their residence upon the ex-
tremity of their domains, as giAnng pretext and opportunity
for nmking acquisitions at the expense of their neigbboar&
William de Hay, from whom Sir William Borthwick had ac-
quired a part of Locherworth, is said to have looked with
envy upon the splendid castle of his neighbour, and to have
vented his spleen by building a mill upon the hmds of little
Locherworth, inunediately beneath the knoll on which the
fortress was situated, declaring that the lord of Borthwick, m
all his pride, should never be out of the hearing of the dack
of his neighbour's mill. The mill, accordingly, still exists, as
a property independent of the castle." [^h'<mmcial AntiqmtkMy
p. 200.] The first Lord Borthwick died before 1458. He
seems to have been cupbearer to William St. Clair, eari and
prince of Orkney, founder of RoeUn chapel, who maintained
his court at Roslin cattle with regal nuignifioenoe. In an
aisle of the old church of Borthwick may still be seen two
monumental statues, in a recumbent posture, of this lord
Borthwick and hb lady. His lordship is in full armour,
while his lady, a beautiful female figure, with a gentle and
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handflome cast of features, appears dressed in the foil robes
of her time. He left two sons; William, his snooessor, and
John de Borthwick, who acquired the lands of Crookston, in
1446.
William, second Lord Borthwick, was, in 1425, in the life-
time of his father, and under the appellation of WiUidmos de
Borthwick, junior, ambassador, with the bishops of Aberdeen
and DunbUne, and seven others, to the court of Rome. He
had a safe conduct as a oommisnoner to treat with the Eng-
lish, 13th Julj 1459, and on Ist September that jear he con-
cluded a treaty with them at Newcastle. On 24th September
1461, he bad a safe conduct as an ambassador to England,
and on 5th December 1463, he had another. He seems to
have died about 1464. He had a daughter, Margaret, mar-
ried to Sir John Maxwell of Calderwood, and three sons,
William, third Lord Borthwick; Sur Thomas Borthwick of
Coljlaw, and James Borthwick of Glengelt.
His son, William, third Lord Borthwick, sat in parliament
9th October 1466, and 14th October 1467, and in several
subsequent parliaments, down to 1505. He had a safe con-
duct as ambassador to England 7th August 1471, and again
an 24th August 1478. Sir William of Borthwic, knight, his
son, appears as defender in an action of debt, 4th Jul/ 1476,
when judgment was given against him. Lord Borthwick
was one of the lords of article pro baronibus, in the parlia-
ment that sat down at Edinburgh 4th October 1479. Wil-
liam, Lord Borthwick, and Sir William of Borthwidc, knight,
his son and hmr, had a judgment in their favour 16th October
of that year, and of the same date Sir William of Borthwick,
knight, is sole defender in a civil suit. On 20th September
1434, Lord Borthwick was one of the guarantees of a treaty
with Eni^d, {^FtBdera xiL p. 241,] and on SOth September
1497, and 12th July 1499, he was one of the conservators of
a treaty with the same power. [Ibid. pp. 676 and 726.]
The ihbd Lord Borthwick was slain at the battle of Flodden,
9th September 1513. He married Maryota de Hope Pringle,
or Hoppringill, as it was spelled in those days, and with
several daughters, had two sons, William, his successor, and
Alexander Borthwick of Nenthom.
William, fourth Lord Borthwick, immediately after the
I battle of Flodden, was appointed by the oouncU of the king-
dom to the command of the castle of Stiriing, which was
ordered to be well fortified, with the important charge of the
mfant monarch, James the Fifth. He set his seal to the
treaty with England 7th October 1517. IThid. xiiL p. 600.]
The fourth lord died in 1542. He had married in 1491,
Maigaret, eldest daughter of John, Lord Hay of Yeeter, by
whom, besides two daughters, he had two sons, the master of
Borthwick, who died in the lifetime of his father, and John,
fifth lord.
John, fifth Lord Borthwick, opposed the Reformation in
1560, saying that he would believe as his fathers bad done
before hun. He assisted the queen regent agamst the Lords
of the Congregation, and died in 1565. He married Lady
Isabel Lindsay, eldest daughter of David, seventh earl of
Crawford, by whom he had a son, William, sixth Ix)rd Borth-
wick, and a daughter, Mariota, married to Andrew Hop^
Pringle of Galashiels. Notwithstanding his attachment to
the * ancient religion,* his servants, in 1547, were guilfy of an
insult to a church officer, which one would scarcely have ex-
pected would have been committed at Borthwick castle,
'ilie incident, whimsical enough in its way, is thus related by
Sir Walter Soott, who has published his authority in an ex-
tract from the Conastory Register of St Andrews : ** In con-
sequenoA of a process betwixt Master George Hay de Minzeans
and the Lord Borthwick letteis of excommunication had
passed against the latter, on account of the contumacy of
certain witnesses^ William Langlands, an apparitor or maoer
[baadarmi] of the see of St Andrews, presented these letters
to the curate of the church of Borthwick, requiring him to
publish the same at the service of high mass. It seems that
the inhabitants of the castle were at this time engaged in the
favourite sport of enacting the Abbot of Unreason, a spedef
of kiffhjinkt, in which a mimic preUte was elected, who, like
the lord of Misrule in England, turned all sort of lawibl
authority, and partioulariy the church ritual, into ridicule.
This frolicsome person, with his retinue, notwithstanding of
the apparitor's character, entered the church, seised upon the
primate's officer without heatation, and dragging him to the
mUl-dam, <m the south side of the castle, compelled him to
lei4> into the water. Not contented with this partial immer-
sion, the Abbot of Unreason pronounced that Mr. WlUiam
Langlands was not yet sufficiently bathed, and therefore
caused his assistants to lay him on hb back in the stream,
and duck him in the most satis&ctoiy and perfect manner.
The unfortunate apparitor was then conducted back to the
church, where, for his refreshment after his bath, the letters
of excommunication were torn to pieces, and steeped in a
bowl of wine; the mock abbot being probably of opinion that
a tough parchment was but dry eating. Langlands was com-
pelled to eat the letters, and swallow the wine, with the com-
fortable assurance, that if any more such letters should arrive
during the continuance of his office, they should * a* gang the
same gait* **
William, sixth Lord Borthwick, was a steady friend of
Queen Mary. That ill-fated princess occasionally visited the
castle of Borthwick, and at last took refuge in it with Both-
well, when they were nearly surprised by the party of Mur-
ray and Morton. Bothwell escaped before their arrival, and
Mary fled, two days afterwards, in men's apparel
Lord Borthwick married Grizel, eldest daughter of Sir
Walter Scott of Branxholm, ancestor of the duke of Buccleuch,
by whom be had two sons, William, master of Borthwick, who
died before his father, and James, seventh Lord Borth-
wick. On 15th January 1579-^, Lady Borthirick and
her two sisters were made, at the same time, the subjects
of legal prosecution by the dominant party, on account of
alleged gross irregularity of lifio and manners. As none of
these charges were established, notwithstanding the predo-
minance and spite of the prosecuting party, it is possible they
were intended merely to excite the popular odium against
Lord Borthwick and the ladies of his family as supporters of
the queen. But it is a sad picture of the state of Scotland at
the time, whether we can suppose the accusations to be true
or false. [See PUccdnCt Criminal Trials^ vol. L part iL pp.
83 and 34.]
James, seventh Lord Borthwick, married Margaret Hay,
eldest daughter of William, Lord Hay of Yester. December
23, 1595, he was charged, witb sundry other persons, " under
deidly feud" with the lairds of CraigmiUar and Bass, to ap-
pear before the King and Council *at Haliruidhous;' and
'that they keip thair ludgeingis eftir thiur cuming, quhill
(till) thay be speciallie sent for,' &c. At his apprehension
for not obeying this order, there seems to have been a riot, for
on 15th January following, John Halden, dagmaker, and
others, were ordered to be denounced rebels, for not answer-
ing ^tuiching the riot committit be thame laitlie, aganis the
Provost and Bailleis of the Buigh of Edinbui^h, in thair con-
voy and taking to warde of James, Lord Borthuik.' [Ibid.
pp. 352 and 353.] July 30, 1603, Marion WanUaw, spouse
of John Kennedy, gauntlet-maker in Edinburgh, was dilated
of ' airt, pairt, red and counsall of the murder committit be
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DAVID.
Williame Boirthuik, tutor of Boirthoikf Johne Boirthuik his
brother, and utheris, thair complices, in cuming to James
Fnunmis* dwelling-house in the Gannogait, under scylence of
Djcht, and strykeing of him nyne straikis in the body and
held, to the effusion of his body, and levand him for deid.**
IJbid, pp. 862, 853.]
The seventh lord was succeeded by his son, John, eighth
Lord Borthwick, who married Lady Lilias Kerr, fifth daughter
of Mark, first earl of Lothian, by whom, besides a daughter,
he had a son, John, ninth Lord Borthwick, bom 9th February
1616. He adhered firmly to the royal cause during all the
time of the dril war. After the battle of Dunbar Borthwick
castle held out against Cromwell until artillery were opened
upon it; but seeing no appearance of relief, Lord Borthwick
surrendered on honourable terms, namely, liberty to march
out with his lady and family unmolested, and fifteen days
allowed to remove his effects. He married, 2dd August 1649,
Lady Elizabeth Kerr, second daughter of William, third earl
of Lothian, but died without issue in 1672.
From that period till 1762, the title remained dormant In
1727, Heniy Borthwick, descendant and heir male of Alex-
ander Borthwick of Nenthom, second son of the third Lord
Borthwick, was served heir male in general of WilUam, the
first lord Borthwick, and in 1734, he voted as Lord Borth-
wick at the election of a representative peer, and continued
to do so at all the subsequent elections till 14 th December
1761, when the House of Lords made an order on him and
on several others who had assumed dormant peerages, not to
take on them their titles until the same should be allowed in
due course of law.
The above-mentioned Henry Borthwick obtained the title
in 1762, by decision of the House of Lords, and was the tenth
Lord Borthwick. He married at Edinburgh 5th March
1770, Margaret, daughter of George Drummond of Broich,
in Stirlingshire* but died, without issue, at Newcastle, on
his way to London, 6th September 1772, when the title again
became dormant, and so remains. At the time of his death
his heir male, Archibald Borthwick, was in Norway. In
1807 his claim to the title, which was before the House of
Lords, was opposed by John Borthwick, Esq., of Crookston,
as descended through nine generations in a direct male line,
from John de Borthwick of Crookston, second son of the
first Lord Borthwick. Mr Borthwick of Crookston aoquii^
the property of Borthwick castle by purchase. He married,
in 1787, Grizel, eldest daughter of George Adinston, Esq.
of Carcant, and left, at his decease, a son and successor,
John Borthwick, Esq. of Crookston and Borthwick castle.
Various proceedings have taken place in the case before the
House of Lords, but as yet there has been no decision.
James Borthwick of Stow, a cadet of the Crookston family,
practised as a physician in Edinburgh, and deserves notice as
having caused the disjunction of the corporation of surgeons from
that of the barbers, which previously formed one corporation.
A view of Borthwick castle is given in Grose^s Antiquities
of Scotland, and in Billings* Baronial and Ecclesiastical
Antiquities, vol i. It consists principally of a vast square
tower, with square and round bastions at equal distances
from its base. The walls are tlurteen feet thick near the
bottom, and towards the top are gradually contracted to
about six feet. Besides the sunk story, they are, firom the
ii4jacent area to the battlement, ninety feet high, and if the
roof is included, the whole height will be about one hundred
and ten feet. The great hall is forty feet long, and so high
m the roof that, says Nisbet, "a man on horseback might
turn a spear in it with all the ease imaginable." The follow-
ing is h woodcut of this once magnificent stnicture'
The roaster-gunner of James the Fourth was named
Robert Borthwick, and seven great cannons, cast by him,
called the seven sisters, were taken out of the castle of Edin-
bui^h to the fatal field of Flodden. Of this peraon, Balfour,
in his Annals, [vol. i. p. 232,] under the year 1509, has the
following notice: **Tbis zeire, the king entertained one
Robert Borthwick, quho foundit and caste maney pices at
brasse ordinance of all sisses, in Edinburgh castle, all of them
having this inscriptione: ^Machina sum Scoto Borthwick
fabricata Roberto.* "
Among those persecuted by Cardinal Bethune, on account
of their adopting the principles of the Reformation, was Sir
John Borthwick, who was cited before the eodesiasdcal court
at St Andrews in 1540 for heresy. Thirteen charges were
preferred against him, but in particular that be had disperaed
heretical books. Sir John fled to England, and not appear-
ing in court when called, the charges against him were held
as confessed. He was condemned on the 28th May to be
burnt as a heretic ; his goods were confiscated, his effigy was
burnt in the market-place of St Andrews, and all men were
inhibited from harbouring or protecting him. Sir John was
graciously received by Henry the Eighth, and sent by him
on a mission to the Protestant princes of Germany, to con-
cert a confederacy between them, in defence of the refonned
religion.
BORTHWICK, David, of I^hhiii, a learned
lawyer and judge, was lord advocate of Scotland
in the reign of James the Sixth, before which time
he was usually designated ** Mr. David Borthwick
of Auldistoue.^* He was one of the nine advocates
selected by the court of session, on the first March
1549, to plead " befoir thamc in all actions and
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THOMAb.
caused.*' Id 1552 he was made a member of the
public commission appointed to treat with the
English commissioners on border aflfaira. In the
Bargh Records of Aberdeen we find the following
entry under date 17th August, 1562: '^The said
day, the prowest, baillies, and counsell oitlanis
Patre Menzes, thesaurar, to send Maister Danid
Borthuilc, procuratonr for the toun in the caase of
varandi» mowit aganis thame be William Forbes,
to defend the said mater, sax pound Scottis."
lExtractsfram Burgh Records of Aberdeen, 1398
—1570, printed for the Spalding Oub, p. 846.]
In June 1564 he was counsel for the magistrates
and town-council of Edinburgh in a prosecution
against them, and in May 1567, as counsel for the
earl of Bothwell, he took instruments of Queen
Mary*s pardon and forgiveness of him and his ac-
complices for her abduction to Dunbar, which her
najesty pronounced in court on the 12th of that
month. In 1578, Borthwick became, with Crich-
ton of Elliock, father of the admirable Crichton,
joint king's advocate, when, as was then custom-
ary, he took his seat as a lord of session. He ap-
pears to have been the first who bore the title of
" I^rd Advocate." The salary of this functionar}-
at that period was forty pounds Scots yearly, and
that of a lord of session amounted to about the
same sum, considered a good deal of money in
those days. Borthwick died in January 1581.
He bad acquired estates in the counties of Ber-
wick, Haddington, and Fife, in which, before his
death, be bad infeft his son James, whose extra-
vagance and improvidence caused some of them to
be sold even in bis father's lifetime. This circum-
stance induced the old gentleman, on his death-
bed, to exclaim bitterly, " What shall I say ? I
give him to the devil that doth get a fool, and
maketh not a fool of him," a saying that became
proverbial, as David Borthwick's testament. —
Haig and BnmUnCs Senators of College of Justice,
BOSTON, Thomas, a learned theological wri-
ter, author of the ' Fourfold State,' the youngest
of seven sons of a small landed proprietor in the
neighbourhood of Dunse, was bom in that town
March 17, 1676. His father being confined in the
prison of Dunse for nonconformity, when he was
a little boy, took him with him into the prison to
keep him company, an incident which left a deep
impression on his mind. He received the usual
elements of education at the grammar school of
his native place, and in 1692 went to the uni-
versity of Edinburgh, where he attended the usual
course for three years, and entered on the study of
divinity. In 1696 he taught a school at Glen-
cairn ; and was then appointed tutor to Andrew
Fletcher of Aberlady, a boy nine years of age, but
was enabled to attend the divinity class at the uni-
versity of Edinburgh. He aftei*wards accompa-
nied his pupil to the house of Colonel Bruce of
Kennet in Clackmannanshire, who had married
the boy's mother, where he remained for about a
year. In June 1697 he was licensed to preach by
the presbytery of Dunse and Chimside ; and in
September 1699 he was ordained to the living of
Simprin, one of the smallest charges in Scotland,
not containing in his time above ninety examina-
ble persons. It is now united to the parish of
Swinton. In 1700 he married Catherine Brown
of Culross, whom, in his memoirs of himself, he
describes as ** a woman of great worth ; a stately,
beautiful, and comely personage ; of bright natu-
ral pai*ts ; an uncommon stock of prudence, and
of a quick and lively apprehension, and remarka-
bly useful to the country side, through her skill in
surgery." About this time he first became ac-
quainted with a book which proved of much ser-
vice to him, and afterwards occasioned a long and
important controversy in the Church of Scotland,
entitled * The Marrow of Modem Divinity,' writ-
ten by Edwaid Fisher, M.A., Oxford, 1627. It
had been brought into his parish from England by
one of his parishioners, who had been a soldier in
the civil wars. He was a member of the first
Oeneral Assembly held under Queen Anne in
March 1703, which was suddenly dissolved by the
commissioner, the earl of Seafield, while discuss-
ing an overture for preventing the marriage of
protestants with papists. In May 1707 he was
translated to Ettrick, then one of the wildest par-
ishes in the south of Scotland, where he remained
till his death.
On the occasion of the imposition of the abjura-
tion oath, 1712, he was one of those ministers of
the Church of Scotland who refused to take it
This oath was originally proposed by the leaders
of the presbyterian party to be inserted in a bill
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THOMAS.
granting toleration to episcopalian worship in
Scotland, in the expectation that by refasing to
take it the indolgence to the episcopalian clergy,
who were all Jacobites, would be nullified ; but
by the counter policy of the court party, it was
extended to, and made obligatory on, presbyterian
ministers lilcewise. Their conscientious objec-
tions, however, were not to the oath itself, but to
a clause in it recognising the act of succession,
which provided that the successors to the crown
of Great Britain should be of the communion of
the Church of England— a recognition which they
deemed inconsistent with their principles. To
provide against the worst, Boston made over to
his eldest son a house in Dunsc, which he had in-
herited fi-om his father, and assigned all his other
goods to his precentor, John Currie, so that he
might elude the penalty of five hundred pounds
sterling, which was attached to the refusal to take
the oath within a certain specified time ; but the
penalty was never demanded. Having devoted
much of his attention to the study of the Hebrew
accents, which he was persuaded are the key to
the true version of the Hebrew text, he wrote an
* Essay on the Hebrew Accentuation,' which was
not published till 1738, when it was brought out
at Amsterdam under the care of the learned David
Mill, professor of oriental languages in the univer-
sity of Utrecht. His ' Human Nature in its Four-
fold State' was at first brought out in 1720 under
the auspices of Mr. Robert Wightman, treasurer
to the city of Edinburgh, who prefixed a preface,
and added many of his own emendations; but
these Mr. Boston could not agree to, and they
were omitted in the second edition. Mr. Boston
died May 20, 1732, in the 67th year of his age.
His works have had a wide circulation, particu-
larly his * Fourfold State.' They were collected
into a large folio volume in 1768 ; and in 1773 his
*Body of Divinity,' 8 vols. 8vo, was published
from his manuscripts. The most remarkable of
his posthumous pieces is the * Memoirs of his
Life, Time, and Writings,' written by himself, and
published in one closely printed 8vo volume in
1776. He was survived by his wife, and by two
sons and two daughters, whose descendants still
remain near Ettrick.
Mr. Boston's works are .
Hamim Nature in its Fourfold State: Of Primitive Inte-
grity submsting in the Parents of Mankind in Paradise: En-
tire Depravation subsisting in the Unregenerate : Begun Re-
covery subsisting in the Regenerate: and consummate Hap-
piness or Misery subsisting in all Mankind m the Future
State. In several Practical Discourses. First published,
1720. Numerous editions since. New edition, revised bj
the Rev. Michael Boston, the Author's grandson. FaBdric,
1784, 8vo.
Collection of Sermons. Edin. 1720.
Tractatns Stigmologicus Hebraw-Bihliciis. Cum Prefa-
tione D. MilliL Amst 1788, 4to. On Hebrew Accent* A
very learned production.
Sermons and Discourses. Edin. 1753, 2 vols. 8vo.
A View of the Covenant of Works, from the Sacred Re
cords. Edin. 1772, 12mo.
The Distinguishing Character of True Believers, in 17 Dis-
courses. Edin. 1773, 12mo.
Body of Divinity. 1773, 8 vols. 8vo.
Ten Fast Sermons. 1778, 8vo.
Four Sermons on Sacramental Occasions. 1773, 8vo.
An Illustration of the Doctrines of the Christian Religion,
with respect to Faith and Practice. In Sermons. Edin.
1773, 8 vols. 8va
The Christian Life delineated, in the principal tinier
thereof, both as to its rise and progress. In 2 Disoonraw*
Edin. 1776, 2 vols. 12mo.
A View of this and the other Worid. In 8 Disconiwi
Edin. 1775, 8vo.
Ten Sermons, chiefly relating to the Grounds of the Lord's
Controversy with this Generation.
Sermons on the Method of Recovery from the Rums of the
Fall, by Jesus Christ
Sermon on the Sovereignty and Wisdom of God in the
Afflictions of Men, displayed. To which are added. Sermons
on the Nature of Churoh Communion. Berw. 1785, 12ma
This collection contains the well-known Sermon, entitled,
The Crook in the Lot.
Memoirs of his life. Time, and Writings, divided mto 12
periods Written by himself. Edin. 1776, 8vo.
BOSTON, Thomas, one of the founders of the
Relief church, the youngest son of the preceding,
was bom April 8, 1713. He seems to have been
very early bronght under the influence of religions
impressions, and having made choice of the min-
istry, he pursued bis studies at the university of
Edinburgh. He was only nineteen years of age
when his father died, and though his course of
theological study was not completed, so great were
his attainments, and such was the desire of all
parties that he should succeed his father in the
parish of Ettrick, that he was licensed to preach
the gospel, earlier than the laws of the church al-
lowed. His gifts as a preacher, we are told, soon
won for him a distinguished reputation. Mr.
Bogue of Gosport, who often heard him, when he
was in his prime, declared that, next to White-
field, Thomas Boston was the most commanding
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BOSTON,
343
THOMAS.
preacher he had ever heard. From Ettrick, he
was, after several years, translated to Oxnam, a
few mileB from Jedbargb. Mr. Boston entei'-
tained strongly his fatber^s sentiments as respects
some features of the national establishment, being
opposed to patronage and a friend of free commn-
uion, and even in the height of his popularity he
planned a secession from the Church of Scotland
different from that which had taken place under
the Erskines. On this account he was obnoxious
to the ruling party, and in 1751 a competing call
to Dundee in his favour was rejected as informal,
the magistrates, with whom the patix>nage rested,
having named another candidate. In 1755, a
vacancy took place in the church of Jedburgh,
and the people were anxious for Mr. Boston to be
their minister. The church, however, was in the
patronage of the Crown, and a presentation was
granted in favour of Mr. John Bonar, minister at
Cockpen ; but so great was the opposition to his
settlement that, on the case being earned to the
Assembly, the Lord Advocate deemed it wise to
depart from the presentation. Mr. Douglas of
Kenmore, who was still more unpopular, was next
presented to the vacant charge, and as the Assem-
bly of May 1757 peremptorily ordered his settle-
ment to be proceeded with, it was resolved, on the
part of the townspeople, to separate from the
established church, and have the minister of their
choice. They, therefore, sent Mr. Boston a call
to be their minister, which he accepted of, and in
the short space of six months, a place of worship
was built for him in the town of Jedburgh. At
the meeting of the established presbytery in that
town, on the 7th December 1757, he formally de-
mitted bis charge of Oxnam, giving his reasons
for taking this step, and two days thereafter he
was inducted into the new church built for him at
Jedburgh, when at least two thousand people were
present : on which occasion the bells were rung,
and the magistrates and council, in their robes of
o£Sce, walked in procession to the meeting-house.
His admission was performed by Mr. Roderick
Mackenzie, an Independent minister from Eng-
land, who was shortly to accept a charge in the
same way, at Nigg in Ross-shii'e. After his in-
duction Mr. Boston preached to crowded audien-
ces, and persons from a great distance formed a
considerable portion of his congi-egation. At his
first dispensation of the sacrament, the concourse
of people was veiy great. It took place in the
open air on a little holm called the Ana, on the
banks of the Jed, and close by the town of Jed-
burgh. The scene was august and most impres-
sive. A touching incident marked his second dis-
pensation of the Lord's Supper. He had invited
to assist him Mr. Tliomas Gillespie of Dunferm-
line, who, in 1752, when minister of Camock, had
been deposed for not obeying an order of the Gen-
eral Assembly to attend at the induction of an un-
popular minister to the chui-ch of Inverkeithiug.
" Mr. Gillespie," says Dr. Struthers, in his History
of the Relief Church, "acceded to his request.
It was not so easy travelling then as now between
Dunfermline and Jedburgh. On Saturday he did
not arrive ; on Sabbath moniing he was not come.
Boston went to the church, where the sacrament
was to be dispensed by him, alone. A whole
day's services were before him ; and taking stran-
gers along with his own congregation, (aged per-
sons report that) 1,800 would at times communi-
cate with him. During the morning prayer, Mr.
Boston heard the pulpit door open, and a foot
come gently in behind him. It was then the cns-
tom for the assistant minister to go to the pulpit
during the action sermon. He could scarcely be
deceived as to his visitant. His prayer was speed-
ily drawn to a close. Turning round — it wets Mr.
Gillespie, In the face of the whole congregation,
whose feelings were wound up to the highest pitch
of excitement, he gave him a most cordial wel-
come. From this time forward they followed
joint measures for promoting the liberty of the
Christian people, and a£fbrding relief to oppressed
parishes, though they did not constitute them-
selves into a regular presbytery till three years
afterwards." It was on the 22d October, 1761,
at Colingsburgh in Fife, that Messrs. Boston and
Gillespie, with the Rev. Mr. Collier of Colings^
burgh, and representative elders from the three
churches of Jedburgh, Dunfermline, and Colings-
burgh, formed themselves into a presbytery for
the relief of Christians oppressed in their Christ-
ian privileges. The Relief church gradually ex-
tended throughout Scotland till 1847, when it was
united to the Secession church, and both together
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BOSWELL.
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BOSWELL.
now form the United Presbyterian Synod. Mr.
Boston died in 1767. He was the antlior of a
volume of essays, two of which were published by
his son after bis death, as well as of some well-
written prefaces to religions reprints. — Siruthers^
History of the Relief Church.
BoswELL, originally BowHIa, or Botvile, a snmaine of French
extraction which is found in Enghmd from the time of the
Conquest, when it was introdooed by Sieor de Bosvillef who
came over with the Conqueror, and had a considerable oom-
mand at the battle of Hastings. It is derived hi Sootknd
from a branch of the English Bosviles, who settled in North
Britain in the reign of David the First, and soon spread into
diflferent parts of the country. No connection can be traced
betwixt this name and that of St Bosweirs, a parish m Rox-
burghshire, for it is ascertained that that place took its name
from a monk of Mebose, called Boisel, a disciple of St. Cnth-
bert, who is said to have founded the church of the parish, and
died many centuries before the BosviUes arrived in ScoUand.
Robert Bosville, the ancestor of the Boswells of Balmuto,
in Fife, appears to have been much about the court of King
William the Lion. In a charter of that monarch to William
Hay of Enrol in 1188 he is a witness, as he is in another char-
ter of the same prince confirming a donation to the religious at
Coldstream, in or before 1200. His name also appears in
many other charters of the same king. He was proprietor of
the lands of Oxmuir and others in Berwickshire, which were
afterwards called BosweU*s lands, from his name. This Ro-
I>ort Bosville wait the father of Adam de Bosville de Oxmuir,
ftc, who is mentioned in an obligation of Philip de Lochore,
the 21st year of the r<sign of King Alexander the Second
(1235). His son and successor, Roger de Bosville, got a
charter of the lands of Oxmuir from that monarch. Roger^s
son, William de Bosville of Oxmuir, Ac., was witness in a
donation to the monastery of Soltray by Bernard de Houden,
in the reign of King Alexander tiie Third. In 1292 this
William de Bosville was compelled, with other Scottish barons,
to submit to Edward the First of England, when he overran
Soothmd with his armies, and m 1296 he was agam forced to
swear fealty to the English king. His son, Richard Bosville
of Oxmuir, besides his estate in Berwickshire, was proprietor
of other lands near Ardrossan in Ayrshire, as i^ypears by a
charter under the great seal from King Robert the Bruce,
about 1820. He left two sons, William and Roger. William,
the eldest, the last of the Boswells of Oxmuir, is mentioned
as a witness in charters of donatioo to the monastery of Kelso
in 1880, and again in 1845. In a donation to the monastery
of Diybuigh, William de Bosville, designed * aldermanus de
Roxbuigh,* is a witness, m 1888.
Roger de Boswdl, second son of Richard of Oxmuir, was
the first of the name who settled in Fife. In the banning
of the reign of King David Bruce, he married Mariota, daugh-
ter and oo-heiress of Sir William Lochore of that ilk, knight,
with whom he got the half of the barony of Auchterderran in
that oounty. His son, John de Boswell, succeeded him in all
his Unds. In 1865 he obtained a safe conduct to Enghmd,
from ICng Edward the Third, and returned the fbUowing
year. John de Boswell married Margaret, daughter of Sir
Robert Melville of Caimbee. His son, Sir William Boswell,
was one of the judges in a perambulation of the lands of
Kirkness and Lochore. He married Elizabeth, daughter and
heiress of Alexander Gordon, brother of Umphryd Jordan of
Appicgirth, with whom he got some lands in the constabu-
lary of Kmghom. His son, Su- John Boswell, the first de-
signed of Balgregie, obtained the barony of Balmuto, m the
beginning of the fifteenth oentuiy, by his marriage with
Mariota, daughter and oo-heiress of Sir John Glen, to whom
it had previously belonged.
This Sir John Boswell, the firnt of Balmuto, died before
1480, and was succeeded by his son, David, who married first,
Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Melville of Raith, by whom,
besides six daughters, he had two sons, David, his heir, and
Robert, parson of Auchterderran, a man of great piety and
learning, who lived to the advanced age of a hundred yeari
David, the &ther, took, for his second wife, Isabel, daughter
of Sir Thomas Wemyss of Ru«s, relict of David Hay of
Naugfaton, by whom he had a daughter, Isabel, married in
1488 to Thomas Lundin, junior, of that ilk.
David, the elder son, had a charter under the great seal
from King James the Second, of his father's lands of Glas-
mont, in Fife, dated 4th November 1458, after which he was
designed of Glaamont as long as be Uved. He was twice mar-
ried. By his first wife, Grizel, daughter of Sir John Wemyss
of that ilk, he had two sons and two daughters. David, the
elder son, predeceased his father. Alexander, who was after-
wards knighted, succeeded to the estate of Bahnnto. By his
second wife, Lady Margaret Sinclair, daughter of William,
eari of Orkney and Caithness, whom he married in 1480, he
had five sons, of whom Thomas, the eldest, was the progeni-
tor of the Boswells of Auchinleck, in Ayrshire.
Sir Alexander Boswell of Balmuto, the surviving son by
the first marriage, was in great favour with King James the
Fourth, whom he accompanied to the fatal field of Floddea
together with his brother, Thomas Boswell of Auchinleck
and were both left with their royal master among the shun.
His eldest son, David Boswell of Balmuto, was held in
great estimation by King James the Fifth, Qneeo Maiy, and
King James the Sixth, fi:om all of whom he had several
friendly and familiar letters. He was engaged in most of the
public transactions of his time, and died, 8th May, 1582, id
the 84th year of his age. He married Elizabeth, dan^ter ol
Sir John Moncrieff of that ilk, by whom he had ten sons and
ten daughters. George, his ninth son, was chirurgeon to
King James the Sixth. His youngest son was parson of
Auchterderran, and wrote a genealogical histoiy of the fiunily
of Balmuto.
David, his eldest son, designed of Glaamont, was killed, in
the lifetime of his father, with his brother Robert, at the bat-
tle of Pinkie in 1547, leaving, by his wife, Elizabeth, dangh-
ter of Sur David Wemyss of that ilk, an infant son. Sir John
Boswell, who succeeded his grandfather, and married Eliza-
beth, daughter of Sir James Sandilands of St Monanoe. Sb
John had four sons and ten daughters, and died in 1610, in the
64th year of his age. He is described as a man of exoeUeDt
parts and a great favourite with James the Sixth, finm whom
he had many firiendly letters. By one of these it appears that
he had lent his migesty one thousand merks, a little befbrr
the arrival of his queen from Denmark; a favour which is
acknowledged in a kind letter from the king to Bahnnto,
dated at FalUand, 2d September, 1589. At the baptism of
Prince Henry in 1594 the honour of knighthood was oonfened
on him and on his eldest son by the king. Besides several
baronies of lands bestowed on his younger sons, and consider-
able portions given to his daughters, on their maniage, he left
a good estate to his eldest son, Sir John BoewelL The Utt^
married Janet, daughter of Sir James Soott of Balweaiy, am*
had seven sons and six daughters. Robert Boswell, his fii\t?
son. a miyor of horse in the service of King Chaiks the Fhst
was killed at the battle of Worcester m 1651.
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BOSWELL,
345
JAMES.
Darid BoeweU of Balmuto, Yob eldest son, soooeeded, before
the jear 1640. He married Nicholas, daughter of Sir Peter
Young of Seaton, afterwards of Anldbar, eleemosiiuuy to King
James the Sixth, bj whom he had fiye sons and seren dangh-
ters. His eldest son, David, was soooeeded, soon after 1667,
bj his son. also named David. The eldest son of the latter,
Andrew Boswell of Balmuto, by his extravagance, found him-
self under the neoeeutj of dispodng of the estate of Balmuto,
•nd, aocordmglj, in 1722, he sold it to his kinsman, John
BoeweU, second son of David Boswell of Anchinleck, reserv-
ing to hunself and his heirs the coal and all below ground,
sach as mines, minerals, Ac. His son, David, representative
of the BoeweHs of Babnulo, enjojed no part of the estate,
except the coal, &c.
The estate of Auchinleck, in Ayrshire, was bestowed by
Jsunes the Fourth on Thomas Boswell, eldest son of David
Boswell of Balnmto, by Lady Margaret Sinclair, as above-
mentioned, he being held in high estimation by that monarch.
He was shitn at Flodden, 9th September, 1613. By his
wife, Annabella, daughter of ^ Hu^ Campbell of Loudoun,
he had an only son, David Boswell of Auchinleck. The latter
married Lady Janet Hamilton, daughter of James, first earl
of Arran, progenitor of the dukes of Hamilton, and was suc-
ceeded by his son, John, who was twice married, first, to
Christian, daughter of Sir Robert Dalzell of Glenae, progeni-
tor of the earls of Oamwath, and by her he had three sons,
James, his hdr; John or Mungo, who received from his &ther
the lands of Duncansmuir, and was progenitor of the Bos-
wells of Craigston; and Robert; secondly to a daughter of
the lord Stewart of Ochiltree, by whom he had a son, William,
who obtained the estate of Knockroon.
July 2, 3, and 4, 1600, James Boswell, fiar or younger of
Auchinleck, and several other persons, were indicted for abid-
ing from the Raid of Dumfries, (»rdained to have convened
with Archibald, eari of Angus, in the previous September. A
variety of procedure took place in this and other similar
cases, when some of the parties were fined, others dischaiged,
&c James Boswell of Auchinleck was one of the prolocu-
tors, or counsel, for John Mure of Auchindrane, when put on
his trial for the slaughter of Su: Thomas Kennedy of Cuhean,
June 24, 1602.
James Boswell of Auchinleck, eldest son of John, married
Marion Crawford, a daughter of the ancient family of Kerse,
and had six sons and several daughters. His three youngest
sons entered the service of Gustavus Adolphus, and after fight-
ing in his wars settled in Sweden, where their pesterity still
exists. He died in 1618, and was succeeded by his eldest
son, David Boswell of Auchmleck, who married Isabel,
daughter of & John Wallace of Caimhill, by whom he had
four daughters. David was a fruthful adherent of Charles the
First, and was fined in the sum of ten thousand raerics for
refusing to take the covenant. He died m 1661, having set-
tled his estate on his nephew David, son of his next brother,
James Boswell, by his wife, a daughter of Sir James Cunning-
hame of Glengamock. His son, David Boswell of Auchin-
leck, the successor to his uncle, married Anne, daughter of
James Hamilton of Dalsiell, by whom, besides three daugh-
ters, he had James his heir, and Robert, a writer in Edin-
bm^h, who, by great diligence in lus profession, acquued a
handsome fortune, and purchased the estate of Balmuto in
Fife, from his kinsman, Andrew Boswell, as above mentioned.
The son of this Robert, Claud Irvine Boswell, succeeded to
the estate of Bahnnto. He was bora in 1742, and being
educated for tiie bar, passed advocate, 2d August, 1766. In
1780 he was appointed sheriff-depute of Fife and Kinross,
and in 1798 he became a lord-of-session, under the title of
Lord Bahnnto. He resigned his seat on the bench in Janu-
ary 1822, and died suddenly 22d July 1824. He had mar-
ried, in 1783, Miss Anne Irvine, who, by the death of her
brother and grandfather, became heuess of Kinooussie. He
left one son and two daughters.
The eldest son of the above named David Boswell of Auch-
inleck, James Boswell, who succeeded him in tiiat estate, was
a lawyer of great eminence in his day. He married, in 1704,
Lady Elixabeth Bruoe, daughter of Alexander, second eari of
Kincardine, by whom he had two sons and a daughter, vis.,
Alexander, his heir, afterwards Lord Auchinleck ; John, doc-
tor of medicine, censor of the royal college of physicians in
Edinburgh ; and Veronica.
Alexander, the elder son, succeeded to Auchmleck on his
father's death in 1748. He was educated for the bar, and
became a lord of session and justiciary. He was a sound
scholar, a respectable and useful countxy gentleman, and an
able and upright judge. On his elevation to the bench in
1766, in compliance with Scottish custom he assumed the
distinctive title of Lord Auchinleck. He married Euphemia,
daughter of Colonel John Erskine of Ahra, son of Sir Charles
Erskine of the house of Mar, and had James, his successor,
the biographer of Dr. Johnson, of whom a memoir follows;
John, an officer in the army; and David Boswell, a merchant
for ten years in Valencia in Spain, when he adopted the
name of Thomas, instead of David, the Spaniards having a
prejudice against that name, imagining that it belongs to the
hated race of the Jews. On returning to EngUnd he was
employed in the Navy Office, and was for twenty years at the
head of the Prize department. He was proprietor of Crawley
Grange, Buckinghamshire, and married Anne Catherine,
daughter of Colonel Green, killed at the battle of Minden,
and sister of Sir Charles Green, baronet, leaving, at his de-
cease, in 1826, an only son, Thomas Alexander Boswell of
Crawley Grange.
Of Sir Alexander Boswell and James Boswell, the two sons
of the biographer of Johnson, notices follow in their order.
Sir Alexander was created a baronet in 1821, and was killed
in a duel in 1822, with Mr. Stuart, of Dunearn, arising from
a political dispute. He left a daughter, married in 1826 to
Sir William Francis Elliot, baronet, of Stobs and Wells, and
a son, James, who succeeded him, bom in December 1806,
married in 1830, Jessie-Jane, daughter of Sir James Mont-
gomery Cunninghame, baronet, with issue a daughter. Hav-
ing no sons, and Auchinleck being stricUy entailed in the
male line. Sir James Boswell, in the year 1861, sought to
set the entail aside, on the ground that in the deed of entuil,
the first five letters (namely, * irred,*) in the word ' irredeem-
ably,* in the clause fettering the right of sale, were written
on an erasure, of which no notice was contained in the test-
ing clause. In consequence, the judges of the court of ses-
sion declared that the entail under which Sir James Boswell
held the lands and barony of Auchinleck was defective as
regards the prohibition against a sale. Notwithstanding all
the care and anxiety of Lord Auchinleck and his son, James,
to make the entail as stringentiy binding as possible, it was
thus set aside on the ground stated.
Sir James, the second baronet, was a deputy-lieutenant
of Ayrshire. He died in 1857, when his title, in default of
male issue, became extinct
BOSWELL, James, the friend and biographer
of Dr. Johnson, was born at Edinbui'gh, October 29,
1740. He was the eldest son of Alexander Bos-
well of Auchinleck, above referred to, a lord of scs-
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BOSWELL,
346
JAMES.
Pion and justiciary, under the judicial title of Lord
Auchinleck. His mother was a woman of exem-
plary piety. He received the rudiments of liis
education partly at home under priyate tuition,
and partly at the school of Mr. Mundell in Edin-
burgh. He afterwards studied civil law in the
universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow; in the
latter of which he became associated with several
students from England. This society confirmed
his preference for English manners, and his desire
to see London, which he has often been heard to
say was originally derived from a perusal of the
Spectator. In 1760 he, for the first time, visited
Ix>ndon, which he calls the great scene of action,
of ambition, and of instruction. The circumstan-
ces of this visit he used afterwards to detail, with
that felicity of narration for which he was so re-
markable, and his fiiend Dr. Johnson advised him
to commit the account to paper and presei*ve it.
Boswell was intended by his father for the bar,
but he himself wished to obtain a commission in
tlie Guai'ds. Lord Auchinleck, however, having
signified his disapprobation, be returned to Edin-
burgh, and resumed the study of the law. In
1762 he revisited London a second time ; and the
same year he published the little poem entitled
'llie Club at Newmarket, a Tale.' In 1763 he
went to Utrecht to attend the lectures in civil law
of the celebrated German Professor Trotz. When
in London on his way to the continent, on May
16th of that year, he had " the singular felicity," to
use his own words, " of being introduced to Dr.
Johnson," for whom he had long entertained the
most enthusiastic admiration. He remained a
winter at Utrecht, during which time he visited
several parts of the Netherlands. He afterwards
made the tour of Europe, then deemed indispen-
sable to complete the education of a young gentle-
man. Passing from Utrecht into Germany, he
pursued his route through Switzerland to Grcneva,
whence he crossed the Alps into Italy, having
visited in his journey Voltaire at Femey, and
Rousseau in the wilds of Neufchatel. He conti-
nued some time in Italy, where he met and associ-
ated with Lord Mount«tuart, to whom he after-
wards dedicated his ^ Theses Juridics.' The most
remarkable incident in his tour was his visit to
Corsica, the brave inhabitants of which were then
stiniggliug for independence with the republic of
Genoa. Mr. Boswell travelled over every part of
the island, and formed an intimate acquaintance
with General Pasquale de Paoli, in wiiose palace
he resided during his stay in Corsica. He subse-
quently went to Paris, whence he returned to
Edinburgh in 1766, and soon after was admitted
a member of the Faculty of Advocates. Having
endeavoured to interest the Administration in
behalf of the Corsican patriots, he had the honour
of an interview with Lord Chatham on their ac-
count. The celebrated Douglas cause was at this
period the subject of general discussion. Boswell,
thinking that the public would scarcely have the
patience to extract the real merits of the case from
the voluminous mass of papers printed on the
question, compressed them into a pamphlet, enti-
tled ^ The Essence of the Douglas Cause,' which,
on being published, was supposed to have procured
Mr. Douglas the popularity he at that time enjoy-
ed. In 1768 Mr. Boswell published his * Account
of Coraica, with Memoirs of General Paoli;' of
which Dr. Johnson thus expressed himself to the
author : ^^ Your Journal is curious and delightful.
I know not whether I could name any narrative
by which curiosity is better excited or better gra-
tified." The work was very favourably received,
and was speedily translated into the German,
Dutch, Italian, and French languages. In the
following winter, Mr. Boswell wrote a Prologue on
occasion of the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, being
opened by David Ross, Esq., the efiect of which
was to secure to the manager the uninterrupted
possession of his patent till his death in 1790. In
1769, at the celebration at Stratford-on-Avon of
the jubilee in honour of Shakspeare, Mr. Boswell
rendered himself conspicuous by appearing as an
armed Corsican chief. This year he married his
cousin, Margaret Montgomery, daughter of David
Montgomery, Esq., related to the illnstrious fam-
ily of Eglintonn, and representative of the ancient
peerage of Lyle. She was a lady of good sense
and a brilliant understanding. She did not like
the influence which Dr. Johnson seemed to pos-
sess over her husband, and upon one occasion said
with some warmth * — ^' I have seen many a bear
led by a man, but I never before saw a man led
by a bear." She died in June 1799, leaving tuo
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BOSWELL,
347
JAMES.
sons, Alexander and James, and thi*ee daughters.
Mr. Boswell wrote an affectionate tribate to her
memory.
In 1773 Mr. Boswell and Dr. Johnson made
their long projected toor to the Hebrides; on
which occasion Johnson visited him in Edinburgh,
a journey rendered memorable by the lirely and
characteristic accounts which both published of it.
He was residing in James' Court, High Street,
Edinburgh, when he received and entertained Pa-
oli, iu 1771, and Dr. Johnson, when the latter
visited him in 1773.
In 1782 his father, Loixl Auchinleck, died, and
Mr. Boswell succeeded to the family estate. In
1783, when the coalition ministry was driven from
office, he published his celebrated ^ letter to the
People of Scotland,* which was honoured by the
conmiendation of Johnson, and the approbation of
Mr. Pitt. In the following year, a plan having
been in agitation to reform the court of session,
by reducing the number of judges one- third, he,
in a * Second Letter to the People of Scotland,'
remonstrated warmly against the measure, and it
was abandoned. In December 1784 he lost his
illustrious friend Dr. Johnson.
Mr. Boswell had a fair shai-e of practice at the
Scottish bar. He enjoyed the intimate acquaint-
ance of the most eminent of his countr}'men ;
among whom may be mentioned. Lord Karnes,
Lord Hailes, Dr. Robertson, Dr. Blair, and Dr.
Beattie; but his strong predilection for London in-
duced him at last to settle in the metropolis.
At Hilary Term, 1786, he was called to the
English bar, and in the ensuing winter he removed
with his family to London. In 1786 he had pub-
lished his Joui-nal of * A Tour to the Hebrides and
the Western Islands,' which, among other things
of interest, contains a lively and affecting account
of the adventures and escapes of the young Pre-
tender, after the disastrous battle of Culloden.
By the interest of Lord Lowther, he was appointed
recorder of Carlisle, but owing to the distance of
that town from London, he resigned the recorder-
ship, after holding it about two years. From the
period of his settling in Loudon, he devoted him-
self, almost entirely, neglecting his professional
occujiation for its sake, to preparing for publication
the life of the great lexicographer, for which he
had been collecting materials during nearly the
whole course of their intimacy. This work,
entitled 'The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.,
appeared in. 1790, in 2 vols. 4to, and was received
by the public with extraordinary avidity. From
the stores of anecdote which it contains, and the
minute and faithful picture of Johnson's habits,
manners, and conversation, therein given, the book
may fairly be considered one of the most entertain-
ing pieces of biography in the English language.
It is valuable also as illustrative of the literary
history of Gi*eat Britain, during the gi*eater pai*t
of the latter half of the eighteenth century. The
work is written with dramatic vivacity ; the style
is simple and unaffected ; notwithstanding his en-
thusiastic admu*ation of Johnson, the author is
free from all attempt at imitating his majestic
and pompous diction. The preparation of a sec-
ond edition of his great work, which was after-
wards published iu 3 vols. 8vo, was his last lite-
rary effort. Soon after his return to London,
from a visit to Auchinleck, he was suddenly
seized with ague, and the confinement to which
it subjected him brought on the disorder that ter-
minated in his death. He died at his house in
London, June 19, 1795, in the 55th year of his
age. His portrait is subjoined :
In his private chai-acter Mr. Boswell was vain
and fond of distinction. '* Egotism and vanity,"
he says, in one of his letters published in 1785,
*'are the indigenous plants of my mind: they
distinguish it. I may prune their luxuriancy,
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BOSWELL,
US
Sm ALEXANDER.
but I most not entirely clear it of them ; for tlien
I should be no longer as I am, and, perhaps, there
might be something not so good." His admission,
in 1773, into the llteraiy club, which ihen met at
the Turk^s Head in Grerard Street, Soho, gave him
the opportunity of associating with Burke, Crold-
smith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Garnck, and other
eminent persons ; this, with his passionate attach-
ment to the society and conversation of Dr. John-
son, induced him to make frequent visits to London ;
where he assiduously cultivated the acquaintance
and friendship of every person of any note that
he could possibly obtain an inti*oduction to. So
romantic and fervent, indeed, was his admiration
of Johnson, that he tells us, that he added five
hundred pounds to the fortune of one of his daugh-
ters, because, when a baby, she was not fright-
ened at his ugly face.
With considerable intellectual powers, he pos-
sessed a gay and active disposition, a lively ima-
gination, and no small share of humour. Yet he
was often subject to depression of spirits, and he
has described himself as being of a melancholy
temperament. In one of his gloomy intervals he
wrote a series of essays under the title of ^ The
Hypochondriac,' which appeared in the London
Magazine for 1782, and which he once intended
to collect into a volume. Besides the pieces above
mentioned, he published in 1767 a collection of
* British Essays in favour of the Brave Corsicans.*
His ardent character and amusing egotism may be
said to have been first publicly displayed in the
efforts he made in behalf of these patriotic island-
era; and his conduct in this respect was so satis-
factory to himself, that at the Stratford jubilee he
exhibited a placard round his hat, on which was
inscribed *^ Corsica Boswell;" also in his tour he
proclaimed to all the world that at Edinburgh he
was known by the name of "Paoli Boswelll"
When General Paoli, after having escaped with
difficulty from his native isle, on its subjection to
the French, found an asylum in London, Boswell
gladly renewed his acquaintance and fiiendship
with the exiled chief. In politics he was, like his
friend Johnson, a staunch royalist, and in religion,
a member of the church of England. He takes
care to inform us, however, that he had no intol-
erant feelings towards those of a different com-
munion. In spite of his eccentricities, he was «
great favourite with his friends, and his social dis-
position, great conversational powers, and unfail-
ing cheerfuUiess, made him, at all times, an ac-
ceptable companion. There have been several
editions of his Life of Johnson; but the most
complete is the one published in 1835, in ten
volumes, by Mr. John Mun-ay, which contains
anecdotes of Johnson's various biographers, and
notes by Mr. Croker, Mr. Malone, and various
others. BoswelPs works are .
Letters between Andrew Erskine and Junes BoswdL
Lond. 1763, 8vo.
Essence of the Douglas Caose; a pamphlet 1767.
Journal of a Toor to the Island of Corsica, with Memoin
of Genera] PaolL GUsgow, 1768, 8yo.
British Essays in favour of the brave Corncans. by sereral
hands, collected and published. Lond. 1769, 12mo.
Decision upon the Question of Literary Property, in the
Cause, John Hinton, Bookseller, London, against Alexander
Donaldson and others, Edinbuigh. 1774, 4to.
Letter to the People of ScotUnd, on the present state of
the Nation. 1784, 8vo.
Letter to the people of Scotland, respecting the alannmg
Attempt to infringe the Articles of the Union, and mtroducr
a most pernicious Innovation, by diminishing the Number d
the Lords of Session. Edin. 1785, 8vo.
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Dr. Johnson,
with an authentic Account of the Distresses and Escape of
the Grandson of King James IL in the year 1746. 2d edition
revised and corrected. Lond. 1785, 8vo.
Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., comprehending an Account
of his Studies and numerous Works in chronological order.
Lond. 1790, 2 vols. 4to.
A Series of his Epistolary Correspondence and Convena-
tions with many eminent Persons, and various Original Pieces
of his Composition, never before published. Lond. 1791, 2
vols. 4to. The same. Lond. 1798, 8 vols. 8vo.
BOSWELL, Sir Alexander, Bart., a dis-
tinguished literary antiquary, eldest son of the pre-
ceding, was born October 9, 1775, and succeeded
his father in the family estate of Anchinleck, in
Ayrshire. He was educated at Westminster
school, and afterwards went to the university of
Oxford. With a lively imagination, he possessed
a considerable fund of humour; and some of bis
satirical pieces in verse occasionally caused no
little excitement in his own circle. In 1803 be
published a small volume, entitled * Songs, chiefly in
the Scottish dialect,' several of which have taken
a permanent place among the popular songs of his
native land; among which may be mentioned,
^ Auld Gudeman, ye're a Drucken Carle;* * Jenny's
Bawbee ; ' * Jenny Dang the Weaver ; ' and ' Taste
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849
JAMES.
Life's Glad Moments,' a translation of the Ger-
man song, * Freu't each des Libens,' done bj him at
Leipzig in 1795, and generally, though erroneoosly,
ascribed to Moore. In 1 810 he published, under an
assumed name, a poem in the Scottish vem^ular,
entitled * Edinburgh, or the Ancient Royalty, a
sketch of former Maimers, by Simon Gray;' in
which he laments the changes that had taken place
in the manners and customs of the inhabitants.
In 1811, appeared * Clan-Alpin's Vow,* a poetical
fragment, founded on an event which took place
on the eve of the marriage of James the Sixth to
Anne of Denmark. He subsequently established
a printing press at Anchinleck, from which he sent
forth various pieces in prose and verse. In 1816
appeared *■ Skeldon Haughs, or the Sow is flitted,'
a tale, also in Scottish verse, founded on a tradi-
tionary story regai-ding an old Ayrshire feud be-
tween the Kennedys and the Crawfords. In
August 1821 Mr. Bos well was created a baronet
of Great Britaiu, as a reward for his patriotism
snd loyalty.
During the high political excitement which pre-
vailed in Scotland about that period. Sir Alexan-
der, who was a warm and active supporter of the
then tory administration, was one of the contribu-
tors to a newspaper published at Edinburgh, called
*' The Beacon ;' the articles in which, aimed at the
/eading men on the Whig side, gave great offence.
Some letters and pieces of satirical poetry of a
similar kind having appeared in a paper styled
* The Sentinel,' subsequently published at Glasgow,
these were traced to him by James Stuart, Esq.,
younger of Duneam, who had been personally
attacked, and who in consequence sent a challenge
to Sir Alexander. The parties met near Auchter-
tool in Fife, March 26, 1822, the Hon. John Dou-
glas, brother to the marquis of Queensberry, being
the baronet's second, and the late earl of Rosslyn,
Mr. Stuart's, when Sir Alexander received a shot
m the bottom of his neck, which shattered the
collar-bone, and next day caused his death. Mr.
Stuart was afterwards tried for murder by the
High Court of Justiciary, but acquitted. [See
Stuart, James, younger of Duneam.]
Sur Alexander Bos well left a widow, a son,
who succeeded him, and a daughter. In him
society was deprived of one of its brightest
ornaments, his country lost a man of superior
abilities, and his family had to mourn the be-
reavement of a most affectionate husband and
father. He was the possessor of the famous
" Anchinleck Library," consisting of valuable old
books and manuscripts, gradually collected by his
ancestors; from which in 1804 Sir Walter Scott
published the Romance of *Sir Tristram.' Its
stores also furnished the black letter original of a
disputation held at May bole between John Knox
and Quentin Kennedy in 1562, which was printed
at the time by the great Reformer himself, but had
latterly become exceedingly rare. A fac- simile
edition of this curiosity in historical literature was
printed at Sir Alexander Boswell's expense in
1812. *' He was," says Mr. Croker in a note to
Murray's edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson, ** a
high-spirited, clever, and amiable gentleman ; and
like his father, of a frank and social disposition ; I
but it is said, that he did not relish the recollec- |
tions of his father's devotion to Dr. Johnson ; but i
like old Lord Anchinleck, he seemed to think it a
kind of derogation." He sang his own songs ^vith
great spirit and effect, and had a fund of amusing
stories and entertaining anecdote. Mr. Lockhart,
in his Life of Scott, relates that Sir Alexander
had dined with the author of Waverley only two
or three days before the fatal meeting occurred,
having joined the party immediately after com-
pleting the last arrangements for his duel. Seve-
ral circumstances of his death are exactly repro-
duced in the duel scene of the novel of St. Ronan's
Well.
His works, besides his fugitive satirical pieces,
are:
Songs, chiefly in the Soottiah dialect Edin. 1803.
Edinburgh, or the Ancient Royalty, a Sketch ol former
Manners, hj Simon Gray. Edin. 1810.
Clan-A]pin*8 Vow, a poetical fragment. Edin. 1811.
Skeldon Hanghs, or the Sow is Flitted, a poetical tale in
the Scottish language. 1816.
BOSWELL, James, M.A., barrister -at -law,
second son of the biogi*apher of Johnson, and bro-
ther of the preceding, was bom in 1778, and re-
ceived his education at Westminster school. In
1797 he was entered of Brazen-nose college, Ox-
ford, and subsequently was elected fellow on the
Vinerian foundation. He was afterwards called
to the English bar, and became a commissioner :
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BOSWELL.
850
BOTH WELL.
bankrupts. He possessed talents of a superior
oi-der, sonnd classical scholarship, and a most ex-
tensive and intimate knowledge of onr early liter-
ature. He was equally remarkable for his indus-
try, judgment, and discrimination ; his memory
was unusually tenacious and accurate, and he was
always ready to communicate his stores of infor-
mation for the benefit of others. These qualifica-
tions, with the friendship which he entertained for
him, induced the late Mr. Malone to select Mr.
Boswell as his literary executor, and to his care
he intrusted the publication of an enlarged and
amended edition of Sbakspeare^s Plays, which he
had long projected. This elaborate work was
completed in 1821 in twenty -one volumes 8vo.
Mr. Malone's papers were left in a state scarcely
intelligible, and no other individual than Mr. Bos-
well could have rendered them available. To this
edition the latter contributed many notes ; he also
collated the text with the earlier copies. In the
first volume Mr. Boswell stepped forward to defend
the literary reputation of Mr. Malone, against
the severe attack which had been made, by a
writer of distinguished eminence, upon many of
his critical opinions and statements; a task of
great delicacy, but which he has performed in so
spirited and gentlemanly a manner, that his pre-
face may be fairly quoted as a model of contro-
versial writing. In the same volume are inserted
the * Memoirs of Mr. Malone,^ originally printed
by Mr. Boswell for private distribution; and a
valuable Essay on the ^letre and Phraseology of
Shakspeare ; the materials for which wei*e partly
collected by Mr. Malone, but their arrangement
and completion were the work of Mr. Boswell.
He likewise contributed a few notes to his father's
Life of Johnson, which are quoted in Murray's
edition. Mr. Boswell died at his chambers in the
Middle Temple, London, February 24, 1822, and
was bm-ied in the Temple church, his brother. Sir
Alexander, who was so soon to follow him to the
grave, being the principal mourner. He inherited
from his father his love for London society, his
conversational powers, his cheerfulness of disposi-
tion, and those other amiable qualities which con-
tribute to the pleasures of social intercourse.
" He was very convivial," says Mr. Croker, " and
in other respects like his father, though altogether
on a smaller scale.'' The brightest feature of his
character was the goodness of his heait, and that
warmth of friendship which knew no bounds when
a call was made upon his services.— 06th<ar»» of
the time.
BoTHWKLL, lord of, a title andenUj ponessed bj the De
Moravia or Moray fismilj, descendants of Freskin, a persoo
of Fkmish origin, who came to Scotland in the reign of David
the Firrt, and in return for aaastanoe rendered that monarch
in snppresaing a rebellion of the inhahitanta, obtained a grant
of extensive lands in the province of Moraj. See Mora\ia
DE, Moray, or Murray, somame of.
BoTHWBLL, lord, a title conferred by King James the
Third on an unworthy favourite, John, created by him Sir
John Ramsay, son' of John Ramsay of Coratoun, (descended
from the house of Camock in Fife, one of the roost asoeni
families of the name). He was the only one of the farouritet
who escaped being put to death when they were hanged over
Lauder bridge by the insurgent nobles, in July 1482. He
owed his safety to his clinging closely to the person of the
king, and to James himself earnestly pleading for him, on
account of his youth, he being then only eighteen years of
age. In the following year, on the forfeiture of Lord Crich-
ton, grandson and successor of the famous Lord-chanodlor
Crichton, for taking part in the conspiracy of the duke o<
Albany against his brother. King James, his majesty bestowed
on Sir John Ramsay his forfeited estates, including Crichton
castle, and the lands, barony and lordship of BoihweU in
Lanarkshire, with forty merks of land in the barony of Money-
penny. He also raised him to the peerage by the title o(
Lord Bothwell; all which was confirmed by parliament, ai
appears from its records, 16th February 1483-4. He sat as
Lord Bothwell in several pariiaments. These honours heqwd
upon a youth of nineteen years of age, who had rendoed no
service to the country, may well have disgusted the nobility.
In I486, when he was little more than twenty-two, he was
sent to England, to negotiate a truce for three years, and in
the following year he was appointed, with the bishop of Aber-
deen, to meet with the ambassadors of Henry the Seventh, who
had arrived at Edinbuigh to arrange as to a lasting peace.
On this occasion a marriage was proposed between various mem-
bers of the two royal houses, whidi was of course never car-
ried mto effect, the death of James soon after putting an end
to the project After the murder of James the Third, Lord
Bothwell, as a minion of that weak monarch, was forfeited,
8th October 1488, and the lordship of Bothwell, so impra-
dently bestowed upon him, was conferred on Patrick Hep-
bum, Lord Hales, who was created eari of Bothwell, on the
17th of the same month. [See following article.] The foi^
feited lord fled to England, where with Sir Thomas Todd of
Shereshaws, another banished favourite of the late king, be
concocted the following scheme for raising money. Having
obtained access to Henry the Seventh, they proposed, by the
assistance of their friends in Scotland, with whom they kept
up a private correspondence, to deliver the king of Scots and
his brother into his hands, and desired only some pecuniary
aid. On April 17, 1491, indentures were entered into at
Greenwich between King Henry and ' John Lord Bothwell
and Sir Thomas Thodde [ToddJ knight, of the reahn of Scot-
land, as well for and in name of theimaelves as also of dyvecs
others named in the said indentures,* declaring that *tbey
shall take, bringe, and delyver into the said king of EngUndis
handes the king of Scottes now reynyn(( and bis brother the
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BOTHWELL,
351
EARL OF.
dulw of Boos, (Boss) or at the leste the said king of Scotland.*
In expectation of this service King Henxy lent Sir Thomas
Todd the sum of £266 13«. 4d. sterling, for the repajment of
which at the following Michaebnas, he stipolated that Sir
Thomas should leave his son and heir in pledge. [^Rymer's
Fcddera^ voL ziL page 440.] The transaction appears to
have terminated with the peooniarjr advance, and this singn-
Ur agreement was never known until Rjmer published the
document in 171 L
I^ord Bothwell recdved a pardon from King James, and
retomed to Scotland, but was onlj acknowledged as Sir John
Ramsay. Two letters from him to the English monarch, the
first dated 8th September 1496, giving a minute account of
the support afibrded bj King James to Perkin Warbeck, are
quoted by Mr. Hnkerton; from which it has been inferred
that Ramsay acted as a spy for Henry the Seventh at the
coort of his own sovereign. In both letters he subscribes
himself ' Jhone L. Bothvalle.' He seems, notwithstanding
his acting the spy upon him, to have become & favourite of
James the Fourth, for, on 18th April 1497, he obtained a
formal remission and letters of rehabilitation under the great
seal He was not, however, restored to his title and estates,
ihe$e bemg m other handt^ but he received from the king, in-
stead, charters of the lands of Tealing and Polgavy in Forfar-
shire, Tarrinzeane in Ayrshire, and others, 27th April 1497, and
13th Sept 1498; of a house and garden in Edinburgh, 80th
May 1498, and of another house there, 6th November 1600;
also, under the designation of Sir John Ramsay of Tarrinzean,
knight, he had a charter, to himself and his heirs, dated IStb
May 1610, of the lands of Balmain, Fasque, and others, in
the county of Kincardine, which were erected into a free
barony, to be called the barony of Balmain. In the begin-
ning of 1513 King James proposed to send him on an em-
bassy to Henry the Eighth ; but although a safe conduct was
1^ it never took ei!ect. Sir John Ramsay died soon after,
leaving a son, William Rainsay, who succeeded him. He was
the lineal ancestor of Sir Alexander Ramsay of Balmain,
baronet, M. P. for the county of Kincardine, who died with-
out issue, at his seat of Harlsey, near Northallerton, in York-
shire, 12th February 1806, in his ninetieth year, and who
vias succeeded in his estates by hu nephew Alexander Bur-
nett of Strachan, second son of his aster Catherine, the wife
of Sir Thomas Burnett of Leys, baronet. On succeeding to
his nucleus estates, Alexander Burnett took the name and
arras of Ramsay, and was created a baronet of Great Britain
13th May 1806. Dying in 1810, he was succeeded by his
son Sir Alexander Ramsay of Balmain, baronet See Ramsat,
surname of.
Bothwell, earl of, a title in the peerage of Scotland, for-
merly possessed by the family of Hepburn, and rendered re-
markable in Scottish history by the marriage of its possessor,
the fourth earl, with the unfortunate Mary, queen of Scots.
[For the origin of the name of Hepburn, and the different
branches of the family, see Hepburn, surname of.] Patrick
Hepburn, third Lord Hales, created earl of Bothwell in 1488,
as above mentioned, was descended from one Adam Hepburn,
of a Northumberhuid family, who, in the reign of David the
Second, received from the earl of March, charters of various
Unds in Haddingtonshire. The eldest son of the said Adam
Hepburn, Sir Patrick Hepbnm of Hales, bom about 1321,
appears, from the frequent mention made of him in reference
to safe conducts into England in Rjrmer^s /Vsdisra, to have
been a person of consequence. His seal is appended to the
act of settlement of the crown of Scotland, 27th March 1371,
the achievement being two lions pulling at a rose, on a cher-
rou, still the arms of the Hepbnms. At the battle of Otter-
bourne in 1888, he and his son, Patrick, led on one party of
the Soots, and prevented the banner of Douglas from falling
into the hands of the English. By his first wife, whose Chris-
tian name was Agnes, he was the father of Patrick Hepburn,
younger of Hales, styled by Fordun [ii. p. 438J * miles mag-
nanimus et athleta bellicosos.' On 22d June, 1402, during
the lifetime ^ his father, on his return from a hostile incur-
sion into EngUud, the party which he commanded were in-
tercepted by the earls of March and Northumberland at West
Nesbit, near Dunse. An obstinate conflict ensued, in which
the Scots had the advantage, but the son of March arriving
with a reinforcement, the victory turned in favour of the
English. Young Hepburn and several other gentlemen, with
the flower of the youth of Lothian, were among the sUin.
By his wife, a daughter and co-heir of the family of Vaux or
de Vallibus, Lords of Dirieton, he had two sons. Sir Adam
Hepburn of Hales, the elder, was one of the commissioners
sent to England in 1428, to treat for the release of King
James the First from captivity. In 1426 he was one of the
principal persons arrested along with Murdoch, duke of
Albany. He was afterwards one of the supplementary hos-
tages for the security of the payment of forty thousand
pounds, for the expense of King James the First during the
time he had remained in captivity in EngUnd, as, 6th Febru-
ary 1426-6, Patrick de Hepburn, William de Hepburn, and
John Halyburton, got a safe conduct to England, to attend
on the Lord of Hales, then a hostage. [FrnderaS] He was
released by order of 9th November 1427, when William
Douglas, lord of Dmmlanrig, was substituted in his place.
In 1436, when the estates of the family of Dunbar and March
were seized by the crown. Sir Adam Hepburn was sent with
the earl of Angus and Chancellor Grichton, to take possession
of the castie of Dunbar, and after it had been delivered up to
them, he was left Constable of this important fortress. On
the 80th September 1436, he assisted William Doughis, earl
of Angus, in the conflict with Henry Percy, earl of Northmn-
berland, at Piperden, or Pepperdin, near Cheviot, when Sir
Robert Ogle was made prisoner, with most of his followers,
and on 31st March 1438, the year after the murder of James
the First, he was one of the oonservators of a truce with Eng-
land. He had four sons: Sir Patrick, his heir; William;
George Hepburn of Whitsome, Berwickshire, ancestor of the
Hepbums of Riccartoun and BUckcastie; John, one of the
lords of Council and Session, and bishop of Dunblane firom
1467 to 1486; and two daughters.
Sir Patrick Hepburn, the eldest son, as we learn from
Rymer*s FcedercL^ was a conservator of truces with England
on various oocasiuns, and a commissioner for the barons for
ministering justice throughout the kingdom in time of pesti-
lence, 19th October, 1466. In the same year he was created
a peer of ScotUnd, by the titie of Lord Hales, under which
designation he sat among the nobility in the parliament ot
16th October 1467. His eldest son, Adam, second Lord
Hales, attached himself to Lord Boyd of Kilmarnock, and his
brother. Sir Alexander Boyd of Dunoow, and in 1466 was
engaged in their audacious enterprize of carrying ofl" King
James the Third, then in his thirteenth year, from Linlitligow
to Edinburgh. [See James the Tuiud.] For his share m
this affair he obtained a remission from parliament, (which,
as well as the young king, was entirely under the influence of
the Boyds,) 13th October of that year, ratified under the great
seal, 26th of the same month. He married Helen, eldest
daughter of Alexander, first Lord Home, and by her had five
sons; viz., Patrick, third Lord Hales, and first earl of Both-
well; 2d, Sir Adam Hepburn of Craigs, master of the Kings
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BOTHWELL,
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SECOND EARL OF.
stables; Sd, George Hepburn, provost of Bothwell and Lin-
cluden, abbot of Aberbrothwick, 9th Febmaiy 1603-4, high
treasurer of Scotland, 1509, bishop of the Isles, 10th Maj
1510, and commendator both of Aberbrothwick and loolmkill
in 1512; slain at Flodden, 9th September 1518; 4th, John
Hepburn, pri)r of St. Andrews, founder of St Leonardos col-
lege in 1512; and 5tb, James Hepburn, who, after being rec-
tor of Dahy and Partonn, was, in 1515, elected abbot of
Dunfermline, and 15th June the same jear was appointed
lord high treasurer. In 1516 he was elected bishop of Moray,
and 3d October of that year he quitted the treasury. He
died in 1525, and was buried in Elgin cathedral
Patrick Hepburn, third Lord Hales, and first earl of Both-
well, in July 1482, had the command of the castle of Berwick,
when that town was inrested by the English army, under the
duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard the Third, and the
Scottish king*s brother, the duke of Albany. After the exe-
cution of the king*s favourites at Lauder, the town of Berwick
surrendered to the English, but Lord Hales, in the castle,
made a brave defence. Leaving four thousand men to block
it up, the dukes of Gloucester and Albany advanced to Edin-
bui^h, of which city they took possession without any opposi-
tion. lAbercrombt/'s Martial Achievemenig^ vol. ii. p. 450.
See ante, p. 44.] On 20th September 1434, Lord Hales was
one of the conservators of a truce with England. The an-
nexation by James the Third of the rich temporalities of the
priory of Coldingham to the chapel royal of Stirling, by giving
ofience to the I/>rd Home and his clan, who had been accus-
tomed to consider that priory as very much theur own, was
one of the principal causes of the rebellion which cost that
king his life. Lord Home entered into a bond of mutual as-
sistance with Lord Hales, and the Homes and Hepbuins op-
posed with violence the annexation, although an act of par-
liament had been passed declaring it high treason to obstruct
that measure. Lord Hales was a party to the hollow pacifi-
cation entered into at Blackness in May 1483, and about the
same timer he and several others of the disaffected nobles re-
ceived from Heniy the Seventh a safe oonduct to England
IFcedera"] ; but the progress of events in Scotland prevented
any use being made of it At the battle of Sauchiebum,
then called the battle of the field of Stirling, which followed,
[June 11, 1438], Lord Hales led the Hepbums in the van-
guard against the army of the king; and fifteen days there-
after, on the surrender of the castle of Edinburgh, the custody
of that important fortress was committed to him, with three
hundred marks of the customs of that dty. He was also ap-
pointed sheriff-principal of the county of Edinburgh, and
within the constabulary of Haddington. On 10th Septem-
ber 1433, he received the office of master of the household,
and was constituted high admiral of Scotland for life. On
October 13th of the same year he had a charter of the lands
of Crichton castle, with lands in the counties of Edinbui^h
and Dumfries, and the lordship of Bothwell in Lanarkshire,
forfeited by Sir John Ramsay, Lord Bothwell, as above-men-
tioned. Four days afterwards, [17th October 1433,] the
young king, James the Fourth, erected the lordship of Both-
well into an earldom, and conferred it on Lord Hales, in full
parliament, by girding him with a sword. The same day it
was declared in parliament that he should have the rule and
governance of James, duke of Ross, the kmg^s brother. The
party to which he belonged had then the chief power in the
state, and they showered honours and offices on him for the
important part which he had acted in the kte Revolution.
On 5th November 1438, he obtained a grant of the office of
steward of Kirkcudbright and of the keeping of Thrief castle,
with the feus thereof; and 29th May 1439, he and John |
Hepburn, prior of St Andrews, his brother, had letters of t
lease of the lordship of Orkney and Zetland, and of the keep-
ing of the castle of Kirkwall, the earl, of the same date, re-
ceiving the office of justiciary and baUiary of that lordship.
On the 6th July the same year he was constituted guardian
of the west and middle matches. March 6th, 1491-2, on the
resignation of George Douglas, son and heir of Archibald, eari
of Angus, he had a charter of the lordship of Liddisdale, with
the castle of Hermitage, Angus obtaining in excamlnon, the
lordship of Bothwell, which brought Bothwell castle and its
domains into the possession of the Douglases, an arrangement
brought about by the king to prevent the house of Angiu
from becoming so powerful as the elder branch of the
Douglases had been. In a pariiament held at Edinbugfa
18th May 1491, the earl of Bothwell, and the bishop and
dean of Glasgow, were appointed ambassadors to the comts
of France and Spain, to find out a proper match and nego-
tiate a marriage for the king, and to renew the ancient alli-
ances with these states. The sum of five thousand pounds
was advanced for tneir expenses. In the pariiament heki at
Edmburgh, 26ta June 1493, a genera, revocation was issued
of all grants made during the mmority of the king, from
which the lands granted to the earl of Bothwell and Sir John
Ross, knight, were specially excepted. In May 1501, the earl
of Bothwell, and Robert, archbishop of Glasgow, and Andrew
Fonnan, papal prothonotary, afterwards archbishop of St An-
drews, received a safe conduct to England, which wss renewed
in the following October, as ambassadors fh>m the king of
Scots, sent to conclude the marriage of James the Fourth with
the Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry the Seventh.
The princess was solemnly married to King James at Rich-
mond, by proxy, January 27, 1503, the earl of Bothwell being
his Miyesty's representative. On her arrival in Scotland is
the following August, on her near approach to Edinburgh,
she was received by the king, richly apparelled in doth of
gold, the earl of Bothwell bearing the sword of state before
him; and attended by the prindpal nobility of the court
[^Leland's Collectanea^ vol iv. p. 287.] The earl died soon
after 1507. By Lady Janet Douglas, his wife, only daughter
of James, first earl of Morton, he had issue, with three
daughters, three sons, Adam, second eari of Bothwell; Jobo,
consecrated bishop of Brechin, firom 1517, to August 1553;
and Patrick Hepburn, who was educated by his uncle John,
prior of St Andrews, whom he succeeded in the prioiy in
1522. In 1524 he was appointed secretary, in which office
he continued till 1527. In 1535 he was consecrated bishop
of Moray, and at the same time he hdd the abbacy of Soone
in perpetual commendam. When the Reformation took plaoo
he had the fate of the other Popish prelates, but he kept pos-
session of his episcopal palace till his death, at Spynie castle,
June 20, 1573. Foreseeing what was coming, he feued oat
all the lands belonging to the see. {^Keith's Scoititk fiuAopi.]
This prelate had seven natural sons and two natural daugh-
ters, legitimations having passed the great seal for them in
1533, 1545, and 1550.
Adam Hepburn, second earl of Bothwell, succeeded his
father both in his extensive possessions and in his office of
high admiral of Scotland. At the disastrous battle of Flod-
den, 9th September 1513, he commanded the reserve, con-
sisting of his own followers, supported by those of other chiefs
connected with the Lothians, and advanced to support the
King's attack on the English in so gallant a style that
the standard of the eai'l of Surrey, the English general, wai
placed in the utmost danger. With his sovereign and tbe
greater part of the chivahy of Scotland, he fell on that fata)
field.
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BOTHWELL,
858
THIRD KARL OP.
** TIten did bii Iom hto foeman know.
Their king, their lorda, thdr mlfhtlett low,
They melted from the field, m snow,
When streams are awoln and aoutlt winds blow,
DissolTea in sUent dew.
Tweed's echoes beard the ceaseless plash.
While many a broken band,
DlsordCTed, throui:h her currents dash.
To gabi the Scottish land ;
To town and tower, to down and dale,
To teU red Flodd«i*B dismal tale,
And raise the unirersal walL
Tradition, legend, tune, and song.
Shall many an age that wall prolong:
Still from the sire the son shall hear
Of the stem strife and carnage drenr
Of Flodden's fkUl field.
Where shivered was fair Scotland's spear,
And broken was her shield.**
Scoffs MarmioH,
The second earl of Boihwell married in 1511 Agnes Stewart,
natural daugbter of James eaii of Bucban, brother uterine of
James the second, by whom he had one sod.
Patrick, third earl of Bothwell, sncceeded when an infant
to the ^es and estates of his family. In the minority of the
king, James the Fifth, and the unsettled state of the king-
dom, great disorders prevuled on the borders, which were
encouraged by the border chiefii, and the duke of Albany, on
assuming the regen<7, did his utmost to suppress the robberies
and violations of the law that were continually taking place.
On April 6, 1528, the earl of Bothwell, then a jouug man
about sixteen, and Patrick Hepburn, master of Hales, and
aereral others, their kinsmen and retainers, received a remis-
sion for their treasonably assisting George Lord Home, and
the deceased David Home of Wedderbnm, his brother, and their
accomplices, being at the time the king's rebels, and at his
horn. Towards the end of the same year he was, by King
James, committed to prison for protecting marauders on the
borders, and after being six months in confinement was only
released on the recognizances of his friends to the amount of
twenty thousand pounds. In December 1581, he secretly
passed into England, and held a conference of a treasonable
nature with the eari of KorthnmberUnd. On his return he
was, by the king's orders, sdzed and confined in the castle of
Edinburgh, where he remained a considerable time, being
still there in June 1533. King James the Fifth, determined
to have peace on the borders, and considering Liddisdale as a
nursery of freebooters, to be held in order only by the royal
power, in September 1538 compelled the earl of Bothwell to
resign it into his hands. It would appear IPUscotUe'i Hi»-
toryy p. 237] that the earl was then banished the kingdom,
when he is said to have gone to Venice. He appears to have
returned to England in 1542, and to have engaged m treason-
able negotiations with Henry the Eighth. At a parliament held
at Edinburgh, 3d December 1542, the earidom of Bothwell,
and many other estates, were annexed to the crown. The
eari returned to Scotland soon after the death, 13th Decem-
ber 1542, of King James the Fifth. After the arrest of Car-
dinal Bethnne in the succeeding January, he and the earls of
Hnntly and Moray offered themselves as surety for his ap-
pearance to answer the charges against him, and demanded
that he should be set at libertj, whidi was refused by the
governor, Arran. He was also one of the Catholic lords, the
earls of Huntly, Moray, and Argyle being the others, who met
at Perth a powerful body of the barons and landed gentiy,
and a numerous concourse of bishops and abbots, and des-
patched a message to the earl of Arran, by Reid, bishop of
Orkney, that the cardinal should be set at liberty, and that
the New Testament should not be read in the vulgar tongue by
the people, which of course could not be listened to ; and being
charged, under the pain of treason, to return to their allegiance,
they did not dare to disobey, but sent in their adherence to
the governor. {^Tytler.'] He was present m parliament 15th
March 1543, when he instituted a summons of reduction of the
pretended resignation of the lordship of Liddisdale and castle
of Hermitage, said to have been made by him into his nu-
jesty's hands. In this suit he was successful, as his estates
were restored, and when the English ambassador. Sir Ralph
Sadler, came to Scotland in that year, in order to negotiate a
marriage between the infiint queen Mary and the yoimg
prince, Edward of England, he found Bothwell in possession
of Liddisdale. Sadler mentions him as opposed t« that
match and devoted to the French interest In one of his
letters, dated May 5th 1543, he thus describes him : ' as to
the eari of Bothwell, who hath the rule of Liddisdale, I
think him the most vain and insolent man in the world,
full of pride and folly, and here nothing at all esteemed.*
[Sacller*s State Papen^ vol I p. 184.] In order to embroil
the matrimonial negotiations with England, when Cardinal
Bethune and the eari of Huntly assembled their forces in the
north, and Argyle and Lennox theirs in the west, Bothwell,
Home, and the bird of Buodeuch mustered their feudal array
upon the borders.' [/fru/. p. 236.] He joined at Leith the
force of ten thousand men under Lennox, Huntly, and Axgyle,
when they marched to Linlithgow, and obtained possession ot
the young queen and conducted her in triumph to Stirling.
He was one of the principal nobles who, in Jnpe 1544, signed
the agreement to support the queen mother, Mary of Quise,
as regent, instead of the earl of Arran. He became the
rival of the earl of Lennox for the himd of the queen
dowager, when both earis daily frequented the court, striv-
ing in magnificence of apparel and in all courtly games,
to excel one another, but finding at length that this method
of attracting her Majesty's favour was somewhat costly,
Bothwell wisely retired. He appears again to have, for a
short time, changed sides, for a summons was raised against
him for treasonably treating and counselling with the king of
England in December 1542 against King James the Fifth, by
the great gifts and sums of money received by him fipoin
Henry of England; for interoommuning with the earl of
Hertford and the English army, when Scotland was in
vaded in May 1544, and for imprisoning Bute pursuivant,
in Haddington, Crichton Castle, and Linlithgow, in July
of that year. From this summons, however, he was as-
soilzied in parliament, on 12th December 1544. It was
by the treachery of this earl of Bothwell that in Janu-
ary 1546 George Wishart was delivered into the hands of
Cardinal Bethune. Wishart was in the house of Ormiston,
about eight miles from Edinburgh, when the house was sur-
rounded by Bothwell and a party of armed men sent by the
cardinal to apprehend him. Mr. Cookbum, the proprietor of
Ormiston, at first refused to open the door, but finding it in
vain to resist, the earl and a few of his fbllowers were ad-
mitted. After some expostulations Bothwell gave a promise^
confirmed by an oath, that he would protect Mr. Wisharl
from the maKoe of the cardinal, and procure him a fair trial,
or set him at liberty; on which Wishart was placed in his
hands. The earl carried his prisoner to his own castle of
Hales, and seemed at first to have some intention of perform-
ing his promise, but by the persuasion of the queen dosrager,
he was soon prevailed upon to break it. As an excuse, on
the 19th January, he was brought before the governor and
council, and commanded, under the highest penalties, to
deliver up his prisoner. He complied with that command,
Z
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and conducted Mr. Wbhart to the Cfutle of Edinburgh,
whence he was immediatelj carried to the castle of St. An-
drews, and soon after martyred. The earl of Botbwell, not-
withstanding this service, was afterwards again imprisoned,
and not released till after the battle of Pinkie, 10th Septem-
ber 1547. The first use be made of his liberty was to wait
upon the duke of Somerset, the invading general, 17th Sep-
tember. On that occasion he is described as a ^ gentleman of
a right cumly porte and stature, and heretofore of right
honourable and just meaning and dealing towards the king's
majesty (Henry the EighUi), whom, therefore, ray lord's
grace did, according to bis degree and merits, very firiendly
welcome and entertain.' Indignant at his long and frequent
imprisonments, he appears now to have wholly espoused the
English interest, as an instrument, dated at Westminster 3d
September 1549, sets forth that King Edward had taken him
under his protection and favour, granting him a yearly rent
of three tiiousand crowns, and the wages of a hundred horse-
men, for the defence of his person and the annoyance of the
enemy, and if he should lose his lands in Scotland in the
English king's service for the space of three years, promising
to give him lands of similar value in England. [^Fcedera, vol.
lii. p. 173.] He died, (it is supposed in exile,) in September
1556. He married Margaret Home, siud to be of the family
of Lord Home, and had a son, James, fourth earl of Bothwell,
the husband of Mary, queen of Soots, and a daughter, Jean,
married, first, 4th January 1562, to John Stewart, prior of
Culdingham, a natural son of King James the Fifth, by whom
she was the mother of Francis, earl of Bothwell, of whom
afterwards. She took for her seoond husband John, master
of Caithness.
James Hepburn, fourth earl of Bothwell, the unprincipled
and ambitious nobleman who became the third husband of
Mary, queen of Scots, was bom about 1536, and was served
heir to his father, 3d November 1556. This * glorious, rash,
and hazardous young man,' as he is happily styled by Wal-
singham, was destined to act a principal part in the history
of that turbulent period. Although a Protestant, he adhered
to the party of the queen regent, and acted with vigour
against the I^rds of the Congregation. On 8th August 1559,
along with Ker of Cessford and Maitland of Lethington, he
was nominated, by commission from Frands and Mary, for
settling differences on the borders. In October following,
having learned that Coekbum of Onniston had received four
thousand crowns from Sir Ralph Sadler for the use of the
Lords of the Congr^ation, he attacked and wounded him,
and carried off the money. Sadler mentions that the earl of
An-an and the Lord James Stewart, afterwards the Regent
Murray, immediately went to Both well's house, in the town
of Haddington, with two hundred horsemen and a hundred
footmen, taking with them two pieces of artillery, in the
hope of finding him there, but a quarter of an hour previously
he had received notice that troopers were entering the west
port of the burgh in search of him; on which he fled down a
lane called the Goul, to the Tyne, and running down the bed
of the river for about one hundred and fifty yards, stole into
the house of Coekbum of Sandybed, by the backdoor, which
opened to the riverv changed clothes with the turnspit, whose
duty he performed in Sandybed's kitchen for some days, till
he was enabled to make his escape. In return for his pro-
tection, Bothwell gave to Sandybed and his heirs and as-
signeesf a perpetual ground annual, as it is called in Scotland,
of four bolls of wheat, four bolls of bariey, and four bolls of
oats, to be paid yearly out of his lands of Mainshill, in the
county of Haddington. This ground annual continued to be
paid to the heirs of Coekbum till about 1760, when his de-
scendant, George Cockbnm of Sandybed, who, on soooeediDg
to the estate of Gleneagles, in Perthshure, took the name of
Ualdane, sold it and his property of Sandybed to Joha
Buchan of Letham, and soon after the latter sold and dis-
charged this ground annual to Francis earl of Wemyaa^ then
proprietor of Mainshill. [^Douglas Pteragey edited by Wood^
vol. i. p. 229, tiote.]
In December 1559, Bothwell took the command of the
French auxiliaries in Scotland. He afterwards went to
France, where, by his dutiful demeanour and zeal in her ser-
vice, he recommended himself to the young queen, Mary, then
the wife of the French king, Francis the Second. In 1563
he returned to Sootland. Immediately thereafter, * great ex-
dtcment was created in Edinburgh, by an act of violence per-
petrated by the earl of Bothwell, with the aid of the Marquis
d'ElboBuf and Lord John Coldingham. They broke open the
doors of Cuthbert Ramsay's house, in St. Mary's Wynd, dur-
ing the night, and made violent entry in search for his dangb-
ter-in-law, Alison Craig, with whom the eari of Arran was
believed to be enamoured. A strong remonsdranoe was pre-
sented to the queen on this occasion, beseeching her to bring
the perpetrators to punisliment; but the matter was hushed
up, with promises of amendment. Emboldened by tbdr
impunity, Bothwell and his accomplices proceeded to further
violence. They assembled in the public streets during the
night, with many of their friends. Gavin Hamilton, abbot of
Kilwinning, who had joined the reforming party, resolved to
check them in their violent proceedings. He accordingly
armed his servants and retainers, and sallied out to oppose
them, and a serious affray took place, between the Ooes and
the Trone. The burghers were mustered by the ringing of
the town bells, and rival leaders were sallying out to the as-
sistance of their fiiends, when the earls of Moray and Hontly,
who were then residing in the Abbey, mustered their adhe-
rents at the queen's request, and put a stop to the tumult
Bothwell afterwards suooessfully employed the mediation of
Knox, to procure a reconciliati(m with Gavin Hamilton, the
eari of Arran, and others of hb antagonists.' [ \YiI$om*» Mt-
morialt of EtHnburghy vol. i. p. 73.] Soon after this he was
banished the kingdom for being engaged in a oonspinu^
against the earl of Moray. He returned home in 1565, and
on May 2d of that year, he was denounced rebel and put to
the horn for not appearing to answer an indictment for high
treason, in conspiring to seize the queen's person, &c., baring
proposed to the earl of Arran, with whom he had been lately
reconciled, to carry off the queen to the casUe of Dumbvtoa,
* and thair keep her surelie, or utherwyse demayne hir person
at your plesour, quhill scho aggre to qnhatsumeuir thii^ ye
shall desyre' [P'UcairfCB Criminal Trials^ v. i. part 2, p.
462]; the very method he himself afterwards adopted at
Dunbar, to secure the queen's hand. Arran revealed the plot
to the queen at Falkland, and on being confironted in presence
of her migesty and the lords of secret council, Bothwell de-
nied the allegation, whereupon Arran challenged him to judi-
cial combat, and both were committed to ^e castle of Edin-
buigh, from which Bothwell escaped, and was once more
constrained to quit the kingdom. On the indictment being
called in court, Alexander Hepburn of Whitsome, his kins-
man, protested in his name against sentence of outlawry
bemg passed against him, as he durst not appear at that time
on account of the great convention of his enemies, by which
his life was endangered. On the disgrace and expatriation ol
the earl of Moray and his friends, after the weak attempt at
insurrection called the ' Roundabout Raid,' which arose out
of their opposition to Mary's marriage with Damley, Both-
well and other lords, foes to that faction, were recalled fxoiP
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FOURTH EARL OF.
exUe by the queen, to strengtben her own partj. On Febru-
ary 22d, 1666, Bothwell married Lady Jean Gordon, daogh-
ter of the fourth eari of Hnntly. After the aasaasination of
Rizzio^ on the 9th March that year, he acquired an undue in-
fluence over the mind of the queen. It Lb stated by Pennant
[Tbyr, y. i. p. 70] that he made tlie firrt impression on W
too susceptible heart, by once gaUoping, in full armour,
down the dangerous steepe of the Galton hill, and leaping his
steed into the ring, while a tournament was held in the ad-
joining valley of Qnenside. This, however, appears to be
nothing more than a tradition of the locality. He appeared
to the queen the only one of the nobles who was sincerely at-
tached to her, for she had found them all rude and stem, and
engaged in fierce and ambitious designs against her. Hence,
besides his attractive manners, handsome figure, and courtly
address, the ascendancy which this profligate nobleman at this
time obtained over her. He was appointed warden of the
Three Marches, an o£Sce never before held by one person,
created hi^ admiral, and had a grant of the abbeys of Had-
dington and Melrose. By his interest his brother-in-law, the
eari of Hnntly, was constituted high chancellor of the king-
dom, and no matter of importance was transacted without his
advice. When the queen*s attachment to Damley was con-
verted into aversion, Bothwell's insinuating address and un-
remitting assiduity had the effect intended on her warm and
tender heart, and many instances of her partiality for him are
given by contemporary historians; the most striking of which
was the following: Having proceeded to liddiadale to appre-
hend some marauders, Bothwell was, on 7th October 1566,
attacked and wounded by one of them. The queen was then
at Jedbun;h holding a Justice Court, and on hearing of
his wound she evinced her feelings for him by riding from
that town to Hermitage Castle, where Bothwell lay, a jour-
ney of twenty Scotch miles, through a countary then almoet
impassable, and infested wttii banditti. Finding that the earl
was not dangerously wounded she returned to Jedburgh that
same night. This rapid journey and the anxiety of her mind
on Bothwell's account, threw her into a fever, and her life
was, for a short time, despairiMi of. On her recovery, at-
tended by Bothwell, she proceeded, 7th November, to Cold-
ingham, whence she went to Dunbar and Tantallan, and ar-
rived at Craigmillar, 17th of the same month. In the follow-
mg December he accompanied her to Edinbuii^, Stirling,
and Drymen. Two months afterwards, namely, on the 10th
of February, 1567, occurred the murder of Damley, in which
Bothwell was tlie prindpal actor. He had obtained a fdtuo-
tion for one Of his menials in the queen's service, and so was
enabled to obtain the keys of the provost of St. Mary's house
at Kiric-of- Field, where Damley was lodged. He imme-
diately caused counterfeit impressions of them to be taken.
lljomg, V. ii. p. 296.] Shortly after nine o'clock on the
evening of the 9th he left the lodgings of the laird of Or-
miston, (James Ormiston of that ilk), in company with
whom and several of his own servants, his accomplices in
the dark transaction that was about to ensue, he passed down
the Bb^firiars' Wynd, entering the gardens of the Dominican
monastery by a gate opposite the foot of the Wynd; and by
a road neariy on the site of what now fonoB the High School
Wynd, they reached the poetem in the town wall, which gave
admission to the lodging of Damley. Bothwell joined the
queen, who was then visiting her husband, while his accom-
plices were busy arranging the gunpowder in the room below,
and, after escorting her home to the palace, he returned to
complete his purpose. [See Doewnentt ilhutraiive of the
murder qf Damley in Pitcairn's Criminal Trials^] A
loud explosion, about two o'clock in the morning, shook the
whole town, and startled the inhabitants finom th^ sleep;
and at day dawn the dead body of Damley and that of his
page were found lying in the garden. On the 21st of Febro-
ary, the queen and Bothwell went to Seton, where they r»>
mained till the 10th of March, on which day they returned to
Edinburgh. On 19th March Bothwell was appointed gover-
nor of Edinburgh castle, when he nominated Shr James Bal-
four his deputy governor. [See ante, p. 212.] On the 24th
of the same month he again accompanied the queen to Seton,
and on the 10th April they retumed to the capital The
clamours of the people, and the remonstrances of the earl of
Lennox, Damley's father, made it necessary for the queen tu
bring her favourite to trial; but on the day appointed, Satur-
day, 12th April, Bothwell appeared with such a formidable
retinue as overawed his accusers. No witnesses were called
to prove the guilt of such a powerful antagonist, and he was
in consequence acquitted. Nor was this aU. At a parliament
held on the 19th he obtained the ratification of all the posses-
sions and honours which the queen had conferred on him,
and was &rther appobted captain and keeper of the castle of
Dunbar. But the sway which he had now acquired over
Mary's mind was shown more indisputably by an act in
favour of the Reformed religion, to which, at this time, she
gave her full assent. Immediately afterwards, viz., on the
20th April, Bothwell invited several of the nobles to an enter-
tainment at his house, and at a late hour, when they were
excited with wine, he opened to them his purpose of marrying
the queen. By mingled promises and threats, he prevailed on
all present to subscribe a paper or bond approving of the
match, and engaging to support it, if acceptable to Mary,
with their united forces, lives, and fortunes. Eight bishops,
nine earls, and seven barons, signed this document, armed
with which Bothwell, in accordance with his own former ad-
vice to the eari of Arran, resolved that she should not have
the power to refose him. On the 21st April, the queen went
to Stirling to visit her son; on her return on the 24th. Both-
well, at the head of a thousand horse, met her at Cramond
Bridge, and dispersing her slender train, conducted her, with-
out the least opposition on her part, to the castle of Dunbar,
where she remained for ten days, and where, it is said, he
forcibly ravished her. From Dunbar he conveyed her to
Edinburgh castle, and the preparations for their marriage
were hurried on with indecent haste. On May 8d, he was
divorced from his wife for adultery with her maid, and on the
7th his marriage with Lady Jean Gordon was formally an-
nulled. On the 12th he was created marquis of Fife and
duke of Orkney. On the 14th the marriage contract of the
queen and Botiiwell was signed, and on the 15th their nup-
tials were pubfidy solemnized in the chapel of Holyrood, first
according to the rites of the Protestant church, and after-
wards, in private, in the Popish form, Adam Bothwell, bishop
of Orkney, officiating at the former ceremony. That same
night the distich of Orid IFatH, book v.] was affixed to the
palace gate:
* Mense malas Male nabere vulgtu alt ; '
and from the misery and ruin that sprung firom this fatal
union, is traced the vulgar prejudice that still regards it as
unlucky to marry in the month of May.
Bothwell was now anxious to secure the person of the young
prince, for whose protection, almost as soon as the marriage
was celebrated, a considerable body of the nobles had entered
into an association at Stirling. Alarmed at this confederacy
Mary issued a proclamation requiring her subjects to take
arms for her defence. On the 7th June Bothwell and the
queen went to Borthwick castle, whence the former proceeded
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FOURTH 5ARL OF.
to Melrose, to arrange an expedition against Lord Home, and
then returned to the queen at Borthwick. On the llifa June
the confederated lords appeared suddenly before that strong
fortress. Bothwell, having timely warning of their approach,
escaped hastily to Donbar, whither two days afterwards he
was followed by the qaeen. On the 15th, exactly one month
after Queen Mary*s fatal marriage with this nobleman, the army
of the queen and that of the confederated lords met at Car-
b^rry hUI, on the same ground which the English had poe-
feased at the battle of Pinkie. The forces of the queen, con-
sisting of four thousand men of Lothian and the Merse, were
commanded by Bothwell, having under lum the Lords Seton,
Yester, and Borthwick, with four barons of the Merse, viz.
Wedderbuni, Langton, Cumledge, and Hirsel ; and those of
the Bass, Waughton, Ormiston in Lothian, and Ormiston of
that ilk in Tiviotdale. The confederate army was led by the
Lord Home and the earl of Morton, afterwards regent Gal-
lantly arrayed in brilliant armour, Bothwell '^showed himself,
mounted on a brave steed f and offered by single combat to
decide the quarreL His proffered gage was eagerly seized by
Kiikaldy of Grange, but Bothwell would not accept of him
as an opponent as being of inferior rank to himtelf. He like-
wise rejected Sir William Murray of Tullibardine, and his
brother, Murray of Purdorvis, for tiie same reason. Bothwell
then challenged Morton, who accepted the challenge, and the
combat was appointed to take place on foot, but old Lord
Lmdsay of the Byres requested Morton to allow him to meet
Bothwell instead, being his right as next of kin to the mur-
dered Damley. Morton consented, and Lindsay, kneeling
down before both armies, audibly implored the Almighty
to 'strengthen the arm of the innocent, that the guilty
might be punished.* Twenty knights were to attend on
each side, and the lists were in course of being marked
out, when the other lords interdicted the combat Some
authorities say that Mary, making use of her royal prero-
gative, prohibited the encounter. She demanded a confer-
ence with Kirkaldy of Grange, who approached and knelt
oefore her; and while he was urging the queen to separ-
ate herself firom Bothwell, and join the confederates, who
sought only the re establishment of order and good gorera-
ment, that unscrupulous and unprincipled nobleman secretly
deared one of his harquebussiers to shoot him. The man
was in the act of levelling his piece at the unsuspecting
knight, when the queen observed him; uttering a scream,
she threw herself before the harquebuss, and exclaimed to
Bothwell that surely he would not disgrace her so far as to
murder one to whom she had promised protection. [I^/e of
Kirkaldy, p. 17 L.J Bothwell then took his last farewell of
Mary, and rode off the field with a few followers. For a
short time he took refuge among his vassals in the castle of
Dunbar; then, equipping a few vessels, whico, as lord high
admiral, he was ea^y enabled to do, he proceeded by sea to
the north, and remained for sometime with the eari of Huntly
and his uncle, Adam Hepburn, bishop of Moray. He was
soon, however, abandoned by them, when he sailed for Ork-
ney. After in vun attempting to obtain admittance into the
castle of Kirkwall, he plundered the town, and, retiring to
Shetland with two small vessels, turned pirate. On ILth
August a commission was granted, by the lords of the secret
council, to Kirkaldy of Grange and Murray of Tullibardine,
to pursue him by sea and land, with fire and sword. {^Ander-
ton*$ CoflecfioM.] The laird of Grange, on board the Uni-
com of Leith, was accompanied in the pursuit of the obnoxious
earl, by Adam BothweU, bishop of Orkney, (of whom in next
article), although not three months before he had performed the
marriage ceremony for him and Mary. While pursued by KiHc-
aldy*s fleet a violent storm arose, and Bothweil^s ship, beoooiing
unmanageable, was driven towards the coast of Norway, after
partmg company with the other vessel, which contained bis
plate, furniture, valuables, and armour, brought from the castle
of Edinburgh. [fi^iMff'f i)ec&iratu>n.] Off the Norwegian
shore he fell in with a vessel richly laden, and immediatelj
attacked it After a desperate fight, despairing of vktory,
he resolved to seek safety in flight, leaving his ship stranded
and bulged on a sandbank. In a small boat, alone and
unattended, he reached Carmesund, in Norway. Thence
he fled to Denmark, where his person being recognised be
was put into close confinement in the castle of Draxboim
For eight years he languished in captivity, deprived of his
reason, and in that unhappy condition he 'died 14th April,
1578.
" A fiigitive among his own.
Disguised, deserted, desolate—
A weed upon the torrent thrown —
A Cain among the sons of men—
A pirate oo the ocean— then
A Scandinavian captlv«*a doom.
To die amid the dnngeou*t gloom ! "
Ddta.
** Thus perished the chief of the Hepbums, whose sonndini;
titles of * the most potent and noble prince, James, duke ot
Orkney,' nuux]uis of Fifs, earl of BothweU, brd of Halea, of
Oriehton, Liddisdale, and Zetland ; high admiral of Scotland;
warden of the three marches; high sheriff of Edinburgti,
Haddmgton, and Berwick; baillie of Lauderdale; govenor
of Edinburgh castle and captain of Dunbar, only served to
make the scene of the fettered felon, expiring in the dungeons
of Draxholm, a more striking example of retributive fate, and
of that guilty ambition, misdirected talent, and insatiable
pride, the effect of which had filled all Europe with horror
and amazement** [lAfi of Kirhakfy, p. 191.] Before hit
death, in an interval of returning reason, the miserable Both-
well confessed his own share in the murder of Damley, and
fully exculpated Mary from any participation in his crimes.
He left no issue. Lady Jean Gordon, his first wife, who to
described as a lady of great prudence, was afterwards twice
married, first, on 18th December 1578, to Alexander, eleventh
eari of Sutherland, who died in 1594; and secondly, to
Alexander Ogilvy of Boyne. She enjoyed a jointure out of
Lord Bothwell's estates in Haddingtonshire, till her death in
1629, in the 84th year of her age. The eari of Bothwell was
forfeited by the Scottish parliament 29th December, 1567,
and thus the Hepbums were for ever deprived of the landed
property and titles which they had enjoyed for so long a pe-
riod, taking the first rank among the families of East Lothian.
The narrative written by the last eari of Bothwell of the
house of Hepburn, embracing his personal history after his
flight from Scotland, his adventures on the coast of Norway,
and imprisonment in Denmark, has been privately printed fior
the Bannatyne Club from the original in the royal library at
the castle of Drottninghobne in Sweden, and was presented
to the members of the club by Messrs. Henry GodLbnm and
Thomas MaiUand (Lords Cockbura and Dundrennan), under
the title of 'Let Affairet du Conte de BodweO, fJa.
MDXXvni.* An English transition also appeared in the
' New Monthly Magazine,* in which periodical the authenticity
of the document is fully established. M. Mignet, the French
historian, in a Histoiy of Mary Queen of Scots, in two vol-
umes, published in 1851, attraipts, from a collection of Mary's
letters said to be in the possession of Prince Labanoi^ and
certain Spanish mannscripts obtained by his own reaearob«s
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m the archives of Simancu, to prove Marj's oomplicitj in
Darnley's murder, but however gnilty as a woman and fimlty
as m qoeen she might have been, and however far led awaj
bj her passion for Bothwell, we hesitate to betieve her so
ieeplj criminal as to be a consenting partj to the
tion of her own hosband.
The next and last possessor of the title of earl of Bothwell
was Francis Stewart, eldest son of John Stewart, prior of
Coldinj^iam, natural son of King James the Fifth, bj Eliza-
beth, daughter of Sir John Garroichael, captain of Crawford.
The prior obtained a legitimation under the great seal of Soot-
land 7th Febmary 1551, and died at Inverness in 1563, when on
a northern drcuit with his brother, the eari of Moray. He had
married, 4Ui Jannaiy 1562, Ladv Jane Hepburn, onlj daughter
of Patrick, third eari of Bothwell, and sister of the turimlent
eari, the murderer of Damlev. This marriage was celebrated at
Seton bouse in East Lothian with great splendour, Queen Marj
honouring the nuptials with her presence. Two sons were
the issue, Francis and Hercules. Francis, the elder, was, by
the special favour of King James the Sixth, in consideration
of his descent from the Hepbums, created, 39th July 1576,
eari of Bothwell, and had a grant of several lands, with the
offices of sheriff-principal of the county of Edinburgh and
within the oonstabulaxy of Haddington, and lord high admbal
of Scotland. He was also appointed sheriff of the county of
Berwick and buliaiy of Lauderdale. This nobleman rendered
himself remarkable by his restless disposition, and his several
daring attempts to obtain possession of the person of the
king. In his youth he went for a short time to Franoe,
but in July 1582 he returned to Scotland, and soon took
part against James Stewart, eari of Arran, the most unprin-
cipled of all the favourites of James the Sixth. In conjunction
with Lord Home and the laird of Ck>wdenknows he fortified
Kelso, and bade defiance to Arran's power. Having a per-
sonal altercation with Sir William Stewart, Arran's brother, in
presence of the king at Holyroodhouse, Stewart gave him the
lie in very rude language. A few days afterwards, on the
30th July 1588, they accidentally met in the High Street,
when eadi had his retainers with him. A battle immediately
ensued. Sir William, driven down the street by the superior
numbers of his opponents, retreated into Blackfiriar's Wynd.
There he was thrust through the body by Bothwell, and shun
on the spot IBtrreTs Dianfj p. 24.] Feuds of this kind
were so common at that turbulent period that little notice
seems to have been taken of this affiray, and Bothwell was
never seriously prosecuted for it
In 1587, on the news reaching ScotUmd of the execution of
Queen Mary, a strong desire was manifested to attack Eng-
land, and avenge her death. Bothwell refused to put on
mourning, and declared that the best * dnie weed* was a steel
coat In 1588, he aided the Catholic earls of Huntly, Errol,
and Angus, in their rebellion against the king, and on James*
proceeding to the north he threatened to ravage the borders
and compel his return, but his forces gradually left him, and
when the king came back to Edinburgh he threw himself on
his knees before his migesty in the diancellor's garden, and
was sent prisoner to Holyrood.
()n the 28th May 1589, with the earls of Huntly and Craw-
ford, he was brought to trial on a charge of high treason and
other crimes, and especially in tra£Scking with strangers, such
as Jesuits and seminary priests, for the overthrow of the pro-
testant rdigion. Bothwell was farther charged with having
received from one Colonel Semple a thousand crowns, and
from France, by the earl of Errol, the same sum, which he
made use of to raise soldiers, without having his mi^esty's
commission to do so. They denied the principal charges
bat were found guilty of treason. The king, however, would
not consent to their execution, and the matter was allowed to
remam in abeyance for upwards of two years, when the earls
of Huntly and Crawford received a fhll pardon. IPUcaim^t
Crimmal Trials, vol L part 2, pp. 172-181.J I^rd Both-
well was imprisoned in Tantallan Castle, but after a few
months he was .released on payment of a heavy fine to the
Crown. In October of that year, when King James went to
Denmark on his marriage expedition, Bothwell and the
duke of Lennox were appointed to govern the kingdom in his
absenoe, and it is recorded that while they were at the head
of the government, * greater peace, tranquillity, and justice
were not heard of long before.* But on the return of the king
his troubles commenced. In January 1591, a midwife of the
name of Agnes Sampson, known as the * wise wife of Keith/
and some other persons were burnt at Edinburgh for sorcery
and witchcraft By some of these persons the eari of Both-
well was accused of having consulted them, in order to know
the time of the king's death, and of having employed their
art to raise the storms which had detained him so long in
Denmark, as well as endangered the lives of the king and
queen during theur voyage to Scotland in the preoedmg year.
Being in consequence dted to appear before the Secret Coun-
cil, he obeyed the citation. According to Sh: James Melville,
he voluntarily surrendered himself a prisoner in the castle of
Edinburgh, very naturally insisting that ' the devil, wha was
a Iyer from the beginning, nor yet his sworn witches, aucht
not to be credited.' In the * Historic of King James the
Sext,' we are told that after appearing before the lords of the
secret council he was * committed to prison within the castle
of Edinburgh, till farther trial should be taken of him. For
the king, at the persuasion of Chancellor Maitland, suspected
the said Bothwell, that he meant and intended some evil
against his person, and remained long constant in that opinion
divers years afler. The king wrote to all the nolnlity at
diverse times to convene for his trial, but they all disobeyed,
because they knew that the king had no just oocasion of grief
nor crime to allege against him, but only at the instigation of
Chancellor Maitland, whom they all hated to the death for
his proud arrogance used in Denmark against t^e earl
Marischal.' The latter was ambassador extraordinary to the
Danish court After lying twenty days in prison, Bothwell,
on the 22d June 1591, effected his escape from the castle of
Edinburgh, by the agency of one Lauder, captain of the
watch, whom he gained over, and who fled with him. On
this it was resolved to put in force his former conviction for
treason. On the 25th of the same month, sentence of for-
feiture was pronounced against him at the cross of Edinbuigh,
and it was declared high treason for any one to ' reset, supply,
show favour, intercommune, or have intelligence with him.'
The eari fled to the borders, and assembled his retainers,
under pretence of driving Chancellor Maitland from the
king's councils. On the 2d August a proclamation was is-
sued for the pursuit of the earl, and the king resolved to
march against him in person. On the 7th, however, the king
issued another proclamation dispensing with the attendance of
those whom he had summoned to arms, as he had abandoned
the proposed expedition against Bothwell. On the 27th
of December, the earl repaired to Edinburgh, and being
favoured by some of the king's attendants, he was admitted
with his followers, late in the evening, into the courtyard of
Holyroodhouse, in which the king was then residing. He
advanced directly towards the royal apartments, the doors of
which were instantly shut He attempted to force open
some of them with hammers and other weapons, and called
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for fire to burn others, but the aUnn being communicated to
the citj, the inhabitants ran to arms. An attack was also
made on the queen's apartments, on the supposition that the
king vras there, but the door of the gallery was ably defended
by Heniy Lindsay, the master of her majesty's household, and
the king was conveyed for safety to a turret above. During
the fray a gentleman named Scott, brother of Scott of Bal-
wearie in Fife, was shot in the thigh, and the king's master-
stabler, named William Shaw, was killed, as was also one
with him named Peter Shaw. The earl was a^ lost repulsed,
and made his escape with difficulty, but eight of his men were
taken, and on the following morning they were hanged with-
out trial, on a new gallows that was erected opposite the
palace gate for the purpose. ^Birrers Diary.'] For this
extraordinary attempt to seize the king, Bothwell and his
accomplices, among whom we find his countess, James
Douglas of Spott, ArchibaUi Wauchope, younger of Niddry,
John Hamilton of Samuelbton, and other country gentle-
men, were attainted in parliament, 12th July 1592. On the
17th of the same month he and his partisans made another
desperate attempt in Falkland palace to seize the person of
the king, who, betrayed by some of his courtiers, and feebly
defended by otliers, had very nearly fallen into their hands.
He owed his safety to the fidelity and vigilance of Sur Robert
Melville, and the irresolution of Bothwell's followers. Foiled
in this enterprise, the earl fled to Fngland, where he was
taken under the protection of Queen Elizabeth. His countess,
who had been left in Scotland, was received into the royal
favour on the 17th of November, but on the 23d of the same
month a proclamation was issued ordering that no one * should
reset her, give her entertainment, or have any commerce of
society with her in any case.* This lady was Lady Mary
DougUs, eldest daughter of David, seventh earl of Angus, and
widow of Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, who died in 1674.
All resetters and assisters of Bothwell having been ordered by
parliament not to approach nearer to the royal presence than
ten miles, and many of them having disobeyed, on the 8th
December, a warrant was issued to the lord provost and ma-
gistrates of Edinburgh to apprehend Dame Margaret Douglas,
countess of Bothwell, Archibald Wauchope, younger of Nid-
drie, John Hamilton of Samuelston, Sir James Scott of Bal-
wearie Andrew Ker of Femiehirst, Walter Scott of Harden,
and several others, all avowed partisans of the outlawed earl.
A great variety of proclamations were at this time issued
against Bothwell and his adherents, and a number of persons
were denounced rebels for resetting him and his accom-
plices. The Criminal Records of the period are full of such
denunciations, and even the town of Kelso did not escape
prosecution for the same offence. On the 12th of May 1598,
the inhabitants, with only one exception, a person named
William Lauder, were ordered to find security that they shall
' satisfy his Majesty's will in silver, providing the same shall
not exceed the sum of two thousand merks.' On the 17th,
judgment was given against tliem, and they were ordered to
pay a fine of * seventeen hundred merks, and to find caution in
the Boikis of Secret Coonsall that they shall not resett, sup-
plie, or interoommnne with the said sometime earl or his
accomplices, furnish them meit, drink, house, nor barbery,
under whatsoroever oollour or pretence, under the penalty of
twa thousand punds.' IPitcairn's Criminal Trials^ vol i.
part iLI On the 1st June of that year (1593) * the sometime
earl,* and four others, namely, Gilbert Pennycuik, John
Rutherford of Hunthill, elder, Thomas Rutherford of Hunt-
bill, younger, and Simon Armstrong, younger of Whitehaugh,
were summoned *for certane crymes of treasons and iese-
Duyestie,' at the instance of Mr. David Macgill and Mr. John
Skene, ' advocates to our sovereign lord.' In this summons,
which is a long document in Latin, the invasion of the
palaces of Holyroodhouse and Falkland, and other matten
are all recapitukted. On this occasion the previous * sum-
mons and executions' were produced, with letters <^ rebuui-
tion, dated March 16, 1592-3, bearing that Bothwell had
been * relaxit frae the process of homing led against him.'
On the 2lBt of July, the eari was * called of new,' as it is
termed, at the window of the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, and
failing of course to appear, he was solemnly declared a trai-
tor, his property was confiscated, and his armorial bearings
were torn by the heralds at the Cross in the presence of a
great number of spectators.
Bothwell bad still many powerful friends, especially aoiong
the noblemen and gentlemen of his own name of Stewart,
and it is said that Queen Elizabeth herself interceded with
James for his pardon. The repeated proclamations against
him, in which he and his resetters were denounced with
the utmost rigour, had excited a vast sympathy in his
favour, and many, especially the enemies of the court fa-
vourites, viewed him as a persecuted individuaL A num-
ber of hb friends held a meeting at Edinburgh and it was
resolved to take advantage of the oditun which Chanceikv
MaitUnd had recently incurred, to invite Bothwell to appear
before the king, and to ' ofier himself to his clemency and
mercy.' Accordingly, he was invited back to Scotland bj
the duke of Lennox, the earl of Athole, and Lord Ochiltree,
all noblemen of his own name, to whom he was related. On
the 24th July 1593, only three days after he had been so-
lemnly declared a traitor, this daring and rebellious peer
seized the gates of the palace of Holyroodhouse, and, ac-
companied by a person of the name of Colville, brother of the
laird of Easter Wemyss, was introduced into the royal apart-
ments with a numerous train of armed fbllowen. The king,
deserted by his attendants and incapable of resistance, called
to Bothwell to consummate his treasons by piercing his sov-
ereign to the heart ; but the earl fell on bis knees and im-
plored pardon. James yielded from necessity to his entrea-
ties, and a few days afterwards he signed a capituIatioD,
whereby he pledged himself to grant him a remission of all
past offences, to procure a ratification of it in parliament, and
to dismiss Chancellor Maitland from his councils and pre-
sence. Bothwell, on his part, promised to withdraw from the
court, and, * by reason the original cause of his trouble was the
suspicion of witchcraft, he oflered himself to trial by whom-
soever of his migesty's subjects he should please to appoint
upon the jury, and a short day was assigned to that effect'
The trial accordingly took pUoe on 10th August, when Both-
well was acquitted of consulting with witches against the
king's life. That same night he slept at Holyroodhoose,
and detected a plot for the escape of the king to Falkland,
which he prevented from being carried into efiect, and
the next day he gave a banquet to his Migesty at his
house in Leith. He now became the leader of the Eng-
lish party and of the Kirk. His enemies. Lord Home,
Chancellor Maitland, or more properly Lord Thirlstane, the
Master of Ghunmis, and Sir George Home, were banished
the court, and on the 26th July a proclamation was issued in
favour of the earl of Bothwell, his countess, James Doughis
of Spott, and others, charging the Ueges that * nane of them
tak upon hand to slander, murmur, reproach, or backbite
the said earl and his fiiends.' His triumph, however, was of
short duration. On the 7th of September, at a convention of
the nobility and othen at Stirling, called by the king, and
which was attended only by the duke of Lennox, the earis of
Glencaim, Mar, Morton, and Montrose, and Lords Hamilton,
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LAST EARL OF.
Lindsay, and livingstone, with two or three commisfdonerB
for the boroughs, his majesty entered into a Icmg detail aboat
Bothwell and his proceedings, alleging that the earl kept him
in thraldom and captivity, that he had been compelled to
grant him a remission of his offences against law and his own
free will, and he desired that thej should by their general
votes acknowledge the same. The convention, however,
ananimonsly answered that * captive he conld not be esteemed,
seeing that since his last talking with Bothwell at Holyrood-
house he had been at Falkland, next at Edinburgh, and last
of all at extreme liberty and pastime for the space of many
days in the palace of Hamilton, unaccompanied by any sus-
pected person on the part of Bothwell ;^ and they farther de-
clared tiiat they really * could not condescend to his majesty
on that point* All that the king could persuade them to
sanction was a declaration, on the 13th of September, that
'his Highness, as a free prince, may at his pleasure call sik
of his nobilitie, counsall, officers, and others gnde subjects as
his HTj^ness has, or best shall like ;' and Bothwell and cer-
tain individuak were ordered not to approach nearer the king
than ten miles without the royal perraismon. A memorial
signed by the king was also transmitted to the earl, who was
then residing in Edinburgh, intimatmg tha^ if he would re-
nounce the former conditions extorted by force in Holyrood-
house, being a breach of the royal prerogative, a remission
would be granted for all past offences, which would be ratified
by the pariiament to be held on the 20th of November, the
esrl finding security that he would forthwith retire out of the
kingdom, and remain * furth of the same' during the king's
pleasure. The king at the same time wrote to him to pro-
ceed to the prior of Blantyre and Sir Robert Melville, to con-
fer with them on the subject; but, fearing that some plot was
concocted against him, his lordship sent an excuse. On the
11th October he was served with a summons to appear before
the king and coundl on the 25th, to answer sundry charges
of high treason ; and, having failed to appear, he was de-
nounced a rebel. On the 11th of December he was put to
the horn, and repeated proclamations were issued against
him. On the day last named Birrel mentions that he fought
a duel with Rer of Cessford. Retiring to the borders, the
earl succeeded in raising a force of five hundred moss-troop-
ers, with which he entered Kelso on the evening of the 1st of
April, 1694, and on the following day he marched to Dal-
keith. At that time considerable excitement prevailed in the
kingdom, occasioned by some confespondence which had been
carried on by the earls of Huntly, Errol, and other Roman
Catholic noblemen and gentlemen, with Spain, the chief ob-
ject of which was believed to be the subversion of the Pro-
testant religion in Scotland, and the restoration of popery.
Of this Bothwell cleverly took advantage to create a feeling
in his favour. While at Dalkeith, he issued a long procla-
mation, in which he made the correspondence with Spain a
prominent topic of grievance. He also addressed letters to
the English ambassadors on the subject, and one to his * right
reverend and loving brethren,' as he calls them^ ' the synodal
assemblie of ministers then convenit at Dunbar.' On the 8d
of April he proceeded to Leith with between four and five
hundred troopers, accompanied by Lord Ochiltree and several
partisans of inferior rank. On hearing that the earl was at
Leith, the king proceeded to St Giles' church, and address-
ing the people he declared to them that if they would assist
hini against Bothwell he would banish all the Catholic
brds. A large body of the citizens mustered at his call,
and headed by James in person, marciied to Leith. Both-
well had drawn up his men in battle-array on the south-west
side of that town, but as soon as he perceived the force under
the king advanong from Edinburgh, he retreated to Hawk-
hill near Restalrig castle, which overlooks Lochend, and then
at an easy pace he passed through the village of Restalrig,
and proceeded to the mill at Wester Duddingstone, alwut a
mile and a half distant Thence he continued his march
with the utmost leisure to the little vilUge of Niddry Maris-
chal, on the property of Wauchope of Niddry, whose eldest
son was one of his chief supporters, and had been often pro-
secuted on his account Ascending an eminence called the
Wowmat, he dismissed his followers ; (according to Douglas
they abandoned him;) reserving only a few. Lord Home,
the Master of GUunrais, and others, were commanded by the
king to pursue the eari with both horae and foot On their
approach to Niddry Green, they sent forward three gentle-
men to view the ground, but being perceived, the earl's
watches fell upon them, and compelled them to return to
their friends. Bothwell and his few attendants immediately
chai^ged Home and Glammis, with great impetuosity, and
forced them and their followers to flee in every direction. He
pursued them till within half-a-mile of the spot where the
king stood. The foot fled to the neighbouring castle of
Craigmillar, upon the field in front of which Bothwell sound-
ed a retreat, in sight of the king and his supporters, and
marched back unmolested to the Wowmat, whence he pro-
ceeded to Dalkeith, where he remained during the night, and
on the following day betook himself to the south. From BirrerR
Diary and Pitcaim's Criminal Trials, it appears that in 1594,
several persons were executed for receiving and entertaining
Bothwell, among whom was the governor of Blackness castle,
who was accused of agreeing with the eari to receive the king
as a prisoner in that fortress. On the 16th SeptemW the
same year a proclamation was issued, declaring it treasonable
to have any intercourse with his lordship, and on the 80th of
that month, another appeared, rehearsing all his treasons, and
asserting that his * dissembled hypocrisy thir three years past
had procured to him the favour of ower mony of people, by
the quhilk he was enabled to work all thir insolencies against
his Highness.' Hb brother, Hercules Stewart, suffered on
the scaffold the same year.
Bothwell fled to England, but Queen Elizabeth, in com-
pliance with the earnest remonstrances of James, obliged him
to leave her kingdom. James had also influence enough with
the presbyterian ministers to induce them to excommunicate
him. After an abortive attempt to join Huntly and the
Catholic lords in another rebellion, the earl fled to Caithness,
whence he was compelled to retire for safety to France,
and afterwards to Spain and Italy, where he renounced
the protestant faith, and lived many years in obscurity
and indigence, plunging into the lowest and most infam-
ous debauchery. He died at Naples, in the year 1624,
in great misery. Before engaging in his treasonable at-
tempts, he had made over his large estates to his stepson,
Sir Walter Scott of Bucdeuch, in whose family they re-
mained long after the earl's attainder. Bothwell had three
sons and three daughters. Francis, the eldest son, obtained
a rehabilitation under the great seal of Scotland 30th July
1614, which was ratified by act of parliament 28th June
1683. The titles were never restored, but according to Scott
of Scotstarvet, the last earl of Bothwell's eldest son received
from the earl of Bucdeuch, by decret arbitral of Charles the
First, the extensive estates of his father, which he sold to the
Winton family, having married Lady Isabella Seton, only
daughter of Robert fust earl of Winton. The offspring ot
this marriage was a son and a daughter. The son Charles is
stated, on the authority of Scott of Scotstarvet, to have beer,
a trooper in the dvil wars. He was served heir to his father |
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SURNAME 01-.
in 1647. His name and that of his sister, Margaret, are en-
tered in the parish register of Tranent, irom which it appears
that he was bom in April 1618. John, the second son of the
earl, was the last oommendator of Coldingham, and he got the
lands and baronies which belonged to that prioiy united into
a baroDj in 1631. On the 2d June 1638 his son Francis had
a charter of the borgh of barony of Coldingham. In the Me-
moirs of Captain Creighton I8wi/Vs Works^ vol. xiv. p. 297]
it is stated that Francis Stewart, grandson of the earl cdT
Dothwell, was a private gentleman in the Horse Guards in
the reign of Charles the Second, by whom he was made cap-
tain of dragoons, and he commanded the cavahry on the left
in the action agahist the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge in
1679. The reader of Soott*s works will readily remember the
Sergeant Bothwell of Old Mortautt. Henry Stewart,
the eari^s thud son, had also a charter of the lorddiip of Col-
dingham in 1621. Of the earl's three daughters, Elizabeth,
the eldest, married James, second son of William first Lord
Cranstoun, and was the mother of William the third lord.
Margaret, the second, became the wife of Alan, fifth Lord
Cathcart, witnout issue; and Helen, the youngest, married
Macfarlane of Macfarlane, by whom she had several children.
The surname of Bothwell is of great antiquity, being
derived from the lordship of Bothwell in Lanarkshire. The
name Botheville, Bothel, Boethwell, Bothell, or Bothwell,
has been supposed to have originated in the Celtic Both^ an
eminence, and toaUly a castle, the castle of Bothwell standing
comudembly elevated above the Clyde. A more probable con-
jecture is, that it is a compound of the two Celtic words
Boih^ in its signification of a dwelling, and ael or hjfl, a river,
which is strictly descriptive of Bothwell castle, as it is also of
the castle of Bothell or Bothall in Northnmbeiiand, situated
on the Wentsbeck. In the reign of Alexander the Second
the barony of Bothwell was held by Walter Olifard, justici-
ary of Lotliian, who died in 1242. The writer of the gene-
alogy of the Bothwells, Lords Holyroodhouse, in the Appendix
to * Nisbet's System of Heraldry,' (vol. ii. p. 242,) quoting
the Chartulary of the Episcopal See of Glasgow, thinks it
highly probable that the Olifards got the barony of Bothwell
by the marriage of an heir female of the surname of Both-
well. [See Oliphaict, surname of.] It afterwards passed
by marriage to the Morays or Murrays. In the time of King
Edward the First it was given to Aymer de Valence, earl of
Pembroke, appointed by him governor of Uie south part of
Scotland. Upon his forfeiture, it was bestowed by King Ro-
bert the Bruce on Andrew Moray, lord of Bothwell, who
married Christian, sister of that monarch.
The ancestor of the noble family of Bothwell, Lords Holy-
roodhouse, was John de Bothwill, who received from King
David the Second a charter (dated at Dundee, 31st July
1369), in which he is styled his beloved cousin, of ten pounds
sterling and foiu: chalders of grain yearly, due to the king
from the thanage of Doun in Banfishire, for his life, and an-
other 19th April 1371, o^'all his migesty's lands of the park
of Gargwoll in the same shire, also for his life. The family
of Bothwell fixed their residence in Edinburgh, where they
ranked among the principal citizens, and near which dty they
had a considerable estate in lands. Richard Bothwell was
]nt>vost of Edinburgh in the reign of King James the Thurd.
He married Elizabeth, daughter of William Sommerville of
Plean in Stirlingshire, by whom he had two sons and a
daughter. The second son, Richard Bothwell, was preben-
dary of Glasgow and rector of Ashldrk, doctor of the civil and
canon laws, and provost of the church of St Mary in the
Fields, within the walls of the dty of Edinbui^h. He was
director of the Chancery in the reign of King James the Fifth,
by whom he was appointed a lord of sesdon, at its first insti-
tution, 25th May, 1532. On account of bis advanced age
the king dispensed with his attendance, 7th March 1589, but
reserved to him his saUry and privileget. IHaig and Bnm-
iom's Senators of College of Jiofice.] He died in 1547.
The daughter, Margaret, married Sir Duncan Fonester of
Garden, comptroller to James the Fifth in 1503.
Francis Bothwell, the eldest son, was likewise appomted a
senator of the College of Justice on its first institution, on
the temporal side, while his brother. Dr. Richard BothweD,
was named on the spuritnal dde. Francis had a diarter of
two pieces of waste ground in Edinburgh, and served the
office of provost of that dty in 1585. He married Janet, one
of the two daughters and coheirs of Patrick Richardson of
Mddrumsbeugh, burgess of Edinbui^, with whom he got
lands in the neighbouring regality of Broughtoo. He had
two sons and a daughter, namely, Richard, provost of Edin-
burgh in the reign of Queen Mary, whose male Une is extmct,
and Adam, the celebrated bishop of Orkney, of whom a no-
tice follows. Janet, the daughter, married Sur Archibald
Napier of Merchiston, and became the mother of J<^ Ka-
pler, the inventor of the logarithms.
Adam Bothwell, the second son. was preferred to the see
of Orkney by Queen Mary, 8th October 1562, after being
duly elected by the chapter, and on 13th November 1565, he
was appointed a lord of sesdon. He was one of the four
Scottish bishops who embraced the Reformation, and as be
had in his own person the property of the luahopric of Ork-
ney, he made an excambion of the greater part of it with
Robert Stewart, abbot of Holyroodhouse, one of the nator&l
brothers of the queen, for his abbey, which was ratified by a
charter under Uie great seal of Scotland, 25th September
1569. He was one of the dght bishops who signed Uie bond
granted by the nobility to the earl of Bothwdl, engaging to
support his marriage with Queen Maiy (see cmie, p. 358),
and, as ah'eady stated, he performed the marriage ceremony
between them according to the rites of the protestant chorcL
He was one of the first to desert the party of the queen, and
only two months after her fatal marriage with Bothwell, h«
placed the crown on the head of her infant son. At the
meeting of the General Assembly in December of that same
year (1567), " the haiU kirk found that he transgressed the
act of the kirk in manying the divorced adulterer; and,
therefore, deprived him of all functione of the ministrie, con-
forme to the tenor of the act made thereupon, ay and whill
[until] the kirk be satisfied of the sdander committed be
him." [Booke qf the Umvertall Kirk of ScoHtmd, p. 7L]
In the Assembly hdd in July 1568, the bishop made doe
* obedience and submisdon,* and engaged *' upon some Son-
day to make ane sermone in the kirk of Halyrudehouse, and
in the end thereof to confess his ofience in marrying the
queene with the earle of Bothwell," whereupon the Idrk re-
stored him again to the ministry, ybid. p. 104.] The
same year (15G8) the andent barony of Broughton and the
surrounding lands comprehended within its jurisdiction, were
granted to him by James the Sixth, but in 1587 he sur-
rendered them to the Crown, in favour of Sir Lewis Bel-
lenden of Auchnoul\ lord-justice clerk, llie bishop wu
much employed in matters of state, and in September
1568, he accompanied the Regent Moray to York as one
of the commisdoners against Queen Mary. For his oppo-
dtion to the Regent Morton, he was for a short time im-
prisoned in the castle of Stirling. He died 23d August,
1593, at the age of 67, and was interred in the nave of
the Abbey Church of Holyrood. where a monument wit
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BOWER.
erected to his memory. \_Keith's Scottiah BiBhopa."] Thu
monament is still to be seen in the rained chapel, attached
to the second pillar from the great east window that once
OT«rlooked the hij^ altar. By his wifio, Margaret, daughter
of John Mnrray of Toochadam, he had three sons and one
daughter, the latter married to Sir William Sandilands of St
Monance. A rignette view of the bishop's mansion in Byre*8
Close, High Street, Edinburgh, (now the warehouse and pro-
perty of Messrs. Clapperton and Ck>.,) as seen from the north,
is given in Wil»orC$ Memorials of Edinburgh, vol. iL p. 7.
A tradition exists that the heroine of the touching ballad,
named * Lady Ann Bothwell*s Lament,* beginning
' Balow, my boy, lie still and sleip!
It grieves me sair to see thee weip;*
was a daughter of Adam Bothwell, bishop of Orkney. Mr.
Robert Chambers, in his Scottish ballads, speaking of this
pathetic lament, has committed a mistake when he says that
the bishop was raised to a temporal peerage, under the tiUe
of Lord Holyroodhonse. It was his son, and not himself,
who was the first Lofd Holyroodhonse. His daughter,
Anna, it is said, was betrayed, when very young, and by the
aid of her nurse, into a disgraceful connexion with the Hon.
Sir Alexander Erskine, third son of John, seventh earl of
Mar, of whom a portrait still exists by Jamieson, in which he
is represented in a military dress, with a cuirass and scarf.
He is said to have been one of the handsomest men of his
time, with a noble and expressive countenance. The deser-
tion of his unfortunate victim was believed by his contempo-
raries to have exposed him to the signal vengeance of heaver.
He was blown up, along with the earl of Haddington, and
about eighty other persons of distinction, in the casUe of
Dunglas, Berwickshire, in 1640, the powder magazine having
been ignited by a servant boy, out of revenge against his mas-
ter. In the ballad, supposed to have been written by the
heroine herself, who was at one time conjectured to have
been the countess of Bothwell, and at another a Miss Bos-
well of Auchinleck, the followmg verses seem prophetic of
his fate :
"Balow, my boy; thy father's fled,
When he the thriftless son has play'd.
Of vows and oaths forgetfbl, he
Prefers the wars to thee and me.
But now, perhaps, thy corse and mine
Makes bbn eat aooros with the swine
" Yet I can't chase, bat ever will
Be loving to thy father still:
Where'er he gae, where'er he ride,
My lave with him doth sUll abide.
In weel or wae, where'er he gae,
My heart can ne'er depart him trmt.
** Then curse him not: perhaps now he,
Stung with remorse, is blessing tliee;
Perhaps at death ; for who can tell.
Whether the Judge of heaven or hell
By some proud foe, bos strucic the blow
And laid the dear deceiver low.
" I wish I were into the bounds
Where he lies smothered in his wounds-
Repeating, OS he pants for air.
My name, whom once he called his fair
No woman's yet so fiercely set,
But she'll forgave, though not forget
Balow, my boy; lie still and sleip!
It grieves me snir to see thee weip."
These two last verses, however, are not to bo round in the
version of the ballad in Bishop Percy's collection, which dif-
fers considerably from that in Chambers' Scottish Ballads.
John Bothwell, the eldest son of the bishop, designed of
Alhammer, succeeded his fiither as oommendator of the abbey
<^ Holyroodhonse, and was appointed a lord of sesnon, 2d
July 1598. Enjoying the favour and confidence of King
James the Sixth, he was sworn of his privy council, and ac-
companied him to England in 1603. On the journey he re-
ceived the keys of the town of Berwick, in his majesty's name.
He was created a peer by the titie of * Lord Halyradhous,' by
charter dated at Whitehall, 20th December 1607. to him and
the heirs male of his body, whom failing, to the heirs male of
Adam, bishop of Orkney, his father, whom failing, to his own
lawfyl and nearest heirs. His lordship married Maiy, daugh-
ter of Sir John Carmichael of Carmidiael, with whom he got
twelve thousand marks of portion, and died in November
1609, leaving an only son, John, second Lord Holyroodhonse,
who died, unmarried, in 1635. The title remained dormant
for ninety-nine years.
William Bothwell, third son of Adam bishop of Orkney,
had a son, Adam Bothwell, whose grandson, Alexander Both-
well of Glenonrse, as lineally descended from Sir Richard
Bothwell, provost of Edinburgh, the bishop's elder brother,
served himself heir before the sheriffs of Edinburgh, 4th Feb-
ruary, 1704, to his grandfather, Adam Bothwell of Whelp-
side, grandchild of Sir Francis, the provost, as also to the
second Lord Holyroodliouse. He married Janet, daughter of
John Trotter of Mortonhall, by whom he had a son, Henry
Bothwell of Glenoorse, who was served heir to John Lord
Holyroodhonse, 8th February 1734, and presented to the king
a petition claiming the title. This petition was by his ma-
jesty's commands laid before the House of Lords, 20th March
1734, but no determination was ever come to respecting it
He nevertheless assumed the tide, and died in the Canon-
gate, Edinburgh, 10th February 1755. By his wife, Mary
daughter of Lord Kiel Campbell of Ardmaddie, second son ot
Archibald marquis of Aigyle, he had five sons and four daugh-
ters. None of his sons had male issue, and the peerage may
now be said to be extinct
Bower, a surname, contracted from Bowmaker, originally
from England. In former times, before the invention of gun-
powder, a bowmaker was a very honourable and lucrative
profession, and on being assumed as a surname, it was in
process of time shortened into Bower. There was. an ancient
family, Bower of Kinnettles in Angus, who, like all of a similar
surname, carried bows in their arms as relative to the name.
In the accounts of the lord high treasurer of Scotland, un-
der date 2d December 1682, there is the following entry:
**Item, to the Inglise (English) Botcar for ane dozane of
bowis and six dosane of arrows deliverit at the kingis com-
mand to Alexander Canosoune, and for four dosane of arrowis
deliverit to the kingis grace for his ane schuting, xx lb." In
the history of the Gowrie conspiracy occurs the name of
James Bower, called Laird Bower, a * servitor' of Logan of
Restalrig, who was employed to convey letters between Logan
and the earl of Gowrie, and having shown some of them to
one George Sprutt, a notary in Eyemouth, the latter was ex-
ecuted eight years afterwards for concealment of the plot.
The English name Bowyer b the same as Bower. Playfair
conjectures lAntiquities, vol. vi. p. 436] that the word is
composed of the Gothic word Boo or Bow^ used to express
a dwelling, a farm-house, or village, and the Saxon Er, an in-
habitant, as Bower or Bowyer, the inhabitant of a house or
village. In the Orkney islands, where the Gothic was lon^
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BOWER.
362
ARCHIBALD.
presened in greater puri^ than anj other part, the prindpal
farm-house on an estate is, in manj instances, called a bow^
and in Ayrshire the tenant of a daiiy is called a Bower. The
English name o "owes, now borne bj the earl of Strath-
more, (see Strathmorb, earl of,) seems to have been de-
rived from the same trade. It will be recollected that the
6rHt wife of John Knox was named Marjory Bowes.
BOWER, Walter, the continuator of Foixiuu's
ScotichronicoD, was born at Haddington in 1385.
At the age of 18 he assumed the religions habit,
and after finishing his philosophical and theologi-
cal education he went to Paris, to study the civil
and canon law. After his return to Scotland, he
was unanimously elected abbot of St. Colm in
1418. On the death of Fordun, the historian,
Sir David Stewart of Rossyth requested him to
transcribe and complete the Scotichronicon, or
Chronicles of Scotland, whicli had been brought
down only to the 23d chapter of the fifth book.
Bower readily undertook the task, and instead of
executing a mere transcript, he inserted large in-
terpolations in the body of the work, and contin-
ued the naiTative to the death of James the Firat,
completing it in sixteen books. The materials for
this continuation had, however, principally been
collected by his predecessor. This work, the re-
sult of the joint laboui-s of Fordun and Bower, was
useful to Hector Boece in writing his history; and
on the Scotichronicon almost all the early histories
of Scotland are founded. — Irving's Scots Poets. —
See Fordun.
BOWER, Archibald, an author of talents
and industry, but of very equivocal religious chai*-
acter, was bom at or near Dundee, January 17,
1686. His parents were respectable Roman Ca-
tholics; and in September 1702, when he was
sixteen years of age, they sent him to the Scots
college of Douay; whence he was removed to
Rome, and in 1706 he was admitted into the order
of the Jesuits. After a noviciate of two years
he went to Fano, where he taught the classics,
and in 1717 he was recalled to Rome, to study
divinity in the Roman college. In 1721 he was
sent to the college of Arezzo^ and made reader of
philosophy and consultor to the rector of the col-
lege. He was then removed to Florence, where
he made his last vows. He afterwards went to
the college at Macerata, where he was chosen a
professor, and where, according to his own ac-
count, he was a counsellor and secretary to the
court of Inquisition. If we are to believe his own
statement, he here became disgusted at the enor-
mities committed by the Inquisition ; but his ene-
mies assert that, forgetting his vows of celibacy,
he engaged in an amorous intrigue with a nun, to
whom he was confessor. Certain it is that, in
1726, he was obliged to leave Macerata for Pera-
gia, and from thence he secretly made his escape
to England, where he arrived in June or July of
that year, after, by his own account, meeting with
many extraordinary adventures, which are to be
found detailed in the Edinburgh Magazine for
1786, p. 138.
On his ai-rival in England, he got introduced to
Dr. Aspinwall, who, like himself, had formerly
belonged to the order of the Jesuits, and Dr.
Clark. After several conferences with these gen-
tlemen, and some with Dr. Berkeley, bishop of
Cloyne, then dean of LondondciTy, he professed
himself a convert to the Protestant faith, quitted
the order of the Jesuits, and withdrew himself en-
tirely from all connection with the Roman Catholic
Church. This took place in November 1726, bot
it was not till six years after that he openly con-
fonned to the Church of England. By Dr. Aspin-
walFs means, he became known to many persons
of influence and respectability ; among others, he
was introduced to Dr. Goodman, physician to
Greorge the Firet, and by him i-ecommended to
Lord Aylmer, who wanted some one to assist him
in reading the classics. The education of two of
his lordship's children was also confided to his
care. With this nobleman he continued several
years on terms of the greatest intimacy, and was
by him made known to all his loi-dship's connec-
tions, and pai'ticularly to the Hon. Geoi^ge, after-
wards Lord Lyttleton, who subsequently became
his warm, steady, and to the last, when deserted
by almost every other person, his nnaltemble
friend. During the time he lived with Lord Ayl-
mer, he undertook, for Mr. Prevost, a bookseller,
the * Historia Literaria,* a monthly review of books,
the first number of which was published in 1730.
In 1735 he agreed with the proprietors of the
* Universal History' to write part of that work,
and he was employed upon it till 1744, being nine
years. The money he gained by these occupa-
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BOWER.
368
BOYCE.
tions he paid or leut to Mr. Hill, a Jesuit, who
transacted money mattei's, as an attorney ; and it
appears, from undoubted evidence, that this was
done by way of peace-oflTering to the society, into
which he was re-admitted about 1744. Subse-
quently, repenting of the engagement he had made
with his old associates, the Jesuits, he claimed
and recovered the money he had advanced to
them.
In 1746 he put forth proposals for publishing,
by subscription, a * History of the Popes ;* a work
which, he says, he commenced some years before
at Rome, and then brought it down to the pontifi-
cate of Victor, that is, to the close of the second
centuiy. In the execution of this work at that
period, he professes to have received the firet un-
favourable sentiments of the Pope's supremacy.
On the 13th of May 1748 he presented to the king
the first volume of his * History of the Popes ;'
and on the death of Mr. Say, keeper of Queen
Caroline's library, he was, through the influence
of Lord Lyttleton, appointed librarian in his place.
In August 1749 he married a niece of Bishop
Nicholson, and daughter of a clergyman of the
Church of England, a younger son of a gentleman
in Westmoreland, with whom he received a for-
tune of four thousand pounds steriing. In 1751
the second volume of his * History of the Popes'
made its appearance. His friend Lord Lyttleton
now appointed him clerk of the buck warrants, —
an office probably of no great emolument. His
* History' was continued to seven volumes, but in
it he displayed such a violent zeal against popery,
as exposed him to the animadversions of Roman
Catholic writers, particularly Alban Butler, a
learned priest, who, in a pamphlet printed at
Douay in 1751, assailed the two first volumes of
the * History of the Popes,* being all which were
at that period published. Unfortunately for his
reputation, his money transactions and corre-
spondence with the Jesuits were brought to light,
and notwithstanding his spirited and confident
defences, and his denial upon oath of the authen-
ticity of letters fully proved to be his, he lost his
character both as an author and a man, and was
generally believed by the public to be destitute of
moral and religious principle. The letters them-
selves were published in 1756 by Dr. Douglas,
afterwards bishop of Salisbury, with a commen-
tary proving their authenticity. He scarcely re-
tained a friend or advocate, except his patroii,
Lord Lyttleton, who, by withholding his permis-
sion, prevented Gamck from making Bower's
apostasy and double-dealing the subject of a stage
performance, for having mentioned in a contemp-
tuous manner, that eminent actor and his lady in
his ' Summar}' View of the Controversy between
the Papists and the Author.' Bower's latter years
seem to have been spent in virulent attacks upon
his enemies, the Papists, and iutvalnly endeavour-
ing to recover his reputation, and that of his ^ His-
tory of the Popes.' In 1761 he appears to have
assisted the author of ^Authentic Memoirs con-
cerning the Portuguese Inquisition,' in a series of
letters to a friend, 8vo. He died September 3d,
1766, at the age of eighty. By his will, which
does not contain any declaration of his religious
principles, he bequeathed all his property to his
wife, who some time after his death published an
attestation of his having died in the Protestant
faith.
Bowman, a somarae denved from the ancient practice of
archeiy, the bearer of a bow and arrows being called a bow-
man. The name is properly English, though found in Scot-
land. On the 29th December 1572, one Janet Bowman, oi
* Jonet Boyman,' as it is spelled m the Criminal Records, de-
scribed as * spous to William Steill,' was mdicted for witch-
craft, and being convicted was burnt at Edinburgh. About
the middle of the last century the lands of Logic, in the parish
of that name in Fife, were the property of Walter Bowman,
Esq., who long resided at Egham in Surrey. This gentleman
executed a very strict entail of the property, his libraty espe-
cially being placed under the most particular injunctions
for its preservation. He had travelled much on the continent,
and appears to have collected a considerable portion of the
books there. With many valuable editions of the ancient
classics, particularly a fine edition of Pliny's Natural History,
and a splendid illuminated edition of Ptolemy, the library
contains a rich collection of engravings, a great number oi
maps and charts, and^a well-preserved copy of Bleau's Athts.
By the terms of the entail, the heir is prohibited from lending
the books out; but he is bound to keep a suitable room for
them in his house, and to allow free access to it to the neigh-
bouring gentlemen, there to read and study. He is also
bound to have a basin at hand, with water and a towel, that
the books may not be soiled with unclean hands. Women
and children are expressly prohibited from admission to the
library. lLeighUm*s History of CoiaUy qf Fjfe, vol. ii. p. 60. |
BoWMONT, marquis of, the second title of the duke ot
Roxburghe, usually borne by the eldest son of that nobleman
[See EoxBUROHK, duke of. J
BoYCE, Boys,* or Bois, a surname of French origin. It
was originally De Bois or Du bois, written latterly as one, thu«
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BOYD,
864
MARK ALEXANDER.
Dubois, the name of the well-known French cardinal It was
earlj translated in England into its Saxon sjnonym of Wood,
or ik Wood, as Anthony A Wood, the historian of Oxford. But
in Scotland where the early French prevailed, long after it
ceased to be the chicle of ^>eech iu England, it retains nearly
lis original form. The families of Boys in England, of whom
was Alderman Boys, the patron of the fine arts and illustra-
tor of Shakspere, is of Scotch extraction. It was fireqnently
written in the Latin of the middle ages as De Boeco, which
was at the same time its form in the Italian and Romanesque
languages, both woi^ implying precisely the same thing. In
the thirteenth century Sir Andrew de Bosco married the third
daughter of Sir John Bisset of Lovat, and with her, as there
was no male heir, he got the third part of that estate. [See
ante^ p. 804.] In 1803, when Edward completed his con-
quest of Scotland, th^ castle of Urquhart in Ross-slure was,
by his forces, afber an obstinate siege, taken by storm,
and Alexander de Bois, the governor, and every person
in it, except his wife, who was then pregnant, were put
to death. The child thus saved by the pious scnq^les of the
English proved a boy., and is said to have been the founder of
the house of Forbes. The reason assigned for this by Boece
u sufficiently ridiculous as well as improbable, but in the ear-
liest forms of the word, Forbas, Forbos, Forbois, there are
nnmistakeable confirmations of the tradition of the family
descent, which being then recent, and affecting his immediate
kinsmen, we cannot suppose Boece, mendacious as he was
in earlier stoty, to have been bold enough to invent in toto.
[See Forbes, surname of.] In the * Historical and Critical
Remarks on the Ragman Roll,* it is stated that de Boys was
a surname peculiar to a family in Angus, designed of Pan-
bride, of which the learned Hector Boethios, Boece, or Boyce,
was a son. See Boece, Hector.
Boyd, a surname of very considerable antiquity in Scot-
land according to our genealogical writers. The first recorded
ancestor of the Boyds, earls of Kilmarnock, was Simon,
brother of Walter, the first high steward of Scotland, and
youngest son of Alan the son of Flathald (the fabulous
Fleance of Shakspere) who, following his brother mto Scot-
land, witnessed his foundation charter of the monastery of
Paisley in 1160, and is therein designated *'frater Walteri
filii Alani, dapiferi."* He is said to have been the father of
Robert, called Boyt or Boyd, from his fair complexion, the
Celtic word Buidhe signifying fair or yellow. He died before
the year 1240, and from him descended the various families
of that name in Scotland.
But the account is not without its improbabilities. It is
most unlikely that there were any Celtic people around the
family of the high steward, in those days, of importance or in-
fluence enough to bestow any appellative upon his nephew,^t
being known, according to Lord Lindsay, that the Norman
barons surrounded themselves exclusively with their own
families and dependents, and in the case of the stewards this
Is proved by the De Nizes — ancestors of the Dennistons— the
Crocs or Croqnes — of the Crooks of Crookston and others,
who received grants of land from that fimily, and are named
in the charters and other papers relative to Paisley abbey still
extant. Still less is it likely tiiat any appellative bestowed
by a remote and conquered people would have become here-
ditary amongst those haughty diiefs. The fondness of Scot-
tish genealogists for finding Celtic origins for Norman and
Saxon names proceeds from an error of the most transparent
character. Because Scotland was at one t\pie peopled by a
Celtic race, they imagine that a large proportion of that peo-
ple must have been inhabiting the whole country at the com-
mencement of Scottish history. But it is evident that the
region between the Forth and Clyde on the north, and the
Tweed and Solway on the south, had, with the exception of
Galloway, by the conquest of the Saxons, and afterwards of
the Danes and Norwegians, been for centuries previous to the
last Saxon conquest, as it is called, in the possession of other
races, never amalgamating in any instance with the Celtic,
whom they must therefore have driven out or retained
in a state of slavery. And in the Inquisition, as it is
styled, into the lands which anciently belonged to the
bishopric of Glasgow, made during the government of
Count David, afterwards David the First, king of Scotland,
when that region was considered a province of England— the
most ancient and authentic historical document extant of
native origin— this important fact is distinctly brought out.
In the names of witnesses cited in that document, moreover
consisting as they do of judges of Cumbria, or Lothian, and
other natives, as in all the grants and writings of that prince
connected with that district, there is not a Celtic name to be
found, all beiag either Saxon or Norman, along with one or
two Danish or Norwe^an names, although this occurred at
a period anterior to the settlement of Alan, the founder of
the Stewards, in that country. It is to be noted still further
that amongst the Saxon names of witnesses occurs that of
Boed or Boyd, as a person of some consequence at that time.
It may therefore be less improbable to suppose that the name
is derived from a descendant of this individual, and who may
afterwards have become connected by marriage with the
family of the Steward.
The lands of Kilmamock, Bondington, and Hertschaw,
which belonged to John de Baliol, and other lands in Ayr-
shire, were granted by Robert the Bruce to his gallant adher-
ent. Sir Robert Boyd, the ancestor of the earls of iulmamock.
See Kilmarnock, earls of.
The Boyds of Pinkhill, and of Trochrig, were descended
from Adam Boyd, third son of Alexander, the second son of
Robert lord Boyd, the famous chamberiain of Scotland in the
minority of James the lliizd.
BOYD, Mark Alexander, an extraordinary
genias, and eminent scholar of the sixteenth cen-
tury, was the son of Robert Boyd, eldest son of
Adam Boyd of Pinkhill, in Ayrshire, brother to
Loi-d Boyd. He was bom in Galloway, Janaary
13, 1562 ; and it is i*ecorded of him that two of
his teeth were fully formed at his birth. Having
lost his father early, he was educated, nnder the
superintendence of his uncle, James Boyd of
Trochrig, titular archbishop of Glasgow, at the
univei-sity of that city, where he was equally con-
spicuous for the quickness of his parts, and the
turbulence of his disposition. At that period the
principal of Glasgow college was the celebrated
Andrew Melville, who sustained the discipline of
the university with great vigour and address. In
Dr. Ii-ving's Memoir of Melville, * Lives of Scot-
tish Writers,* it is stated that ** some of the stu-
dents connected with powerful families were guilty
of most flagrant insubordination, and collected a
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MARK ALEXANDER.
mixed mnltitude to overawe the principal and the
rector. Two of those delinqaents were Mark Al-
exander Bojdf related to the noble familj of thai
name, and Alexander Cunningham, related to the
earl of Glencairo, who both proceeded to acts of
outrageous violence, and being svpperted by many
other disorderly youths, a» well as by many ad-
lierents of their respective families, were at first
disposed to set all academical authority at open
defiance. Cunningham, who had assaulted J.
Melville with a drawn sword, was finally reduced
to the necessity of making a public and humiliat-
ing apology, with his feet as well as his head un-
covered. John Maxwell, a son of Lord Herries,
had likewise been implicated in some very disor-
derly proceedings; but when his father was in-
formed of his conduct, he hastened to Glasgow,
aiid compelled him on his knees, and in an open
area of the college, to beg the principal's pardon."
We know not what was Boyd's punishment, but,
impetuous and headstrong, it is not likely that he
would submit to ask forgiveness. We are told
that he was of so untractable a spirit that he
quarrelled with his preceptors, beat them both,
threw his books into the fire, and forswore learn-
ing for ever 1 While yet a mere youth, he pre
sented himself at court, in hopes of obtaining ad-
vancement there, but the violence of his temper
Involved him in numberless quurrels, and after
fightmg a duel, his friends persuaded him to go
abroad, and follow the profession of arms. He
accordingly proceeded in 1581 to Paris, where he
lost all his money in gaming, which seems to have
roused him at last to i*eflection. He now applied
himself to his studies with all his characteristic
ardour ; attending the lectures of sevei'al profes-
sors in the university of Paris. After some time
he went to the university of Orleans to leaiii the
civil law, under J. Robertus, chiefly known for his
temerity in becoming the rival of the celebrated
Cnjacius. Boyd soon quitted Orleans for Bour-
ges, where Cujacius, the principal civilian of the
age, delivered his lectures. To this professor he
recommended himself by writing some verses in
the antiquated Latin language, Cnjacius having a
preference for Ennius and the elder Latin poets.
The plague having broken out at Bourges, he fled
first to Lyons, and afterwards to Italy, where he
contracted a friendship with a person whom he
names Comeliis Yams, who, finding that Boyd
prided himself ob the excellence of his Latin poe-
try,, addressed some verses to* him, in which he
declares that he excelled Buchanan and all other
British poets in a greater degree than Virgil sur-
passed Lucretius, Catullus, and all other Roman
poets. Having been seized with an ague, he re-
turned' to Lyons for change of air, about the year
1585. In 1587 he served in the French army
against the Grerman and Swiss mercenaries who
had invaded France in support of the king of Na-
varre ; and during the campaign he was wounded
by a shot in the ankle. In 1588 he went to reside
at Toulouse, and again applied himself to the stu-
dy of the civil law, under Roaldes, an eminent
professor. About this period he seems to have
written several tracts on the science of jurispru-
dence, and he even had it in view to compose a
system of the law of nations. A popular insurrec-
tion having taken place at Toulouse, in which the
first President Duranty, the Advocate-General
Dafis, and several other persons, were murdered,
Boyd was thrown into prison, and, from the ha-
tred of the Jesuits, was in great danger of his life.
He obtained his liberty, however, by the interces-
sion of some leanied men of Toulouse, and went
flret to Bourdeaux, and thence to Rochelle. On
the journey to the latter place, he was attacked
by robbera, when he lost all the property he had
with him. He afterwards, in consequence of the
climate of Rochelle disagreeing with him, fixed hij»
residence in Fontenay in Poictou, where he de-
voted much of his time to study, occasionally re-
suming the avocation of a soldier. About the
year 1591 he seems to have had an intention of
reading lectures on the civil law ; and the heads of
his prelections on the Institutes of Justinian are
still preserved among his other papers in the Ad-
vocates' Library. In 1592 a collection of his
poems and epistles was printed at Antwerp in
12mo, which he dedicated to James the Sixth,
whom he represented as superior to Pallas in wis-
dom, and to Mars in arms! The dedication had
been originally intended for another person who
had really distinguished himself in war, but the
name was afterwards altered, and that of the
king substituted in its place, while the dedicatiou
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ROBERT.
itself was allowed to remain as originally written.
Boyd*s own vanity was very great, and it is said
that he assnmed the name of Alexander from its
being more pompous than his own name of Mark.
In 1595, while preparing to return to Scotland,
he received intelligence of the death of his elder
brother William, for whom he entertained a sin-
cere regard. On his return home, after a lapse of
fourteen years, he undertook to accompany the
earl of Oassillis in a tour to the continent, as his
travelling preceptor, and having completed that
engagement, he finally revisited his native coun-
try, where he died at his father's seat in Ayrshire,
of a slow fever, April 10, 1601, in the fortieth
year of his age: A sketch of his life, written by
Lord Hailes, was published in 1783, with a por-
trait. Boyd is said to have been able to dictate
at once, in three diffei-ent languages, to three
amanuenses. He was the author of Notes upon
Pliny, and published an excellent little book, ad-
dressed to Lipsius, in defence of Cardinal Bembo,
and the ancient eloquence. He translated Csssar's
Commentaries into Greek, in the style of Herodo-
tus. He also wrote in Latin, epistles after the
manner of Ovid, and a work called *Hyrani,'
which is not hymns, as might be supposed, but a
description of different plants and shrubs. He left
many Latin poems, which have not been printed,
and several manuscripts on philological, political,
and historical subjects, in Latin and French, in
which he also cultivated poetry. These manu-
scripts, an exact list of which is given by Loi*d
Hailes, in his life of Boyd, are preserved in the
Advocates* Library. His *Epistol« Heroidum,'
and his * Hymni,* wei*e inserted in the * Deliciae
Poetarum Scotorum,' printed at Amstei^am, in
two volumes 12mo, in 1687. — Life by Lord
Hailes.
BOYD, Robert, of Trochrig, an eminent di-
vine, was born at Glasgow in 1578. He was the
son of James Boyd, titular archbishop of Glasgow,
and the cousin of the subject of the preceding
notice. His mother was Margai*et, daughter of
James Chalmers of Gaitgirth, chief of the name of
Chahners. After receiving the rudiments of his
education at a grammar school in Ayrshire, he
went to the university of Edinburgh, where he
took the degree of master of arts ; studying philo-
sophy under Mr. Charles Ferme, [see Fekmb or
Fairholm, Charles,] one of the regents, as the
professors were then called, and theology under
the celebrated Robert RoUock. In 1604, accord-
ing to the custom of the times, he went to France,
where he made great proficiency in learning, par-
ticularly in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. On the
invitation of the university of Montauban, he be-
came professor of philosophy there ; he also stud-
ied divinity, and was ordained a minister of the
French Reformed Church at Verteuil. In 1606,
he was transferred to a professorship at Saumnr,
where he remained till 1614, officiating also as
pastor in the church, and where he maiTied a lady
of the family of Malivera.
The fame of his learning having attracted the
notice of his sovereign, James the Furst of Eng-
land, his majesty sent for him, and appointed him .
professor of divinity and principal of the university
of Glasgow. He entered on his new duties in
1615, and in 1617, when ELing James visited
Glasgow, Boyd, as principal of the college, deliv-
ered a congratulatory speech, which, as usual in
that age, was highly encomiastic. As principal,
he was required to teach alternately theology one
day, and Syriac the next ; also to preach on Son-
day in the parish chuix^h of Govan, near Glasgow,
the temporalities of the rectory and vicarage of
which had been annexed, with the condition of
preaching, to the principalis chair. Although he
had thus apparently not much time to prepare his
lectures, which were delivered in Latin, as cos-
tomaiy at that period, he " uttered them," says
Wodrow, " in a continued discourse, without any
hesitation, and with as much ease and freedom of
speech, as the most eloquent divine is wont to de-
liver his sermons in his mother- tongue." Princi-
pal Baillie, who studied under Mr. Boyd, men-
tions that, at a distance of thirty years, the tears,
the solemn vows, and the ardour of the desires
produced by his Latin prayers, were still fresh m
his memory.
The attempt of the king to assimihite the pres-
byterian to the episcopalian form of chmx^li gov-
ernment placed Principal Boyd in a very embar-
rassed position. Although the son of an archbishop,
and connected with episcopalian families, he was
strongly attached to the pi-csbyterian church ; and
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BOYD,
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ZACHARY.
finding that he could not consistently with his
principles retain his situation, having refused to
comply with the five Perth articles, he resigned
the principalship, after having held it for seven
years, and retired to his estate of Trochrig in Car-
rick, Ayrshire. He was not, however, allowed to
remain long in retirement. In October 1622, he
was elected principal of the university of Edin-
burgh, but his sentiments on the subject of epis-
copacy being well known, his^arrival in Edinburgh
was the signal for persecution to assail him on the
part of the court. Scarcely two months after his
election as principal, ** upon the 23d of December
1622," says Calderwood, "the provost, baillies,
and counsel of Edinburgh, were challenged by a
letter fi*om the king, for admitting Mr. Robert
Boyde to be principal of their college ; and com-
mandit them to urge him to conforme, or to re-
move him. They sent to court to the courteour
who sent the challenge in the king's name, and
desired him to intreate the king not to take in ill
part Mr. Robert's admission, in respect of his gifts
and peaceable disposition " [CaldertvootTs His-
tory, vol. vii. p. 666.] ** Upon the last of Januar,
the provost, baillies, and counsel of Edinburgh
were commandit of new again to urge Mr. Robert
Boyd with conformitie ; and if he refused, to re-
move hun, his wife, and familie, out of the touu.
The king's words, answeiring to their foi*mer let-
ter of recommendation, were these following : ' On
the contrarie, we thinke his biding there will doe
much evill, and, therefore, as ye will answeir to
ns on your obedience, we command you to put
him, not onlie from his office, but out of your
toun, at the sight heireof, unlesse he conform to-
tallie. And when ye have done, thinke not this
sufficient to satisfy our wratlie for disobedience to
our former letter.' Mr. Robert was sent for to
the counsel. Tlie king's will was intimate to him,
which the coimsel said they wolde not withstand.
Mr. Robert qnitt his place, and tooke his leave."
llbid. p. 569.] He again retired to his estate,
and was ordered to confine himself within the
bounds of Camck. He was subsequently minis-
t4»r of Paisley, but soon left it, in consequence of
a disagreement with the countess of Abercom,
who had become a Roman Catholic. He died at
Edinburgh, whither he had gone for medical ad-
vice, or, as others say, at Trochrig, January 6,
1627, aged forty-eight. From an original portrait
of Principal Boyd in the university of Glasgow,
an engraving was published by Pinkerton, of which
the following is a woodcut
An interesting life of Robert Boyd of Trochrig,
from the original manuscript in the Wodrow col-
lections in the Glasgow university library, was
printed for the use of the members of the Mait-
land Club of that city. His works are :
A Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesinna, written in
elegant Latin, and published nnder the title of " Roberti
Bodii Scoti, Pralectiones m Epistolam ad Ephesios." Lon-
don, 1662, folio; a work which shows him to have been well
acquainted with the whole body of divinity. Prefixed is a
Memoir of the Anthor, by Dr. Rivet, the errors in which
Wodrow has corrected.
Monita de filil siu primo geniti Institutione, 8vo, pablishe<i
in 1701, from the antWs manuscripts, by Dr. Robert Sibbald.
He also wrote some Latin poems. Of these the * Heca-
tombe ad Christum,' dedicated to his cousin, Andrew Boyd,
bbhop of Argyle, and an ode to Dr. Sibbald, are preserved in
the ^DelicisB Poetarum Scotorum,' and in the *Poetarum
Scotorum Musie Sacrse.' A laudatory poem on King James
by him will be found in Adamson's * Muses Welcome.' Ex-
tracts from his * Philotheca,' a kind of obituary, which, with
sermons in English and French, had remained in manuscript
in ponession of the family of Trochrig, have been printed in
the second part of the Miscellany of the Bannntyne Club.
BOYD, Zachapy, an eniinent divine of tha
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BOYD,
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ZACHARr.
seventeenth centttrj, was born before 1590. He
was descended from tbe Boyds of Pinkhill in Ayr-
shire, and was cousin of Mr. Andrew Boyd, bishop
of Argyle, and of the subject of the preceding ar-
ticle. After being taught the rudiments of his
education at the school of Krimamock, he entered
upon his studies at the umversity of Glasgow.
About 1607 he went to France, and became a
student at the university of Saumur under his
cousin Robert Boyd of Trochrig. In 1611 he was
appointed a regent in that university, and is said
to have declined the principalship, which was of-
fered to him.
He spent sixteen years in France, during four
of which he was a preacher of the gospel. In 1621
the persecutions to which the protestants in that
country were subjected compelled him to i-etura to
Scotland. He resided at first privately at Edin-
burgh, with Dr. Sibbald the physician, and after-
wards he lived successively with Sir William Scott
of Elie, and the marquis and marchioness of Ham-
ilton at Kinniel. In 1623 he was appointed min-
ister of the Barony parish, Glasgow, where he
continned till his death. In 1629 he published
his principal prose work, entitled ' The Last Bat-
tell of the Soule,^ dedicated to ^^ the most sacred
and most mightie monarch," Charles the Firet, in
a prose address, and also in a poetical one. These
were followed by a dedication in French to Queen
Henrietta.
His poetical address, * Ad Carolura Regem,' is
short, and may be quoted here : —
" This life, 0 Prince, ia like a raging sea,
Where firoathy mounts are heaved up on hie;
Onr painted jojs in blinks that are fnl warme,
Are, like raine-bowes, foremnnere of a storme;
All flesh with giiefe is prickt within, without,
Crownes cane cares, and compasse them about.
Your state is great, your place is high : What tlien ?
God calls you gods, but je shall die like men.**
Ml*. Boyd's feelings of loyalty and devotion to
his sovereign were very strong. In 1633, when
Charles the First came to Scotland to be crowned,
he happened to meet his majesty the day after the
coronation in tlie porch of Holyrood Palace, when
he addressed the king in a Latin oration full of
the most loyal and laudatory sentiments. In 1634
he was elected re 5tor of the university of Glasgow ;
also in 1635, and again in 1645. When tbe at-
tempt to impose episcopacy upon Scotland, and the
violent and arbitrary proceedings of the govern
ment, led to the signing of the Solemn League and
Covenant, Mr. Boyd and the other members of
Glasgow college at first refused to subscribe it,
deeming it preferable to yield something to the
wishes of the sovereign. He afterwards found it
expedient, with most of his colleagues, to sign the
national document, tp' which he faithfully adhered;
although he did not, like some of his brother-
divines, engage actively in the subsequent militaiy
transactions. The fight at Newburnford, August
28, 1640, by which the Scottish army gained pos-
session of Newcastle, was conmiemorated by him
ra a poem of sixteen 8vo pages, but the versifica-
tion of this piece is veiy homely, and in some parts
it approaches even the burlesque. In 1643 he
published his ^Crosses, Comforts, and Councels,
needfuU to be considered, and carefuUie to be laid
up in the hearts of the Godlie, in these boysterous
broilesr and bloody times.'
After the defeat of the Scottish forces at Dan-
bar, in September 1650, Cromwell visited Glas-
gow. Mr. Boyd had the courage to remain, when
the magistrates and other persons of influence had
left the city v and, in preaching before the protec-
tor, he bearded him and his soldiers to their veiy
faces. " Cromwell," says Baillie, " with the whole
body of his army, comes peaceably to Glasgow.
The magistrates and ministers all fled away; I
got to the isle of Cumray with my Lady Mont-
gomery, but left all my family and goods to Crom-
well's courtesy, which indeed was great, for he
took such measures with the soldiers that they did
less displeasure at Glasgow than if they had been
at London, though Mr. Zachary Boyd railed on
them all to their veiy face in the High Church."
His allusions and reproaches were so bitter, that
one of Cromwell's officers, said to be Tbnrloe his
secretary, is reported to have asked the protector,
in a whisper, for pei*mission " to pistol the scoun-
drel."— "No, no," said Cromwell, " we will man-
age him in another way." He invited Mr. Boyd
to dinner, and gained his respect by the fervour of
the devotions in which he spent the evening, and
which, it is said, continned till thi-ee o'clock next
moming 1
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BOYD,
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ZACHARY.
Mr. Boyd died abont the end of 1653, or the
beginning of 1654, and was succeeded by Mr.
Donald Caigili. Shortly before his death he com-
pleted an extensive manoscript work, bearing the
title of ' The Notable Places of the Scripture ex-
pounded/ at the conclusion of which is added,
" Hcere the author was ueere his end, and was
able to do no more, March 3, 1653."
He was twice married. His fii-st wife was
named Elizabeth Fleming, and his second Marga-
ret Mure, the third daughter" of William Mure of
Glanderston, Renfrewshire, who, surviving him,
took for her second husband Mr. James Durham,
author of the Commentary on the Revelation. A
traditional anecdote says that when he was mak-
ing his will, his wife requested him to leave some-
thing to Mr. Durham. " No, no, Margaret," was
his reply, " I'll lea' him naething but thy bonnic
ser." Another version runs in this sarcastic
strain, **ril lea* him what I cannot keep frac
him." Mr. Boyd had amassed a considerable
amount of property, which he divided, by his will,
between his widow and the college of Glasgow.
The sum he bequeathed to the college amounted
to twenty thousand pounds Scots, equal to
about sixteen hundred pounds sterling, no small
sum in those days. The college also got his
library and manuscript compositions. His bust,
with an inscription, commemorative of these dona-
tions, ornaments the gateway of the university,
and the divinity hall of the college contains his
portrait, an eifgi-aving of which is given in Pinker-
ton's collection. On next column is a woodcut of
it. During his life he published nineteen works,
chiefly of a religious cast, but none of them very
large. A list of them is subjoined. His maim-
script productions, eighty -three in number, are
principally comprised within thirteen small 4to
volumes, written in a very close hand, and appear
to have been prepared for the press. Besides
these there are three others in manuscript, entitled
* Zion*8 Flowers, or Christian Poems for Spiritual
Edification,' 2 vols. 4to. ^ The English Academic
containing Precepts and Purpose for the Weal
both of Soul and Body, divided into Tliirtie and
one dayes exercise,* 12mo. ; and 'The Four Evan-
gels in English verse,* 12mo. These are all de-
posited in the library of the College of Glasgow.
Mr. Neil, in his life of Boyd, prefixed to a
new edition of his 'Last Battell of the Soule,
published at Glasgow in 1831, says: — "Mr.
Boyd appeal's to have been a scholar of very
considerable leamhig. He composed in Latin,
and his qualifications in that language may be
deemed respectable. His works also bear the
evidence of his having been possessed of a criti-
cal knowledge of the Gi*eek, Hebrew, and other
languages. As a prose writer, he will bear com-
parison with any of the Scottish divines of the
same age. He is superior to Rutherford, and, in
general, more grammatically correct than even
Baillie himself, who was justly esteemed a very
learned man. His style may be considered excel-
lent for the period. Of his characteristics as a
writer, his originality of thought is particularly
striking. He discusses many of his subjects with
spirit and ingenuity, and there is much which must
be acknowledged as flowing from a vigorous intel-
lect, and a fervid and poetical imagination. Tliis
latter tendency of his genius is at all times awake,
and from which may be inferred his taste for me-
taphor, and love of colouring, so conspicuous in
his writings. One of his most popular attempts to
render himself seiTiceablc to his country was in pre*
2 a
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BOYD,
870
ZACHARY.
paling a poetical version uf the Book of Psalms for
the use of the church. It had been previous to
1646 that he engaged in this, as the Assembly of
1647 when appointing a Committee to examine
Hous's version, which had been transmitted to
them by the Assembly at Westminster, recom-
mended them to avail themselves of the Psalter of
Rowallan, and of Mr. Zachary Boyd, and of any
other poetical writers/ It is further particularly
recommended to Mr. Zachary Boyd * to translate
the other Scriptural Songs in metre, and to report
his travails therein to the Commission of that
Assembly, that after examination thereof they
may send the same to the pre8b}'terie8, to be there
considered until the next General Assembly.' Mr.
Boyd complied with this request, as the Assembly,
August 10, 1648, * recommends to Mr. John Adam-
son and Mr. Thomas Crawfurd to revise the
labours of Mr. Zacharj- Boyd upon the other Scrip-
ture Songs, and to prepare a report thereof to the
said Commission for publick affairs;' who, it is
probable, had never given in any ' report of their
labours.' Of his vei'sion, Baillie had not enter-
tained a high opinion, as he says, * our good friend,
Mr. Zachary Boyd, has put himself to a great deal
of pains and charges to make a Psalter, but I ever
warned him his hopes were groundless to get it
received in our churches, yet the flatteries of his
unadvised neighbours made him insist in his fruit-
less design.' There seems to have been a party
who did not undervalue Mr. Boyd's labours quite
so much as Baillie, and who, if possible, were deter-
mined to carry their point, as, according to Baillie's
statement, * The Psalms were often revised, and
sent to presbyteries,' and, ^had it not been for some
who had more regard than needed to Mr. Zacha-
ry Boyd's Psalter, I think they (that is, Rous's
version) had passed through in the end of last As-
sembly : but these, with almost all the references
from the former Assemblies, were remitted to the
next.' On 23d November 1649, Rous's version,
revised and improved, was sanctioned by the Com-
mission with authority of the General Assembly,
and any other discharged from being used in the
churches, or in families. Mr. Boyd was thus de-
prived of the honour to which he aspired with
some degree of zeal, and it must have been to
liimaelf and friends a source of considerable dis-
appointment. Among other works, he produced
two volumes, under the title of * Zion's Flowers,
or Christian Poems for Spirituall lEkliflcation,' and
it is these which are usually shown as his Bible,
and have received that designation. These vol-
umes consist of a collection of poems on select
subjects in Scripture history, such as that of Josi-
ah, Jephtha, David and Goliath, &c., rendered
into the dramatic form, in which various * speak-
ers' are introduced, and where the prominent &cts
of the Scripture narrative are brought forward aod
amplifled. We have a pretty close -parallel to
these poems in the 'Ancient Mysteries' of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and in the sa-
cred dramas of some modem writers." In this
work there are some homely and even ludicrous
passages, but a fine strain of devotional feeliog
pervades the poetry of which the two volumes are
composed.
As a specimen, a portion of Abraham's Solilo-
quy when about to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice,
may be quoted :
" That hiirs the place where, with this bloody knife,
I must bereave mine Isaac of his life;
That hill's the place, where fire of flaming hot
Shall Isaac bam, when I have cat his throat;
That hiirs the place, iqipointed by and by,
Where 8laagbter*d Isaac shall in ashes lye;
That hill*8 the pUoe, where as a sacrifice
Mine Isaac shall be tome, a bloody guise;
That hnrs the place, where I anone most spill
Mine Isaac's blood, and make it downe to trill;
That hill's the place, whence fearefull grief and smart
Shall rent m pieces my poor Sarah's heart ;
That hill's the place, whence to the whirling pole,
Shan now depart of mine Isaac the aoole ;
That bill's the place, where Isaac by and by,
Burnt in a fire shall all in ashes lye.
But all those thoughts not move or trouble mee,
I mind my Lord t'obey most chearfollie ;
And to doe more if he command me farther,
Hee steeles my faith soe that I doe net stagger.
All one hand mercy, and might at the other,
Doe hmdcr doubts, which here my faith might smother
A Ood of mercy hee hath beene to me*,
Him to obey I will still ready bee.
To mee it is, as a most glorious treasure.
To doe for God what is to him a pleasare.
If for his sake wee chearfull beare a croflse.
He by his grace can soone make up our losse
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BOYD,
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ZACHARY.
I of his might or meroj doe not neede
To doubt hee can him raise op from the dead.
My faith which I as breast plate now pat on,
Is perell proof agamst affliction.
God in this sea, a pilot wise, can steere,
Mj tosaed pinnace, to her wished peere.
At his command lie doe as hee hath said.
With Isaao^s blood I will now glat my blade;
His 6eeh and bones He on the altar borne.
When that is done Fie to my hoose retnme.**
Jonah^s soiiloqay within the whale's belly is
more graphic, and thongh some of the images may
appear Indicrons, the piece is marked by a strong
religious spirit which goes far to redeem it.
** I did rebeU; heere is my day of doome,
Feasts dainty seeme nntill th» reckHiing come ;
Alas! too late it now repenteth mee
That I refused to go to Nineve.
• •••••
Here apprehended I in prison ly ;
What goods will ransom my captivity?
What hoose is this, whereas neither coal nor candle,
Where I nothing hot gats of fishes handle?
I and my table are both here within.
Where day neere dawned, where sonne did never shine.
The like of this on earth man never saw,
A living man within a monstei's maw.
Boxied onder moontams which are high and steep,
Plong*d onder waters hnndreth fathoms deep.
Not so was Noah in his hoose of tree,
For throogh a window he the light did see ;
He saOed above the hij^est waves — a wonder;
I and my boat are all the waters onder;
Hee in his ark might goe and also oome.
Bat I sit still in soch a straitened roome
As is most oncoothe, head and feet together,
Among soch grease as would a thoosand smother.
I find no way now for my shrinking hence,
Bot heere to lie and die for mine ofience.
Eight prisoners were in Noah*B hoik together
Comfortable they were, each one to other.
In all the earth like onto me is none,
Far firom all living, I heere lye alone.
This grieves me most, that I for grievoos sin,
Inearc*rd ly within this floating In;
Within this cave my heart with griefe is gall'd,
Lord hears the sighes fix>m my heart's centre hal*d;
Thoo know*st how long I have been in this womb,
A living man, within a living tomb.
Oh! what a lod^g! wilt thoo m these vaolts,
As m a HeU most dark correct my faohs;
I neither kno when day doth shine, or night
Comes for my rest, Fm so deprived of sight,
Though that the jodgmenfs oncouth sore, I shar%
I of God's goodneese never will deepaire.**
Mr. Boyd's printed works are:
A Clear Exposition of the Institotion of the Lord's Sopper.
A Compend of the Bible.
The Water of the Well of Life, John 6, v. 85.
These three works are mentioned by the anthor in his
MSS. as published, the latter printed at Glasgow, May 1660.
A Small Catechism on the Principles of Beligion. ISmo.
Two Sermons for the use of thoee who are to come to the
table of the Lord, with diverse prayers, fit for the necessities
of the Saincts at divers occasions. Edin. 1629, 8vo.
Two Orientall Pearles — Grace and Glory, the Godly man's
choice, and a oordiall of comforts, for a wearied Soole. Edin.
1629, 8vo. Reprinted at Edin. 1718. Dedicated to James,
Marqois of Hamilton, Ac
The Last Battell of the Soule in Death. Dioided into
Eight Conferences, whereby are shewne the dioerse skirmishes
that are betweene the Soole of Man on his Deathbedde, and
the enemies of oor saloation. Carefiillie digested for the
comfort of the Sicke. * I live to die that I may die to live.'
2 vols. 8vo. Edin., 1629. New edition, edited by Gabriel
Neil, with a biographical sketch of the aothor, and some ao-
coont of his manoscript works, and portrait, 2 vols, in one.
Gbsgow, 1881, 8vo.
Oratio Panegyrica, Ad Carol vm Magna Britanniie, Fran-
cis, et Uibem. Kegcm Dwina veritatis propugmUorem,
halnta k Zacharia Bodio, Glasgoensis Ecclesis Pastore, horft
secnndA pomeridiana in Regiaporticu Ccendbii iomcta crucii^
17 die Jomi, 1688, pridle illios diei qoo sacrom Regis oapot
dnxit aoreom ScotiiB Diadema. — Regis ipeios jossu pndo
oommissa, 4to. Edin., 1633.
The Bahn of Gilead prepared for the Sicke. The whole is
divided into 8 parts: 1. The Sicke man's sore; 2. The Sicke
man's salve; 8. The Sicke man's song. Edin. 1688, 8vo.
The Song of Moses, in 6 parts, Edin., 1635, 8vo; ascribed
to Mr. Boyd, bot published withoot his name.
Foor Letters of Comfortes for the Deaths of the Earl ok
Haddingtoone and the Lord Boyd, with two Epitaphs, Glas-
gow, 8vo, 1640.
The Battell of Newbome, where the Scots armie obtained a
notable victorie against the English Papists, Prelats, and
Armmians; the 28 day of August 1640. Second Edition.
Glasgow, 1648, Svo.
Crosses, Comforts, and Coonsels, needM to be conmdered,
and carefolly to be laid op, m the hearts of the godly, in
these boysteroos broiles and bloody times, GUsgow, 1648, 8vo.
The Garden of Zion, wherein the Life and Death of godly
and wicked men in the Scriptores are to be scene, from Adam
onto the Ust of the Kings of Jodah and Israel, with the good
OSes of their life and death. Glasgow, 1644, 8va Second
vohime, containing the Bookes of Job, Proverbs, Ecdesiastea,
and the Song of Songs, all in EngUsh verse, Glasgow,
1644, 8vo.
The Holie Songs of the Old and New TAtament, dedicated
to the Royall Lady Mar^. hb Mi^estie's eldest daoghter,
Princess of Orange, Glasgow, 1645, 8vo.
The Psalmesof David in Meeter, 8d edition, Glasgow,
1646, 12mo.
Verses prefixed to Boyd on the Ephesians. London, 1652,
folio.
The Life of Robert Boyd (mentioned by Wodrow).
Excerpts from the Flowers of Zion, printed in Neil's edition
of '* The Last Battell of the Soole m Death."
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BOYLE.
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BoYLB, originally Boyvil, a aumamo belonging to a family
settled at an enrlj period in Ayrshire. Among the barons of
that comity who swore fealty to Edward 1. in 1296, were
Robert de Boyvil and Richard de Boyvil. The latter, proprietor
of the lands of Rnysholm, in Dairy, is thouglit to be the ancestor
of the Boyles both of Rnysholm and Wamphray in Annandale^
The heiress of Wamphray, in the reign of King James IV., mar-
ried a brother of the house of Johnstone. That the Boyles of
Kclbam, which is in the di»trict of Cunningham, are of great
antiquity, appears from a charter in Anderson*8 Diplomaia
Scotia. In 1699, David Boyle of Kelbum was created Lord
Boyle, and in 1703 earl of Glasgow. See Glasgow, earl of.
From the Boyles of Kelbnrn, the great English Boyles, who
became earls of Cork and Ossory in Ireland, are said to derive
their origin.
David Boyle, lord-jastice-general of Scotland, bom at Irvine
26th July 1772, died at Shewalton, Ayrshire, 4th Februarv
18ii.3, was the w»oond son of the Hon. Patrick Boyle of Shewal-
ton, and grandson of 2d earl of Glasgow. Passed advocate in
1793, he was appointed solicitor-general of Scotland and elected
M.P. for Ayrshire in 1807; promoted to the bench in Febmarj
1811; became lord-justice-clerk in October of the same year;
sworn a privy councillor in 1820, and appointed lord-jnstice-
general of Scotland in 1841. These oflRces he resigned in May
1852. His eldest son, Patrick Boyle, Esq. of Shewalton,
passed advocate in 1829, but never practised.
Breadalbanb, (properly Buoadalbiii.) earl and mar-
qnis of, the former a title in the peerage of Scotland, and the
latter in that of Great Britain, possessed by a branch of the
noble family of Campbell. Sir Colin Campbell, the ancestor
of the Breadalbane family, and the first of the hooae of Glen-
urchy, was the third son of Duncan, first Lord Campbell of
Lochow, progenitor of the dukes of Ai^le, by Marjorr
Stewart, daughter of Robert, duke of Albany, regent of Scot-
land. In an old manuscript, preserved in Taymouth castle,
INTBRIOR VIKW— TATMOUTH CASTLE.
named ' the Black Book of TajTnouth,' (printed by the Ban-
natyne Clnb, 1853,) containing a genealogical account of
the Glennrchy family, it is stated that '* Duncan Campbell,
commonly callit Duncan in Aa, knight of Lochow (Uneallie
descendit of a valiant man, snmamit Campbell, quha cam to
Scotland in King Malcolm Kandraoir his time, about the
year of God 1067, of quhom came the house of Lochow,)
flourisched in King David Bruce his dayes. The foresaid
Duncan in Aa had to wyfie Margarit Stewart, dochter to
Duke Murdoch [a mistake evidently for Robert] , en whom
he begat twa sones, the elder callit Archibald, the other
namit Colin, wha was first laird of Glenurchay." That
estate was settled on him by his father. It had come into
the Campbell family, in the reign of King David the Second,
by the marriage of Margaret Glenurchy with John Campbell ;
and was at one time the property of the warlike clan Mao-
Gregor, who were gradually expelled from the territory by the
rival dan, Campbell Sir Colin was bom about 1400. He
was one of the knights of Rhodes, afterwards designed of
Malta. The family manuscript, already quoted, says that
** throch his valiant actis and nianheid he was maid knicht in
the Isle of Rhodes, quhilk standcth in the Carpathian sea
near to Caria, and countne of Asia the less, and he was three
snndrie tymes in Rome." After the murder of James the
First in 1437, he actively pursued the regicides, and brooght
to justice two of the inferior assassins, named Chalmets and
Colquhoun, for which service King James the Third after-
wards bestowed upon him the barony of Lawen. He was
appointed guardian of his nephew, Colin, first earl of Aiigyle,
during his minority, and concluded a marriage between him
and the sister of his own second wife, one of the three dangfa-
ters and co-heiresses of the Lord of Lorn. In 1440 be btult
the castle of ^ilchum on a projecting rocky elevation at the
east end of Lochawe, under the shadow of the majes^ Ben
Cruachan, where — now a picturesque ruin, —
-" grey and stem
Stands, like a spirit of the past, lone old Kllchuni.**
According to tradition Kilchum (properly Coalchuim) castle
was first erected by his lady, and not by himself, he being
absent on a crusade at the time, and finr seven years the prin-
cipal portion of the rents of his lands are said to have been
expended on its erection. An old legend connected with this
castle states that once while at Rome, hanng been a long
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time from home. Sir Colin had a singular dream, for the in-
t«rpretatioD of which he applied to a monk, who advised him
instantly to return to Scotland, as a very serious domestic
calamity oonld only be averted by his presence in his own
castle. He hastened immediately to Scotland, and arrived at
a place called Suoooth, where dwelt an old woman who had
been his nurse. In the disguise of a beggar, he craved food
and shelter for the night, and was admitted to the poor
woman*8 fireside. From a scar on his arm she recognised
him, and immediately informed him of what was about to
happen at the castle. It appeared that for a long period no
tidings had been received of or from him, and a report had
been spread that he had fallen in battle in the Holy Land.
This information surprised Sir Colin, as he had repeatedly
sent messengers with intelligence to his lady, and he at once
suspected treadiery. His suspicions were well founded. A
neighbouring baron, named MK>»quadale, had intercepted and
murdered all his mesBcftgers, and having succeeded in convinc-
ing the lady of the death of her husband, he had prevailed upon
her to consent to marry him, the next day being that fixed
for their nuptials. Early in the morning Sir Colin, still in
the disguise of a beggar, fet out for his castle of Kilchum ;
he crossed the drawbridge, and undiscovered entered the gates
of the castle, which on this joyous occasion were open to all
comers. As he stood in the courtyard one of the servants of
the castle accosted him, and asked him what he wanted, " To
have my hunger satisfied and my thirst quenched,** was his
reply. Food and liquor were immediately placed before him.
Of the former he partook, but he refused the latter, except
from the hand of the lady herself. On being informed of
this, she approached, and handed him a cup of wine. Sir
Colin drank to her health, and dropping a ring into the empty
cop returned it to her. On examining the ring, she recog-
nised it at once as her own gift to her husband on his depar-
ture. Rushing towards him she threw herself into his arms.
The baron M^Corquadale was allowed to depart in safety, but
was afterwards attacked and overcome by Sir CoIin*s son and
successor, who is said to have taken possession of his castle
and lands. Sir Colin died before June 10, 1478, as on that
day the lords andlton gave a decreet in a dvil suit against
*t Doncain Cambell, son and air of umquhUe Sir Colin Cam-
bell of Glenurquha, knight.** He was interred in Argyleshire,
and not as Douglas says at Finlarig, at the north-west end of
Lochtay, which afterwards became the burial place of the
fiuraly. He was four times married. Nisbet, giving as his
authority the contract of marriage still extant in the archives
of the Breadalbane family, says, that his first wife was Lady
Mary Stewart, one of the daughters of Duncan, earl of Len-
nox, and that she died soon after the marriage without issue,
but he has evidently mistaken the lady*s name, as the three
daughters of Duncan, the last earl of Lennox, executed in
1425, none of whom were named Mary, were all married in
1392, dght years before Sir Colin Campbell was bom, and
there never was another earl of Lennox named Duncan. His
second wife was Lady Margaret Stewart, the second of the
three daughters and co-heupesses of John Lord Lorn, with
whom he got a third of that lordship, still possessed by the
fomily, and thenceforward quartered the galley of Lorn with
his paternal achievement Of this lady there is a portrait by
Jamesone in the Breadalbane collection at Taymouth, an en-
graving of which is given in Pinkerton's Scottish gallery. By
her he had a son. Sir Duncan, who succeeded him. His third
wifo was Margaret, daughter of Robert Robertson of Strowan,
by whom he had a son and a daughter. John, the son, ac-
cording to Kisbet, [^Heraldry^ v. ii. p. 212,] was educated for
the church, and on the demise of Angus, bishop of the Isles,
was preferred to that see. In 1506 he was joined in commis-
sion from the crown with David, bishop of Argyle, and James
Redheugh, burgess of Stiriing, comptroller to the king, to set
in tack the crown lands of Bute. He died in 1509. DougUs,
however, thinks the existence of this John doubtful. [Peerage,
V. L p. 234.] Keith [CoL o/ScoUuh Bishopt, p. 305] leaves
the surname blank, and says that John, bishop of the Isles,
was a privy councillor to King James the Fourth, and from
that pripce, with consent of the Pope, he got, in 1507, the
abbacy of loolmkill annexed in all time coming to the episco-
pal see of the Isles. The daughter, Margaret, married first
Archibald Napier of Merchiston, and secondly John Dickson,
Ross Herald. Sir Colin*s fourth wifo was Margaret, daughter
of Luke Stirling of Keir, by whom he had a son, John, ances-
tor of the earls of Loudon [see Loudon, earl of], and a
daughter, Mariot, married to William Stewart of Baldoran.
Sir Duncan Campbell, the eldest son, obtained the office of
bailiary of the king's Unds of Discher, Foyer, and Glenlyon,
3d September 1498, for which office, being a hereditary one.
his descendant, the second'earl of Breadalbane, received, on
the abolition of the heritable jurisdictions in Scotland, in
1747, the sum of one thousand pounds, in full of his claim for
six thousand. Sir Duncan also got charters of the king's
lands of the port of Lochtay. &c, 5th March 1492; also of
the lands of Glenlyon, 7th September 1502; of Finlarig, 22d
April 1508, and of other lands in Perthshire in May 1508 and
September 15 tl. He fell at the battle of Flodden. He was
twice married. First, in 1479, to Lady Margaret Douglas,
fourth daughter of Oeorge fourth earl of Angus, by whom he
had three sons and a daughter, viz.. Sir Colin ; Archibald,
ancestor of the Campbells of Qlenlyon ; and Patrick, of whom
nothing is known. The daughter married Toshach of Mony-
vaird in Perthshire. The second wife was Margaret, daugh-
ter of Moncrieff of Moncrieff in the same county, by whom he
had a son, John, styled by Dongais bishop of the Isles, (Keith
states that the John Campbell who was bishop of the Isles in
1558 and 1560 was a son of Campbell of Calder in Nairnshire,)
and two daughters, Catharine, married to William Murray of
Tullibardin, and Annabella, who in 1533 became the wife of
Alexander Napier of Merchiston.
Sir Colin, the eldest son, the third laird of Glennrohy, was
of great use in assisting his cousin, the celebrated Gavin
DougUs, to obtain possession of the see of Dunkeld to which
he had been nominated in 1515, in opposition to Andrew
Stewart, his own brother-in-law, who having procured him-
self to be chosen bishop by the chapter, had garrisoned the
palace and the steeple of the cathedral with his servants.
This Sir Colin is mentioned as having "bigget the chapel
of Finlarig to be ane burial for himself and posteritie.**
He married Lady Marjory Stewart, sixth daughter of John
eari of Athol, brother uterine of King James the Second, and
had three sons, viz.. Sir Duncan, Sir John, and Sir Colin,
who all succeeded to the estate. The last of them. Sir Colin,
became laird of Glenurcby in 1550, and according to the
"Black Book of Taymouth,** he "conquessit** (that is, ac-
quired) "the superiority of M'Nabb his haill landis.'* He
was among the first to join the Reformation, and sat in the
parliament of 1560, when the Protestant doctrines received
the sanction of the law. In 1573 he was one of the commis-
sioners for settling a firm and lasting government in the
chmxih. In the " Black Book of Taymouth,** he is repre-
sented to have been " ane great justiciar all his tyme, throch
the quhilk he sustenit the deidly feid of the Clangregor ane
lang space; and besides that he causit execute to the death
many notable lymarris, he behiddit the laird of Maogregor
himself at Kandmoir, in presence of the Erie of Athol, the jus-
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BREADALBANE.
tice-derk, and sundrie other nobilmen." In 1580 he built
the cMtle of Balloch, in Perthshire, one wing of which still
eontinaes attached to Tajmouth Castle, the splendid mansion
of the Marquis of Breadalbane. He also built Edinample,
Another seat of the family. Sir Colin died in 1588. By his
wife, Catherine, second daughter of William, second lord
Rttthven, he had four sons and four daughters. Archibald,
the fourth son, got part of the baronj of Monzie by his mar-
riage with Maigaret, daughter and heiress of Andrew Toehach
of Monae, but had no issue. Beatrix, the eldest daughter,
married Sir John Campbell of Lawers; Margaret, the second,
married, in 1574, James, seventh earl of Glencaim, and had
issue; Mary, the third, married John, sixth earl of Menteith,
with issue; and Elizabeth, the youngest, became the wife of
Sir John Campbell of Ardkinglass.
Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy, the eldest son, was
named by King James the Sixth, 18th May 1590, one of the
barons to assist at the coronation of his queen, Anne of Den-
mark, when he was knighted. On the death of Colin, sixth
earl of Argyle, in 1584, he had been nominated by that no-
bleman's will, one of the six guardians of the young earl, then
a minor, the others being Dougal Campbell of Auchinbreck,
John Campbell of Calder, Sir James Campbell of Ardkin-
glass, comptroller to the king, father of the above-named Sir
John, Archibald Campbell of Loohnell, and Neill Campbell,
bishop of Aigyle. The guardians soon split into rival factions,
Glenorchy, Auchinbreck, and Loohnell, who was the nearest
heir to the earidom, being on the one side, and Calder, Ard-
kinglass, and the bishop on the other. The influence of the
three latter preponderated, but jealousies soon broke out be-
tween Ardkinglass and Calder, and on the death of the for-
mer in 1591, his feelings of hostility were transmitted to his
son and successor. Sir John, who b«dng of a weak and vacil-
lating disposition, was easily induced by his brother-in-law
Glenurchy to enter into his plans. The prindpal administra-
tion of the affiiirs of the earidom now centred in Calder. He
was supported by many of the nobility connected with the
family of Argyle, and particularly by the eari of Murray, com-
monly called the " bonnie eari,** who was murdered in his own
house of Donnibirsel in Fife, in February 1592, by a party of
the Crordons, under the command of the earl of Huntly. In
the same month John Campbell of Calder was assassinated
m Lorn. Both crimes, by a late disooveiy, appear to have
been the result of toe same oonspuracy, in which Gleniirohy
and other barons and chiefe in the West Highlands were in-
volved, and one object of which was the death ot the young
eari of Argyle, as well as that of the " bonnie eari of Murray.**
Gregory expressly charges Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenurchy
with bdng the prindpal mover in the branch of the plot
which led to the murder of Calder. ** Glenurchy,** he says,
** knowing the feelings of personal animosity cherished by
Ardkinglass against Calder, easily prevailed upon the former
to agree to the assassination of their common enemy, with
whom Glenurchy himself had now an additional cause of
quarrel, arising from the protection given by Calder to some
of the Clangregor who were at feud with Glenurchy. After
various unsuccessful attempts, Ardkinglass procured, through
the agency of John Gig CampbeU of Cabrachan, a brother of
Lochnell, the services of a man named M*Ellar, by whom
Calder was assassinated with a hackbut, supplied by Ard-
kinglass, the fatal shot being fired at night through one of
the windows of the house of Knepooh m Lorn, when Calder
fell, pierced through the heart with three bullets. Owing to
hii hereditary feud with Calder, Ardkinglass was generally
snspected, and bdng, in consequence, threatened with the
vengeance of the young earl of Argyle, Glenurchy ventured
to communicate to him the plan fiir getting nd of the eari
and his brother, and for assisting Lochnell to seise the eari-
dom. Ardkinglass refused, although repeatedly urged, to be-
come a party to any designs against the life of the eail, pro-
posing to make his peace with Argyle, by disclosing the full
extent of the plot The inferior agents, John Oig Campbell
and M^Ellar, were both executed ; nor could all the influence
of Calder*s relations or friends obtain the punishment of any
of the higher parties. Glenurchy was allowed to dear him-
self of all oonoem in the plots attributed to him, by his own
unsupported and extngudicial denial in writing. He ofiered
to abide his trial, which, he well knew, the chancellor, Thirie-
stane, and the eari of Huntly were deeply interested in pre-
venting.** ^History oftk» WuUtm HigUamdt amd Isks, pp.
250—263.]
In 1617 Sir Duncan had the office of heritable keeper of
the forest of Mamlom, Bendaskeriie, &o., conferTed upon
hinu He afterwards obtained from King Charles the First
the sheriffihip of Perthshire for life. He was created a baro-
net <^ Nova Scotia by patent, bearing date 80th May 1625.
Althou^ represented as an ambitions and grasping chancier,
he is said to have been the first who attempted to dvilise the
people on his extensive estates. He not only set them the
example of planting timber trees, fencing pieces of ground for
gardens, and manuring their lands, but assisted and enooor-
aged them in their labours. One of his regulations of police
for the estate was '* that no man shall in any public boose
drink more than achofun of ale with his neighbour's wife, in the
absence of her husband, upon the penalty of ten pounds, and
atting twenty-four hours in the stocks, toties qcu)tiee.** [iV«9
8taL Accomt, voL x. p. 464.] According to the 'Blade
Book of Taymouth,* *' in the zdr of God 1627, he oandt big
ane brig over the watter of Lochay, to the great amtentment
and will of the countrie.** He died in June 1631. He was
twice married, first, in 1574, to Lady Jean Stewart, seoend
daughter of John eari of Athd, lord high chancellor of Scot-
land, by whom he had seven sons and three danghten* Ar-
chibald Campbdl of Monzie, the fifth son, was ancestor of
the Campbells of Monzie, Lodilane, and Fmnab, in Perth-
shire. Jean, the eldest daughter, married Sir John Camp-
bell of Calder, and had issue ; Arme, the second, married Sir
Patrick Ogilvy of Inchmartine, and was mothw of the seoood
eari of Findlater; Margaret, the third, married Sir Alexan-
der Menxies of Weem. His second wife was Elizabeth, only
dan^ter of Patrick fifth Lord Sinclair, by whom he had a
son, Patrick, on whom his fiUher settled die lands of Edin-
ample, and a daughter, Jean, married to John eari of Atbol,
and had issue.
His second son, Robert, was engaged in 1610 in the f)^
or Skirmish of Bmtoich, also known as * the Chaae of Bane-
fhty,* against the McGregors. The fi^t appears to have
taken place at Bintoich, and the chase or pursuit to have
readied as far as Ranefray. The transaction is thus narrated
in *the Book of Taymouth:* ''Attour«, Robert OampbeD,
second sone to the Laird (of Glenurquhey) Sir Duncan, per-
sewing ane great number of them (the Chan Gr^gor) thnmgh
the countrie, in end overtuik them in Ranefray, in the Brae
of Glenurchy; quhair he dew Duncan Abrok Makgregor.
with his son Gregor in Ardohyllie, Dougall Makgregor M*Coal-
chier in Glengyle, with his son Duncan, Charies Makgregor
(M^Cane in Bracklie, quha was prindpallis in that band;
and twenty utheris of thdr oompldses slain in the chajas.**
A contemporary historian. Sir Bobert Gordon, in his *Histoiy
of the Earldom of Sutherland,' (p. 247,) says of this aSur,
that " here (meaning at Bintoich) Robert Campbell, the laird
of Glen-Vrquhie his sone, accompanied with some of the
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BREADALBANE,
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FIRST EARL OF.
Glanchamnm, CUoab (M^Nabs), aod CUmronald, to the num-
ber of two himdxed choeen men, fanght against three score of
the Glangregar; in which conflict tao of the Clangregar were
slam, to wit, Doncan Aoengo, one of tne chieftanes, and his
son Dnnoan. Seaven gentlemen of the Campbell's syd wer
killed ther, thou^^ they seemed to have the victorie." The
same Robert CampbeU, styled of Glenfidloch, m January
1611, besieged a garrison of the Clan Gregor in the small
island of Vamak, near the western extremity of Lodi Ka-
trine, on its north shore, opposite Portnellan, but he was
obliged to abandon the siege, owing, as stated in ' the Book
of Taymouth,* to a stoiin of snow. In July 1612 several
of the Clan Gregor were hanged at the Bcurough-muir of Ed-
inbaigh for the slan^ter of a bowman of the laird of Glen-
urehy and eight other persons, and sereral other crimes, con-
sisting of fire-raising, theft, and intercommuning with their
proscribed clansmen.
Sir Colin Campbell, the eldest son of Sir Duncan, bom
about 1677, succeeded as eighth laird of Glenurohy. little
is known of this Sir Colin, save what is highly to his honour,
namely his patronage of George Jamesone, the celebrated
portrait painter. The family manuscript which records the
genealogy of the house of Glenurchy contains the following
entries, written in 1685 : — *' Item, the said Sir Colme Camp-
pell gave unto Genge Jamesone, painter in Edinburgh, for
Kng Robert and King David Bruysses, kings of Scotland, and
Charles I. king of Great Brittane, France and Ireland, and
his majesties quein, and for nine more of the queins of Soot-
land, their portraits, quhilks are set up in the hall of Balloch,
(new TaynKmth) the sum of tua hundreth thrie soor punds.
—Hair, the said Sir Coline gave to the said George Jame-
sone for the knight of Lochow's lady, and the first countess
of Argylle, and six of the ladys of Glenurquhay, their por-
tnuts, and the said Sir Coline his own portrait, quhilks are set
up in the chalmer of deas (principal presence room) of Bal-
loch, ane hundreth four scoire punds.** The family tree of
the house of Glen<»chy, eight feet long by five broad, described
by Peimant, was also painted by Jamesone. In a corner is
inscribed "The genealogie of the House of Glenurquhie,
quhairof is descendit sundrie nobil and worthie houses.
1635, Jcuneton faciebaL** Sir Colin married Lady Juliana
CampbeU, eldest daughter of Hugh first Lord Loudon, but
had no issue. He died 6th September 1640, aged 63. In
Pinkerton*s Scottish Gallery are portraits of Sir Colin at the
age of 56, and of Lady JuHana, his spouse, at the age of 52,
both taken from the origuud paintings in the Breadalbane
collection at Taymouth Castle.
He was succeeded by his brother, Sir Robert, at first styled
of Glenfalloch, and afterwards of Glenurchy. ** In the year
of God 1644 and 1645, the laird of Glenurquhay his whole
landb and esteat, betwixt the foord of Lyon and point of iis-
more, were burnt and destroyit be James Graham, some time
erle of Montrose, and Alex. M'Donald, son to CoL M'Donald
in Golesue, with their associattis. The tenants their whole
cattle were taken away be tiua enemies ; and their comes,
houses, plenishing, and whole insight weir burnt; and the
said Sir Robert pressing to get the inhabitants repahit, wairit
£48 Scots upon the bigwig of every cuple in his Umdis, and
als wairit seed comes, upon his own charges, to the most of
his inhabitants. The oooaoon of this maUce against Sir Ro-
bert, and his friends and countrie people, was, because the
said Sir Robert joinit in covenant with the kirk and kmgdom
of Scotland, in maintaining the trew religion, the kingis ma-
jestic, his authoritie, and laws, and libertie of the kingdom of
Scotland ; and because the said Sir Robert altogether refusit
U> assist the said James Graham and Alex. M'Donald, their
malicbus doings in the kingdom of ScotUnd. So that the
laird of Glenurquhay and his countrie people, their loss within
Perthshire and within Argyleshire, exceeds the soume of
1,200,000 merks.** Sir Robert married Isabel, daughter of
Sir Lachlan Madntosh, of Torecastle, captain of the dan
Chattan, and had five sons and nine daughters. William,
the third son, was ancestor of the Campbells of Glenfalloch,
the representative of whom is now the heir presumptive to
the Scottish titles of eari of Breadalbane, &c Alexander, the
fourth son, got from his father the hmds of Lochdochart in
1648, and was ancestor of the Campbells of Lochdochart.
Duncan, the fifth son, possessed Auchlyne, and from him de-
scended the now deceased James Goodlet Campbell of Auch-
lyne, who by his wife, a sister of Logan of Logan, had a son,
Hugh Campbell, merchant in Glasgow. Margaret, the eldest
daughter, married to John Cameron of Lochid, was the mo-
ther of Sir Ewen Cameron; Maiy, the second daughter, mar-
ried James CampbeU of Ardkinglass ; Jean, the third, became
the wife of Duncan Stewart of Appin ; Isabel, the fourth, of
Robert Irvine of Fedderet, son of Sir Alexander Irvine of
Drum, and Julian, the fifth, of John Maclean of Lochbury.
The other daogbten were the wives respectivdy of Robertson
of Jnde, Robertson of Faskally, Toshach of Monyvaird, and
Campbell of Glenlyon.
The eldest son. Sir John Campbell of Glenurchy, married
first. Lady Mary Graham, eldest daughter of William, earl of
Strathem, Menteath, and Airth, and had a son. Sir John,
first eari of Breadalbane, and a daughter, Agnes, who became
the wife of Sir Alexander Menzies of Weem, baronet
Sir John married, secondly, Christian, daughter of John
Muschet of Craighead in Menteith, by whom he had several
daughters, of whom are descended the Campbells of Stone-
fldd, Airds, and Ardchattan. Isabel, one of them, was mar-
ried to John Macnachtane, and Anne, another, to Robert
Macnab of Macnab, whom she survived, and died at Loch-
dochart 6th September 1765.
Sir John Campbell of Glenurchy, first earl of Breadalbane,
only son of Sir John, was bora about 1685. He gave great
assistance to the forces collected in the Highlands for Charles
the Second in 1658, under the command of General Middle-
ton. He subsequently used his utmost endeavours with
General Monk to dedare for a free parliament, as the most
effectual way to bring about his majesty*s restoration. He
served in parliament for the shire of Argyle. Bdng a prind-
pal creditor of George, sixth earl of Caithness, [see Catth-
NE8B, eari of,] whose debts are said to have exceeded a million
of nuu-ks, that nobleman, on 8th October 1672, made a dis-
podtion of his whole estates, heritable jurisdictions, and titles
of honour, after his death, in favour of Sir John Campbell of
Glenurchy, the Utter taking on himself the burden of his
lordship's debts, and he was, in consequence, duly infefted in
the lands and earidom of Caithness, 27th February 1673.
The earl of Cdthness died in May 1676, when Sir John
Campbdl obtained a patent creating him earl of Caithness,
dated at Whitehall, 28th June 1677. But George SincUir of
Keiss, the heir male of the last earl, being found by parlia-
ment entitled to that dignity, Sir John Campbell obtained
another patent, 13th August 1681, creating him instead, earl
of Breadalbane and Holland, Viscount of Tay and Paintland,
Lord Glenurchy, Benederaloch, Ormelie, and Wdk, with the
precedency of the former patent, and remainder to whichever
of his sons by his first wife he might deagnate in writing, and
ultimately to his hein male whatsoever. On the aocesdon ot
James the Seventh, the earl was sworn a privy councillor.
At the Revolution he adhered to the Prince of Orange, and
after the battle of Killiecrankie and the attempted reduction
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BREADALBANE,
376
THIRD EARL OP.
of tlie Highlands by the forces of the new government, he was
empowered to enter into a negotiation with the Jacobite
chiefs to induce them to submit to King William, and a sum
of fifteen thousand pounds sterling was placed at his disposal
for the purpose by his majesty. This negotiation was for
a time interrupted, principally at the instigation of Mackian
or Alexander Macdonald of Glenooe, between whom and the
earl a difference had arisen respecting certain claims which
bis lordship had against Glencoe's tenants for plundering hb
lands, and for which the earl insisted for compensation and for
retention out of Glencoe's share of the money with which he
had been intrusted by the government to distribute among
the chiefs. The failure of the negotiation was extremely irri-
titing to the earl, who threatened Glencoe with his vengeance.
Following up this threat, he entered into a correspondence
with Secretary Dalrymple, the master of Stair, and between
them, it is understood, a plan was concerted for cutting off
the chief and his people. Whether the " mauling scheme **
of the earl, to which Dalrymple alludes in one of his letters,
refers to a plan for the extirpation of the tribe, is a question
which must ever remain doubtful ; but there is reason to be-
lieve that if he did not suggest, he was at least privy to the
foul massacre of that unfortunate chief and his people, an
event which has stamped an infamy upon the government of
King William, which nothing can efface.
" Tlie hand that mingled iu the meal.
At midnight drew the felon steel,
And gave the host's kind breast to feel
Meed for hia hoapitality I
The friendly hearth which warmed that hand.
At midnight armed it with the brand.
That bade destruction's flames expand
Their red and fearful blazonry.
Tliere woman's shriclc was lieard In vain.
Nor infancy's unpitied plain.
More than the warrior's groan, oonld gain
Respite flrom nithleaa batcher}* I
The winter wind that whistled shrill.
The snows that night that cloatied the hill.
Though wUd and pitiless, had still
Far more than Soatbem clemency."
On the 29th April 1695, upwards of three years after the
massacre, a commission was issued to inquire into it. The
Commissioners appear to have discovered no cAidenoe to im-
plicate the earl of Breadalbane, but merely say, in reference
to him, that it "was plainly deponed*^ before them, that,
some days after the slaughter, a person waited upon Glenooe's
sons, and represented to them that he was sent by Campbell
of Balcalden, the eari's chamberlain or steward, and autho-
rized to say that, if they would declare, under their hands,
that his lordship had no concern in the massacre, they might
be assured the earl would procure their " remission and resti-
tution.** While, however, the Commissioners were engaged
in the inquiry they ascertained that, in his negotiations with
the Highland chiefs, the earl had acted in such a way as to
lay himself open to a charge of high treason, in consequence
of which discovery, he was, 10th June 1695, committed
prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh ; but he was soon released
from confinement, as it turned out that he had professed him-
self a Jacobite, that he might the more readily execute the
commission with which he had been intrusted, and that King
William hhnself was a party to this contrivance. When the
earl of Nottingham, on the part of the English government,
wrote to Lord Breadalbane to account for the money he had
received for the Jacobite chiefs, the latter returned this
laconic answer; ''My lord, the Highlands are quiet, the
money is spent, and this is the best way of acconsting among
friends.** When the treaty of union was under discossioii,
his lordship kept aloof, and did not even attend parliament.
At the general election of 1718, he was chosen one of the
sixteen Scots representative peers, being then seventy-eight
years old. At the breaking out of the rebellion of 1715, he
sent five hundred of his clan to join the standard of the Pre-
tender, and he was one of the suspected persons, with hk
second son, Lord Glenorchy, sunmioned to appear at Edm-
burgh within a certain specified period, to give bail for theii
allegiance to the government, but no farther notice was taken
of his conduct The earl died in 1716, in his Slst year.
Macky [^Memoirs, p. 199] erroneously styles him Afarquis (rt
Breadalbane, and says, " It is odds if he live long enough but
he is a duke. He is of a fair complexion, and has the gravity
of a Spaniard, is as cunning as a fox, wise as a so^nt, and
as slippery as an eel.** His lordship married, first, at Lon-
don, 17th December 1657, Lady Mary Rich, third daugfatei
of Henry first earl of Holland, who was executed for his
loyalty to Charles the First, 9th March 1649. llie marriage
is thus entered in the renter of the parish of St. Andrews,
Baynard Castle: — " Mr. John Campbell of Glanorchy, in the
county of Perth, in the fuUhn of Scotland, Esqr., was mar-
ried to the Lady Mary Rich.** By this lady he had two sons,
Duncan, styled Lord Onnelie, who survived his father, bat
was passed over in the succession, and John, in his father*s life-
time styled Lord Glenorchy, who became second earl of Bread-
albane. He married, secondly, 7th April 1678, Lady Maiy
Campbell, third daughter of Archibald, Marquis of Aigjie,
dowager of George, sixth earl of Caithness, and by her had a^
son, Hon. Colin Campbell of Ardmaddie, who died in 1708,
aged 29. By a third wife he had a daughter, Lady Mary,
married to Archibald Cockbum of Langton.
John Campbell, Lord Glenorchy, the second son, bom 19th
November 1662, was by his father nominated to succeed him
as second earl of Breadalbane, in terms of the patent confer-
ring the titie. In 1721, at the keenly contested election for
a representative of the Scots peerage, in room of the Maiqoif
of Annandale deceased, his right to the peerage was impugned
on the part of his elder brother, on the grotmd that any dis-
position or nomination fipom hb father to the bonotirs and
dignity of earl of Breadalbane ** could not convey the honours,
nor could the crown effectually grant a peerage to any perKto
and such heir as he should name, such patent being inomsis-
tent with the nature of a peerage, and not agreeable to law,
and also without precedent.** [^RobertMon's Proceedmg$, p.
88.J These objections were overruled. At the genenl eleo-
tion of 1786 his lordship was chosen one of the sixteen repre-
sentative peers, and in 1741 was rechosen. He was lord-
lieutenant of the county of Perth. He died at Holyroodhooae,
28d February 1752, in his ninetieth year. He married, first.
Lady Frances Cavendish, second of the five daughters of
Henry, second duke of Newcastle. She died, without issue,
4th February 1690, in her thirtieth year. He married,
secondly, 28d May 1695, Henrietta, second daughter of ^
Edward Villiers, knight, sister of the first earl of Jeraey, and
of Elizabeth, countess of Orkney, the w^it^ but plain-looking
mistress of King William the Third. By his second wife be
had a son, John, third earl, and two daughters, Lady Char-
lotte and Lady Henrietta, who both died unmarried.
John, tlurd earl, bom in 1696, was educated at the uni-
ver»ty of Oxford, and when veiy young he exhibited an turn-
sual degree of talent as well as progress in his studies. In
1718, at the age of twenty- two, he was sent as envoy extra-
ordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the court of Den-
mark. He was invested with the order of the Bath at iti
Lii-~
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BREAD ALBANE,
377
^ MARQUIS OF.
reviTal, in 1725. At the general election of 1727 he was
ciioeen member of parliament for the borough of Saltash in
England, and in 1734 was re-elected. In December 1731,
he was appointed ambassador to Russia. In 1741 he was
chosen to represent Oxford in parliament, and spoke fine-
qnently in the House of Commons in support of Sir Robert
WaIpoIe*s measures. On 14th Maj 1741, he was appointed
one of the lords of the admindty, but was removed firom that
board, 19th March 1742, on the dissolution of the Walpole
administration. In January 1746 he was nominated master
of his majesty's jewel office. In February 1752 he succeeded
his father, and was elected a representative peer, 9th July of
that year, in the room of the earl of Dunmore, deceased. In
1761, he was appointed lord chief justice in eyre of all the
royal forests south of the Trent, and he held that office till
October 1765. He was constituted vice-admiral of Scotland,
26th October 1776. Ho died at Holyroodhouse, 26th Janu-
ary 1782, in his 86th year. He married, first, in 1721, Lady
AmabelU Grey, eldest daughter and coheir of Henry duke of
Kent, K. G., and by her — ^who died at Copenhagen in March
1727 — he had a son, Henry, whose death took place a few
weeks after his mother, and a daughter, Lady Jemima Camp-
bell, bom 9th October 1723, who succeeded her grandfather,
the duke of Kent, as Baroness Lucas of Crudwell and Mar-
chioness de Grey, 6tli June, 1740. This lady married, 22d
May of that year, Philip, second earl of Hardwicke, and by
him had two daughters. The eldest,
I^dy Amabella Yorke, who married
Lord Polwarth, son of the third earl
of Marchmont, succeeded her mother
RS Baroness Lucas in 1797, the title
of Marchioness de Grey then becom-
ing extinct. Lord Breadalbane mar-
ried, secondly, 23d January 1730,
Arabella, third daughter and heiress
of John Pershall, by Chariotte, daugh-
ter of Thomas Lord Colepepper, by
whom he had two sons: George, bom ^
in January 1733, died at MoiTat in f
April 1744, in the twelfth year of his 'i
age ; and John, Lord Glenorchy, bom j
in London 26th September 1738, died ■
in the lifetime of his father, and with- {
out surviving issue, at Bamton, in the
county of Edinburgh, an estate he had
recently purchased, 14th November,
177 1 , in the 34th year of his age. He
married at London, 26th September
1761, Willielma, second and posthum-
ous daughter and coheir of William
Maxwell of Preston, a branch of the Nithsdale family, and had
a son, who died in his infancy. Of this lady, the celebrated
Lady Glenorchy, a memoir is given under the head of Camp-
bell, Willielma.
The male line of the first peer having become extinct in
1782, on the death of the third earl, the clause in the patent
in favour of heirs general transferred the peerage, and the
vast estates belonging to it, to his kinsman, John Campbell,
bom in 1762, eldest son of Colin Campbell of Carwhin, de-
scended firora Colin Campbell of Mochaster, (who died in Oc-
tober 1688,) second son of Sir Robert Campbell of Glenurchy.
The mother of the fourth earl and first marquis of Breadal-
bane, was Elizabeth, daughter of Archibald Campbell of
Stonefield, sheriff of Argyleshire, and sister of John Camp-
bell, judicially styled Lord Stonefield, a lord of session and
jiuttdary. He was educated at Westminster school ; and af-
terwards resided for some time at Lausanne in Switzerland.
In 1784, he was elected one of the sixteen representative peers
of Scotland, and was rechosen at all the subsequent elections,
until he was created a peer of the United Kingdom in No-
vember 1806, by the title of Baron Breadalbane of Taymouth
in the county of Perth, to himself and the heirs male of his
body. In 1793 he raised a fencible regiment, called the
Breadalbane Fendbles, for the service of govemment. It
was afterwards increased to four battalions. One of these
was in July 1795 enrolled, as the 116th regiment, in the reg-
ular senice, his lordship being constituted its colonel. He
was one of the state counsellors of the prince of Wales for
Scotland, and ranked as major-general in the army from 25th
October 1809. In 1831, at the coronation of William the
Fourth, he was created a marquis of the United Kingdom,
under the title of marquis of Breadalbane and earl of Ormelie.
In public affairs he did not take a prominent or ostentatious
part, his attention being chiefly devoted to the improvement
of his extensive estates, great portions of which, being unfitted
for cultivation, he laid out in plantations. In 1805, he re-
ceived the gold medal of the Society of Arts, for his success
in planting forty-four acres of waste land, in the parish of
Kenmore, with Scotch and larch firs, a species of rather pre-
carious growth, and adapted only to peculiar soils. In the
magnificent improvements at Taymouth, his lordship display-
ed mnch taste ; and the park has been firquently described
as one ot the most extensive ano beautiful in the kingdom.
He married, 2 September, 1793, Mary Tumer, eldest daughter
and coheiress of David Gavin, Esq. of Langton, in the county
of Berwick, by I^y Elizabeth Maitland, eldest surviving
daughter of James, seventh earl of Lauderdale, and by her
had two daughters and one son. The elder daughter. Lady
Elizabeth Maitland Campbell, married in 1831, Sir John
Pringle of Stitchell, baronet, and the younger. Lady Mary
Campbell, became in 1819 the wife of Richard, marquis of
Chandofl, who in 1889 became duke of Buckingham. The
marquis died, after a short illness, at Taymouth castle, on 29th
March 1834, aged seventy-two. The whole of his personal
estate, exceeding, it is said, £300,000, was directed by his will
to accumulate for twenty years, at the end of which period it
was to be laid out on estates to be added to the entailed pro-
perty, but his settlement was partly set aside by the marquia
-^^=:=_^JJ
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BRECHIN.
378
BRECHIN.
of Chandos in right of his wife, who obtained an affirmance
by the House of Peers of the decision of the Court of Sesrion,
declaring that the marchioness and her husband, in her right,
were entitled to demand leffidm.
The marquis* only son, John Campbell, eari of Ormelie,
'bom at Dundee, 26th October 1796, succeeded, on the death
of his father, to the titles and estates. He married, 23d No-
Tember 1821, Eliza, eldest daughter of George Baillie, Esq.
of Jerviswood, without issue. He represented Perthshire in
the parliament of 1832. In 1884 he socoeeded his father as
6th earl and 2d marquis of Breadalbane. In 183S he was
made a knight of the Thistle, and in 1841 was elected Lord
liector of the university of Glasgow. He was Lord*cham-
berlain of the household from July 1848 to Feb. 1852, and
Ngain from Jan. 1853 to Feb. 1858. He was president of
the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and Ix>rd-lieutenanl
of Argyleshire. He died Nov. 8, 1862, when the marquisate,
with its secondary titles, in the peerage of the United King-
dom, became extinct, and he was succeeded in the Scotch
titles by a distant kinsman, William John Lamb Campbell
of Glenfalloch, Perthshire, bom in 1790.
Brkorin, a surname derived from a lordship comprising
the ancient town of that name in For&ishire. The word has
been supposed to have been derived from the Scottish brachen
or breckan^ which signifies ' female fern,' but this seems not
very probable, as that plant is by no means abundant in the
neighbourhood. Its similarity to the British name Breckeinoc
or Biycheinog, Anglicised into Brecknock, or Brecon, (an>
dently Aberhodni) the chief town of Brecknockshire, which
Giraldus Cambrensis (1188) and even earlier authorities de-
rive from Brackan, a regulus or prince of that country, who
died about the year 450, renders it probable that it is likswisa
called after some individual of British or Cumbrian origin of
that name. Nor is it impossible that, being a town of great
ecclesiastical antiquity, its round tower being one of tbe oolj
two extant in Scotland, and not of later date thao tbe sixth
or seventh century, it may have originated in a dmrdi dedi-
cated to the famOy of this Brackan, who, according to Giral-
dus, William de Worcester, and Leland, (as quoted by Sir
Ricbud C. Hoare in his annotations to the Itinerary of Arch-
bishop Baldwin, by Giraldus, vol. i. p. 61. London, 1806,)
had twenty-four sons and as many daughters, who all em-
braced a religious life, and were the founders of numerous
churches, and on that account the finnily of Brackan are
stated in the Welsh Triads (idem, p. 60) to have received the
appellation of the holy family, and the hi^est of the three
holy families of Britain, on account of hia(Brackan*8) ** bringing
up his children and grandchildren in learning, so as to be able
to show the faith in Christ to the Cumbrae or Cymri, where they
were without JiuihJ^ The names of his ohildreo are given by the
authors in the quotations above referred to, and two of them,
viz.. Saint Afaneyda, Aled, or Elyned, a female saint who suf-
fered martyrdom, not included in these lists, and Saint Canoo,
who appears in one of them, have found places in the Boman
calender of saints. It is singular, and may lend some proba-
bility to this conjecture, that the name oi lona appears in
two of the lists referred to, as well as Elie or Helie, Maben,
and other names still preserved in localities in Sootiand con-
nected with eodesiastieal sites.
Brechin, lord of, a titie possessed by a powerful family in
the thirteenth century. Henry de Brechin, natural son of
David, eari of Huntingdon in England, earl of Gariooh and
Lord Brechin in Scotland, and brother of King William the
Lion, obtained from his father the lordship of Brechin, whence
he took his surname. He is witness to a charter of Wilfian:
the lion to Malcolm, eari of Fife, in which he is designed,
*■ Henricus filius comitis D.ivid, patris met' In a donation ci
his brother John, eari of Chester, to the canons of St An-
drews, he is designed, * Henricus de Brechin, filius oomitia
David,' and a mortification by the same earl to the abbey of
Aberbrothwick, is witnessed by * Henrico de Brechin, fratri
mei.* By his wife, Julian, he had a son, Sir William de
Brechin, who founded the Maison Dieu, or St. Mary's Hospi-
tal, at Brechin, in 1256, and confirmed by James the Third
in 1477, for the welfare of the sonb of William and Alexan-
der, kings of Scotland, John, earl of Chester and Huntiog-
don, his unde, Henry his father, and Julian his mother, and
of his own souL To the foundation charter, in which he de-
signates himself ^\^ielmus de Brechin, filius Henrid de
Brechin, filius comitis David,' Albinus bishop of Brechin, Ro-
bert de Monte AltO) and several other persons of note, are wit-
nesses. With Alexander Stewart of Sootiand and Darid de
Graham, he is witness to a charter of David, bishop of St An-
drews, to the monks of Paisley in 1247, in which he is styled
* Willielmo de Brechin, barone et milite.' In 1254 he was srbi-
trator in a dispute between Peter de Maule, lord of Panmore,
and Christina de Valoniis, his wife, with the abbot of Aber-
brothwick, about the marches of Aberbrothwick and Panmue,
which Alexander Comyn, earl of Bucban, justiciary of Scot-
land, had perambulated by the king's special command.
During the mmority of Alexander the Third, he was one of
the heads of the English party in Scotiand, in opposition to
the Comyns. In 1255 he was one of the Magnatea Seotia,
with whose counsel that monarch gave commission to the
earls of Menteith, Buchan, and Mar, to treat with the Eng-
lish. On the 20th September of that year, he was appointed
one of the regents of Scotland and guardians of the king and
queen, during the king's minority. At the paiiiament bald
at Scone 5th February 1283-4, he was among the nobles who
became bound to acknowledge Mai^garet of Norway as ihi
heir to the crown, in the event of the death of Alexander the
Third without issue. He appears to have died soon after-
wards. He married the fourth daughter of the above-nanoed
Alexander Comyn, eari of Buchan, constable and justidary of
Scotiand, by whom he had a son, named David, who soc-
oeeded him.
Sir David de Brechin was one of the Scottish banms who
swore fealty to Edward tiie First in 1296, and with othen be
was sammoned to attend that monarch into France, but tbe
same year was allowed to oome to Scotiand, upon giving his
obligation to return to the service of King Edward. In the
struggle for independence under Brooe he fought on the Eng-
lish fflde, and took Sir Alexander Eraser prisoner at the battle
of Methven in 1306. [FoNfeno.] In 1308 he was one of King
Edward the Second's council, and recdved the circular letter
which he addressed to the nobles in his interest, thanking
them for past services and encouraging them to remain
faithful to hinL He continued on the English aide, with
his relations the Comyns, till after the battle of Invenuy,
22d May of that year, in which, with John Comyn, eari of
Buchan, and Sir John Mowbray, he commanded the army op-
posed to Brace, who gained a complete victory. He then re-
tired to his castie of Brechin, whidi he garrisoned, bat bong
besieged, is said to have soon after made his peace with
King Robert Before the dose of the thirteenth centniy
he i^pears to have married the sister of Robert Brace, who
was then in private life, by whom he had two sons, Sir Da-
vid de Brechin, and Sir Thomas de Brechin, the latter of
whom obtained from his father the lands of Lumquhat in
Fife INisbet'a Heraldry, vol. L p. 77.J, also a danghter, Uar»
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BRECHIN.
379
BRISBANE.
garat, married in 1815 to Sir David de Barclayf who after-
wards became possessed of the lordship of Brechin.
The elder son, Sir David de Brechin, was called * The Flower
of Chivaby/ finom his prowess in arms. He distinguished
himself against the Saraoens in the Holy Land, whither he
went when very joong. He was one of the barons who
signed the bold letter to the Pope, 6th April 1320, in behalf
of Robert Brooe and the independence of Scotland. Bat the
•ame year he was made privy to the oonspiraey of William
de Soolis, the oonntess of Strathem, and others, against the
king his unde, and fSnr not discovering it, be was tried m a
parliament held at Scone, in Aogost 1820, called * the Black
Parliament,' and sentenced to the death of a traitor. He was
aocordinglj executed, with three others. His faXe was much
deplored, being, says Buchanan, * omnium etatis sua jnvenmn
et belli et pads artibus long^ piimns.* Historians generally
have spoken of him as being unjustly put to death, as, al-
though aware of the plot against the life of the king, he en-
tirely disapproved of it, and notwithstanding the plausible
reasons to the contrary given by Tytler — ^who sufiers nothing
to the discredit of his hen> Bruce to pass uncontested — such
win probably continue to be the verdict of posterity. *' There
b evidence in the records of the Tower,*" says Tytler, ** that
both Soulis and Brediin had long tampered with England,
and been rewarded for their services. In the case of Brechin,
we find him enjoying special letters of protection from Ed-
ward. In addition to these he was pensioned in 1812, wa£
appointed English warden of the town and oastie of Dundee,
and employed in secret and confidential communications, hav-
ing for their object the destruction of his nude's power in
Scotland, and the triumph of the English arms over his na-
tive country. It is certain that he was a prisoner of war in
Scotland in the year 1315, having probably been taken in arms
at the battle of Bannockburo. In the five years of gloiy and
success which followed, and in the repeated expeditions of
Randolph and Douglas, we do not once meet with his name,
and now, after having been reodved into favour, he became
connected with, or at leost connived at, a conspuracy whidi
involved the death of the king. Such a delinquent is little
entitled to our sympathy. There was not a single favourable
dicumstance in his case, but he was young and brave, he had
fought against the infidels, and the people could not see him
Buffff without pity and regret" [History qf Scotlandy v. I
p. 871.] It is true, as he says, that the name of Sir David
de Brechin appears in connection with the En^h interest
during many ]Nnevious years, but beddes that the same occurs
with many of the highest of the Scottish nolulity, induding
Randolph the nephew and afterwards the best commander of
Bruce, there is no evidence that this individual was not Sir
David the &ther rather than Sir David the son. There is no
evidence that the fkther made his peace with Robert previous
to 1812, when a Sbr David de Brechin was appointed joint
warden with William de Montfichet, in the En^ish interest,
of the town and castle of Dundee, nor even in 1815, when
a person of that name was a prisoner of war in Scotland.
If the unfortunate sufferer was, as Buchanan states and Tyt-
ler confirms, young and brave when he died in 1820, and had
passed many years of his Ufe in fighting against the Saracens,
his absence firom the expeditions of Randolph and Douglas may
be easily accounted for. A reason for his death, which was
not likdy to occur to Tjrtier, however, was the fact that, both
by the male and female line, he was nearer to the throne than
Bruce himself; and as the object of the conspiracy was to
place Soulis on the throne, instead of Bruce, the latter was
not likdy to allow any ordinaiy scruple to interfere with the
opportonity of rdieving himself of an accomplished gentie-
man and popular warrior, who might himself prove a danger-
ous rival Sir David's lands were all given by the king to
David de Barday, the husband of Sir David's daughter,
Margaret de Brechin, and to Maria, wife of Malise de Stra-
them. His brother, Thomas de Brechin, was involved in bis
Ibrfdture, he also having been privy to the conspiracy, and his
lands of Lumquhat in Fife were bestowed on John Ramsay.
Of the Barolats, lords of Brechin, an account has ahneady
been given, under the head Babolat, see ante, pp. 240, 241.
rhe lordship of Brechin was annexed to the crown in 1437.
BRBW8TBR, surname of, see Supplbmkmt.
BRiSBAif E, or BiRSBANK, a sumame bdonging to an an-
dent family which appears to have possessed Bishoptoun in
Renfi:ewshire, holding of the lordship of Erskine, with lands
in the counties of Stirling and Ayr, long prior to the date of
any diarters they have preserved, and now represented by the
line of Brisbane of Brisbane in Ayrshire, and Mackerstoun in
Roxburghshire. One of the earliest of the family known in
histocy is supposed to have been William Brisbane, who, ui
1882, was chancdior of Scotland. [An^ iifMoZt.] In
Brisbane house in the parish oi Largs, Ayrshire, is preserved
an old oaken chur, with the date 1867 and the arms and ini-
tials of the family carved on the back. The arms are three
cushions or woolsacks, which should seem to have been adopt-
ed from the o£Sce of chancellor. But if Crawford be cor-
rect in his Histocy of Renfrewshire, where he mentions Bish-
optoun as * the andent inheritance of the Brisbanee, the chief
of that name,' in his reference to * AQanus de Brysbane filius
Whelhehni de Brysbane,' who obtained, shortiy after 1884,
from Donald eari of Lennox, a grant of the lands of Macher-
ach and Holmedalmar^^ne in Stirlingshire, there were Brift-
banes of Brisbane even before the time of this chancellor.
Thomas and Alexander Brisbane, brothers, are witnesses to a
diarter, granted 9th September 1861, by Thomas eari of Mar,
and confirmed by King David the Second. Thomas Brisbane
is witness to a charter by Robert duke of Albany, dated at
Perth, 22d September 1409. Previous to that year the £un-
ily had acquired the ten pound land of KilUncraig and Gogo
in the parish of Largs. To these, several other lands that be-
longed to the ardibishop of Glasgow and the abbey of Pais-
ley, were afterwards added, and in 1595 the estate of Laigs
was erected into the barony of Gogoside, and the town into a
burgh of barony called the Newton of Gogo. In 1650, this
barony, with the lands of Noddeadale and others, was erected
into the barony of Noddesdale. fioon after, having aoqmred
the property of Over Kdsoland, which had for a long period
bebnged to the family of Kelso, the whole estate was, in
1695, by a crown diarter erected into the barony of Brisbane,
which thenceforth became the usual territorial designation of
the family.
/lathew Brisbane of Bishoptoun, the fifth proprietor of
Bishoptoun in a direct descent, fell at Flodden, 9th S^tem-
ber 1518, and was succeeded by his brother, John Brisbane,
whose son, also named John, was dain at the battie of
Pmkie, 10th September 1547. His son John Brisbane of
Bishoptoun, on November 9, 1555, with Thomas Brisbane
his servant, William Brisbane, servant of Lord Sempill,
and six others, found John Lord Erskine, his superior
in the lands of Bishoptoun, as surety or bail for their
appearance, to take thev trial at the next assises at Ren-
firew, for ^^hamesucken at the monastery of Paisley,'' and
nratilating John Hamilton of his arm. Robert Brisbane
of Bishoptoun married, in 1562, Janette, daughter of James
Stewart of Ardgowan and Blackball, a neighbouring &m-
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BRISBANE.
380
BRISBANE.
ily descended from King Robert the Third, and died in 1610.
Hi8 elder son, John Brisbane of Bishoptoun, who succeeded
him, and died in 1635, married, first, Anna, daughter of the
laird of Blair, and, secondly, a daughter of Lord SempilL His
eldest son, John Brisbane of Brisbane, had a son, John, who
died before his father, without male issue, on which he en-
tered into a contract of marriage, 26th June 1657, between
Klizabeth, his eldest daughter and his nephew James Shaw
of the Shaws of Ballygellie in Irehind, by which the estate
was settled on the heirs male of that marriage, James Shaw
assuming the name and arms of Brisbane. On the death of
his father-in-law, Mr. Shaw accordingly became James
Brisbane of Brisbane. In 1671 he acquired the lands of Over
Kelsoland, already mentioned, now forming part of the estate
of Brisbane, and about the same period he disposed of the
estate of Bishoptoun to different people, to be held in fen of
himself and his heirs. There is a letter of remission to this
James Brisbane, from James the Seventh of Scotland, dated
26th February, 1686, for fines imposed on him for any irre-
gularity committed by his wife in attending conventicles. He
had issue John, his heir, two other sons, and a daughter.
John Brisbane of Brisbane, the eldest son, married Marga-
ret, daughter of Sir Archibald Stewart of Blackhall, and had
two sons and four daughters. James, his heir and successor,
died without issue. ' Thomaa, his second son, married, in
1715, Isabel, daughter of Sir Thomas Nicolson of Ladykirk,
by whom he had two sons, of whom John, the second son,
entered the navy, and distinguished himself in the American
war. He attained the rank of admiral, and died ial807.
He married a daughter of Admiral Toung, and, besides
daughters, had several sons. John Douglaa, the eldest, was
drowned on board of one of the French prizes, after Rodney*s
action in 1782. Thomas-Stewart Brisbane rose to the rank
of lieutenant-colonel in the army, and was killed at St. Do-
mingo, in 1795, while commanding a corps with great dis-
tinction. A third son, William Henry Brisbane, a naval
captain, was poisoned by the French prisoners at Gibraltar in
1796. A fourth son, Sir Charlee Brisbane, entered the navy
under the auspices of his father, with whom he served in Sir
George Rodney's fleet, and was wounded in the memorable
engagement of the 12th April 1782. He served with dis-
tinction under Hood and Nelson in 1794-6. He was made
lieutenant in 1793, commander in 1795, and post-captain in
1796. On his own responsibility, having a squadron under
his command sent to reconnoitre the Dutch island of Cura-
90a in the West Indies, and to ascertain the disposition of
the inhabitants, he assaulted it, and carried it by coup de
mmn, on the Ist January 1807, being himself the first to
scale the walls of Fort Amsterdam. For this gallant exploit
he received the gold medal, and was knighted. He was no-
minated knight of the Bath in 1815, and advanced to the
rank of rear-admiral in 1819. This gallant officer died in
1829, leaving by his wife, daughter of Sir James Patey, two
sons, one in the army and another in the navy, besides two
daughters. Sir James Brisbane, youngest son of Admiral
John Brisbane above-mentioned, was also a gall«it naval
o£Scer who attained the rank of admiral. By his wife, only
daughter of John Ventham, Esq. he left one son, James
Stewart, a commander R. N., and two daughters. Admiral
John Brisbane had also ax daughters, five of whom were
married. The third, Mary, was the mother of Lord Core-
house, and of the wives of Dugald Stewart and Cuninghame
of Liunshaw, and of Count Purgstall in St3rria. The fourth,
Helen, became the lady of Sir Charles Douglas, a distin-
guished admiral.
lliomas. eldest son of Thomas, the second son ot John |
Brisbane of Brisbane, and elder brother of Admiral John
above mentioned, succeeded his uncle James in tiie familj
estates, and was served heir to him on the 15th September,
1770. He mamed Eleanora, daughter of Sir Michael Brace
of Stenhouse, baronet, and had, with a daughter, Maiy, two
sons, viz., Thomas, his successor, and Michael, who went out
to India, and died there in the service of the Honourable Ev<
India Company.
Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, a general in the aimy
succeeded his father on his death in 1812, and in 1819 he
married Anna Maria, only daughter of Sir Henry Hay Mak-
dougall, baronet of Makerstoun, Roxburghshire, a kinsman of
Sir Walter Scott, and representative of one of the most in-
dent families in Scotland, and on his death he succeeded, in
right of his wife, to his extensive and valuable domains, wbeo
he assumed the name of Makdougall before his own, being
authorized by sign manual, dated 14th August 1826. This
distinguished officer and astronomer entered the army as an
ensign in 1790, when he joined the 38th regiment in Ireland,
where he remained till the breaking out of the war in 1793,
when he was promoted to a captaincy in the 53d. In the
spring of that year he proceeded with his r^ment to Flan-
ders, and was present with it m all the duke of York*s cam-
paigns, at the storming of the French entrenched camp at
Famars, the sieges of Valenciennes, Dunkirk, Nieupoit,
Nimeguen, and the sorties firoin that fortress; also, in the
actions of Aswin, Fremont, Chateau- Cambresis, &&, and in
that of Toumay, where he was wounded, as well as in the
affairs of Boxtel, Buren, Culemburg, and Gilder-Matrin. In
the spring of 1795, he returned to England with his regiment,
in which he obtained a majority by purchase, and embarked
in the expedition under Sir Ralph Aberonombie for the Vifik
Indies. In 1796 he served at the reduction of St. Laos, the
siege and sortie of Mome- Fortune, and the af&urs of Chab-)t
Castries, and Vigie ; also, in the reduction of the island of St
Vincent, and in the whole of the Caraib war. In 1797 b«
was at the taking of the isUnd of Trinidad, and commanded
his regiment at the siege of Porto Rico. In 1800 he became,
by purchase, lieutenant-colonel of his r^ment, and in 1801
he joined it in Jamaica, and commanded it till its return tt
Rnghind in 1805. On its being ordered to India, he, un-
der medical advice, as labouring under a severe liver com-
plaint, and being unable to effed; an exchange into the gnardx
or cavalry, was compelled for a time to retire on half pay.
After serving two years as adyutaut general in the Kent dis-
trict, he embarked for the Peninsula in 1812, and thenceforth
he commanded a brigade in the duke of Wellington's army,
taking part in almost all the battles fought m Spain, the
Pyrenees, and the south of France. He had a cross and
one clasp for Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthea, and Tuo-
louse, where he was again wounded. In 1813 he received the
thanks of parliament for his gallant conduct in the field of
Orthes. The next year he went with the detachment of the
Peninsular army that was ordered to North America, and
commanded a brigade at the aflmirs of PUttsburg, Richlieo,
&C. In 1815 he obtained the grand cross of the Bath, while
still serving in America. On the return of the Emperor Na-
poleon from Elba in March of that year. Sir Thomas was re-
called, and after the battle of Waterloo joined the army in
Paris with twelve brigades, comprising nearly ten thousand
men, which, on being renewed, drew from the duke of Wel-
lington the excUmation. **' Had I had these regiments at
Waterloo, I should not have wanted the Prussians.** Sir
Thomas Brisbane remained in France during the whol«« pe-
riod that the Allies occupied the French soil, and in the interim
was unanimously elected oonesponding member of the Insti-
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BRODIE.
3dl
BRODIE.
fcute of France. In 1820 he was appointed to the staff in
Ireland, and he commanded the Monster district nntil the
end of that year, when he was appointed governor of New
South Wales ; on this occasion he was presented with the
freedom of the city of Cork. In 1824 he received the degree
of doctor of laws from the nniversity of Edinboigh. At the
dose of 1825 he returned from New South Wales, and in the
following year he was appointed by the duke of York colonel
of the 34th regiment In 1828 he was awarded a gold medal
by the Royal Astronomical Society, for the services he had
rendered to scienoe, and for having founded an observatory in
New Soath Wales, whieh has since been adopted by the gov-
ernment, and is now in active operation. In 1831 he be-
came a knight grand cross of the Guelphs of Hanover. In
18.^ be received the honorary degree of doctor of civil law
from the university of Oxford, and the same year was elected
president of the Royal Society of Edmbnigh. In 1888 he re-
ceived the degree of A.M. at Cambridge, when he was nomi-
nated prefident of the British Association for the followmg
year. In 1886 Sir Thomas was created a baronet of the
United Kingdom, and in 1837 he received the grand cross of
the order of the Bath. In 1841 he became a general in the
army. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society of London.
Died 27th January 1860; succeeded by his nephew, tlie son
of Admiral Brisbane.
Bkodie, a surname belonging to an ancient funily in the
county of Elgin, the first of which was one Michael, son of
Malcolm, thane of Brothie and Dyke in the reign of Alexan-
der the Third. This Michael, in 1311, had a charter of the
lands of Brodie from King Robert Bruce, as his father's heir,
and from the lands took the surname. In ancient writings
the name is called BrothU, afterwards softened mto Brodie.
In the Gaelic the word Broik signifies a ditch or mire, the
same as dyke in Saxon and <%tie in French ; and the parish
in which the lands of Brodie are principally situated is named
Dyke. Shaw in his History of the Province of Moray y (p.
146, edition 1827,) says. " The mire, trench or ditch that run-
neth from the village of Dyke to the north of Brodie-house
seemeth to have given this place the name of Brodie. Be
this as it will ; the antiquity of this name appeareth from this
that no history, record, or tradition (that I know of) doth so
much as hint that any other family or name possessed the
lands of Brodie before them, or that they came as strangers
from another country. I incline much to think that they
were originally of the ancient Moravienses, and were one of
those loyal tribes, to whom King Malcolm the Fourth gave
Unds about the year 1160, when he transplanted the Moray
rebels. At that time surnames were fixed ; and the Macin-
toshes, Inneses, Rosses, then assumed their names, and pro-
bably so did the Brodies ; and their arms being the same with
those of the Morays showeth that they were originally the
same people.** In Austrian Galicia is a town of the name of
Brody, probably from some peculiarity in its site similar to
that of the estate of Brodie in the parish of Dyke, in Moray.
The old writings of the family of Brodie of Brodie were
either carried away or destroyed by Lord Lewis Gordon (third
marquis of Himtly), when he burnt Brodie house in 1645.
The family, however, can be traced back for five hundred
years. John de Brothie is mentioned in the Chartulary of
Moray, 11th October 1380, as in attendance on the earl of
Mar, lieutenant of the north, about the year 1376. Thomas
de Brothie also appears in the Chartulary of Moray, with his
two sons, John and Alexander, in a negotiation regarding the
ricarage of Dyke, 4th December 1386. His younger son was
Ticar of Dyke. Alexander Bruthie of Brothie was chief of
the jury who served William Sutherland heir to Dufiiis, and
was 8umm(med before the lords of coundl to answer for his
verdict, 26th January 1484. He died m 1491. John o^
Brodie is repeatedly mentioned in the Chartulary of Moray as
an arbiter in 1492. He assisted the Mackeniies against the
Maodonalds at the battie of Blair-na-park in 1466, and is
witness in an indenture between the thane of Calder and the
baron of Kilravock in 1482. His great grandson, Alexander
Brodie of Brodie, John Hay, son of the hurd of Park, and one
hundred and twenty-five other persons were, in November
1550, denounced rebels for not submitting to the law, for
' umbesetting' the way of Alexander Gumming of Alter (Al-
tyre,) and his servants, and for the cruel mutilation of one of
them. Hifei eldest son, David Brodie of Brodie, had a chaiter
from his brother George, of the dominical lands of Brodie,
29th May, 1596, and his estate was erected into the barony o^
Brodie, 22d July 1597. According to the diary of his grand-
son, afterwards mentioned, he was bom in 1553, and died in
May 1626, aged seventy-four. He had six sons and one
daughter, of whom an account is given in Shaw*s * History of
Moray.' Alexander, the second son, purchased the lands of
Lethen, Pitgavenie, and Kinloss m the counties of Nairn and
Moray, and was ancestor of the Brodies of Lethen and Coul-
mony, now represented by Mr. James Campbell Brodie.
His eldest son, also David Brodie of Brodie, was bom in
1586, and died 22d September, 1632. He married a niece by
the mother's side of the admirable Crichton. Alexander
Brodie of Brodie, the eldest son of this marriage, styled Lord
Brodie as a senator of the College of Justice, bom 25th July
1617, sent to England,- 1628, and succeeded to the estate in
1632, was a man of extraordinary piety, learning, and ability.
His diary, containing the record of his religious experience,
gives a curious account of his life, and illustrates smne parts
of the history of the times in which he lived. Extracts from
it were published in 1740. He represented the county of
Elgin in the parliaments of 1643 and following years, and
from the many parliamentary committees of which he was a
member, he appean to have been greatly in the confidence of
the estates. In Maroh 1649 he accompanied Mr. George
Winram, advocate, afterwards a lord of session under the
judicial title of Lord Libberton, to Holland, when he went
with the commissioners from parliament appointed to treat
with Charles the Second, and was appointed an ordinary
lord of session on 22d June of that year. He accepted
the situation, and gave his oath de fdeU adnUmsiratione
in presence of parliament, on the 2dd July, but did not
take his seat on the bench till 1st November 1649.
Shortiy afterwards he proceeded to Breda to arrange with
Charles the Second as to the conditions of nis retum to
Scotland. He was a member of the various committees of
estates, appointed to rule in Scotland during the hitervals
of parliament, and Commissary-general to the army in Octo-
ber 1650. In June 1653, he was dted to London by Crom-
well to treat of a union between the two kingdoms, but ac-
cording to the words of his own diary, ** resolved and deter-
mmed in the strength of the Lord, to eschew and avoid em-
ployment under Cromwell** He accordingly resisted all the
requests made to him, to accept of ofiloe as a commissioner
for the administration of justice, until after the death of the
Protector, but shortiy alter that event he took his seat on the
bench on the 3d December 1658. After the restoration he
was fined £4,800 Soots, although the monies disbursed by
him at Breda had not been yet repaid. He died in 1679,
having married a daughter of Sir Robert Innes, by whom he
had a son, James, and a daughter, Grizel.
Joseph, the second son of David Brodie of Brodie, above-
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BRODIE.
382
BROUN.
mentioned, and next brother of Lord Brodie, called " of As-
lisk,** had« by a daughter of Diindas of Daddingstone, two
sons who Bonrived him; Geoi^ who afterwards sacceeded
to the estate of Brodie ; and James of Whitehall, who pm*-
chased Coltfield and Spynie. The latter married, in 1698,
lus ooonn, Margaret, the sixth daughter and oo-heiress of
James Brodie of Brodie, and had a son, James Brodie of
Spynie, advocate, and sheriff- depute of Moray and Nairn
(died in 1756), who wedded Emilia Brodie, and had (with
three daughters) three sons, namely, James, who inherited
Brodie, upon the death of his cousin Alexander in 1759;
George, a colonel in toe army; and Alexander, who made a
large fortune at Madras and bought Amhall in Kincardine-
shire. By his wife, Elizabeth Margaret, daughter of the Hon.
James Wemyss of Wemyss castle, the latter had an only
daugihter and heiress, Elizabeth, married in 1813 to George,
fifth and last duke of Gordon, who died in 1836.
James Brodie of Brodie, son of Lord Brodie, born 15th
September 1637, succeeded in 1679. He took to wife I^y
Maiy Ker, mster of Robert, firrt marquis of Lothian. The
event is thus recorded in Lord Brodie's diazy, **28th July,
My son was married with Lady Mary Ker, and on the dlst
July 1659, she did subscribe her covenant to and with God,
and became his, and gave herself up to him." In 1685 the
Uird of Brodie was fined X24,000. He died in March 1708.
He had nine daughters, viz. Ann, married to Lord Forbes;
Catherine, to her cousin, Robert Dunbar of Grangehill; Eliz-
abeth, to Gumming of Altyre; Grizel, to Dunbar of Dun-
phail; Emilia, to Brodie of Aslisk; Maigaret, to his brother,
Brodie of WhitehiU; Vere, to Brodie of Muirhouse; Mary,
to Ghivez of Muirtown; and Henrietta died unmarried.
Having no son, he was succeeded by his cousin-german,
George Brodie, (son of Joseph Brodie of Aslisk,) already men-
tioned, who married Emilia, fifth daughter and coheiress
of his predecessor, James Brodie of Brodie. By her be had
three sons and two dan^ters, and died in 1716. Of the
daughters, Henrietta, the elder, married, in 1714, John Sm-
dair of Ulbster in Caithness, grandfather of the late Right
Hon. Sir John Sinclair, baronet; Ann, the younger, became
the wife of George Monro of Novar in Ross-shire. James
Brodie of Brodie^ the eldest son, died young in 1720, and was
succeeded by his brother, Alexander Brodie of Brodie, bom
17th August 1697, appointed lord lyon king at arms m 1727,
and died in 1754. By his wife, Maiy Sleigh, daughter of
Migor Sleigh, celebrated as well as himself in various sonnets
of Allan Ramsay, he had an only son, Alexander, and a
daughter, Emilia, married to John Macleod, younger of
Madeod.
Alexander Brodie of Brodie, son of the foregoing, dying un-
married in 1759, was succeeded by his second cousin, James
Brodie of Brodie, son of James Brodie of Spynie above men-
tioned. He married Lady Mai^garet Duff, youngest daughter
of William, first eari of Fife, by whom he had two sons and
three daughters. His wife was unfortunately burnt to death
at Brodie house, 24th April 1786, and he himself died 17th
Januaiy 1824. He was a man of considerable talent and
scientific acquirements. He especially distinguished himself
as a botanist, and added a number of plants to the British
Flora. His elder son, James, was in the civil service of the
East India Company at Madras, and by the upsetting of his
ooat in the surge along the shore, was drowned in his father's
lifetime, leaving, by Ann, his wife, daughter of Colonel
Story (who married, secondly, Lieut-General Sir Thomas
Bowser, K.C.B.), two sons and five daughters. William
Brodie of Brodie, the eldest, succeeded his grandfather,
and became the representative of one of the most ancient
families m Europe. George, the second, in Uie MadrhS
cavalry, died in 1826. Four of the daughters married gentle-
men of rank in the East India Company's service during the
lifetime of their father, and the eldest died in that oountiy,
unmarried, in the same year witb himself.
The celebrated sui^geon. Sir Bef^jamin Collins Brodie, Ser-
jeant surgeon to the queen, is descended from a younger
branch of this ancient family, which settled m England about
the beginning of the last century.
Broun, or Browm, a sunuune common m Scotlano, as
Browne is in England and Ireland, the same as Bnm or
Brvme in France. In its first form there is an ancient
family, the Brouns of Cobtonn, in the county of Haddington,
a younger branch of which enjoys a baronetcy, and according
to tradition, was founded soon after the Conquest, by a Frendi
warrior, bearing the arms of the then royal family of France,
with which he claimed alliance. In the roll of Battle Abbej
there is a knight named Brone among the Norman adven-
turers who accompanied William the Conqueror into England,
but whether this be the ancestor of any of the innumerable
families of the name of Brown in this countiv, it is imposable
to say. The name, doubtless, in ancient times was bestowed,
in some instances, from the colour or complexion of those who
adopted it as a surname.
Early in the twelfth century one Walterus le Bnm is found
flourishing in Scotland. He was one of the barons who
witnessed the inquisition of the possessions of the church of
Glasgow made by Earl David in 1116, in the reign of bis
brother, Alexander the First.
Sir David le Brun was one of the witnesses, with King
David the First, in laying the foundation of the abbey of
Holyroodhouse, 18th May 1128.
* A thowsand a hondyr and twenty yhere.
And awcbt to thai, to rekyne clere,
Fbandjrd wes the Halyrwd bows,
Fra thine to be relyg>'ow«.*
Wpntotm.
He devised to that abbacy ** lands and acres in territories de
Cdstonn," for prayers to be said for '* the soul of Alexander
and the health of his son.** Thomas de Broon is witness to
a charter by Roger de Moubray to the predecessor of the
lairds of Moncrieff, in the time of King Alexander the Second.
The name of Ralph de Broun appears in the Ragman Bdl
as that of one of the barons of Scotland who swore fealty to
Edward the First at Berwick, in 1296.
Richard de Broun, keeper of the king's peace in Cumber-
land, was forfeited in the Black parliament in 1320. He is
styled an esquire, snd was beheaded, with Sir David de
Brechin and two other knights, Sir Gilbert de Malherbe and
Sir John Logic, for being concerned in the oonspiracj of de
Soulis that year. (See Brechin, lord of, antA, p. 883.)
From King David the Second, the family of Colstoun re-
ceived a charter, **Johanni Broun filio David Broun de
Colstoun.**
William Broun, baron of Colstoun, in the reign of James
the First, married Margaret de Annand, co-heiress of the
barony of Sauohie, descended from the ancient lords of An-
nandale.
Sir William Broun of Colstoun, warden of the west marches,
commanded a party of Scots in a oattle fought on what was
anciently a moor in the parish of Domock, Domfries-shhe,
against a party of English, led by Sir Marmaduke Langdale
and Lord Crosby, when the English were defisated, and both
their commanders slain. So sanguinary was the conflict that.
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aoooxdiiig to tnditioii, a Bpring-well on the spot, still called
Sword well, ran blood for three dajs.
Towards the end of the fifteenth centuiy William Broun of
Coktoon was lord director of the court of chancery in ScotUnd.
With other Haddingtonshire barons, the Brouns of Colstoun
appear to have favoured the Homes, as on April 6, 1529,
precepts of remission were granted to Mr. WUUam Broun,
tutor of Odstoun, and four others, and to George Fawside of
that ilk, for their treasonably assisting Geoi^e, Lord Home
and the deceased David Home of Wedderbum, his brothers
and aooompUces, being the king's rebels and at hb horn.
George Broun of Colstoun, who lived in the beginning of
the seventeenth century, married Jean Hay, second dauj^ter
of Lord Teeter, ancestor of the Marquis of Tweeddale. The
dowiy of this lady consisted of the fiunous *^ Colstoun pear,"
which Hugo de Gifford of Yester, her remote ancestor, famed
for his necromantic powers, described in Marmion, and who
died in 1267, was supposed to have invested with the extra-
ordinaiy virtue of conferring unfailing prosperity on the
family which possessed it Lord Yester, in giving away his
dau^ter, is said to have informed his son-in-law that good
ss the lass might be her dowry was much better, because
while she could only have value in her own generation, the
pear, so long as k continued in the faffnily, would cause it to
flourish to the end of time. Accordingly, the pear has been
carefully preserved, in a silver box, as a sacred palladium.
About the seventeenth century, the lady of one of the lairds
of Colstoun, on becoming pregnant, felt a longing for the for-
bidden fruit, and took a bite of it Another version of the
story says that it was a maiden lady of the family who, out of
curiosity, chose to try her teeth upon it Very soon after,
two of the best farms on the estate wero lost in some litiga-
tion, while the pear itself straightway became stone-hard, and
so remains to this day, with the marks of the lady*s teeth
indelibly imprinted on it The origin of this wondrous pear
is, by another tradition, said to have been thus: — One of the
ancestors of the Colstoun family married a daughter of the
above-named Hugo of Yester, the renowned wariook of
Gifford, and as the bridal party were proceeding to the
church, the wizard lord stopped beneath a pear tree, and
plucking one of the pears, handed it to his daughter, telling
her that he had no dowry to give her, but that as long as that
gift was kept, good fortune would never desert her or her de-
scendants. Apart from the snperatition attached to it, thb
curious heiiioom is certainly a most wonderful vegetable curi-
osity, having existed for nearly six centuries.
George Broun, baron of Colstoun, in the reign of Charles
the First, married a daughter of Sir David Murray of Stan-
hope, and had, with a younger son, Geotge (ancestor of the pre-
sent baronet of Colstoun) to whom he granted by charter the
barony of Thornydyke, in Berwickshire, an elder son. Sir Pa-
trick Broun of Colstoun, who, m consequence of his eminent
services and the fidelity of the ancient family he represented,
was (seated a knight and baronet of Nova Scotia, 16th Feb-
ruary 1686, with remainder of the title to his heirs male for
ever. Sir George Broun, the second baronet, his son, mar-
ried a daughter of the first earl of Cromarty, and died in
1718; leaving an only daughter, who inherited the estate,
while the baronetcy went to the heir male. The family thus
became split betwixt the heirs male and the heirs of line, the
title devolving upon the Thornydyke branch, and the estates
upon an heiress, who married George Broun of Eastfield,
horn whom descended George Broun of Colstoun judicially
styled Lord CoUitoun, who became a knrd of session in 1756
and died in 1776 ; and the late Christian, countess of Dal-
houaie, only child and heiress of Charies Broun, Esq. of Col-
stoun, and died 22d February 1889. The present marquis of
Dalhousie (James Andrew Broun-Barosay) in right of his
mother, is the representative of the elder branch.
Sir George Broun, son of Alexander Broun of Thornydyke
castle and Bassendean, Berwickshue, and of a lady of the
ancient house of Swinton of Swinton, succeeded his cousin as
third baronet, and dymg without male issue, his brother, Sir
Alexander, became fourth baronet He married Beatrice,
daughter of Alexander Swinton, Lord Mersington, and died
in 1750. His son. Sir Alexander, fifth banmet, having died
in 1775, without male issue, the baronetcy devolved upon his
cousin, the Rev. Su: Alexander Broun, minister of Loohmaben,
who decUned to take up the title. He married Bobina,
daughter of Colonel Hugh M'Bride of BeadUnd, Ayrshire,
and died in 1782. With several daughters he had two sons,
via., James, who, in 1825, revived the title, and William, of
Newmains, who married and settled in the island of Guernsey,
where hb descendants are still to be found.
Sir James, the seventh baronet, left a funily of four sons
and two daughten at his death, 80th Nov. 1844. His eklest
son, Sir Richard Broun, eighth baronet, a knight commander
of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, was secretary of the
Langue of that order in England, and also to the Com-
mittee of Baronets for Privileges. He was also secretary of
the Central Agricultural Society, and the author of various
works on heraldry, colonisation, railway extension, &c Bom
in 1801, he died unmarried in Dec 1858. Before succeeding to
the baronetcy he endeavoured to establish the right of the
eldest sons of baronets to the title of knight, and in 1842 as-
sumed the title of *' Sir.** His brother Sir William, a solici-
tor in Dumfries, became ninth baronet
BROWN, James, an eminent lingtilst and tra-
veller, the son of James Brown, M.D., was bom
at Kelso, in the county of Roxburgh, May 23,
1709. He was educated under the Rev. Dr.
Robert Friend at Westminster School, where he
was well instructed in the classics. In the end of
1722 be went with his father to Constantinople;
and having a great natural aptitude for the acquii*e-
ment of languages, be obtained a thorough know-
ledge of the Turkish and Italian, as well as the
modem Gi*eek. In 1725 be returned home, and
made himself master of the Spanish language.
About the year 1782 be first started the idea of a
London Directory, or list of principal tradera in
the metropolis, with their addresses. Having laid
the foundation of this useful work, he gave it to
Mr. Henry Kent, a printer in Finch Lane, Cora
hill, who, continuing it yeai'ly, made a foitone by it.
In July 1741 be entered into an agreement with
twenty-four of the principal merchants of London,
members of the Russian Company, of which Sir
John Thompson was then governor, to go to Per-
sia, to carry on a trade through Russia, as their
chief agent or factor. On 29th September of the
same year he sailed for Riga ; whence he passed
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JOHN.
through Russia, and proceeding down the Volga
to Astracan, voyaged along the Caspian Sea to
Reshd in Persia, where he established a factoiy.
He continued in that country nearly four years ;
and, upon one occasion, went in state to the camp
of Nadir Shah, better known by the name of Kouli
Khan, to deliver a letter to that chief from George
the Second. While he resided in Persia, he ap-
plied himself to the study of the Pei*sian language,
and made such proficiency in it, that, after his re-
turn home, he compiled a very copious Persian
Dictionary and Grammar, with many cm-ious spe-
cimens of the Persian mode of writing, which he
left behind him in manuscript.
Dissatisfied with the conduct of the Russian
Company in London, and sensible of the dangers
to which the factory was constantly exposed from
the unsettled and tyrannical nature of the Persian
government, he resigned his charge, and returned
to England on Christmas-day 1746. In the fol-
. lowing year the factory was plundered of property
to the amount of eighty thousand pounds sterling,
which led to a final termination of the Persian
trade. The wiiter of his obituary in the * Gentle-
man's Magazine* for December 1788, says, that he
possessed the strictest integrity, unaffected piety,
and exalted but unostentatious benevolence, with
an even, placid, and cheerful temper. In May
1787 he was visited with a slight paralytic stroke,
but soon recovered his wonted health and vigour.
Four days before his death, he was attacked by a
much severer stroke, which deprived him, by de-
grees, of all his faculties, and he expired without a
groan, November 30, 1788, at his house at Stoke
Newington, Middlesex. Mr. Lysons, in his ' En-
virons,' vol. iii., states, that Mr. Brown's father,
wlfo died in 1733, published anonymously a trans-
lation of two * Orations of Isocrates.
BROWN, John, author of the * Self-Interpi-et-
ing Bible,' the son of a weaver, was bom in 1722,
in the small village of Carpow, county of Perth.
His parents dying before he was twelve yeara of
age, It was with some difficulty that he acquired
his education. "I was left," he says, "a poor
orphan, and had nothing to depend on but the
providence of God." He was but a veiy limited
time at school. " One month," he says himself,
** without his parents' allowance, he bestowed
upon Latin." Nevertheless, by his own intense
application to study, befoi-e he was twenty years
of age, he had obtained an intimate knowledge of
the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, with
the last of which he was critically conversant He
was also acquainted with the French, Italian, Ger-
man, Arabic, Pereian, Syriac, and Ethiopic. His
great acquisition of knowledge, without the assist-
ance of a teacher, appeared so wonderful to the
ignorant country people, that a report was circu-
lated far and wide that young Brown had acquired
his learning in a sinful way, that is, by intercourse
with Satan ! In early youth he was employed as
a shepherd. He afterwards undertook the occu-
pation of pedlar or travelling merchant. In 1747
he established himself in a school at Gaumey
Bridge, in the neighbourhood of Kinross, a place
celebrated as the spot where the Associate Presby-
tery was first constituted. The same school was
afterwards taught by Michael Bruce the poet.
Here Brown remained two yeai-s. He subsequent-
ly taught for a ycai* and a half another school at
Spital, near Linton. Having attached hunself to
the body who, in 1733, seceded from the Church
of Scotland, in 1748 he entered on the regular
study of philosophy and divinity in connection with
the Associate Synod. In 1750 he was licensed to
preach the gospel by the Associate Presbytery of
Edinburgh, at Dalkeith ; and soon after received a
call from the Secession congregation at Stow, also
one nearly at the same time from Haddington. He
chose the latter, and was ordained pastor of the
Haddington congregation 4th July 1751. In 1758
he published an ^ Essay towards an Easy Explica-
tion of the Catechisms,' intended for the use of the
young ; and in 1765 his * Christian Journal,' once
the most popular of all his works. In 1768 he was
elected professor of divinity under the Associate
Synod. This situation he held for twenty years.
His ' Self-Intei-preting Bible,' by which bis name
is best known, appeared in two quarto volumes in
1778. Of this popular and useful work numerous
stereotyped editions have appeared both in Scot-
land and England, each having very extensive
circulation, and each successively improved m
foi-m or arrangement. A recent one, with the
additions of his grandson, J. B. Patterson, sur-
passes all previous ones in form, type, and iiliis
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BROWN,
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JOHN.
trations. His piety and learning, and fame as an
author, made his name extensively known, not
only in Scotland, but in England and America,
and in 1784 he received a pressing invitation from
tiie Reformed Dutch Church in New York, to be
their tutor in divinity, which he declined. He
died at Haddington June 19, 1787. He was
twice maiTied, and had six sons and one
daughter. Tlie sons were: 1. John, for many
years Burgher minister at Whitburn, Linlith-
gowshii'e, a memoir of whom is given below.
2. Ebenezer, Burgher minister at Inverkeith-
ing, whose apostolic look and person and mode
of preaching, are mentioned as most remark-
able. 8. Thomas Brown, D.D., Burgher minister
at Dalkeith, and author of an octavo volume
of sermons. 4. Samuel, merchant, Hadding-
ton, the founder of itinerating libraries. He
was the father of Dr. Samuel Brown, an emi-
nent chemist, who died young in 1856. 5. David,
bookseller in Edinburgh. 6. Dr. William Brown,
of Duddingstone, long the secretary of the Scot-
tish Missionary Society, and the author of a ^ His-
tory of Missions,' and of a memoir of his father.
The only daughter, Mrs. Patterson, was the mo-
ther of two sons and a daughter. The elder son,
Jie Rev. John Brown Patterson, minister of Fal-
kirk, styled by Lord Cockbum " Athenian Patter-
son," died in his early prime. He was the author of
the memoir of his grandfather, prefixed to Fullar-
ton's edition of his * Self-Inteipreting Bible.' The
younger sou, Alexander Simpson Patterson, D.D.,
minister of Fi*ee Hutchesontown Church, Glas-
gow, and the author of several theological works,
is editor of an edition published in 1858, of his
brother's fine characteristic posthumous work on
our I-K>rd's Farewell Discourse.
Mr. Brown's principal works are .
A Dictionarj of the Holy Bible, on the plan of Calmet,
out chiefly adapted to common readers. 2 vols. 8?o, Edin.
1769.
A General History of the Christian Charch ; (a very userul
compendium of church history, pHrtly on the plan of Mo-
aheim, or perhaps, rather, of Lainpe.) 2 ?ols. l2mo, Edtn.
1771.
The Self-Interpreting Bible. (This edition of the Bible is
so called from its marginal references, which are far more
copions than in any other edition. It has been frequently
reprinted.) 2 vols. 4to, Edin. 1778.
A Compendious View of Natural and Revealed Religion, in
wen books. 8vo, Glasgow, 1782.
Harmony of Scripture Prophecies, and History of their
fulfilment 8vo, Glas^fow, 1784.
A Compendious History of the Britinh Churches. 2 vols.
12mo, 1784.
His other publications are as follows :
A Help for the Ip^orant, being an Essay towards an En»j
Explication of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism. 12mo,
Edin. 1758.
A Brief Dissertation on Christ*s Righteousness, showing to
what extent it is imputed to us in Justification. ]2mo, Edin.
1769.
Two Short Catechisms mutually connected ; the question^
of the former being generally supposed and omitted in the
latter. 12mo, Edin. 1764.
The Christian Jonmal, or common incidents, spiritual in-
structors. 12mo, Edin. 1765.
A Historical Account of the Secession from the Church of
Scotland. 8vo, Edin. 1766. Eighth edition, 1802.
Letters on the Constitution, Discipline, and Government of
the Christian Church. 12mo, Edin. 1767.
Sacred Tropology, or a brief view of the figures, and ex>
planadon of the metaphors contained in Scripture. 12mo,
Edin. 1768.
Religious Steadfastness Recommended. A Sermon. 12ino,
Edin. 1769.
The Psalms of David in Metre, with notes exhibiting the
connection, explaining the sense, and for directing and ani-
mating the devotion. 12mo, Edin. 1776.
The Oracles of Christ, and the Abominations of AnUchrist,
contrasted. 12mo, Glasgow, 1778.
The absurdity and perfidy of all authoritative toleration of
gross heresy, blasphemy, idolatry, and popery in Britain.
l2mo, Glasgow, 1780.
The fearful shame and contempt of mere professed Chris-
tians, who neglect to raise up spiritual children to Jesus
Christ Two Sermons. 12mo, Glasgow, 1780.
An Evangelical and Practical View of the types and figures
of the Old Testament dispensation. 12mo, Glasgow, 1781.
The Christian, the Student, and the Pastor, exemplified in
the lives of nine eminent ministers. Edin. 1782.
Tlie Young Christian exemplified. 12mo, Glasgow, 1782.
The Necessity and Advantage of Earnest Prayer for the
lord's special direction in the choice of pastors; with an
appendix of free thoughts concerning the transportation of
ministers. Edin. 1788.
A Brief Concordance to the Holy Scriptures. 18mo, Edin.
1783.
Practical Piety exemplified in the lives of thirteen etninent
Christians. 12mo, Glasgow, 1783.
Thoughts on the Travelling of the Mail on the Lord*s Day.
12mo, 1786.
The Re-Exhibition of the Testimony defended. 8vo, Glas-
gow.
Devout Breathings of a Pious Soul ; with additions and
improvements. Edin.
The necessity, seriousness, and sweetness of Practical Reli-
gion, in an awakening call, by Samuel Corbyn; with four
solemn addresses to sinners, young and old.
The following were published after his death •
Select Remains: with some account of his life. 12mo,
London, 1789.
Posthumous Works. 12mo, Perth, 1797.
An Apology for a more frequent administration of the I/>rd*c
Supper; with answers to objections. 12mo, Edin. 1804.
2b
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BROWN, John, a pious and useful divine,
eldest son of the preceding, by Iiis first wife, Janet
Thomson, daughter of Mr. John Thomson, mer-
chant, Musselburgh, was bom at Haddington,
24th July, 1754. From his youth he gave de-
cided indications of piety. He was sent to the
university of Edinburgh, when he was scarcely
fourteen years of age, and about the year 1772 he
entered on the study of divinity, under the super-
intendence of his father. He was licensed to preach
the gospel by the Associate presbytery of Burghers
at Edinburgh, 21st May 1776. Soon after, he re-
ceived a call from the Burgher congregation of
Whitburn, Linlithgowshire, and was ordained to
that charge, 22d May 1777. During a long ca-
reer of ministerial usefulness, he maintained a
high degree of popularity, his preaching being
characterized by the simplicity and seriousness of
his manner, and by the highly evangelical tone of
his sentiments. He exerted himself in promoting
the various religious institutions of the day, and
took 'a deep interest especially in the spiritual im-
provement of the Highlanders of Perthshire.
When his strength began to decline, his people
gave a call to Mr. William Millar, to be his col-
league and successor, and he was accordingly or-
dained as such 16th November 1831. After the
ordination, Mr. Brown preached only eight Sab-
baths. He was seized with a severe paralytic
attack, and after lingering for a few weeks, he
died 10th February 1832, in the 78th yeai- of his
age, and 56th of his ministry.
Mr. Brown's chief works are :
Gospel Truth aocnrately stated and illnstrated by the Rer.
Messrs. Hog, Boston, Erskines, and others, occasioned bj
the republication of the Marrow of Modem Divinity. 12mo,
1817. New and greatly enlarged edition. Glasg. 1831.
Notes, Devotional and Explanatory, on the Translations
and Paraphrases generally used in the Presbyterian Congre-
gations in Scotland. Published with an edition of the Psalms
with his father's notes, in Glasgow.
Memorials of the Nonconformist Ministers of the Seven-
teenth Century, with an Introductory Essay by William M*Ga-
Tin, Esq. Glasg. 1882. (This was the last literary work of
both the excellent men whose names appear on the title-page.
Mr. Brown died just before it went to press, and Mr. M*Ga-
vin jnst as it was leaving it)
His other minor works are :
Memoirs of the Life and Character of the late Rev. James
Hervey, A.M. 1806. Three editions.
A brief Account of a Tour in the Highlands of Perthshire.
12mo. 1815.
Memoirs of Private Christians.
Christian Experience ; or the Spiritual Exercise of Emi-
nent Christians in different ages and places, stated in their
own words. 18mo, 1825.
Descriptive List of religious books in the English language
fit for general use. 12mo, 1827.
Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Bradbury. 18mo, 1831.
He also edited the following :
The Evangelical Preacher. A Select Collection of doc-
trinal and practical Sermons, chiefly of English divines of the
18th century. 8 vols. 12mo, 1802—1806.
A Collection of Religions Letters from books and MSS.
12mo, 1818.
A Collection of Letters from printed books and MSS.,
suited to Children and Youth. 18mo, 1815.
Evangelical Beauties of the late Rev. Hugh Binning, with
an account of his Life. 82mOf 1828.
Evangelical Beauties of Archbishop Leighton. ]2mo« 1829.
After the death of Mr. Brown, were published Letters on
Sanctification, some of which had previously appeared in the
Christian Repositoiy and Monitor, with a Memoir of hb Life
by his son-in-law, the Rev. David Smith of Biggar.
BROWN, John, D.D., an eminent divine,
the son of the subject of the preceding me-
mou*, was bom July 12, 1784, at the house of
Burnhead, in the parish of Whitburn, Linlith-
gowshire. Having, from early life, chosen the
ministry as a profession, in November 1797,
he entered the university of Edinburgh, where be
studied for three sessions. In April 1800, when
scarcely sixteen years of age, he went to Elie,
Fifeshire, as a teacher. In the following August,
he was examined by the Associate presbytery of
Perth at Newburgb, and subsequently entered the
divinity hall of that body at Selkirk, under Dr.
Creorge Lawson, who had succeeded his grandfa-
ther, in 1787, as professor of divinity to the Seces-
sion church.
While pursuing his stndies for the ministry,
Mr. Brown became, in April 1808, a private
teacher in Glasgow, and in February 1805 he was
licensed at Falkirk t« pi*each the gospel by the
Burgher presbytery of Stirling and Falkirk. He
had very soon calls to both Stirling and Biggar,
and in September 1805, was appointed to the lat-
ter place. In October of the same year he pro-
ceeded to London for three months, to supply the
pulpit of Dr. Waugh, Wells Street, one of the
originators of the London Missionary Society.
Mr. Brown was ordained Burgher minister at
Biggar, February 6, 1806. In 1817 he received a
call to become the minister of the Burgher church
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BROWN,
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at North Leitb, but the Associate Synod woald
not consent, at that time, to his removal from
Biggar.
On the translation, in 1821, of the Rev. Dr. James
Hall from Rose Street chapel, Edinburgh, which
had been built for him, to a larger place of wor-
ship, also erected for him, in Bronghton Place of
that city, Mr. Brown received a call from the
Rose Street congregation to be his successor.
Tliis call he accepted. On May 1, 1822, he was
translated by deed of Synod to that congregation,
and on June 4, was admitted pastor of Rose Street
church.
Dr. Hall died November 28, 1826, and, on the
following Sabbath, Dr. Brown, preached his fh-
neral sermon in Bronghton Place church. Sub-
sequently he received a call from the congrega-
tion, but was continued in his own charge by the
synod at their meeting in May 1828. Having
received a second call, he was translated by the
Synod to Broughton Place church, in April 1829,
and admitted 20th May following. On the insti-
tution of the professorship of Exegetical Theology
by the United Secession Synod in 1834, he was, in
April that year, appointed to that chair, which had
been reorganized according to a plan of which he
was the author, and in which the fundamental im-
portance of this study, which has since impressed
itself on all Scottish chorches, was for the first
time recognised.
In the religio - political controversies of the
period, Dr. Brown not unfrequently found himself
involved, from his fervour in the cause of what he
conceived t6 be the truth. The first of these was
on what was then called the Apocrypha question.
This controversy arose in consequence of the Brit-
ish and Foreign Bible Society having permitted
the Apocrypha to be inserted in the Bible, and
ultimately hinged upon ks sincerity in professing
to reject it from their editions of that work. Dr.
Andrew Thomson, minister of St. George's,
Edinburgh, stood forth as the assailant of the
Society, his principal opponents being Drs. Grey
and Brown, and his chief supporter, Robeit
Haldane.
The question as to the lawfulness and expe-
diency of the existing connexion between church
and State was the next. It was not a new one,
but it now assumed a bolder and more conspicuous
aspect than it had ever before held, and excited
an extraordinary degree of ferment in the public
mind, in consequence of an attack made upon its
lawfulness on more exclusively scripture grounds,
by a leading member of Dr. Brown's denomina-
tion. Dr. Andi*ew Marshall, in a Sermon published
in May 1829. In this controversy Dr. Brown
took a prominent and consistent part. A voluntary
cliurch association having been formed in Edin.
burgh, (Dr. Brown being one of the committee,)
led, in February 1838, to the fonnatiou of
an association at Glasgow for promoting the in-
tei*ests of the Church of Scotland, and thenceforth
'* the battle of Establishments'' waxed hotter and
hotter. Voluntary church associations and Church
Defence associations were foimed over the whole
kingdom, and for several years after, churchmen
and dissenters no longer acted together as breth-
ren, either in religious societies or in the social in-
tercourse of private life.
A more paiufhl and trying ordeal awaited Dr.
Brown. In 1842, four ministers of Dr. Brown's
denomination were expelled from the Synod, for
holding views subversive of the special reference
of the atonement as held by their body. At the
meeting of Synod in October 1843, in consequence
of the transmission of an overture by the Presby-
tery of Paisley, the Synod requested the two
senior professors, Drs. Balmer and Brown, to
express their sentiments on the doctrinal points,
regarding which difierences from the views of
the body were alleged to be held by these
ministers. This the professors accordingly did,
much to the satisfaction, with the conference
that followed, of the Synod, as stated in their
finding on the occasion. Subsequently Dr. Mar-
shall published a pamphlet entitled * The Catholic
Doctrine of Redemption Vindicated,' in the Ap-
pendix to which he threw out certain imputations
against Di-s. Brown and Balmer, of which they
complained to the Synod. A committee was ap-
pointed to take Dr. Marshall's statements into
consideration, and also the published speeches of
the two professors. The result was that Dr.
Marshall disavowed the Insinuation that they
taught anything inconsistent with the standards
of the church, and he spontaneously intimated his
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purpose to suppress tlie Appendix altogether.
But the matter did not end here, as it was thought
it would, for Dr. Mai-shall returned to the
charge.
At the meeting of the Synod in May 1845, Dr.
Brown, bj the advice of his presbytery, presented
a complaint in reference to a pamphlet published,
shortly before, by Dr. Marshall, entitled, ^Re-
marks on the Statements on certain doctrinal
points made before the United Secession Synod
at their request, by the two senior Professors,* in
which he pronounced the doctrine enunciated by
them to be ^^ subverting the very foundation of our
hopes, entirely subverting the doctrine of election,
rendering the gospel little more than a solemn
mockery," with more to the same effect ; and he
requested that the Synod would either enter on the
investigation of these charges *^ in due form,'' or
release him from his pix>fe8Sorial duties. The
Synod, aftei' finding that Dr. Brown had acted with
great propriety in bringing the matter before them,
expressed their satisfaction with the explanation
which he had given in his * Statement ' and other-
wise, declaring also their entire confidence in his
soundness in the faith, and thefr trust that he
would continue to discharge his important func-
tions with equal honour to himself and benefit to
the church. In regard to Dr. Marshall, they
found that in his recently published pamphlet he
had reiterated serious chaiges, formerly brought
forward on insufficient grounds against Dr.
Bix>wn, in a still more offensive form, that
he ought to have brought the matter before
the church courts in the only competent way,
and that he should, thei-efore, be admonished at
the bar of the Synod. After this decision, Dr.
Marshall intimated his intention of bnnging a
libel against Dr. Brown, and another meeting of
Synod was appointed in July, that he might have
the opportunity of producing his libel before the
next meeting of the Divinity Hall.
Accordingly, in the following July, Dr. Mar-
shall, assisted by Dr. Hay of Kinross, presented
a libel against Dr. Brown, being the first prose-
cution for heresy by libel that had ever taken
place in the Synod of the Secession church. The
libel contained five counts, and Dr. Brown was
triumphantly acquitted on them all. On the
whole case the Synod unanimously adopted the
following finding :
"Tlie Synod finds that there exists no groond even
for suspicion that he holds, or has ever held, any opin-
ion on the points under review inconsistent with the
Word of God, or the subordinate standards of this church.
The Synod, therefore, dismisses the libel ; and while it sin-
cerely sympathizes with Dr. Brown in the unpleasant and
painful drourostances in which he has been placed, it renews
the expresdon of confidence in him given at last meetinf^
and entertains the hope that the issue of this cause has been
such as will, by the blessing of God, restore peace and confi-
dence thronghout the church, and termiuHte the unhappy
controversy which lias so long agitated it.'*
During the whole discussions in this unhappy
case. Dr. Brown displayed great wisdom and
Christian temper, and his own congregation sym-
pathized with him most sincerely in the trying
and painful circumstances In which he had been
placed. As a mark of their affection and sym-
pathy, they met in the following September, and
presented him with a valuable testimonial.
On the death of Dr. Peddie, senior pastor of
Bristo Street congregation, Edinburgh, llth Oc-
tober, 1845, Dr. Brown preached his funeral ser-
mon to his congregation, which was afterwards
printed. In the movement for the union of the
Secession and Relief bodies, he took a warm part
After that work had been accomplished, and the
United Presbyterian Church formed in 1847, he
devoted his i*emajning effoi*ts to expository com-
ments on the Saci*cd Scriptures.
In 1856, on the completion of the fiftieth year
of his ministry, his jubilee was celebrated. His
attached congregation, on that occasion, present-
ed him with a purse containing £600 This noble
gift he at once generously devoted, with an added
sum, to the formation of a fund for the annual relief
of aged ministers of the United Presbyterian
church.
The duties of his professorship Dr. Brown dis-
charged with much enthusiasm and assiduity till
1857, when increasing infirmities rendered him
unequal to the labours which it imposed. His
pulpit ministrations he was also compelled to
relinquish at the same time, but occasionally,
when his health permitted, he would appear in
public to cheer and instruct his flock.
For some time he suffered severely fix)m inter-
nal pains, and it was supposed that his liver was
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aflfected, but latterly be enjoyed a complete im-
munity from these. His personal appearance,
wbicb was fine and dignified, was, previously to
his deatli, greatly changed, in reference to which
be himself expressively said, "Tlie Master chan-
ges our countenance, and sends us away.''
Dr. Brown died at his house, Arthur Lodge,
Newington, Edinburgh, 13th October, 1858, in
his 74th year. So Iiigh was the estimation in
which he was held, that he may be said to have
had a public funeral. The Lord Provost and ma-
gistrates of Edinburgh attended in tiieir official
robes. He was followed to the grave, in the
I^ower Calton burying-ground, by his former con-
gregations of Biggar and Rose Street, as well as
by his people of Broughton Flace^chm*ch, and by
ministers of all denominations. All felt that a
good man and ^^ a prince in Israel" had been ga-
thered to his rest. On the Sunday succeeding his
funeral, his colleague, Dr. Andrew Thomson, and
Dr. Harper, North Leith, preached funeral ser-
mons in Broughton Place church. He was twice
married, first, to Jane Nimmo, daughtei* and sis-
ter of two eminent physicians in Glasgow. She
died in 1816; and, secondly, to Mai'garet Fisher
Crum, of the Thomliebank family, descended
from Ebenezer Erskine and Mr. Fisher, two of
the ^ye fathers of the Secession. He left three
sons and as many daughters. Two of bis sons
were educated for the medical profession; Dr.
John Brown of Edinburgh, and Dr. William
Brown. The third son was but a youth at the
time of his father's death.
The influence of Dr. Brown in his own denomi-
nation was very great. But he was never an
ecclesiastical leader, in the generally understood
sense of the term. He had little turn for the
platform, and he spoke but rarely in church
courts. In all public questions, however, he took
a deep and enlightened interest, and when he did
express his opinions on any subject, it was with
an authority which showed that he had thoix>ugh-
ly considered it, and was familiar with all its
bearings. Both as a pi*eacher and a lecturer, he
was an evangelical of the highest order, closely
resembling the founders of his denomination in a
religious aspect, vigorous, pure, fervent, manly,
and profoundly pathetic.
Deemed the ripest Biblical scholar of his age, it
was only late in life that he became a theological
writer. He had a magnificent libi'ary, probably
the largest clerical library in Scotland, except one.
His Greek New Testaments, which he commenced
to hoard when he was fourteen, were, it is be-
lieved, unique in number and in quality for a pri-
vate library, and his Latin and French theological
authors, of the 16th century, were all but com-
plete. He had also a fine collection of classics,
which he read to the last. Although he taught
as a professor for a quarter of a century, his se-
ries of commentaries, on which his name must
chiefly rest, were published within the last ten
years of his life. The publication of more than
ten octavo volumes by a man considerably above
sixty when he began, and several of these on
some of the most difficult Epistles of the New
Testament, is certainly something unusual in the
histoiy of literature.
Dr. Brown's more important works are :
Expository Diflcourses on the First Epistle of the Apostle
Peter. In three volumes. 8vo.
Discourses and Sajings of our Lord Jettus Christ : Illus-
trated in a Series of Expositions. In three volumes. Second
edition. 8vo.
An Exposition of our Lord's Intercessory Prayer, with a
Discourse on the Relation of our Lord's Intercession to the
Conversion of the World. 8vo.
Besnrreotion of Life : An Exposition of 1 Cor. xv. With
a Discourse on our lord's Resurrection. 8vo.
Suflerings and Glories of the Messiah signified beforehand
to David and Isaiah ; An Exposition of Psalm xviii. and
Isaiah lii. 18 ; liii. 12. 8vo.
An Expoution of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the
Galatians. 8vo.
He also published the following as separate Ser-
mons:
The Danger of Opposing Christianity, and the Certainty
of its final Triumph : A Sermon preached before the Edin-
burgh Missionary Society, on Tuesday, 2d April, 1816. 8vo.
On the State of Scotland, in reference to the Means of
Religious Instruction : A Sermon preaclied at the Opening
of the Associate Synod, on Tuesday, 27tb April, 1819. 8vo.
On the Duty of Pecuniary Contribution to Religious Pur-
poses: A Sermon preached before the London Missionary
Society, on Thursday, May 10, 1821. Third edition. 18mo.
Sermon occasioned by the Death of the Rev. James Hall,
D.D., Edinburgh. 8vo. 1826.
The Abolition of Death : a Sermon. Foolscap 8vo.
The Friendship of Christ and his People Indissoluble : A
Sermon on the Death of the Rev. . John Mitchell, D.D.,
Glasgow. 8vo.
Human Authority in Religion condemned by Jesos Christ;
An Expository Discourse. Foolscap 8vo.
The Christian Ministry, and the Character and Destiny of
ite Occupants, Worthy and Unworthy : A Sermon on the
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Death of the Ber Robert Bulmer, D.D., Berwick. Second
edition. 8vo.
Heaven : A Sermon on the Death of the Rev. James Ped-
die, D.D., Edinburgh. 8vo.
The Present Condition of them who are " Asleep in
Christ:** A Sermon on the Death of the Rev. Hugh Hengh,
D.D., Glasgow. 8to.
The Good Shepherd : A Sermon. 24mo.
His smaller tracts are as follows :
1. Ou the Bible Societj controversy
Statement of the Claims of the British and Foreign Bible
Societj on the Support of the Christian Public : With an
Appendix. 8vo.
Remarks on Certain Statements by Alex. Haldane, Esq.,
in his '* Memoir of Robert Haldane of Auchingraj, and his
brother, James A. Haldane.** 8vo.
2. On the Voluntary controversy.
The Law of Christ respecting Civil Obedience, especially
in the Payment of Tribute ; with an Appendix of Notes : to
which are added Two Addresses on the Voluntary Church
Controversy. Second edition, 1838. Third edition. 8vo.
What ought the Dissenters of Scotland to do in the present
Crisis? Second edition, 8ro. 1840.
3. On the Atonement charge.
Opinions on Faith, Divine Influence, Human Inability, the
Design and Effect of the Death of Christ, Assurance, and the
Sonship of Christ Second edition, with additional Notes.
12mo.
Statement made, April 1, 1845, before the United Associ-
ate Presbytery of Edinburgh, on asking their Advice. Sec-
ond edition. 12mo.
Miscellaneous.
Strictures on Mr. Yates* Vindication of Unitarianism. 8vo.
Remarks on the Plans and Publications of Robert Owen,
Esq. of New Lanark. 8vo.
On Religion, and the Means of its Attainment Sixth
edition. 18mo.
On Forgetfulness of God. Second edition. 18mo.
The Christian Pastor*8 Manual ; a Selection of Tracts on
the Duties, Difficulties, and Encouragements of the Christian
Ministry. 12mo.
A Tribute to the Memory of a very dear Christian Friend.
Third edition. 18mo.
Discourses suited to the administration of the Lord*s Sup-
per. Second edition. ]2mo.
Hints on the Permanent Obligation and Frequent Observ-
ance of the Lord*8 Supper. Second edition. 12mo.
Hints on the Nature and Influence of Christian Hope.
Post 8vo.
The Moamer*s Friend; or. Instruction and Consolation
for the Bereaved, a Selection of Tracts and Hymns. Second
edition. 82mo.
The United Secession Church Vindicated from the Chaige,
made by James A. Haldane, Esq., of Sanctioning In^scrim-
mate Admission to Communion. 1889, 8vo.
On the Means and Manifestations of a Genuine Revival of
Religion : an Address delivered before the United Associate
Presbytery of Edinbuigh, on November 19, 1889. Second
edition. 12mo.
Hints to Students of Divinity \ an Address at the Opening
of the United Secession Theological Seminary August 8,
1841. Foolscap 8vo.
Memorial of Mrs. Margaret Fisher Brown. Foolscap 8vt
Statement on certain Doctrinal Points; made Octobei
5th, 1843, before the United Associate Synod, at their re«
quest. 12mo.
On tlie Equity and Benignity of the Divine Law. 2iinA.
Comfortable Words for Christian Parents Bereaved of Lit-
tle Children. Second edit'ron. 18mo.
Bamabns, or the Chri^tianly Good Man : in Three Dis-
courses. Second edition. Foolscap 8vo.
Memoiials of the Rev. James Fisher, Minister of the As-
sociate (Burgher) Congregation, Glasgow; ProfiosBor of Di-
vinity to the Associate (Burgher) Synod ; and one of the
Four Leaders of the Secession from the Established Church
of Scotland : In a Narrative of his Life, and a Selection from
his Writings. Foolscap 8vo.
Hints on the Lord*s Supper and Thoughts for the Lord's
Table. Foolscap 8vo.
Plain Discourses on Important Subjects. Foolscap 8vo.
Discourses suited to the Administration of the Lord*s Sap-
per. Third edition. 8vo.
The Dead in Christ, their State Present and Futnr^ with
Reflections on the Death of a very dear Christian Friend.
l8mo.
He also edited the following works, viz.:
Mac1aurin*s Essays and Sermons, with an Introductory
Essay. Second edition. 12mo.
Henry*s Communicant's Companion, with an Introductory
Essay. Fourth edition.
Venn*8 Complete Duty of Man, with an Introductory Es-
say. Second edition. 12mo.
Theological Tracts. Selected and Original. 8 vola Fools-
cap 8vo.
BROWN, John, M.D., the founder of the Bru-
nonian system of medicine, was born in 1785 or
1786, either in the village of Llntlaws or that of
Preston, parish of Buncle, Berwickshire. His pa-
rents, who were Seceders, were in the hnmblest
condition of life, his father's occupation not being
above that of a day-labourer. NeverUieless they
were anxious to give their son a decent and reli-
gious education. It was a frequent expression ot
his father's, ^Hhat he would gird his belt the
tighter to give his son John a good education."
He early discovered uncommon quickness of ap-
prehension, and he was sent to school to \euji
English much sooner than the usual period. Be-
fore he was five years of age, he had read through
almost the whole of the Old Testament. When
he was little more than five years of age, he bad
the misfortune to lose his father. His mother
afterwards married a weaver, by whose assistance
he was enabled to continue at school, where be
was distinguished for his unwearied application,
his facility in mastering the tasks assigned to him,
and the retentiveness of his memory. ' Before be
was ten years of age, he had gone through the
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routine of grammar education required previously
CO entering college. Bat as his mother conld not
afford to pnt him to the university, he was bound
apprentice to a weaver. For this occupation he
had a rooted aversion, and Mr. Cruickshank kindly
offered to allow him to attend the school gratui-
tously. • He therefore resumed his studies, with
the view of ultimately becoming a preacher of the
Secession. In a short time he became so neces-
sary to his master, that he was occasionally de-
puted to instruct the younger scholars.
At this period, we are told, ** he was of a reli-
gious turn, and was so strongly attached to the
sect of Seceders, or Whigs, as they are called in
Scotland, in which he had been bred, that he
would have thought his salvation hazarded, if he
had attended the meetings of the established church.
He aspired to be a preacher of a purer religion.*'
A circumstance which happened about his thu-
teenth year had the effect of making him altogether
relinquish the idea of becoming a seceding minister.
Having been persuaded, by some of his school-
fellows, to hear a sermon in the parish church of
Duuse, he was in consequence summoned to appear
before the session of the congregation of Seceders
»o which he belonged, to be rebuked for his con-
duct, but his pride got the better of his attachment
to the sect. He resolved not to submit to the
censure of the session, and in order to avoid a
formal expulsion, he at once renounced their
authority, and professed himself a member of the
established church. He afterwards acted for some
years as usher in Dunse school ; and about the age
of twenty, was engaged as tutor to the son of a
gentleman in the neighbourhood. This situation
he left in 1755, when he went to Edinburgh, where,
while he studied at the philosophy classes, he sup-
ported himself by instructing his fellow-students
in the Greek and Latin languages. He afterwards
attended the divinity hall, and had proceeded so
far in hb theological studies as to be called upon
to deliver, in the public hall, a discourse upon a
prescribed portion of scripture, the usual step pre-
liminary to being licensed to preach.
About this time, on the recommendation of a
fnend, he was employed by a gentleman then
studying medicine to translate into Latin an
inaugural dissertation. The superior manner in
which he executed his task gained him great re-
putation, which induced him to turn his attentfon
towards the study of medicine. Shortly after
wards he retired to Dunse, and resumed his for-
mer occupation of usher. At Martinmas 1759 he
returned to Edinburgh, and a vacancy happening
in one of the classes of the High School, he became
a candidate, but without success. Being unable
to pay the fees for the medical classes, at the com-
mencement of the college session in that year,
he addressed an elegantly composed Latin letter,
first to Dr. Alexander Monro, then professor of
anatomy, and afterwards to the other medical pro-
fessors in the university, from whom he imme-
diately received gratis tickets of admission to their
different courses of lectures.
For two or three years he supported himself by
teaching the classics ; but he afterwards devoted
himself to that occupation which is known at the
university by the name of *■ grinding,* that is, pre-
paring medical candidates for their probationary
examinations, which in his time were conducted
in Latin. For composing a thesis, he charged ten
guineas; and for translating one into Latin, hii:
price was five. In 1761 he became a member o1
the Royal Medical Society, where, in the discussion
of medical theories, he had an opportunity of dis-
playing his talents to advantage. lie enjoyed the
particular favour of the celebrated Cullen, who re-
ceived him into his family as tutor to his children,
and treated him with every mark of confidence
and esteem. He even made him assistant in his
lectures — Brown illustrating and explaining to the
pupils in the evening the lecture delivered by Dr.
Cullen in the morning. In 1765, under the
patix)nage of that eminent professor, he opened a
boarding-house for students attending the univer-
sity, the profits of which, with those of his profes-
sional engagements, enabled him to marry a Miss
Lamond, the daughter of a respectable citizen of
Edinburgh. In spite of all his advantages, how-
ever, his total want of economy, and his taste for
company and convivial pleasures, reduced him, in
the course of three or four years, to a state of in-
solvency, and he was under the necessity of calling
a meeting of his creditors, and making a compro-
mise with them.
With the view of qualifying himself for an ana-
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toinical professorship in one of the infant colleges
of America, he at this time devoted himself to ob-
taining an intimate knowledge of anatomy and
botany ; bat Collen, who fonnd him nsefal in con-
dacting his Latin correspondence, persuaded him
to relinquish the design of leaving Scotland. Soon
afterwards he became a candidate for the vacant
chair of the theory of medicine, and was again
unsuccessful, Dr. Gragory having been appointed.
On this occasion, an anecdote got into circulation,
which, if true, reflects little credit on his heretofore
friend and patron, Dr. Cullen. Coming foi*ward
without recommendation, it was reported, that
when the magistrates, who are the patrons of the
professorships, asked who this unfriended candi-
date was, Cullen, so far from giving him his sup-
port, observed, with a sarcastic smile, "Surely
this can never be our Jock!** Attributing his dis-
appointment to the jealousy of Cullen, Brown re-
solved to break off all connection with him.
This he did after his rejection on applying to be-
come a member of the society which published the
Edinburgh Medical Essays, admission iuto which
Cullen could easily have procured him.
Shortly after this he commenced giving lectui-es
in Latin upon a new system of medicine, which
he had formed in opposition to Cullen*s theories,
and employed the manuscript of his ^Elementa
Medicinas,' composed some time previously, as his
text-book. The novelty of his doctrines procured
him at fii*8t a numerous class of pupils ; and the
contest between his partisans and those of his op-
ponents was cai*ried to the highest possible ex-
treme. In the Royal Medical Society, the debates
among the students on the subject of the new sys-
tem were conducted with so much vehemence and
intemperance, that they frequently terminated in
a duel between some of the parties. A law was
in consequence passed, by which it was enacted
that any member who challenged another on
account of anything said in the public debates,
should be expelled the society. In the autumn of
1779 Brown took the degree of M.D. at the uni-
versity of St. Andrews, his rupture with the pro-
fessors of Edinburgh preventing him for applying
for it from that university. Not only the medical
professors, but the medical practitioner, were op-
posed to his system, and he was vis^ited with mucli
rancorous obloquy and misrepresentation by hb
opponent Dr. Cullen and his abettors. The im-
prudence of his conduct in private life, and his in-
temperate habits, gave his enemies a great advan-
tage over him. One of his pupils informed Dr.
Beddoes " that he used, before he began to read
his lecture, to take fifty dit>ps of laudanum in a
glass of whisky, repeating the dose four or five
times during the lecture. Between the effects of
these stimulants and his voluntary exertions, be
soon waxe<L;warm, and by degrees his imagination
was exalted into phrensy." .
His design seems to have been to simplify the
science of medicine, and* to render the knowledge
of it easily attainable. All general or universal
diseases were reduced by him to two great fami-
lies or classes, the sthenic and the asthenic ; the
former depending upon an excess of excitement,
the latter upon a deficiency of it. Apoplexy is an
instance of the former, common fever of the latter.
The former were to be removed by debilitating,
the latter by stimulating medicines, of which the
most powerful are wine, brandy, and opium , the
stimuli being applied gradually, and with much
caution. ^^ Spasmodic and convulsive disorders,
and even hemorrhages," he says in his preface to
the * Elementa Medicinae,* ^* were found to proceed
from debility ; and wine and brandy, which bad
been thought hurtful in these diseasee, he fbnnd
the most powerful of all remedies in removing
them." In order to prejudice the minds of the
public against the ^* Brunonian system," as it was
called, his enemies spread a report that its antbor
cured all diseases with brandy and laudanum, the
latter of which, till the proper use of it was point-
ed out by Dr. Brown, had been employed by phy-
sicians very sparingly in the cure of diseases.
In 1780 he published his ^ Elementa Medicins,*
which his opponents did not venture openly to
refute, but those students who were known to re-
sort to Dr. Brown's lectures were marked out, and
in their inaugural dissertations at the college, any
allusion to his work, or quotation from it, was
absolutely prohibited. ^^ Had a candidate," sajs
Dr. Brown's son in the life of his father, prefixed
to his works, ** been so bold as to affirm that opi-
um acted as a stimulant, and denied that its pri-
maiy action was sedative ; or had he asserted that
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JOHN.
a catarrh, or a^similar inflammatory complaint,
was occasioned by the action of beat, or of beat-
ing tbings, npon a body previously exposed for
some time to cold, and that it would give way to
cold and antipblogistic regimen — facts wbicb are
now no longer controverted — be migbt bave con-
tinned to enjoy bis new opinions, but would bave
been very unlikely to attain tbe object be bad in
view in presenting himself for examination.^* Tbe
nnmber of students attending bis classes became
I in consequence very much reduced.
In 1776 Dr. Brown bad been elected president
of the Royal Medical Society, and, notwithstand-
ing the violent opposition made to bis system by
the older physicians, be was again chosen to the
chair in 1780. In 1785 he instituted the Mason
Lodge called the ^^ Roman Eagle,'* with the de-
sign of preventing, as far as possible, tbe rapid
decline of the language and literature of the an-
cient Romans. Several gentlemen of talent and
reputation became members of this society ; and
among others the celebrated Crosbie, at that time
one of the chief ornaments of the Scottish bar.
Ilis motives in instituting this lodge have been
variously represented, and one of his biograpbei-s
has asserted, it appears erroneously, that it was
with the view of " gaining proselytes to his new
doctrine.** The obligation signed by tbe members
of the institution sufficiently points out the ob-
jects of the association. Upon this occasion he
received the compliments of all who wished well
to polite literature. At the meetings of the insti-
tution, at which nothing but Latin was spoken.
Brown usually presided, and addressed the mem-
bers in tbe Latin language with fluency, purity,
and animation. In the same year in which he
founded the Roman Eagle Lodge, he published
anonymously bis English work, entitled * Out-
lines,* in which, under the character of a student,
he points out the fallacy of former systems of
medicine, and farther Illustrates the principles of
his own doctrine. His excesses had gradually
brought him and his system into di8Ci*edit with
the public ; and at one time his pecuniary difficul-
ties were so great, that he was reduced to the ne-
cessity of concluding a coui*se of lectures in pi*ison,
where he had been confined for debt. In this di;}-
tressing situation, a one hundred pound note was
secretly conveyed to him fi-om an nnknown per
son, who was afterwards traced to be the late
generous and patriotic Lord Gardenstone.
His prospects and circumstances becoming worse
daily, in the year 1786 be quitted his native coun-
try for London, hoping that his merit would be
better rewarded in the capital of the empu*e than
it had been in Edinburgh. Ho was now in the
fifty-first year of his age, and had a wife and eight
children dependent on him, but his expectations
of success wei-e veiy sanguine. Soon after his ar-
rival he delivered three successive courses of lec-
tures at the Devil Tavern, Fleet Street, which,
being attended only by a few bearers, added little to
his income. From Mr. Johnson, bookseller, of St.
PauFs Churchyard, he received a small sum for
the fii*st edition of the translation of bis ' Elementa
MedicinsB.* We learn from his son*s memoir of
his life, that about this time, in consequence of a
paltry intrigue, he was deprived of the situation of
physician to tbe king of Prussia, that monarch
having written to his ambassador in London to
find him out, and send him over to Berlin, and
another person of tbe name of Bi-own, an apothe-
cai*y, having gone to Piiissia without the ambas-
sador*s knowledge. It is also said that, on a pi*e-
vious occasion, the interference of his enemies
prevented him from obtaining the professorship of
medicine in the university of Padua, where his
system had many adherents, as well as in Italy
generally. In Germany, too, it found much fa-
vour, being propagated with great zeal by Girtan-
ner and Weikard. Having furnished his bouse in
Golden Square on credit, the broker from whom
he got bis furniture in a few months threw him
into the King's Bench prison, without any previ-
ous demand for the money due to him. During
his confinement he was applied to by a bookseller,
named Mm*i*ay, for a nostrum or pill, for which
the popularity of his name would ensure an exten-
sive sale. As he was only offered a trifle for the
property of it, he rejected the proposal. Soon
after he was solicited by no less than five pei-sons
to make up a secret or quack medicine, but as
they could never come to terms, he steadily re-
fused all their entreaties. Their object was to
take advantage of his necessities, and without
making him an adequate recompense, to extort
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BROWN,
894
JOHN.
from bitn the possession of a uostrum, which
would have been a fertile som-ce of gain to them,
but a disgrace to him as a respectable physician.
By the friendly assistance of a countr}'man of the
name of Miller, and the liberality of the late Mr.
Maddison, stock-bi-oker, of Charing Cross, he at
length obtained his liberty, in the early part of the
year 1788.
He now applied himself with earnestness to ex-
ecute different works which he had planned while
in prison. Besides the translation of his ^Ele-
menta Medicinie,' which he had published, he
proposed among other works to bring out a new
edition of his 'Observations;' a *Ti-eatise on the
Gout,' for which he was to receive £500 from a
bookseller ; also a treatise on ' The Operation of
Opium on the Human Constitution ;' a new edi-
tion of the 'Elementa,' with additions; and a
' Review of Medical Reviewers.' His prospects
wei*e beginning to brigliten and his practice to in-
crease, when a sudden stroke of apoplexy at once
put a period to his life, and to the illusive hopes
of future prosperity which he had been cherishing.
Ho died October 7, 1788, in the 68d year of his
age ; having the day preceding that of his death,
delivered the introductory lecture of a fourth
course, at his house in Grolden Square. He had
taken, as was his custom, a considerable quantity
of laudanum before going to bed, and he died in
the course of the night. In 1795 Dr. Beddoes
published an edition of his * Elements of Medicine,'
for the benefit of his family, with a life of the
author. In 1804 his eldest son. Dr. William Cul-
len Brown, published his works, with a memoii* of
his father, in 3 vols. 8vo. Dr. Brown's system
was undoubtedly one of great ingenuity, but al-
though some of his conclusions have proved useful
in the improvement of medical science, his opin-
ions, never generally adopted in practice, have
long ago been abandoned by the profession. In
* Kay's Edinburgh Portraits,' Dr. Brown figures
as a very prominent character. His works are :
Elementa Medidnse. Edin. 1780, Sto. Editio altera pla-
riinmn emendata et integram demnm opus exhibens. Edin.
1787, 2 vols. 8vo. 1794, 8vo.
Observations on the Principles of the Old System of Physic,
exhibiting a Compound of the New Doctrine. Containing a
new accoont of the state of Medicine, from the present times
backward to the restoration of the geniune learning in the
western parts of Europe. Edm. 1787, 8vo.
Elements of Medicine, translated from the Elementa Medi-
dnie Brunonis; with large Notes, Ulustrations, and Com-
ments, by the author of the original work. Lond. 1788, 2
vols. 8vo. Of this a new edition was published by Dr. Bed-
does, revised and corrected, with a Biographical Preface.
Lond. 1796, 2 vols. 8vo.
BROWN, John, an ingenious artist and elegant
scholar, the son of a goldsmith and watchmaker,
was bom in 1752 at Edinburgh, and was early
destined to the profession of a painter. In 1771
he went to Italy, where for ten years he improved
himself in his art. At Rome lie met with Sir
William Young and Mr. Towaley, and accom-
panied them as a draftsman into Sicily. Of the
antiquities of this celebrated island he took several
very fine 7iews in pen and ink, which wero exqui-
sitely finished, and preserved the appropriate
chai*acter of the buildings which he intended to
represent. On his return to Edinburgh he gained
the esteem of many eminent pei-sons by his elegant
manners and instructive conversation on Tarions
sul^ects, particularly on those of art and music, of
botli of which his knowledge was very extensive
and accurate. He was particularly honoured by
the notice of Lord Monboddo, who gave him a
general invitation to his table, and employed him
in making drawings in pencil for him.
In the year 1786 he went to London, where he
was much employed as a painter of small portraits
with black lead pencil, which, besides being cor-
rectly drawn, faithfully exhibited the features and
chai-acter of the persons whom they represented.
After some stay in London, the weak state of his
health, which had become impaired by his cloise
application, induced him to try the effects of a sea
voyage ; and he rotumed to Edinburgh, to settle
his father^s affairs, who was then dead. On the
passage from London he grew rapidly worse, and
was at the point of death when the ship arrived at
Leith. With much difficulty he was conveyed to
Edinburgh, and placed in the bed of his friend aud
brother-artist, Runciman, whose death occurred in
1784. Here Brown died, September 6, 1787.
In 1789 his ^ Letters on tlie Poetry and Music
of the Italian Opera,' 12mo, with an introduction
by Lord Monboddo, to whom they were originally
written, was published for the benefit of Brown's
widow. His lordship, in the fourth volume of * The
Ongin and Progress of Language,* speaking ot
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BROWN,
895
THOMAS.
Mr. Brown, says: *'Tlie account that I have
given of the Italian langoage is taken from one
who resided above ten years in Italy ; and who,
besides understanding the language perfectly, is
more learned in the Italian arts of painting, sculp-
ture, music, and poetry, than any man I ever met
with. His natural good taste be has improved by
the study of the monuments of ancient art to be
seen at Rome and Florence ; and as beauty in all
(he arts is pretty much the same, consisting of
gnmdenr and simplicity, variety, decorum, and a
suitableness to the subject, I think he is a good
judge of language, and of writing, as well as of
painting, sculpture, and music.** A well written
character in Latin, by an advocate in Edinburgh,
is appended to the Letters. Mr. Brown left be-
hind him several very highly finished portraits in
pencil, and many exquisite sketches in pencil and
pen and ink, which he had taken of persons and
places in Italy. The peculiar chai-acteristics of
his hand were delicacy, correctness, and taste,
and the leading features of his mind were acute-
ness, liberality, and sensibility, joined to a char-
acter firm, vigorous, and energetic. His last per-
formances were two exquisite drawings, one from
Mr. Townley's celebrated bust of Homer, and the
other from a fine original bust of Pope, supposed
to have been the work of Rysbrack. From these
two drawings, two beautiful engravings were
made by Mr. Bartolozzi and his pupil Mi*. Bovi.
A portrait of Brown with Runciman, disputing
about a passage in Shakspeare^s Tempest, the
joint production of these artists, is in the gallery
at Dr}'burgh Abbey.
BROWN, Robert, styled of Maikle, an emi-
nent agricultural writer, was bom in 1757 in the
village of East Linton, Haddingtonshire, where he
entered into bustness ; but his natural genius led
him to agricultural pursuits, which he followed
with singular success. He commenced his agri-
cultural career at Westfortuno, and soon afterwards
removed to Markle. He was intimately acquaint-
ed with the late George Rennie of Phantassie, who
chiefly confined his energies to the practice of
agriculture ; while Mr. Brown gave his attention
to the literary department. His ^Ti-eatise on
Rural Affairs,* and his articles in the Edinburgh
'Farmer's Magazine,' which he conducted for fif-
teen years, evinced the soundness of his practical
knowledge, and the vigour of his intellectual facul-
ties. His best articles have been translated into
the French and Grerman languages. He died
February 14, 1881, at Drylawhill, East Lothian,
in his 74th year.
BROWN, Thomas, an eminent metaphysician,
youngest son of the Rev. Samuel Brown, minister
of KJrkmabreck, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright,
and of Mary, daughter of John Smitli, Esq., Wig-
ton, was bom at the manse of that parish, Janu-
ary 9, 1778. His father dying when he was not
much more than a year old, his mother removed
with her family to Edinburgh, where he was by
her early taught the first rudiments of his educa-
tion. It is said that he acquured the whole alpha-
bet in one lesson, and everything else with the
same readiness, so much so, that he was able to
read the Scriptures when between four and five
years of age. In his seventh year, he was sent to
a brother of his mother residing in London, by
whom he was placed at a school, first at Camber-
well, and afterwards at Chiswick. In theso and
two other academies to which he was subsequent-
ly transferred, he made great progress in classical
literature. In 1792, upon the death of his uncle.
Captain Smith, he returned to Edinburgh, and
entered as a student at the university of that city.
In the summer of 1798, being on a visit to some
friends in Liverpool, he was introduced to Dr.
CuiTie, the biographer of Bums, by whom his
attention was first directed to metaphysical sub-
jects ; Dr. Currie having presented him with Mr.
Dngald Stewart's * Elements of the Philosophy of
the human mind,* then just published. The win-
ter after, young Brown attended Mr. Stewart's
moral philosophy class, in the college of Edin-
bui'gh ; and at the close of one of the lectures
he went forward to that celebrated philosopher,
though personally unknown to him, and modestly
submitted some remarks which he had written re-
specting one of his theories. Mr. Stewart, after
listening to him attentively, informed him, that he
had received a letter irom the distinguished M.
Prevost of Geneva, containing similai- arguments
to those stated by the young student. This proved
the commencement of a friendship, which Dr
Brown continued to enjoy till his death
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BROWN,
896
THOMAS.
At the age of Dineteen, he was a member of tliat
association which included the names of Brougham,
Erskine, Jeflfrey, Birkbeck, Logan, Leyden, Sydney
Smith, Reddie, and others, who establislied the
academy of physics at Edinburgh, the object of
which was, " the investigation of Nature, and the
laws by which her phenomena are regulated/*
From this society originated the publication of the
'Edinburgh Review.' Some articles in the early
numbers of that work, and particularly the lead-
ing article in the 2d number, upon Kant*s Philo-
sophy, were written by Dr. Brown. In 1798 he
published ' Observations on the Zoonomia of Dr.
Darwin,' the greater part of which was written in
his eighteenth year, and which contains the geim
of all his subsequent views in regard to mind, and
of those principles of philosophising by which he
was guided in his future inquiries. In 1799 he
was a candidate for the chair of Rhetoric, and on
the death of Dr. Finlayson, for that of Logic, but
in both cases unsuccessfully. In 1803, after at-
tending the usual medical coui*se, he took his de-
gi*ee of M.D.
In the same year he published the firet edition
of his poems in two vols., written principally while
he was at college. His next publication was an
Examination of the Principles of Mr. Hume re-
specting Causation, which was caused by a note
in Mr. Leslie's Essay on Heat ; and the great mer-
its of which caused it to be noticed in a very flat-
tering manner in the Edinburgh Review, in an
able article by Mr. Homer. Pi^ofessor Stewart
also spoke very highly in favour of Dr. Brown's
Essay, and Sir James Mackintosh has pronounced
it the finest model in mental philosophy since
Berkeley. In 1806 he brought out a second edi-
tion of this treatise, considerably enlarged ; and
in 1818 the third addition appeared, with many
additions, under the title of *• An Inquiry into the
Relation of Cause and Effect.' Havmg commenced
practice as a physician in Edinburgh he entered,
in 1806, into partnership with the late Dr. Grego-
ry. Mr. Stewart's declining health requiring him
occasionally to be absent fi*om his class, he applied
to Dr. Brown to supply his place ; and in the win-
ter of 1808-9, the latter officiated for a short time
as 3^Ir. Stewart's substitute. " The moral philoso-
phy class at this period," says his biogi-apher, Dr
Welsh, '* presented a very striking aspect. It
was not a crowd of youthful students led intc
transports of admiration by the ignorant enthusi-
asm of the moment ; distinguished members of the
bench, of the bar, and of the pulpit, were daily
present to witness the powers of this rising philo-
sopher. Some of the most eminent of the profes-
sors were to be seen mixing with the students,
and Mr. Playfair, in particular, was present at
every lecture. The originality, and depUi, and
eloquence of the lectures, had a veiy marked ef-
fect upon the yonng men attending the university,
in leading them to metaphysical speculations."
In the following winter. Dr. Brown's assistance
was again rendered necessaiy; and in 1810, in
consequence of a wish expressed by Mr. Stewart
to that effect, he was officially conjoined with him
in the pi*ofessoi*ship. In the summer of 1814 he
concluded his poem called the * Paradise of Co-
quettes,' which he published anonymously in Lon-
don, and which met with a favourable reception.
In the succeeding year he brought out another
volume of poetry under the name of * The Wan-
derer In Noi'way. In 1816 he wrote his ' Bower
of Spring,' near Dunkeld in Perthshire. In 1818
he published a poetical tale, entitled ' Agnes.' In
the autumn of 1819, at his favourite retreat ui
the neighbourhood of Dunkeld, he commenced
his text book, a work which he had long medi-
tated for the benefit of his students. Towards
the end of December of the same year his health
began to give way, and after the recess, he was in
such a state of weakness as to be unable for some
time to resume his official duties. His ill health
having assumed an alarming aspect, he was ad-
vised by his physicians to pi*oceed to London, as
he had, upon a former occasion, derived great
benefit from a sea voyage. Accompanied by his
two sisters he hastened to the metropolis, with the
intention of going to a milder climate as soon as
the season allowed, and took lodgings at Bromp-
ton, where he died, April 2, 1820. His remauis
were put into a leaden coffin, and removed to
Kirkmabreck, where they were laid, according to
his own request, beside those of his parents ; his
mother, whom he tenderly loved, having died in
1817.
Dr. Brown was rather above the middle height.
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BROWN,
897
WILLIAM LAWRENCE.
A portrait of him by Watson, taken in 1806, is
said faithfully to preserve his likeness. The fol-
lowing woodcut of it is fram the engraving by W.
Walker.
i^jt^y^^-u-v^^^^ y^ ^^
M
lie was distinguished for his gentleness, kindness,
and delicacy of mind, nnited with great indepen-
dence of spirit, a truly British love of liberty, and an
ardent desire for the diffusion of knowledge, virtue,
and happiness among mankind. All his habits
were simple, temperate, studious, and domestic.
As a philosopher, he was remarkable for his power
of analysing, and for that comprehensive energy,
which, to use his own woi-ds, " sees, through a long
train of thought, a distant conclusion, and separat-
ing, at every stage, the essential from the accessory
cii-cumstances, and gathering and combining ana-
logies as it proceeds, arrives at length at a system
of harmonious truth." As a poet. Dr. Brown
exhibited much taste and gracefulness, but his
poetry is not of a character ever to become popular.
His lectures, which were published after his death,
in four volumies, 8vo, have passed through sevei*al
editions. An account of his life and writings was
published by the Rev. Dr. David Welsh, in one
volume, 8vo, in 1825. His works are •
Observations on the Zoonomia of Erasmus Darwin, M.D.
Ed'tn. 1798, 8vo
Poems. Edin. 1804, 2 vols. 12mo.
Observations on the Nature and 1 endency of Mr. Humeri
Doctrine concerning the Relation of Cause and Effect Edin.
1806, 8vo. 8d edit., under the title of An Enquuy into the
ReUttion of Cause and Efiect, 1818.
A Short Criticism on the Terms of the Charges against Mr.
Leslie, in the Protest of the Ministers of Edinburgh. 1 806, 8vo.
Examination of some Remarks in the Reply of Dr. John
Inglis to Professor Plajfair. Edin. 1806.^ 8vo.
The Paradise of Coquettes; a Poem. London, 1814. 2d
edit Edin. 1818, 8vo.
The Wanderer in Norway ; a Poem. London, 1815, 8vo.
The War Fiend. 1816.
The Bower of Spring, and other Poems. London, 8vo. 1817
Agnes ; a Poem. 1818, 8vo.
Emily; and other Poems. 2d edit. 1818, 8vo.
Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind. 4 vols.
8vo. Edin. 1820.
System of the Pliilosonhv of the Human Mind. 8vo. Edin.
1820.
BRO^T^, William Lawrence, D.D., an
eminent theological writer, the son of the Rev.
William Brown, a native of Scotland, minister of
the English church at Utrecht, in Holland, was
bom in that city, January 7, 1755. His mother
was Janet Ogilvie, daughter of the Rev. George
Ogilvie, minister of Kirriemuir. Being Scotch by
both father and mother, his life is usually given in
Scottish biographies. In 1757 his father, an emi-
nent Latin scholar, was appointed professor of ec-
clesiastical liistor}' in the univei*8ity of St. Andrews,
and in consequence, returned to Scotland with his
family. After receiving the usual education at
the grammar school, young Brown, who early
showed great quickness, was, at the age of twelve,
sent to the university, where he devoted his atten-
tion chiefly to the stndy of classical literature,
logic, and ethics. He passed through his aca-
demical course with much credit to himself, having
received many of the prizes distributed by the
chancellor for superior attainments. After he had
been five years at the college, he became a student
of divinity, and took his degree of M. A. He at-
tended the divinity class for two years, and in
1774 removed to the university of Utrecht, where
he prosecuted the study of theology, and also
of the civil law. In 1777, on the death of his
uncle. Dr. Robert Brown, who had succeeded
his father as minister of the English church at
Utrecht, the magistrates of that city, in compli-
ance with the wishes of the congregation, oflfered
the vacant charge to his yoimg relative, who
accepted it.
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BROWN,
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WILLIAM LAWRENCE.
Returning to Scotland, be was licensed and
ordained by the presbytery of St. Andrews, and,
in March 1778, he was admitted n^inister of the
English church at Utrecht. His congregation,
though highly respectable, was not numerous;
nevertheless, he was very assiduous in his prepa-
rations for the pulpit. To increase his income,
he received pupils into his house; and among
many other young men of rank and fortune, Lord
Dacre is mentioned as one of whom he has spoken
in very favourable terms. While he remained at
Utrecht he made various excursions into France,
Germany, and Switzerland, thereby enlarging his
sphere of knowledge and observation, and becom-
ing acquainted with the manners and habits of our
continental neighbours. On the 28th May 1786,
he married his cousin, Anne Elizabeth Brown, the
daughter of his immediate predecessor, and by
her, who was also a native of Holland, he had five
sons and four daughters.
In 1783, the curators of the Stolpian Legacy at
Leyden, which is appropriated to the encourage-
ment of theological learning, proposed, as the
subject of their annual prize, the Oiigin of Evil;
when Mr. Brown appeared in the list of twenty -
^YQ competitore. On this occasion he received
the second honour, namely, that of his dissertation
being published at the expense of the trust: the
first prize being gained by a learned Hungarian
of the name of Joseph Paap de Fagoras. Mr.
Brown's Essay was printed among the Memoirs
of the Society, under the title of * Disputatio de
Fabrica Mnndi, in quo Mala insunt, Naturae Dei
perfectissim® hand repugnante.' In 1784 the
university of St. Andrews conferred on him the
degree of D.D. On three different occasions, we
are told, he obtained the medals awarded by the
Teylerian Society at Haarlem for the best com-
positions in IwAtin, Dutch, French, or English, on
certain prescribed subjects. In 1786 he obtained
the gold medal for his Essay on Scepticism; in
1787 the silver medal for his dissertation in Latin
on the Immortality of the Soul; and in 1792 the
silver medal again for his Essay on the Natural
Equality of Men. The Latin dissertation has
never been printed; but the two English Essays
were published, the first at London in 1788, and
the other at Edinburgh in 1793. A second edition
of the latter work, the most popular of all hii
publications, and which even attracted the atten-
tion of the British Government, appeared at Lou-
don in the course of the following year.
Previous to this he had been exposed to macli
annoyance on account of his attachment to the
Orange dynasty, and had even repaired to Lou-
don to endeavour to procure some literary situa-
tion in Great Britain, that he might be enabled to
leave Holland altogether. The armed interposi-
tion of the Prussians in 1788 i*estored his friends
to power in that country, and was the means of
his appointment to a chaur in the university.
The states and the magistrates of Utrecht having
jointly instituted a professorship of moral philo-
sophy and ecclesiastical history, selected Dr.
Bix)wn to fill the new chair. The lectures were to
be in the Latin language, and he had two courses
to deliver, to be continued during a session of
nearly eight months, for which he was allowed
only a few weeks for preparation. Such an ar-
duous task was very prejudicial to his health,
and laid the foundation of complaints, from which
he never fully recovered. The inaugural oration
which he pronounced upon entering on his new
duties was immediately published under the titli
of *■ Oratio de Religionis et Philosophise Societate
et Concordia maxime salutari.' Traj. ad Rhen.
1788, 4to. Two years afterwai-ds he was nomi-
nated rector of the university; and his address oi
the occasion, entitled * Oratio de Imaginatione, in
Vitffi Institutione regenda,* was published in 4to,
1790. Having been offered the Gi-eek professor-
ship at St. Andrews, he was induced to decline
it, on the curators of the university of Utrecht
promising to increase his salary. To his other
ofiices was now added the professorship of the
law of nature, usually conjoined with the law ot
nations, and taught by members of the law faculty.
During the period of his residence at Utrecht, Dr
Brown discharged his public duties with credit
and reputation ; but the war which followed the
outbreak of the French revolution compelled him
at last to quit Holland, on the rapid approach of
the invading army of France.
In the month of January 1795, during a very
severe winter, he, with his wife and &Ye children,
And some other relations, embarked from the coa.<«t
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WILLIAM LAWRENCE.
of Holland in an open boat, and landed in Eng-
land after a stonny passage. In the summer of
that year, on the resignation of Dr. Can^bell, pro-
fessor of divinity in Marischal College^ Aberdeen,
Dr. Brown, principally through the influence of
Lord Ancklaud, whose acquaintance he had made
while ambassador at the Hague, was appointed to
the vacant chair; and he was soon afterwards
nominated by the Crown principal of that univer-
sity. On the death of Dr. -Campbell in the ensu-
ing April, Dr. Brown preached his funeral sermon,
published at Aberdeen in 8vo, 1796. He also
published, about this time, a Fast Sermon, entitled
' The Influence of Religion on National Prospe-
rity;* and a Synod Sermon, called *The Proper
Method of Defending Religious Truth in Times of
lufldelity.' He was a sound and impressive
preacher, and an able and effective speaker on the
popular side in the church courts.
In the first Grenerd Assembly ot which he was
a member, he made a very powerful speech in the
case of Dr. Arnot, respecting his settlement at
Kingsbarns, which was afterwards published. In
1800 Dr. Brown was named one of his Majesty's
chaplains in ordinary for Scotland ; and in 1804 dean
of the Chapel Royal, and of the most ancient and
most noble Order of the Thistle. In 1825 he was
appointed to read the Gordon course of lectures
on practical religion in the Marischal College.
He was also one of the ministers of the West
Church in Aberdeen.
His greatest literary effort was the essay which
obtained Burnet's first prize, amounting to £1,250.
Tlie competitors were about fifty in number ; and
the judges were, Dr. Gerard, professor of divinity,
Dr. Glennie, professor of moi-al philosophy, and
IJr. Hamilton, professor of mathematics, all in Aber-
deen. The second prize, amounting to £400, was
awarded to Dr. Sumner, bishop of Chester. Dr.
Brown's essay was published under the title of * An
Essay on the Existence of a Supreme Being pos-
sessed of Infinite Power, Wisdom, and Goodness;
containing also the Refutation of the Objections
urged agamst his Wisdom and Goodness,' Aber-
deen, 1816, 2 vols. 8vo. In 1826 his last work of
importance was published at Edinburgh, entitled
* A Comparative View of Christianity, and of the
other Forms ot Religion which have existed, and
still exist, in the World, particularly with regaid
tO' their Moral Tendency,' 2 vols. 8vo.
Dir. Brown died, at four in the morning of May
U, 1830, in the 76th year of his age. For two
years his i^trength had imperceptibly declined; and
although the decline became rapid about a week
before his decease, he did not relinquish his usual
employments. Reduced as he was to extreme
weakness, he wrote pait of a letter to two of his
sons on the very last day of his mortal existence ;
to his third son, the Greek professor in Marischal
college, he dictated a few sentences within six
hom-s of his decease. ^^ To an unusual share of
classical learning," says the writer of his life in
the ^ EncyclopsBdia Britannica,' seventh edition,
to which we are indebted for most of these details,
" Dr. Brown added a very familiar acquaintance
with several of the modem languages. Latin and
French he wrote and spoke with great facility.
His successive study of ethics, jurisprudence, and
theology, had habituated his mind with the most
important topics of speculation, relating to the
present condition of man, and to his future destiny.
His political sentiments were liberal and expan-
sive, and connected with ardent aspirations after
the general improvement and happiness of the hu-
man race. His reading in divinity had been very
extensive ; and he was well acquainted with the
works of British and foreign theologians, paiticu-
larly of those who wrote in the Latin language
dming the seventeenth century." — His works are •
Disputatio de Fabrica Mnndi, in quo Mala insont, Naturse
Dei perfectisamiK hand repognante. Printed in the Memoirs
of the Stolpian Societj at Leyden, 1784.
Essay on Scepticism, London, 1788.
Essay on the Natural Equality of Men ; Edinburgh 1798.
2d edition, London, 1794.
Oratio de Beligionis et Philosophise Sodetate et Concordia
maxime Salutari. An Inaugural Oration^ 1788, 4to.
Oratio de Imaginatione, m Vit» Institutione regenda
1790, 4to.
Funeral Sermon on the Death of Dr. Gampbellf Aberdeen.
1796.
The Influence of Religion on National Prosperity, a sermon
preached on a Fast day. Aberdeen, 1796.
The Proper Method ot Defending Beligions Truth in times
of Infidelity. A Synod sermon. Aberdeen, 1797.
Substance of a speech delivered in the General Assembl) of
the Church of Scotland, on Wednesday 28th May 1800, on
the question respecting the settlement at Kingsbarns of the
Rev. Dr. Robert Arnot, ProfiBssor of Divinity in St Maiy's
College, St Andrews. Aberdeen, 1800.
Volume of Sermons. Edinburgh, 1808, 8vo.
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JAMES.
An Essay on Sensibility, a poem published before he
quitted Utrecht
Philemon, or the Progress of Virtue, a poem. Edinburgh,
1809, 2 vols. 8vo.
An Examination of the Causes and Conduct of the present
War with France, and of the most effectual means of obtain-
ing Peace. London, 1798, 8to, published anonymously.
Letters to the Rev. Dr. George Hill, Principal of St Mary's
College, St Andrews. Aberdeen, 1801, 8vo.
Remarks on Certain Passages of an Examination of Mr.
Dugald Stewart*« Pamphlet, on the election of a Mathematical
Professor in the University of Edinburgh. Aberdeen, 1806, 8vo.
On the Character and Influence of a virtuous king.
A Sermon on the Jubilee. Aberdeen, 1810, 8vo.
An Attempt towards a New Historical and Political Ex-
planation of the Revelations. 1812.
An Essay on the Existence of a Supreme Being possessed
of Inflnite Wisdom, Power, and Goodness. Aberdeen, 1816,
2 vols. 8vo.
A Comparative View of Christianity and of the other
Forms of Reli^on which have existed, and still exist in the
World Edinburgh, 2 vohi. 8vo.
Various detached sermons and tracts.
BROWN, Robert, D.C.L., an eminent botan-
ist, see Supplement.
BROWNE, James, LL.D., author of the * His-
tory of the Highlands and of the Highland Clans,'
was born at Whitefield, parish of Cargill, Perth-
shire, in 1793. His father was a manufacturer at
Cnpai* Angus, having in his employment a number
of weavers. He unfortunately met with some losses
in trade, but while in more thriving curcumstances
lie had contrived to give his son James a good edu-
cation. As he was intended for the ministry of
the Church of Scotland, be was sent to the uni-
versity of St. Andrews, where he eaily distin-
guished himself by the great facility with which
he mastered the classics, as well as for the vigour
and force of his conversational talents. Even at
this period, he was noted for a strong tendency to
romancing, which, though circumscribed by his in-
tended profession, could not be altogether sup-
pressed, and formed by far the most remarkable
feature of his character. After passing through the
ordinary literary and philosophical cuiriculum at
the university, he entered on the study of divinity,
and in due time was licensed to preach the gospel.
His classical attainments having eminently fitted
him for a teacher of youth, he soon found em-
ployment as a tutor in several families of distinc-
tion, with one of whom be visited the continent.
On his return to Scotland, he became assistant
teacher of Latin, under Mr. Dick, of the Perth
academy, and, at the same time, officiated as in-
terim assistant to the Rev. Lewis Dunbar, min-
ister of the parish of KJnnoul in Perthshire. As
a preacher, Browne was remai-kable for the vigour
of his language and the enthusiasm of his manner,
but his sermons, as we have been informed by a
hearer, were but slenderly tinged with doctrinal
divinity. It was about this time that he pub-
lished, anonymously, his ' History of the Liqui-
sition,' which at one period was rather a popular
book. In 1817, on the death of the Princess Char-
lotte, he published the sermon which he preached
on that mournful occasion. He afterwards re-
solved upon abandoning the ministry, and pro-
ceeding to Edinburgh, he shaped his studies for
the bar, while, for a livelihood, he devoted himself
to literary pursuits. He passed advocate in the
year 1826, and received the degree of LL.D. frpm
the univei'sity of St. Andrews. His mind, however,
was too thoroughly imbued with literary tastes to
fit him for success as a lawyer ; in fact, the entire
framework of his intellect had nothing in it akin
to the dull precise foi-mulie of legal pleadings,
and although occupying the status of an advo-
cate, he fell back upon literature and science as
his only available source for a subsistence. He
was for a considerable time editor of Constable's
Magazine, as the Scots Magazine was called, and
wrote largely for the reviews, magazines, and
periodicals of the day, and was always remarka-
ble for his tendency to strong statement. In
one of the numbers of Blackwood^s Magazine an
article appeared, referring to him, entitled ^ Some
passages in the Life of Colonel Cloud,* which was
strikingly illustrative of this weakness in his char-
acter. It was understood to be from the pen of
Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. In 1827 Dr. Browne
was appointed editor of the Caledonian Mercory,
one of the oldest of the Scottish newspapers,
and while he was so, he became involved in a
controversy with Mr. Charles M'Laren, the editor
of the Scotsman, which terminated in a duel be-
tween them ; of a bloodless nature, however, as
both parties, after exchanging shots, left the field
unhurt. In 1826 Dr. Browne published a 12mo
volume, entitled ^Critical Examination of Dr.
M'Culloch's Work on the Highlands and Western
Isles.* It was mainly owing to his articles in
the Caledonian Mercury, that in 1827 the horrible
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BRUCE, OR DE BRUS.
.murders in the West Fort were brought to light,
and the wretch Burke tried, condemned, and exe-
cuted. In 1830, owing to some dispute with the
proprietors, Browne left the Caledonian Mercury,
and in conjunction with Mr. Daniel Lizars, book-
seller, started the North Briton, a twice a-week
paper, which, though vigorously written and ably
conducted, did not long exist. He afterwards for
a short time resumed his old post of editor of the
Caledonian Mercury. Subsequently he became
sub-editor of the seventh edition of the Encyclo-
pedia Britannica, where he displayed much indus-
try, and his literary resources appeared to great
advantage. To his exertions and vast fund of
information on almost every subject, that impor-
tant work owed much of its excellence and its
value. He wrote some elaborate and able articles
for it ; among the rest those on the Army, Egyp-
tian Hieroglyphics, Libraries, Newspapers, <&c.,
besides a number of biographical articles, such as
that of Bossuet, Fenelon, &c. He likewise wrote
two articles on Egyptian Hieroglyphics for the
Edinburgh Review, which attracted considerable
attention at the time, as the^ embodied all that
was then known on the subject. His contributions
to the Edinburgh Geographical and Historical
Atlas, a work compiled by him, with David Bu-
chanan and H. Smith, which came out in folio in
1835, as also his contributions to the N(nth Briton
newspaper, were published separately. His * His-
tory of the Highlands and of the Highland Clans,'
which is in 4 volumes 8vo, possesses much force
and vividness in its descriptions, and is marked
by all the peculiar characteristics of his style. In
politics Dr. Browne was, throughout his career, a
consistent liberal. In the latter years of his life,
he became a proselyte to popery, principally
through the influence of his wife, who had been
educated in that faith. She was a daughter of Mr.
Stewart of Hnntfield, and cousin of General Stew-
art of Garth. Dr. Browne died in 1841, and was
buried in Duddingstono churchyard. A ciitical
review of Scott's prose works, written by him, was
posthumously published. Notwithstanding his
being endowed with a strong bodily constitution,
he was, while yet, it may be said, in the prime of
life, worn out by over mental exertion, and fell
at last a victim to pai'alysis. It is much to his
credit that he was the sole support of his pai-ents
in their old age. His daughter married James
Grant, at one time an ensign in the 62d foot, au-
thor of the • Romance of War,* and other novels.
Bbucb, or as it wai andently written, Buus, the name of
a family of Norman descent, which became one of the most
illustrious in the annals of Scotland. The name, originally
Brusi, bad its origin among the Scandinavians or Northmen,
and appears — through their matrimonial alliances with the
vikingrs of Norway, who subdued the Orkney islands — in
connection with the royal family of Scotland at a veiy eariy
period of its authentic history. Sigurd the Stout, jarl or eari
of Orkney, who mairied the daughter of Helkolm, probably
Malcolm the Second, king of Scots, had four sons, Thorfinn,
Sumaried, Bruti, and Einar. Brusi, the third son, tlie Ork-
neyinga Saga, as quoted in the ' Collectanea de Rebns Albani-
ds,' printed for the lona Club, informs us, was a veiy peaceful
man, and clever, eloquent, and had many friends. After
the death of Sumaried, disputes arose amongst the brothers
about the division <^ his lands in Orkney and Caithness, and
wars and scarcity ensued, but Brusi was contented with his
third of Orkney, and *^ in that part of the land which Brusi
had there was peace and prosperity.**
From a branch of this family came, according to Burke,
Robert de Brusi, a descendant of Einar, fourth jarl of Orkney,
brother of the famous RoUo, (great-great-grandfather of Wil-
liam the Conqueror,) who m 912 acquired Normandy, and
became its first duke. This Robert de Brusi built the castle of
La Brusee, now called Brix, in the diocese of Coutanse, near
Volagnes. By his wife, Emma, daughter of AUin, count of
Brittany, he had two sons, AUin de k Brusee, lord of Brusee
castle, (married Agnes, daughter of Simon Montfort, earl of
Evreux,) whose posterity remained in Normandy, and Robert
de Brusee, the ancestor of the Bruses, and the first of that
name who appeared in England. He accompanied William
the Conqueror there in 1066, but died soon after. By his
wife, Agnes, daughter of Waldonius, count of St CUir, he
had two sons, William and Adam, who both attended their
father into England, and acquired great possessions, the for-
mer in Sussez^Surrey, Dorsetshire, and other counties, and
the hitter in Cleveland, of which the barony of Skelton was
the principal Adam died in 1098, leaving, by Emma bis
wife, daughter of a knight named Sir William Ramsay, three
sons, namely, Sir Robert his heir; William, prior of Gnisbum,
and Duncan. After the death of his father. Sir Robert liad
forty-three lordships in the East and West Ridmgs of that
coxml7, and fifty-one in the North Riding, whereof Guisbum
in Cleveland was one. [^DugdaU*8 Baronage, y. L p. 447.]
His son, Robert de Brus of Cleveland, served as a compa-
nion in arms under Prince David, afterwards David the First
of Scotland, durmg his '* residence," says our authority, " at
the court of Henry the First of England;" but in reality,
and as in all probability and consistency, during the con-
quest and a part of the period of his government of Cum-
bria— the district comprising the Lothians and Galloway
as bestowed on that prince upon the death of his brother
Edgar, — ^and received from him, along with the hand of
a Udy, a native of the land and heiress thereof as his
second wife, a grant of the lordship of Annandale, compris-
ing all that territory called in Norman French Estra-hcmmt^
* beyond or across Annent or Amnant,' (afterwards altered
into Strathannan or Annandale,) and all the lands from
Estra-nit (Strathnith) the bounds of the property of Dunegall,
(ancestor of the Randolphs, earls of Moray) into the limits
2o
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ROBERT.
«f Ranulph de ^leschines, then lord of Cumberbindf with a
nght to enjoy hu castle there, with all the customs appertaining
to it. [Ibid,"] I1ie chart«r by which this lai'ge domain was
conferred upon him established the tenure by the sword ; that
is, gave a right to take possession and retain by force of anns.
For this princely gift, which he held by the tenure of military
sennce, he did homage to the Scottish king. In 1138, dm*ing
the civil war between King Stephen who had usurped the
throne of England, and Matilda, the rightful heiress, niece of
the king of Scots, when the latter, in support of the claims of
his relative, had led an expedition into England and advanced
as far as Northallerton, de Brus was sent, by the barons of
the north of England, (who, if not attached to the cause of
Stephen, were satisfied it was their safety to maintain it and
bad assembled a force for that purpose,) in order to gam time
to increase their strength, to negotiate, or rather to remon-
strate with him. At the commencement of the war, he had
renounced his allegiance to David, and resigned his lands in
Annandale to his son by bis second marriage. He represented
that the English and Normans, against whom he was then
arrayed, had repeatedly restored the power and authority of
the Scottish monarchs when driven out by their subjects of the
andent races of the country, and that they were more faithful
to the royal family than were the Scots themselves, who re-
joiced at this unnatural war, because it afforded them an op-
portunity of displaying their resentment against those who
had of:en frustrated their treasonable devices. He dwelt on
the savage outrages which that portion of the anny, consisting
of native forces, had committed, urged him to prove the truth
of his disavowal of them by withdrawal, assured him of the de-
termined resistance of the Yorkshire barons, and concluded
(as reported by their common friend Aldred) in the following
affectionate strain : — '^ It wrings my heart,** sfud he, ** to see
my dearest master, my patron, my benefactor, my friend, my
companion in arms, in whose service I am grown old, thus
exposed to the danger of battle, or to the dishonom* of flight,"
and then he burst into tears. David also wept, but his reso<
lution to maintain the rights of his sister's daughter, to
whom as her first subject he had sworn fealty, continued
unchanged. The battle of the Standai'd followed, llth
.\ugust, 1138, in which the anny of King Da^id, after a
partial snooess in tne first onset, was completely defeated. At
this famous battle de Brus took prisoner his second son, Robert,
a youth of fburteen years of age, who, being liegeman to the
Scottish king for the lands of Annandale, which had been
renounced in his favour by his father, had fought on the
Scots side. Robert de Brus, first lord of Annandale, founded
a monastery at Guisbuni, now Guisborough, in Yorkshire,
in 1119, and amply endowed it with lands and possessions,
in which he was joined by Agnes, his first wife, daughter of
Fulk Paynell, with whom be got the manor of Carleton in
Yorkshire, and Adam his son and heir. His death took phtce
llth May 1141, when his English estates were inherited by his
eldest son Adam, whose male line terminated in Peter de
Brus of Skelton, constable of Scarborough castle, who died
18th September 1271, leaving his extensive estates to four
sisters, his coheiresses, all married to powerful English barons.
Robert de Brus, his son by the second marriage, inherit-
mg Annandale in right of his mother and by cession of his
father, was by him, after the battle of the Standard, sent pri-
soner to King Stephen, who ordered him to be delivered up
to his mother. On telling his father that the people of An-
nandale had no wheiiten bread, he conferred on him the lord-
sliip of Hert and the territory of Hertness in the bishopric of
Durliam, to bold of him and his heirs, lords of Skelton. He
soon, however, returned to Scotland, and gave to the monas-
tery of Guisbum, founded by his father, the churches of An-^
nand, Lochmaben, Kirkpatrick, Cummertrees, Rampatrick,
and Gretenhon (or Graitney, now Gretna), and entered into a
composition with the bishop of Glasgow, coDceming these
churdies, to which that prelate laid daim. ^ To show that
he looked upon his chief settlement to be in Scotland he
quitted his father's armorial bearings (ai^nt, a lion rampant,
gules) and assumed the coat a( Annandale (or a aaltiie and
diief gules.)** King William the Lion OMiferred on him by
a charter yet extant, dated at Lochmaben, the grant of
Annandale made to his father by David the First. He and
his wife Euphemia gave to the monks of Holmcultram the
fishing of Torduff in the Solway Frith. He had two sons,
Robert and William.
Robert, the dder son and third Itml of Annandale, de-
scribed as *^ a nobleman of great valour and mai^oanimity, ,
and at the same time pious and religious," married, in 1183, i {
Isabella, a natural danglitcr of William the lion, by whom '
he had no iwue. He died before 1191. His widow married,
a second time, a baron named Robert de Ros.
The second son William had a son named Robert, fourth I
lord of Annandale, sumamed the noble, who took to wife II
Isobel, second daughter of David, earl of Huntingdun and I
Chester, younger brother of William the Lion, and thus laid 'I
the foundation of the royal house of Bruce. ** By this royal 1 1
match the lords of Annandale came to be amongst the gnat- !
est subjects in Europe ; for, by the said Isobel (as coheiress,
with her two sisters, of her father's property,) Robert, exdu-
sive of his paternal estate in both kingdoms, came to be pos- .
sessed of the manor of Writtle and Hatfidd in Essex, toge-
ther with half the hundred of Hatfield. She likewise bnnigbt <
him the castle of Kildrammie and the lordship of Garioch in |
Aberdeenshire, and the manor of Connington in Huntingdon- !
shire, and Exton in Rutlandshire." He died in 1246, and
was buried with hb ancestors in the abbey of Goisbom, ro i
Cleveland. \
His eldest son, also named Robert, was the competitor with |
John Baliol for the crown of Scotland. He died in 1295.
Robert de Brus, his eldest son, sixth lord of Annandale,
and first earl of Carrick of the name, f see AmrA^rDAiJC, kxrd >
of, and Caruick, earl of], maintained his pretensions to the
Scottish throne. Nevertheless, he accompanied Edward the >
First into Scotland, and fought on the English dde at the
battle of Dunbar. He died ui 1304.
His eldest son, Robert de Brus, (as it was written and used !
by all parties in that Norman French which was the spoken
language of Scotland during his lifetime, but in after ages |
not very accurately translated into English as The Bnioe,) the {
conqueror at Bannockbum, and the restorer of the Scottish '
monarchy, was the seventh lord of Annandale, and second i
earl of Canick in right of his mother. I
In the genealogy of the royal line of Brus, it appears that i
there had been nine persons in direct descent firom de Brus of i '
Doomesday Book to de Brus of Bannockbum, the first king of
the name, Indusi\'e, eight of whom were named Robert, and one
William, the latter being the grandson of the Norman knight
Robert de Brus, and younger brother of the third Robert
Of the lives of the three last of these Bruoes as more parti-
cularly connected with the history of Scotland, the details are
more fully given in theur order, as also that of Edward, one
of the brothers of King Robert ; viz. : —
BRUCE, or DE BRUS, Robert, filth loi-d of
Annandale, is known in history' us Bruce the Com-
petitor, to distinguish him fi*om his son, and liid
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403
ROBERT.
grandson the conqneror at Bannockburn. lie was
bom in 1210, and on the death of Margai*et of
Norway in 1290, being then in his eighty-first year,
he became a claimant with John Baliol for the
crown of Scotland. [See Baliol, John, p. 220.]
On this occasion, he alleged that moi-e than fifty
years before, or in 1238, while in the 28th year of
his age, when Alexander the Second was about to
proceed on an expedition against the western isles,
and then despairing of heire of bis own body, he
was acknowledged by that monarch, in presence
and with consent of his barons, as the nearest
heir in blood to the throne, bnt the birth of a son
to Alexander by his second wife, in 1241, put an
end at that period to his hopes of the succession.
I^rd Hailcs thinks Bms's allegation a fiction;
Sir Francis Palgrave, with fuller materials, cer-
tainly shows reasons for believing it coiTCct.
{Documents Illustrative of Scottish History^ 1837,
Introduction^ pp. xxiii — xxix.]
In 1252, on the death of his mother the princess
Isobel, he did homage to Henry the Third as heir
to her lands in England, and in 1255 he was con-
stituted sherift of Cumberland and constable of the
castle of Carlisle. The same year, on the break-
ing up of the regency of the Comyn party, which
was that of the independent interest as being
opposed to the English supremacy in Scotland,
[see ante, p. 84,] he was appointed one of the
fifteen regents of the kingdom, during the mino-
rity of the young king, Alexander the Third.
Nine years later, that is in 1264, during the
famous struggle of King Henry the Third with
his barons headed by Simon de Montfort, in
conjunction with John Comyn and John de
Baliol, de Brus led a large Scottish force to the
assistance of the English monarch, who, however,
was defeated at the battle of Lewes, 14th May
of that year, when de Brus was taken prison-
er, along with Henry and his son. Prince Edward.
After the battle of Evesham, 5th August 1265,
which retrieved the fortunes of King Henry,
Bruce was set at liberty, and was reinstated in
the governorship of Caiiisle castle.
On the death of Alexander the Third in 1286,
a parliament assembled at Scone, 11th April, in
which a regency, consisting of six guardians of
the realm, was appointed, three for the country
north of the Forth, namely, William Fraser bish-
op of St. Andrews, Duncan earl of Fife, and Al-
exander Comyn earl of Buchan; and three for
the country south of the Forth, namely, Robert
Wishart bishop of Glasgow, John Comyn lord of
Badenoch, and James the Steward of Scotland.
Then properly may be said to have commenced the
contest for the succession to the crown, between the
partisans of Brus and Baliol, although these were
not the only claimants. The heiress to the throne,
Margaret, gianddaughter of Alexander and gi-and-
niece of Edward the Fii-st, was still alive and in
Jforway, but she was an infant, and the different
competitoi*8 began to collect theii* strength and in-
dulge in ambitious hopes, in the anticipation of a
straggle for the sovereignty. The most powerful
of the Scottish barons met, September 20, l'i^86,
at Tarnberry, the castle of Robert de Brus, earl of
Carrick in right of his wife (see the following arti-
cle), son of Robert de Brus, the subject of this
notice, lord of Annandale and Cleveland. They
were joined by two powerful English barons, Tho-
mas de Clare, brother of Gilbert, earl of Glouces-
ter, brother-in-law of the lord of Annandale, and
Richard de Bui-gh, earl of Ulster. Among those
assembled at Turaberry were Patrick, earl ot
Dunbar, with his three sons; Walter Stewart,
earl of Menteith ; de Brus^s own son, the earl ot
Carrick, and Bernard de Bras ; James, the high
Steward of Scotland, who had married Cecilia,
daughter of Patrick, earl of Dunbar, with John,
his brother ; Angus, son of Donald the lord of the
Isles, and Alexander his son. ''These barons,"
says Tytler, " whose infiuence could bring into the
field the strength of almost the whole of the west
and south of Scotland, now entered into a bond or
covenant, by which it was declared that they
would thenceforth adhere to and take part with
one another, on all occasions, and against all per-
sons, saving their allegiance to the king of Eng-
land, and also their allegiance to him who should
gain the kingdom of Scotland by right of descent
from King Alexander, then lately deceased. Not
long after this the number of the Scottish regents
was reduced to four, by the assassination of Dun-
can, earl of Fife, and the death of the earl of
Bachan ; the Steward, another of the regents, pur-
suing an interest at variance with the title of the
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BRUCE, OR DE BRUS,
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ROBERT.
yonng queen Joined the party of de Brua, and tieart-
bnrnings and jealousies arose between the nobility
and the govemoi-s of the kingdom. These soon
increased, and at length broke out in open war
between the parties of de Brus and Baliol, which
for two years after the death of the king continued
its ravages in the country." l'}-tler adds that
this war, hitherto unknown to our histoiians, is
proved by documents of unquestionable authority.
IHist, of Scotland, vol. i. p. 66, and notes.} It will
be remembered, although the popular impression
is to the contrary, tliat at this period the Comyn
party, to which belonged John de Baliol, lord of
Galloway, whose sister Maijory was the wife of
the Black Comyn and mother of the Red Comyn
(afterwards slain by Robert de Biiis), were and
had been the constant supporters of the Scottish
or independent interests, and the de Brus paity,
which appeared to be the strongest, had all along
been in alliance with England. A pleading of dc
Baliol, in old Norman French, then the language
of state affairs both in England and Scotland, ad-
dressed to Edward the First, during the suit for
the crown, and stating reasons why his claim was
preferable to that of de Bms, is still extant. The
seventh and last of these reasons is that Brus had
committed acts of rebellion against the peace of
the realm duiing the regency, by assaulting the
castles of Dumfries, Wigton, and a place called
Bot . . . , [the latter part of the name is obliter-
ated,] and expelling the troops of the queen there-
from. {^Palgrave^s Documents, ffc. Introduction,
pp. Ixxx, Ixxxi.]
In the negotiations during the years 1289 and
1290, relative to the proposal of a marriage be-
tween the infant queen and Edward, the young
son of Edward the First of England, the lord of
Annandale was actively engaged, and with the
bishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow, and John
Comyn, he was one of the Scottish commissioners
at the conference at Salisbury, who signed the
treaty there. Although it is reasonable to suppose
that the anxiety manifested throughout these nego-
tiations, to avoid any concession prejudidal to the
independence of the Scottish crown was strongly
felt by the parties then in power, yet it would be
unfair without further grounds to infer that the
nobles who wore leagued against the Comyns
were not as earnest for the same result. On the
death of Margaret, it is well known that King
Edward inteifered in the settlement of the suc-
cession to the throne. Two of the regents, Wil
Ham Eraser bishop of St. Andrews, and John
Comyn lord of Badenoch, had set aside their col-
leagues, the Steward and the bishop of Glasgow,
and had taken into their own hands the entire ad-
ministration of the realm. It was their policy to
appoint John de Baliol to the vacant throne, and
on the 7 th October 1290, before the report of the
death of the young queen had been certainly con-
firmed, Eraser wrote a letter to King Edward re-
commending Baliol in a particular manner to his
favour. By their own authority the joint regents
had nominated sub-guardians of the realm, and
delegated to them the right of maintaining order.
These sub-guardians had, in name of the two re-
gents, adopted violent measures for enforcing their
authority in various parts of the kingdom, and
especially in Moray. A large portion of the no-
bles and community of Scotland were opposed to
the proceedings of the regents, and maintained the
right of Robert de Brus to succeed to the crown.
It now appears that the intervention of Edward
the First in the affairs of Scotland, which has been
so much misunderstood by historians, was cansed
not by the famous letter of Bishop Eraser, as has
commonly been supposed, but by three fonnal and
regular appeals made to him by three competent
parties, namely * the seven earls of Scotland,* (see
ante, p. 67,) Donald earl of Mar, and Robert de
Brus lord of Annandale. CUiming it as their
privilege, by immemorial custom, as a peculiar
estate in the reahn, to appoint a king, whenever
there was a vacancy, and to invest him with the
royal authority, the seven earls came forward and
appealed, on the ground that the regents were in-
fringing, or intended to infringe, this their amsd-
tutional franchise. Donald eari of Mar, one of
the seven earls, appealed against the unconstitu-
tional appointment of sub-guardians, and against
the damages done by certain of these guardians in
the lands of Moray, and Robert de Brus lord of An-
nandale appealed against the understood intention
of the regents to appoint Baliol to the throne, and
thus violate his rights, and the rights of the seven
earls. [See Paigrave^s Documents lUustrative of
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BRUCE, OR DE BRUS,
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Scottish History,'] The consequence of these ap-
peals was the famous summons of the English
monarch that the nobility and clergy of the Scot-
tish kingdom should meet him at Norham, in the
English territories, on the 10th of May 1291.
Having accordingly met him at the time and place
appointed, after declaring that he was ready to do
justice to all the competitors, he required them, in
the first place, to acknowledge him as lord para-
mount of the kingdom. To this unexpected de-
mand no reply for a time was given. At length
some one observed that it was impossible to give
an answer whilst the throne continued vacant.
" By holy Edward, whose crown I wear," said the
imperious king, ^^ I will vindicate my just rights
or perish in the attempt.'' He then granted them
three weeks for deliberation.
On the 2d of June the Scottish barons and cler-
gy again met King Edward at Upsettlington,
when eight competitors for the crown were present.
These were, Robert de Brus, lord of Annandale ;
Florence, count of Holland; John de Hastings;
Patrick de Dunbar, earl of March ; William de Ros ;
William de Yesey; Robert de Pinckeny; and
Nicholas de Soulis. John dc Baliol, lord of Gallo-
way, attended next day. Tlie chancellor of Eng-
land, addressing himself to de Brus, demanded whe-
ther he acknowledged Edward as lord paramount
of Scotland ; and he expressly and publicly de-
clared that he did. On the same question being
put to the other competitors, the same answer was
given. Baliol, on his appearance on the following
day, after some hesitation, also acknowledged the
same. These preliminary steps being taken, after
a full investigation of the claims of all the candi-
dates, Edward, upwards of seventeen months af-
ter the commencement of the inquest, pronounced
in favour of Baliol, on the 17th November 1292.
There is no reason to believe that in this decision
Edward was otherwise than influenced by a just
regard to the true law of succession ; and there are
many considerations that would have induced him,
and he was undei-stood privately to incline, to
favour the cause of de Bnis.
The appeals of the Seven Earls having, as we
have seen, constituted the foundation of all the
proceedings of Edward above recorded, it may be
proper hei-e to inquire. In what sense did the
Seven Earls and the others appeal to Edward?
Was it in the sense m which he accepted the ap-
peal,— ^namely, as an appeal of a portion of the
community of Scotland to him as their lawful
superior ; and was the reluctance which, we are
informed, the Scottish nobility and clergy exhib-
ited to comply with his demand, that they should
acknowledge him as Lord Paramount, the mere re-
luctance of the rest of the community to give their
assent to a proposition already virtually admitted
by the appellants ; or, as possibly may have been
the case, was it the reluctance also of the appel-
lants themselves, to make a formal and open aver-
ment of a proposition necessarily implied m their
appeal, but which, as they knew it to be unpopu-
lar, they would have been glad to escape avowing
in so express and glaring a manner, as that in
which the wily Edward made them do it ?
Sir Francis Palgrave, who, with so much abi-
lity, and with the advantage of the additional light
afforded by the documents which he has given to
the world, has revived the long obsolete question
of the English supremacy over Scotland, holds
that, in appealing as they did to Edward, de Bi*us
and the Seven Earls meant to admit his title to
give judgment as the lawful Over-Lord of the Scot-
tish kmgdom. They submitted to Edward's judg-
ment, he says, ** not as to an arbitrator selected to
determine a contested question, but as to a lawful
superior whose protection and defence they im-
ploi'ed." IPalgravey Documents^ (fc. Introduction^
p. xxi.] And farther on, expanding the same re-
mai*k, he says, " The Scottish writers upon Scot-
tish history, warmed by the courage and heroism
of de Brus and Wallace, as represented in the po-
etry and populai* legends and traditions of their
conntry, have characterized the repeated submis-
sions to the English king as acts of disgrace, and
stains upon the national honour. But the justice
of the cause must be judged according to the con
science of the parties; and if the prelates, the
peers, the knights, the freeholders, and the bm-
gesses of Scotland, believed that Edward was their
Over- Lord, it is not their obedience, but the with-
drawing it, that should be censured by posterity
There is not any reason for believing that,
until the era of Wallace, there was any insincerity
on the part of the noble Normans, the stalwart
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BRUCE, OR DE BRUS,
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ROBERT.
Flemings, the sturdy Noi-thumbiian Angles, and
the aboriginal Britons of Strathclyde and Reged,
whom we eri'oneously designate as Scots — in ad-
mitting the legal supremacy of the English crown,
until the attempts made by Edward I. to extend
the incidejits of that supremacy beyond their legal
bounds provoked a resistance deserved by such
abuse.' [Ibid, pp. xlii. xliii.]
Now, so far as the appeals of de Brus and the
Seven Earls are concerned, it canuot be denied
but that Sir Francis Palgrave is in the right. The
language of the appeals themselves it would be
difficult to iiitei-pret otherwise than as a recogni-
tion of the superior authority of the crown of Eng-
land over the Scottish nation, although it may
certainly be remarked that the writci-s seem to
have been studious to avoid any explicit statement
of that fact in so many words. The question,
however, as regards de Brus, would be set at rest,
if it could be shown that Sir Francis Palgi'ave is
right in supposing that the following letter, pub-
lished by him for the fii*st time, along with the
appeals, in the volume above refeii'ed to, was
written by de Brus. The letter, which is written
in Norman French, is evidently that of a competi-
tor for the Scottish crown, who wishes to ingrati-
ate himself with Edward by inordinate eagerness
to admit his claim to the feudal superiority over
Scotland. We translate as literally as the gaps
will permit : — " I have heard from my father, and
from ancient men of the time of King David, that
there was war between the king of England and
king David. And in that time that Northumber-
land was lost, there was a peace made between
the king of England and the king of Scotland ;
to wit that, if the king of Scotland should ever
in anywise refuse obedience to the king of Eng-
land, or to his crown, then the Seven Earls
of Scotland should be bound by oath . . .
. . to the king of England, and to his
crown. ... in ... Afterwards . .
. . obediences were made. But afterwards
came King Richard, and sold the homage of the
king of Scotland. . . . We do not think that
this sale can be valid ; for well is the king of Eng-
land who is so wise, and his council also, able to
advise, whether the crown can be dismembered of
such a member. And seeing that the crown ought
to be kept entire, let it be known to him by Elia:E
de Hauville, that at what hour he will make hi^
demand regulaily, I will obey him, and will aid
him with myself, and all my friends, and all my
lineage ... my friends will do. And I pra>
your gi-ace for my right, and for tne truth which I
wish to manifest before you; and meanwhile I
. . . by speaking with the ancient men of the
land, to find out the evidence of your interests,
as . . ."
Sir Fi-ancis Palgrave's statement, however,
that " the prelates, the peera, the knights, the finee-
holdei's, and the burgesses of Scotland, believed
that Edward was their Over-lord," is too sweeping.
It ignores the fact, that a feeling had existed with
a part at least of the Scottish community, for
nearly a hundred and fifty years previous to tliis
memorable epoch, of antipathy to this very claim
of English supremacy. There was a gei-rn and a
root of. repugnance to England in the Celtic por-
tion of the nation. But a network of Norman
colonization had overspread nearly the whole
British island, which remained entire and con-
nected throughout its whole length, so that the
northern part of it, i. e. the Scoto-Normans, did
not feel themselves yet separated from the sonth-
em part of it, i. e. the Anglo-Normans. Besides
this, another streng tie co-operated in enabliog
England to grapple Scotland towards herself.
Tills was the traditional claun of legal supremacy
asserted by England over Scotland, a claim which,
as Sir Francis Palgrave's investigations have made
clear, had, whether well or ill founded, a real place
in the beUefs of the period. Edward the Fust
seems clearly to have believed that, in virtue of
certain old transactions, he, as king of England,
had a claim upon the allegiance of the people of
Scotland. looked at from this point of view,
therefore, his crime in the matter of Scotland may
have been, as Sir Francis Palgrave calls it, a mere
attempt to ^^ extend the incidents of his legal su-
premacy beyond their legal bounds." On the
other hand, too, it seems pretty clear that, among
the Scottish nobles, there was, during the whole
of the period referred to, no decided conviction
that the claim of English supremacy was illegal ia
any absurd degree. The feelmg of at least a por-
tion of them, relative to this claim, seems to have
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BRUCE, OR DE BRUS,
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been rather a desire to disencnmber themselves of
it, than snch a contempt for it as would have been
inspired by a sincere belief that it was the mere
pretext of an invader. Hence it is found that,
during the whole of that period, though inclined
to escape the claim of homage to England when-
ever they could, on the least pressure they were
fonnd ready to yield to it.
The lordship of Annandale being held, as al-
ready stated, by the tenure of military service, to
avoid doing homage to his successful rival, Ro-
bert de Brus resigned it to his eldest son, retain-
ing only for himself his English estates. ^' I am
Bailors sovereign, not Baliol mine,*' said the proud
baron, ^^ and rather than consent to such a hom-
age, I resign my lands in Annandale to my son,
the earl of Carrick.** He seems thenceforth to
have lived in retirement. He died in 1295, at his
castle of Lochmaben, at the age of eighty -Ave.
He had married an Englishwoman, Ifsabel, daugh-
ter of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, one of
the most powerful barons of England, and by her
he had Robert de Brus, earl of Carrick, two other
sons, and a daughter.
BRUCE, or DE BRUS, Robert, eldest son of
the competitor, and father of King Robert the
Bruce, accompanied King Edward the First of
England to Palestine in 1269, and appears to have
enjoyed the confidence and friendship of that mo-
narch. On his return, he married, in 1271, Mar-
garet, the young and beautiful countess of Carrick,
whose husband, AdamdeKDconath, (Kilconquhar?)
earl of Carrick in her right, was slain in the Holy
Land. By this lady, who was the only child of
Nigel, earl of Carrick and lord of Tnmberry, and
Margaret, a daughter of Walter, the high steward
of Scotland, de Brus had his celebrated son
Robert, afterwards king of Scotland; Edward
de Brus, lord of Galloway, crowned king of
Ireland in 1316; three other sons and seven
daughters.
The circumstances attending this marriage as
related by our historians, are of as singular and
romantic a character as any in Scottish annals.
One day in the autumn of 1271, while Martha,
as she is generally called, though Marjory, or
Margaret, appears to have been her proper
name, countess of Carrick in her own right.
was engaged in the exercise of hunting, sur-
rounded by a retinue of her squires and damsels,
in the grounds adjoining her castle of Turn-
berry in Ayrshire, the i*uins of which still re-
main, she accidentally met with de Brus, then
about thirty years of age, who had just returned
from the Holy Laud, and was passing on horse-
back through her domains. Struck by his noble
figure, the young countess invited the knight to
join her in the chase and to be her guest for
a time. Aware of the peril he encountered in
paying too much attention to a ward of the king,
as the countess was, de Brus, it is said, decline<l
the invitation so courteously given, when, at a sig-
nal from the countess, her retinue closed in around
him, and the lady, seizing his bridle reins, led
him off, with gentle violence, to her castle at
Tumberry. He was thus constrained to pai-take
of the hospitality of the countess, and, after fifteen
days^ residence with her, he married her, without
the knowledge of the relatives of either party or
the consent of the king, which, as she was a ward
of the crown, ought to have been previously ob-
tained. So flagrant a violation of his feudal rights
provoked even the good tempered Alexander the
Third, and the castle and estates of the countess
were instantly seized. By the intercession of
friends, however, the king was induced to par-
don the youthful offendere, first inflicting on the
lady the payment of a heavy fine. Her husband
became in her right earl of Carrick, and their eld-
est son was Robert de Brus, the greatest of our
monarchs, this union being thus an auspicious
event for Scotland. Such is the tale told by
our historians, and in most points it is true,
but to take away somewhat from its romance, one
account, which seems the most probable, states
that de Brus had been the companion in the Holy
Land, as well as the fellow-crusader of the lady^s
first husband, Adam de Kilconath, and it is not
unlikely that, on the death of the latter without
issue, he returned to Scotland with the design of
marrying his widow, who, besides being young
and beautiful, had a proud title and extensive
estates to confer on whomsoever she bestowed her
hand. His solitary ride through the woods of
Tumberry was thus not without an object
AVhen the future monarch of Scotland was yet a
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BRUCE, OR DE BRUS,
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ROBERT.
minor, bis father, following his grandfather's ex-
ample, to avoid doing homage to Baliol, resigned
to his son the earldom of Oarrick, which he held
in right of his wife, just then deceased. The
3'0uthfa1 de Bms, on obtaining the title and lands,
immediately swore fealty to Baliol as his lawful
sovereign. His father shortly after retired to Eng-
land, leaving the administration of the family
estates of Annandale also in his hands. In 1295,
the same year in which the aged de Brns, the com-
petitor, died, Edward the First appointed de Brns
the elder, the father of king Robert, constable of
the castle of Carlisle. In 1296, when Baliol, driven
to resistance by the galling yoke which Edward
endeavoured to force upon him, (by attempting to
exercise a jurisdiction in Scottish affairs which
none of his predecessors had ever pretended to
possess,) revolted from his authority, and, assisted
by the Comyns, took up arms to assert his inde-
pendence, de Bms the elder, cherishing, no doubt,
the natural hope that as the next heir to the
throne he might, on the event of the overthrow
and deposition of his rival, receive the vacant
crown from the English monarch, accompanied
Edward*s expedition into Scotland, and with his
party, which wm numerous and powerful, gave
their assistance to the English king. Our Scot-
tish historians indeed assert that a promise to this
effect was made to him by Edward, but it receives
no countenance in English history, and is quite
inconsistent with what we know of Edward*s cha-
racter or purposes. Baliol, in consequence, seized
upon the lordship of Annandale, and bestowed it
on John Comyn, earl of Buchan, who immediately
took possession of the castle of Lochmaben.
After the decisive battle of Dunbar, 28th April
1296, In which the Scottish army was defeated,
and Baliol compelled to sniTendcr the sovereignt}^
it is said by the writers referred to that the elder
Bruce reminded Edward of his promise to bestow
on him the vacant crown, and received the follow-
ing reply: "Wiat! have I nothing else to do
than to conquer kingdoms for yon?" But al-
though Tytler does not venture to omit this inci-
dent, later writers have so far treated it as doubt-
ful as to soften the request into a simple applica-
tion, without reference to any previous promise, a
mode of regarding it more consistent with proba-
bility and with the well known character for pro-
bity borne by Edward. [Papers on Robert Bruce
in Lowe's Edinburgh Magazine^ March 1848, p
345.] After this he seems to have retired to hii
English estates. In 1297, Sir William Wallace,
one of the greatest heroes of which the annals of
any nation can boast, nobly stood forward as the
defender of his conntry^s freedom ; but his patriotic
achievements failed to rouse de Bms from his inac-
tivity, or to induce him to consider Wallace as seek-
ing moitt than either to restore Baliol or as aspiring
to the throne himself. In the fatal campaign of
1298, which concluded with the disastrous battle of
Falkirk, our Scottish historians represent Bms the
son to have accompanied the English monarch,
and to have fought in his service against his coun-
trymen. After a gallant resistance, they assert that
Wallace was compelled to retreat along the banks
of the Carron, pursued by de Bms at the head of
the GraUoway men, his vassals. Here a conference
is represented to have taken place between the
two leaders, which ended in de Brusca resolving
to forsake the cause of Edward.
Wallace is described as having upbraided de
Bras as the mean hireling of a foreign master,
who, to gratify his ambition, had sacrificed the
welfare and independence of his native land. He
is represented to have urged him to assume the
post to whid) he was entitled by his birth and
fortnne, and either deliver his country from the
bondage and oppression of Edward, or gloriously
fall in asserting its liberties. By Wallace*s re-
proaches and remonstrances, de Bms, it is said,
was melted into tears, and swore to embrace the
cause of his oppressed country. Such is the story
of Wynton and Fordun, and of course of Boeoe,
Blind Hany, and Buchanan, and it may be accepted
as one of the most curious instances that could be
addnced of the operation of the mythical or dra-
maturgic faculty to the falsification of history.
Not only do the old Scottish writers make Brace
fight on Edward's side at the battle of Falkirk,
but in contradiction to all possibility they make
him and Anthony Beck, bishop of Durham, jointly
decide the fate of the battle against the Scots. It
is certain, however, that the younger de Bras was
not at the battle of Falkirk at all, but, as stated
by an author who was in Scotland and with Ed-
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BRUCE, OR DE BRUS,
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ROBERT.
ward's force at the time (Meningford), he was
then in gnard of the castle of Ayr, in the interest
of the Scottish caase maintained at Falkirk by
Wallace. Since this fact was brought to light by
Lord Hailes, writers — induduig a recent translator
of Buchanan— have represented that it was de Bras
the fatlier who was present at Falkirk and had the
interview with Wallace, but there is no warrant in
the older historians for this- transposition of tlie
person referred to. All early accounts state that
de Bras the father ceased to take any interest in
Scottish affairs after the refusal of Edward to ac-
cede to his request for the vacant crown. It conld
not be de Bras the elder who fought on the nde of
Edward at Falkirk at the head of his Gralloway
vassals, as the original story has it, when he had
no vassals in Galloway, and when all Galloway
was then in the power of the patriots, with young
de Bras his son, at the head of his Carrick tenan-
try, as then* leader. The part moreover assigned
to young de Bims in that fight, viz., the moving
behind the Scottish ^ schiltroM^ and attacking
them in the rear, is precisely that described by the
historian eye-witness to have been taken by Sir
Ralph de Basset, who was second in: command to
Anthony a Beck, the warlike bishop of Durham.
It was this Sir Ralph, and not young de Brus that,
as described by Wynton (who wrote 110 years
after the event) —
" With Sir Anton the Beck, a wiljr man,
(Of Durham bbhop he was than),
About ane hill a well far way,
Oat of that stonr then pricked they.
Behind backs all sae fast.
There thej come on, and laid on fast ;
Sae made they the discomtitDre/'
It Is not impossible, therefore, that the whole story
may have originated in a blunder in some old docu-
ment,— a cii'cumstance not uncommon in copying
the writings of that age,~and that Sir 72. Banet may
have been misread or miscopicd, as Sir R, Brut, *
* A singular instance of this nature occurs in a
document referred to in the next life, where Irvine is
rendered Sir William Wallace, thus * Escrit a /reun'n,'
(written at Irvine) for 'escrit a Sirewm,* afierwards
divided into Sire Wm., and again elongated into Sire
WUiaume, as printed in Rymer. Hailes naturally sup-
posed it to mean Sir William Wallace.
The famous meeting, therefore, of de Brus with
Wallace after the battle of Falkirk — the most ex-
quisite, it is admitted, of Scottish legends— is a
mythus, an imaginary fact or circumstance, in
whieb the popular national feeling regarding the
two heroes has bodied itself forth. At the death of
de Brus in 1304, he transmitted his English estates
to his son, the future king of Scotland, who was then
thirty years of age; whether, at the same time, he
bequeathed to him a nobler legacy, namely, that of
aton^ent and trae patriotism, exliorting him,
with his latest breath, to -avenge the injuries of
his suffering country, and to re-establish the inde-
pendence of Scotland, as is asserted by anthors in
connection with the legend above refeiTed to, is
more than doubtful. This at least is clear, that
the cix>wn of Scotland, to which both conceived
they had an undoubted right, was never out of tiie
view of the latter, who, in gaining it, secured at
the same time, the independence of his kingdom.
The following seal of Robert de Bras the father
represents only the arms of the ancient esridom
of Cannck :
lU
BRUCE, or DE BRUS, RoBntT, the restuie
of the national monajpchy, eMfiet mb and second
child of the prececting, aad of the Lady Martha,
sole daughter of Nigel, earl of Carrick, was born
on the 11th of July 1274. It has been generally
believed that Turnberry castle was the place of
his birth, and in his Ijord of the Isles, canto v.,
stanza 33, Sir Walter Scott assumes this to have
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BRUCE, OR DE BRUS,
410
ROBERT.
been the case; but there is no evidence on the
subject. Tradition on the contmry, if we may
assume it to be represented by the mendacious
Boece {Bellenden's Translation, xiv. 5.), describes
him as " an Englishman bom ; " and that excellent
authority, Collins' Peerage (article earl of Ayles-
bury), expressly states that on his return from
the Holy Land, de Brus went to reside in Eng-
land. Although, however, the lines of welcome
to its halls on the occasion of his return from
Rachrine, described in Scott's poem, ^
*' Once more behold the floor I trod
In tottering infancy !
And there the vaulted arch whose sound
Echoed my jojous shout and bound
In boyhood, and that rung around
To youth's unthinking glee I "
cannot be literally true, there can be no doubt that
Turnbeny castle became the abode of his father
during a part of his boyhood, and whilst the
events, described in the life of bis grandfather,
page 403, as occumng there from 1286 to 1290,
were taking place.
In conformity with tiie practice of the bai-ons j
of that age to send their children to the household
of some noble, superior in rank, there to acquire
the graces of society and the art of arms, young
de Brus appears to have been placed in the house-
hold of Edward, king of England, where he was
trained in those exercises of war and chivahry for
which he became afterwards so distinguished.
That this was the consequence of the early friend-
ship that existed between his father and that
monarch, of which the language of a deed still ex-
tant bears witness, and not because the &mily of
the elder de Brus was considered as aliens to
Scotland, appears from the circumstance, that his
grandfather continued to reside until his death in
the ancestral castle of Lochmaben, and that all
his sisters, six in number, were in early life mar-
ried to Scottish barons. In 1293, when just en-
tering his seventeenth year, young de Brus was
infefted in his mother's lands, and in the title of
eai'l of Carrick, which devolved on him through
her, lately deceased,, and he rendered homage to
Balioi for the same at his second parliament, held
at Stirling in August and September of that
year. One chief cause of this infeftment was
the unwillingness of his father to acknowledge
the title of Balioi. At the time this took
place, as we are informed in the Scoto Chronicle,
young Robert was "a young man in King Ed-
ward's chamber,'' when he was sent for by his
father. He also conferred on him the administra-
tion of his lands in Annandale at the same time.
In 1294, on the occasion of a war breaking out be-
tween England and France, a writ appears to have
oeen sent to him as earl of Carrick by Edward,
to serve in person during the expected campaign,
out whether he complied with it does not appear.
He seems to have taken the same part as his
father in aid of the English monarch, during his
invasion of Scotland in 1296, on the occasion of
the revolt of Balioi, which led to their castle of
Ijochmaben in Annandale being temporarily seized
oy Comyn, earl of Buchan, leader of the Scottish
army; and after the decisive fight of Dunbar,
28th April, he was employed to receive for Ed-
ward the submissions of his own men of Carrick.
In August of the same year, when Edward held a
parliament at Berwick for the settlement of Scot-
land, Bruce, then earl of Can-ick, with the rest
of the Scots nobility, renewed his oath of homage
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BRUCE, OR DE BRUS,
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ROBERT.
to the English monarch. Up to and ever after
this period, it is probable that not only both father
and sen but all the Scottish magnates of their
party, who joined with them in that act of hom-
age, entertained the expectation that when all was
tranquilly settled in Scotland, the English king
would confer the government of that kingdom as
a king-fief of his crown npon the former. The
idea of his ruling it, even as lord paramount, ex-
cept through the instrumentality of a native prince,
was in antagonism not only to all historical pre-
cedent, but must have been repugnant to every
feeling of nationality in their bosom. If so,
however, the establishment by Edwaixl, on his
leaving for England later in the autumn of that
year, of the earl de Wai*enne as governor of
Scotland, with Cressingham and Ormesby as
treasurer and justiciary, proved the futility of
their hopes.
That young de Brus was dissatisfied with this
settlement of the kingdom it was but natural
to suppose, and on the appearance of Wallace, in
the following summer (1297), carrying on a private
warfare against the English in the south-west of
Scotland, in which he was joined by various chiefs
in the neighbourhood, his conduct became so equi-
vocal, that, as Hemingford relates, the English
wardens of the western marches summoned him
to Cailisle to renew his oath of fidelity to Edward.
Probably being then unprepared to act on the offen-
sive, he proceeded there with his vassals, and took
a solemn oath on the consecrated host and the
sword of Thomas k Becket, to assist Edwai'd
against the Scots and all his enemies. To prove
his sincerity, on his return to Annandale he made
an inroad with his armed vassals upon the lands
of William lord Douglas, knight of Liddesdale,
one of the insurgent lords; and, after wasting
them, carried off his wife and children to his cas-
tle at Tumberry.
No sooner, however, was the danger over than
the correctness of their suspicions was mani-
fested by his joining the conspiracy of the Scottish
leaders, and attempting on his return to Carrick
to induce his father's vassals to rise with him.
In this perhaps be was not so much an active as
a passive agent. The revolt against the English
rule had become so general, says Hemingford, as
entirely to assume a national character, and the
vassals of the barons could not be restrained by
their chiefs from adhering to it. By opposing it
his own safety was likely to be compromised, and
it seemed probable that all chance of his claim to
the throne ever being recognised by the nation
would be cut off. There seems to have been
strong hopes held out to him that the insurgents
would adopt his cause. It was publicly at this
time reported, according to Hemingford, that he
aspired to the throne. All the leadera of the in-
surrection, except Wallace and Sir Andrew Moray,
were those who had invariably supported the
claims of his family. Wishart, bishop of Glas-
gow, who had counselled their rising, was his fii-m
friend, and the Comyns, who wei-e his rivals in
their own right and in that of Baliol, were with
their paitisans in confinement in England. The
men of Annandale, however, at first hesitated,
asked a day to consider the matter, and quietly
dispersed to their homes during the night. With
his own vassals of Can*ick, however, he took up
arms, and might, notwithstanding of his youth,
have i-endered important sei*vice to the national
cause, had unity prevailed in their counsels, and
had not the English forces been too active to
permit it. . Wallace had determined to support
the cause of Baliol. He was the soul of the party,
and not a few of the insurgents joined in his views.
The Comyns also had adherents in the camp.
The Scottish foix^es were numerous and strongly
posted, but their leaders were actuated by oppos-
ing views. First one, then others of them, left the
camp and went over to the English. Being thus
taken at disadvantage by an army under Sir
Henry Percy and Sir Robert Clifford, command-
ing in Scotland, the confederates were constrained
to yield upon conditions at Irvine, on the 9th of
July 1297. The document embodying their sub-
mission has been published in its original Nor-
man French by Sir F. Palgrave, and is that I'e-
fen-ed to in the note in the preceding life as having
contained an error in transcription. On this oc-
casion so much difficulty was felt by the English
commanders with respect to de Brus, that, as ap-
pears by another document of the same date, his
daughter Marjory, then about four or five years of
age, was required to be delivered to them as an
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hostage, and three magnates, of whom two were
parties to the convention, became joint secorities
for his loyalty " with their lives, limbs, and es-
tates,^* nntil that hostage should be delivered into
their hands. This Maijory was his only child by
his first marriage with the dau^ter of the eaii of
Mar, who sui*vived this bereavement only for a
few months. The conduct of Wallace on this oc-
casion shows a fierce and intractable disposition.
Although included in the capitulation he refused
to accede to its terms. Ascribing the an'angement
to the counsels of Wishart, bishop of Glasgow, he
set fire to his house, plundered all his goods, and
led his family captive. The other barons honour
ably fulfilled their engagement.
In the subsequent sti^uggles of Wallace and his
party, de Brus took no active part ; but in 1298,
when Edward entered Scotland with a formidable
army, be shut himself up in the castle of Ayr,
and m^ntained a doubtful neutrality. After the
defeat of Wallace at Falkirk, Edward was about
to attack the castle of Ayr, when de Brus, dread-
ing the consequences, razed it to the ground,
and retired into the recesses of Carrick. In 1298,
when Wallace had resigned the regency, John
Oomyn of Badenoch and Sir John Soulis were
chosen guardians of the kingdom. About a yeai*
afterwards, Lamberton, bishop of St. Andrews,
and the earl of Carrick then only in his twenty-
fifth year, were, by general consent, added to the
number.
The conduct of de Brus, at this juncture, as
throughout the entire period prior to his as-
sumption of the crown, not being unde]*stood,
has excited the wonder and regret of posterity.
Supple, dexterous, and accommodating, — now in
arms for his country, and then leagued with her
oppressors, — now swearing fealty to the English
king, and again accepting the guardianship of
Scotland in the name of Baliol, it seems to requu^
all the energy, perseverance, and consummate
prudence and valour of after years to redeem
his character fi-om the charge of apparent and
culpable weakness. De Brus the guardian of
Scotland in the name of Baliol ! says Lord
Hailes, is one of those historical phenomena
which are Inexplicable. Tet this conduct we
ave attempted to explain, and in part to
vindicate, by the peculiarity of his circum-
stances, which necessitated a course different
fi*om what he would have chosen. His grand-
&ther, after vainly endeavouring to establish his
pretensions to the throne of Scotland, had quietly
acquiesced in the elevation of Baliol. His father,
sometime earl of Carrick, had submitted uniformly
and implicitly to the superior ascendency of the
English monai-ch. Bruce, therefore, though con-
vinced- of his right to the Scottish throne, and
determined to assert it, could not in the meantime,
with decency or hope of success, urge a claim in
liis own person. In doing so he would have had
te contend with a rival who was at that time
one of the most powerful men in the kingdom.
Baliol had renounced for ever all claim for him-
self, and his son was in paptivity ; but the claims
and hopes of his family centred in John Comyn,
commonly called the Red Comyn, the son of
his sister Maijory, who was allied to many of
the noblest families in Scotland and England,
and who, by the decision of Edward, possessed,
in succession, a clear right to the Scottish crown.
Between the families of Bruce and Comyn there
had existed for many years all the jealousy and
hatred which rival and irreconciieable interests
could create. The movements of both families,
not only during the contests which occurred
between the abdication of Baliol and the death
of Wallace, but long afterwards, seem to have
been decided rather by a regard to family inter-
ests than the good of their country. They were
uniformly ranged on opposite sides, witli the ex-
ception of the brief period now i-eferred to, when
Bruce and Comjm were associated in the regency
of the kingdom.
All writers seem to think that this coalition had
been mainly produced by a desire to crush Wal-
lace, whose patriotism and influence endangered
their common pretensions, and that that end once
gained they returned to their former course ot
factious opposition and strife. That the existence
on the part of both of this feeling is true, and that,
as respects Comyn at least, this was the ruling
motive, we are not prepared to deny. It was only
the leadei-s of the army, however, who refused to
serve under Wallace. But de Brus was not with
the army, nor in communication with it, until some
I f
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time after the appointment of Comyn as gnardian.
The battle of Falkirk was fought on 22d Jaly
1298; Wallace^s resignation followed immediately
thereafter, as well as the appointment of Com} n
as guardian, whilst the first appearance of the
name of de Bros in connection with the office is on
13th Nov. 1299. It has been supposed that de Brus
was pressed npon the other guardians by Lumber-
ton, the primate, as a condition of his (Lamberton^s)
accepting the same office, and for the sake of union
and conciliation, and Lamberton was a fi-iend of
Wallace raised to the primacy by the determined
will of that patriot alone. IPtUgrave documenUJ]
A more satisfactory explanation of his conduct may
therefore be found in the not improbable conjecture,
that the regency of 1299 was the result of a com-
promise in which the claims of Baliol, then in hope-
less captivity in England, were understood to be
abandoned. The joint guardianship, whether
established *or not on this understanding, lasted
only for a short time. Lamberton and de Soulis
went over to France as commissioners, with five
others, there to watch over the national interests.
A cautious and far-seeing, but selfish policy,
must have taken alarm on the prosperous appear-
ance which BalioPs affairs soon afterwards began
to assume, and probably offence at the proceedings
of his representatives thereupon. When the cause
of the late imprisoned and abdicated king was
taken up by the courts of France and Rome ; when
the genuineness of the deed of his resignation of
the throne was denied by the Scottish emissaries
at the latter court; when his person was re-
leased from prison, and delivered over to the Pope*s
nuncio at Witsand, 18th July 1299 ; and when a
bull admonitory, in his interest, was served on
Edward himself, by no less a personage than the
archbishop of Canterbury (June 1300), we find
that soon thereafter,— his lands of Annandale and
Carrick having in the meantime been laid waste
by the army of Edward^— de Brus once more aban-
doned a cause which had become again not that of
his country but of his rival, and made his peace
with Edward, by surrendering himself to John de
St. John, the English warden of the western
marches.
This view of the character of the guardianship
of de Brus, amongst other proofs too minute for
detail, receives confirmation from the circumstance
that in the only public transaction occurring dur-
ing its brief existence of which authentic docu-
ments have descended to us, namely, the adjust-
ment of a truce with Edward, no mention is made
by either party of Baliol as king of Scotland.
During the three successive campaigns which took
place previous to the final subjugation of Scotland
and the submission of the Comyns in 1304, de
Brus continued faithful to Edward. In all the
proceedings which ensued upon that occasion, de
Brus was treated by Edward with favour and con-
fidence, and the settlement of Scotland was ar-
ranged by the English king on the plan recom-
mended by de Brus.
On the death of his father in 1304 he received
possession of his lands in Annandale and in Eng-
land, and became one of the most powerful of the
northern barons. There is no evidence that up
to the death of Comj'n in 1305-6 de Brus had en-
tertained serious thoughts of attempting to assert
his right to the Scottish crown. He certainly
was occupied in strengthening his friendships by
bonds of the character of those that were common
in that age, and that with the ulterior object of
improving any occasion that might arise for this
end. But his knowledge of the character of Ed-
ward, and the closeness with which his proceedings
were watched, were likely to induce him to post-
pone all hostile projects until more favourable
circumstances should arise.
The murder of John Comyn, younger of Bade-
noch, 10th Februaiy 1305-6, is one of those pas-
sages in the obscure history of that period which
has exercised the patience and tried the candour
of historians. The contradictory and most impro-
bable details of this event given by our Scottish
historians, written as they wei*e long after the
event took place, can only be regarded as the
embodiment and embellishment of national tradi-
tions, and unfortunately the contemporary writers
of England are silent as to nearly all but the fact
itself, and the accounts of later ones are as difficult
to reconcile with probability as those of the Scot-
tish. Dismissing not a fbw particulars now proved
to be either impossible or false, the circumstances
which these historians relate as having led to and
accompanied this murder are as follows: Tliat
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BRUCE, OR DE BRUS,
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ROBERT.
at a coiilei*euce which took place between the ri-
vals at Stirling, de Bms, after lamenting the misery
to which the kingdom was reduced, made to him
this proposal ; — " Support," says he, '* my title to
the throne, and I will give yon all my lands; or
bestow on me your lands, and I shall support yonr
claim;" that Comyn cheerfully acceded to the
former alternative, waiving his own claims in fa-
vour of his rival; that a formal bond was, in
consequence, drawn up and signed by the parties;
that do Brus i-etmned to London, matters not be-
ing yet matured sufficiently for open resistance to
the English ; and that Comyn, anxious to regain
the favour of Edward, betrayed the plot to that
monarch, and transmitted to him the agreement
signed by de Brus.
It is added that King Edward, on receiving this
infoi-mation, cherishing the design not only of
seizing his person, but of involving him and his bro-
thers in one common destruction, was so imprudent
as to discover his purpose to some of the nobles of
his court; that that vei7 night the earl of Glon-
cester, under pretence of repaying a loan, sent de
Brus a purse of money and a pair of gilded spurs —
a hint which the latter understood ; and, accom-
panied by a single attendant, he took horse and
escaped with all speed into Scotland ; that when
near the Solway sands, he met a messenger tra-
velling alone, whom he I'ecognised as a follower of
Comyn; that his suspicions were now awakened,
and slaying the courier, he possessed himself of his
despatches, in which he found further proofs of
Comyn's treachery, accompanied by a recommen-
dation to Edward to put his rival to instant death ;
that Bruce proceeded hastily on his journey, and
repairing to Dumfries, requested a private interview
with Comyn, which was held Febraary 4, 1305, in
the church of the Minorite Friars; that at first the
meeting was friendly, and the two barons walked
up towards the high altar together; that Bruce
accused his rival of having betrayed theur agree-
ment to Edward,—" It is a falsehood you utter,"
said Comyn ; and Bruce, without uttering a word,
drew his dagger and stabbed him to the heart; that
hastening instantly from the church, he rejoined
his attendants, who were waiting for him without;
and that seeing him pale and agitated, they eagerly
inquired the cause, — " I doubt I have slain the red
Comyn," was his answer. "You doubt!" cried
Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick fiercely, " Is that a matter
to be left to doubt? Tse mak siccar," (I wih
make sure;) and rushing into the chmx;h with Sir
James Lindesay and Su* Christopher Seton, they
found the wounded man, and immediately de-
spatched him, slaying, at the same time, Sur Robert
Comyn, his uncle, who tried to defend him. Lord
Hailes, however, investigated this obscure trans-
action in 1767, with his usual impartiality and dis
crimination, and the conclusions at which he arriv-
ed have not been invalidated but rather confirmed
by subsequent researches.
We concur with him in thinking it was most
improbable that de Brus should have made such a
proposal to Comyn as is there stated, or that
Comyn could suppose him to be sincere in doing
so. Fordnn does not say which alternative Comyn
accepted. Barbour makes the proposal to have
come from Comyn. The answer giveif by de Brut
was, " I will take the crown ; it is mine of right;'
an answer likely to revive the old contention.
Barbour and Fordun represent the agreement to
have been by indenture, of which each held a
copy signed by the other — a most extraordinary
cuxmmstauce, as they must have called in a third
party. Winton, on the other hand, describes K
as a mere conversation as they were " riding fr^
Stirling." It is most improbable that Edward, ia
possession of such a document, should have con-
cealed or delayed his purpose of apprehending de
Brus for a single day. Barbour reports that on
receiving Comyn's part of the indenture Edward
summoned a parliament, at which de Brus ap-
peai-ed ; — that he there exhibited the indenture,
and accused de Brus of treason; — and that de
Brus asked to look at the paper till next day, and
then disappeared. Of course we know there was
no such parliament, nor would that be the mode
of procedure at one. Not less unlikely is it that
Edward would in a moment of unguarded festivity
reveal his purpose against de Brus, if he was, as
is stated, anxious to secure his absent brother.
It is altogether incomprehensible that the king's
son-in-law Ralph de Monthermer, called by cour-
tesy the earl of Gloucester, should have betrayed
the secrets of his sovei-eign and benefactor. Our
historians have, evidently under mistake* meant
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BRUCE, OR DE BRUS,
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ROBERT.
this for the previous eaiTs father, who was a rela-
tion of de Bras's mother. The purse of money and
pair of gilded spurs should be *^ twelve pence and
a pair of spnrs,"^ as in Fordun, a most mysterious
and improbable restitution and mode of communi-
cation of danger.
The whole antecedents would appear to be pre-
pared, under the inventive powers of tradition, to
account for the murder of Comyn as an act con-
templated beforehand, whereas it is most evident
that it was as unexpected on the part of de Bms
as on that of his victim. It was a hasty quarrel
between two proud-spirited rivals. De Brus had
made no preparations to assert his pretensions to
the crown, nor had he a single castle except Kil-
drummie in Aberdeenshire at his disposal. Amidst
a mass of contradictory improbabilities one genu-
ine public contemporary document is worth a
hundred conjectures. In his first public instni-
ment after the shiughter of Comyn, King Edwaid
expressly says, that he reposed entire confidence
in de Brus [Farf. ii. 988]. It is not easy to see
how he could have done so, if he were possessed
of written evidence to prove that the intentions of
de Brus were hostile. It was as little likely that
de Brus could have known Comyn was to be pre-
sent at Dumfries as that he would have proposed
a sanctuary — a place so tremendous in the notions
of those days — for the scene of action. It is pro-
bable, however, that Comyn might have been en-
deavouring to instil some suspicions into the mind
of Edward from jealousy of de Bms ; and indeed
there is a hint to this effect given by Hemingford,
the most authentic because the best informed con-
temporary, and that reports of these might have
reached the ears of de Brus or been referred to by
Edward himself. On meeting Comyn, therefore,
de Brus demanded a private interview and an
explanation. In their converaation some hot
words took place, and de Bi-us struck Comyn with
his dagger. The impetuous zeal of his followera
aggravated the crime, and gave to the whole
transaction the appearance of premeditated assas-
sination. Such is the conclusion at which we
have been compelled to arrive, after a careful con-
sideration of all the circumstances of an event
which decided de Brns's destiny.
Two months thereafter, March 27, Brace, as
we shall now call him, was ci*owned king at
Scone. The whole proceedings indicate haste and
lack of preparation. The regalia of Scotland,
with the sacred stone and the regal mantle, had
been carried off by Edward in 1296 ; but on this
occasion the bishop of Glasgow furnished from his
own wardrobe the robes in which Bruce was ar-
rayed ; he also presented to the new king a ban-
ner embroidered with the arms of Baliol, which
he had concealed in his treasury. A small circlet
of gold was placed by the bishop of St. Andrews
on his head ; and Robert the Bruce, sitting in the
state chair of the abbot of Scone, received the
homage of the few prelates and barons then assem-
bled. The earl of Fife, as the descendant of Mac-
duff, possessed the hereditary right of crowning
the kings of Scotland. Duncan, the then earl, fa-
voured the English interest, but his sister Isabella,
countess of Buchan, with singular boldness and
enthusiasm, repaired to Scone, and, asserting the
privilege of her ancestors, a second time crowned
Bruce king of Scotland, two days after the former |
coronation had taken place. |
The news of the murder of Comyn reached Ed-
ward while residing with his court at Winchester,
whither he had gone for the benefit of his health.
He immediately nominated the earl of Pembroke
governor of Scotland, ordered a new levy of troops,
and, proceeding to London, held a solemn enter-
tainment, in which his eldest son, the prince of
Wales, with three hundred youths of the best fami-
ilies in England, received the honour of knighthood
and, with the khig, made a vow instantly to de-
part for Scotland, and take no rest till the death
of Comyn was avenged on Bruce, and a temble
punishment inflicted on his adherents. The earl
of Pembroke and Henry Percy having reached and
fortified Perth, Bruce, with his smaU band of fol-
lowers, arrived in the neighbourhood, and sent a
challenge to Pembroke, whose sister was the wi-
dow of the i*ed Comyn, to come out and fight with
him on the 18th of June. Pembroke returned for
answer that the day was too fai* spent, but that he
would meet him on the morrow. Satisfied with
this assurance, Bruce retreated to the wood of
Methven, where his little army, towards the close
of the day, was unexpectedly attacked by Pem-
broke. Bruce made a brave resistance, and after
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BRUCE, OR DE BRUS,
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ROBERT.
being four times unhorsed, was at last compelled,
with about four hundred followers, to retreat into the
wilds of Athol. Here lie and his small band for
some time led the life of outlaws. Having received
intelligence that his joungest brother Nigel had
arrived with his queen at Aberdeen, he proceeded
there ; and, on the advance of a superior body of
the English, conducted them in safety into the
mountainous district of Breadalbane. The adven-
tures through which, at this period, the king and
his follower passed, and the perils and privations
which they endured, are mor^ like the incidents of
romance than the details of history. The lord of
Lorn, Alexander, chief of the Macdougalls, who
had married the aunt of the red Comyn, at the
head of a thousand Highlandei*s, attacked the king
at Dairy, near the head of Loch Tay, in a narrow
defile, where Brucc's cavalry had not room to act,
and he was compelled to i-etreat, figliting to the last.
At Craigrostan, on the western side of Benlomond,
is a cave, to which tradition has assigned the hon-
our of affording shelter to King Robert Bruce, and
his followers, after his defeat by Macdongall.
Here, it is said, the Bruce passed the night, sur-
rounded by a flock of goats ; and he was so much
pleased with his nocturnal associates that he after-
wards made a law that all goats should be ex-
empted from grassmail or rent. Finding his cause
becoming every day more desperate, he sent the
queen and her ladies to Kildrummie castle, under
the charge of Nigel Bruce and the earl of Athol ;
while he himself, with his remaining followers,
amounting now only to about two hnndi-ed, re-
solved to force a passage to Kintyre, and escape
from thence into the northern parts of Ireland.
On arriving at the banks of Loch Lomond, there
appcai*ed no mode of conveyance across the loch.
After much search. Sir James Douglas discovered
In a creek a crazy little boat, by which they safely
got across.
While engaged in the chase, a resource to which
they were driven for food, Bruce and his party
accidentally met with Malcolm eaii of Lennox, a
staunch adherent of the king, who, pursued by
the English, had also taken refuge there. By his
exertions the royal party were amply supplied
with provisions, and enabled to reach in safety
the castle of Dunavcrty in Blintyre, where they
were hospitably received by Angus of Isla, Che
lord of Kintyre. After a stay of three days the
king embarked with a few of his most faithful ad-
herents, and, affcer weathering a dreadful storm,
landed at the little island of Rachrlne, about four
miles distant fi-om the north coast of Ireland. On
this smaU island he remained during the winter.
In his absence the English monarch j)roceeded
with unrelenting cruelty against his adherents in
Scotland. Nigel Bruce, with those chiefs who bad
aided him in the defence of Kildrummie castle,
which they were compelled to surrender, were
hurried in chains to Berwick, and immediately
hanged. Many others of noble rank shared a
similar fate. Even the female friends of Bruce
did not escape King Edward's fury. The queeo^
tier daughter Maijory, and their attendants, hav
ing taken refuge in the sanctuary of St. Duthac,
in Ross-shire, were sacrilegiously seized by tbi
earl of Ross, and committed to an English prison.
The two sisters of Bruce were also imprisoned.
The countess of Buchan was suspended in a cage
of wood and iron from one of the outer turrets of
the castle of Berwick, in which she remained fot
four years.
Bruce's estates, both in England and Scotlaon,
were confiscated, and he himself and ail his ad-
herents were solemnly excommunicated by the
Pope's legate at Carlisle. Of these dure national
and personal misfortunes, the king, in his island-
retreat, was happily ignorant; and he had so
effectually concealed himself, that it was generallj
believed that he was dead. On the approach of
spring, 1307, Bruce resolved to make one more
effort for the recovery of his rights. He set sail
for the island of Arran, with thirty-three galleys
and three hundred men. He next made a descent
upon Carrick; and, surprising at midnight the
English troops in his own castle of Tnmberry,
then held by the Lord Henry Percy, he put nearly
the whole garrison to the sword. He now rav-
aged the neighbouring country, and levied the
rents of his hereditary lands, while many of his
vassals flocked to his standard.
Meantime, an English force of a thousand strong,
being raised in Northumbedand, advanced into
Ayrshire, and, unable to oppose it, Bruce retired
into the mountainous districts of Carrick. Percy
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BRUCE, OR DE BRUS,
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ROBERT.
soon after evacuated Turnberry castle, aud re-
turned to England. This success was counter-
balanced by the miscarriage of the king^s brothers,
Thomas and Alexander Bruce, who, with seven
hundred men, attempting a descent at Loch Ryan,
in Galloway, were attacked by Duncan Macdow-
all, a Celtic chief, and almost all cut to pieces.
The two brothers being taken prisonera, were con-
veyed to Carlisle and executed.
AVhile English reinforcements continued to pour
into Scotland from all quaiters, Bruce, shut up in
the fastnesses of CaiTick, found himself with only
sixty men, the remainder having deserte(f him in
the belief that his cause was hopeless. Beset on
every side by the English, he was also exposed to
danger from private treacheiy; and his escapes
were often almost miraculous. Among the most
inveterate of his foes were the men of galloway,
who, hoping to effect his destruction and that of
all his followers, collected about two hundred men,
and accompanied by bloodhounds, came to attack
his encampment, which was defended in the rear
by a rapid mountain stream, the banks of which
were steep and covered with wood. Bruce re-
ceived timely notice of his danger, and crossing the
sti-eam at night, withdrew his men to a swampy
level at a short distance from the rivulet, which
had only one narrow ford, over which the enemy
must necessarily pass. Commanding his soldiers
to remain quiet and keep a strict watch, he and
two followers went forward to reconnoitre. The
pathway which led to the ford could allow only
one man at a time to advance through it. The
yell of a bloodhound in the distance told him of
the approach of his enemies ; and in a short space
he perceived, by the light of the moon, the Gal-
loway men on hoi'seback on the opposite bank.
They soon passed the ford, and one by one began
to make their appearance np the path to the spot
where the king stood, calmly awaiting their com-
ing. On fii*st seeing them, he had sent off his at-
tendants to order his soldiers to advance instantly
to his relief. The foremost of his foes rode boldly
forward to attack the solitary individual who was
thus hardy enough to dispute the passage ; when
a thrust of Bmce's spear laid him dead on the
spot. The next and the next shared the same
fate, and as each fell, Bruce, with his short dag-
ger, stabbed their horses; and the dead bodies
formed a soii; of rampart against the othoi's. At
length, the loud shout of the king's followers, ad-
vancing to the rescue, with Sir Gilbert de la Haye
at their head, wanied the enemy to retire, after
sustaining a loss of fourteen men. Bruce was
shortly afterwards rejoined by Sir James Douglas,
but his whole force at this time did not exceed in
all four hundred men, with which he resolved to
meet the earl of Pembroke, and his old enemy
John of Loni, who, with a superior army of Eng-
lish cavalry and savage Highlander, were ad-
vancing agamst him. Being attacked by the
English in front, and at the same time by the men
of Lorn in the rear, Bruce's little band suddenly
divided into small parties, and fled in separate
directions. Lorn had with him a bloodhound
which had once belonged to Bruce himself, and
which being now let loose, singled out his master's
footsteps, and followed on his track ; until, com
ing to ,a ininning stream, the king, who was ac-
companied only by a single follow**, plunged into
the water, and turning with his companion into the
adjoining thicket, continued his retreat in safety.
Having regained the place agreed upon as the
rendezvous of his followei-s, that night the ad- i
vanced post of the English was surprised by
Brace, and upwards of a hundred put to the
sword. The earl of Pembroke in consequence re-
tired to Carlisle.
Brace now ventured down upon the low coun-
try, and reduced the districts of Kyle, Canick, and
Cunningham. Having received a reinforcement
ii'om England, the eai'l of Pembroke again advanced
into Ayrshire at the head of three thousand men,
principally cavaky, and was met, May 10, 1807,
by Bruce at Loudon Hill, with only six hundred
men, when the English sustained a total defeat.
It was here that Brace fii*st leai'ned that great les-
son in warfare, which now forms one of the most
efficient features of modern strategy, namely, that
a firm unflinching infantry, drawn np in square,
can successfully resist the encounter of mounted
troopers ; and this secret it was the more impor-
tant for him to know, as the English excelled in
cavalry. Three days after, Bruce encountered
Ralph Montheraier, earl of Gloucester, and de-
feated him with gieat slaughter. These successes
2d
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so animated the Scots, that thej flocked from all
quarters to the national standard.
Edward the First at this tiino lay npon his
deathbed at Carlisle; but, roused by intelligence
of the repeated victories gained by Bruce, whom
be thought dead and Scotland totally subdued, he
summoned the whole force of his kingdom to as-
semble; and hanging up his litter, in which he had
hitherto accompanied his tix)ops, above the high
altar of the cathedral of Carlisle, he mounted his
war-horse, and attempted to lead his army north-
ward. But the hand of death was upon him. In
four days he had only advanced six miles, and he
expired at Burgh-upon-Sands, an obscure village
on the Borders, July 7, 1307, in the 69th year of
his age, and the 85th of his reign. With his last
breath he directed that his heart should be sent to
Jerusalem, and that his skeleton, after the flesh
had been boiled from the bones, should be carried
at the head of the ai-my, to frighten the Scots into
subjection. Edwai-d the Second solemnly swoi-e
to observe the^dying requests of his father, but he
performed neither — the deceased monarch being
buried, with his heart entire, and his bones un-
boiled, at Westminster. The new king maiched
as far as Cumnock in Ayrshire, appointed the earl
of Pembroke guardian of the kingdom, and then
hurried back to London.
Bruce now made an expedition into the noii;h
of Scotland, and brought under his dominion the
territories of Argyle, and afterwards took the for-
tresses of Inverness, Forfar, and Bi*echin. Con-
ducting his army into Biichan, the country of the
Comyns, he wasted the land with fire and sword,
and nearly depopulated the district. He soon
after stormed and demolished the castle of Aber-
deen, which was held by an English garrison. In
tho meantime, Sir James Douglas was not idle.
For the third time he took his own castle of Doug-
las, and reduced the whole forest of Selkirk, be-
sides Douglasdale and Jedburgh, to the subjection
of Bruce.' Bnice and his army next attacked and
defeated the Lord of Lorn at the pass of Brandir,
in the Western Highlands, and gave up his coun-
try to plunder. The Lord of Lorn having taken
refuge in the castle of Dunstafliiage, was besieged
in that fortress and compelled to suiTendcr, when
he swore fcaltv to the conqueror
In Februaiy 1309, the clergy of Scotland met
in a provincial council at Dundee, and issued a
declaration that the Scottish nation had chosen
for their king Robert the Bruce, who, through his
father and gi-andfather, possessed an undoubted
right to the throne; and that they willingly did
homage to him as their sovereign. Edward the
Second, harassed by the dissensions of his nobility,
found it necessary to agree to a truce, which,
though only of short duration, enabled Bruce to
consolidate his power, and complete his prepara-
tions for the invasion of England. At the expiiy
of the truce he accoixiingly advanced into Durham,
laying waste the country with fire and sword, and
giving up the whole district to the unbridled
licence of the soldiery. In the same year, Edward,
in his tuiTi, with an immense army, invaded Scot-
land, and proceeded as far as Edinburgh, but the
winter appi*oacliing, and finding that the Scots had
removed all their provisions into the mountain
fastnesses, he was compelled ingloriously to retreat
to Berwick-upon-Tweed. After this the Scots,
now inm*ed to conquest, again and again broke
into England, ravaging the country, and driving
home the flocks and herds of their enemies. At
one period Edward sent his favourite Gaveston,
earl of Cornwall, with an army into Scotland, but
that doughty commander was not the most likely
pei-son to vanquish Robert the Bruce and his hardy
Scots. The town of Perth, one of the chief garri-
sons of the English in Scotland, was soon after-
wards gallantly stonned, the king himself being
the fii-st pei-son who scaled the walls.
In harvest 1312, Bruce again invaded England;
and several towns, among which were Hexham
and Corbrigg, were given to the flames. Although
repulsed in their assaults on Carlisle and Bei-wick,
the Scots only consented to a truce on the imme-
diate payment of a large sum of money by tbe
clergy and inhabitants of Durham, Northumber-
land, Cumberland, and Westmoreland. The cas
tie of Linlithgow was taken by a countryman,
named William Binnock or Biunie, who, conceal-
ing eight men in a load of hay, with several more
lying in ambush in the copsewood neai' the castle
gate, suiprised that strong fortress, and put the
whole of the English to the sword. The strong
border fortress of Roxburgh was also captured bv
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Sir James Donglas, and, about the same time, the
eastle of Edinbnrgb, wliich, from its sitnation, was
considered nearly impregnable, fell into the hands
of Randolph, the son of Isabel Bmce, the king's
sister. In the same year, nearly all the fortresses
in the kingdom remaining in the possession of the
English, were taken, one after another, by the
Scots.
Brace himself had led an expedition against the
Isle of Man, which, after having expelled the
poweiful sept of the Macdowalls, his inveterate
enemies, he reduced to his sway. On his return
home in the autumn of 1313, he found that his
brother, Edward Bruce, was engaged in the siege
of the castle of Stirling, which was held by Sir
Philip Mowbray for the English. Mowbray gal-
lantly defended it for some time, but as the garri-
son began to suffer from famine, he prevailed on
Edward Bruce to agree to a treaty, by which he
bound himself to surrender the castle, if it was not
relieved by an English army before the 24th of
June in the ensuing year. This agreement the
king of Scotland heard of with displeasure; never-
theless, as the honour of his brother was pledged,
he resolved to abide by it. King Edward, on his
part, roused himself from the lethargy into which
he had fallen. He reconcUed himself for the time
to his nobles, and summoned all his barons and
fieft, not only in England, but in Ireland and
Wales, to aid him with all their followers; and he
appointed the town of Berwick-tipou-Tweed to be
the rendezvous of the forces, on the 11th June.
The troops collected there that day amounted, at
the lowest calculation, to a hundred thousand men,
the most numerous and best appointed aimy that
had ever advanced against Scotland. Of these forty
thousand were cavalry, three thousand of whom
were armed, from head to foot, in plate and mail.
To this force Bruce could only oppose an army of
thirty thousand men; but these were hardy, brave,
and experienced troops, led by the first wan-ior of his
age, and all burning to avenge the wrongs of their
country. The camp-followers, baggage-drivers,
sutlers, <&c., amounted to about fifteen thousand
more; and these, though useless in the field of
battle, were destined to perform a signal service in
the approaching struggle. Bruce judiciously chose
his ground at Bannockbuni, within four miles of
Stirling. On his left, where the ground was bare
and open, and favourable for the movements of
cavaliy, he caused parallel i-ows of pits to be dug,
each about a foot in breadth, and about three feet
deep, which, after having sharp-pointed stakes
placed in them, were carefully covered over with
sod. His brother Edward Bruce, his nephew
Randolph, earl of Moray, Walter, the high stew-
ard of Scotland, and Sir James Douglas, were the
leaders of the principal divisions. The king him-
self took the command of the reserve, consisting
chiefly of his own vassals of Carrick and the men
of Argyle, Kintyre, and the Isles. The battle of
Bannockbnm was fought on the 24th of June 1314.
At the moment when the English, vigorously at-
tacked by Bruce himself at the head of the reserve,
seconded by the divisions under £dwai*d Bruce,
Randolph and Sir James Douglas, >vere, through-
out their whole Ime, thrown into confusion, the
waggonei-s, sumpter-boys, and followers of the
camp, having formed themselves into squadrons,
with sheets, blankets, &c, fixed upon poles, to look
like military banners, suddenly appeared on the
snmmit of the Oillleshill, and at once decided the
fortune of the day. The already dispirited Eng-
lish, supposing them to be a fresh army come to
the assistance of the Scots, threw down their
arms, and fled in all directions. Thirty thousand
English were left dead upon the field ; and among
them were two hundred knights and seven hundred
esquires. Twenty-seven of the noblest barons of
England were laid with their bannei-s in the dust.
The yoimg earl of Gloucester, the brave Sir Giles
d'Argentine, Sir Robert Clifford, and Sir Edwai*d
Mauley, seneschal of England, were among the
slain. King Edward himself only escaped by the
fleetness of his horse. So great was the moral ef-
fect of this memorable victory, that, according to
Walsingham, a contemporary English historian, at
this time a hundred of his countrymen would have
fled from before the face of two or three Scotsmen.
The day after the battle, the castle of Stirling
surrendered, and Sir Philip Mowbray entered into
the sei-vice of Scotland. The earl of Hereford,
escaping to the castle of Both well, was i-etained a
prisoner by Sir Walter Fitz-Gilbert, who held it for
the English king, but who, changing sides at this cri-
tical juncture, received a grant of lands and became
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ROBERT.
the founder of the noble honse of Hamilton. For
the earl of Hereford, the wife, sister, and daughter
of Bruce, with Wishart, bishop of Glasgow, and the
young earl of Mar, were exchanged by the Eng-
lish, and restored to their country. Three times
witliin the same year did the victorious Scots
invade England, ravaging the districts through
which they passed, and returning home laden
with spoil.
The Irish of Ulster having solicited aid from the
king of Scots, Edward Bruce passed over to that
country, whither he was soon followed by the king
himself, who, after defeating the Anglo-Lish, under
the baron of Clare, returned home in safety,
leaving his brother to pui-sue his projects of con-
quest, till his defeat and death in the battle at
Dundalk in 1318. In the meantime, the war with
England was renewed, but the events connected
with it belong rather to histoiy than to the personal
details of Bruce's life. Baffled in all his attempts
against the Scots, Edwaixi the Second pi*ocured
from the Pope, John the Twenty-second, a bull,
commanding a truce for two yeare between Scotland
and England. Two cardinals were intrusted with
this mission, and they also received private author-
ity from the Pope to excommunicate the king of
Scotland, and whomsoever else they thought fit,
if necessary. The cardinals, on their amval in
England, sent two messengers into Scotland, to
convey the apostolic mandate. Biiice listened with
attention to the Pope's message ; but when the
letters sealed and addressed *' Robert Bruce,
Governor of Scotland," wei'e presented to him, he
firmly but respectfully declined to receive them.
"These epistles," he said, "I may not open or
read. Among my barons there are many of the
name of Robeii; Bruce, and some of them may
have a share in the government of Scotland.
These letters may possibly be intended for one of
them — they cannot be for me, for I am King of
Scotland 1" The nuncios attempted to excuse the
omission, by saying, that " the Holy Church was
not wont, during the dependence of a controversy,
to say or do aught which might prejudice the
claims of either contending party." The reply of
the king, the nuncios, with all their sophistry,
found it impossible to answer. " Since then," said
he, " my spiritual father and my holy mother
would not prejudice the cause of my adversary by
bestowing on me the title of king during the
dependence of the controversy, they ought not to
have prejudiced my cause by withdrawing that
title from me. It seems that my parents are
partial to their English son ! Had you," he added
with dignity, " presumed to present letters with
such an address to any other sovereign prince, yon
might perhaps have been answered more harshly ;
but I reverence you as the messengers of the Holy
See." The disappointed nuncios returned to Eng-
land, upon which the cai*dinals sent a priest,
named Adam Newton, to Scotland, to proclaim
the papal truce. He found Bruce encamped with
his army in a wood near Old Cambus, preparing
for the assault of Bei-wick, which still remained in
possession of the English. On demanding to see
the king, he was ordered to give what letters he
had to the king's seneschal, who would deliver
them to his master. These, addressed as before,
were instantly returned to him unopened, with a
message from Bruce that " he would listen to no
bulls until he was treated as king of Scotland, and
had made himself master of Berwick." The monk
was refused a safe conduct home, and, on the road
to Berwick, he was attacked by four outlaws, who
tore and scattered to the winds his papers anu
credentials, plundered him of his bnU and the
gi-eater part of his clothes, and left him to find his
way as best he could.
Berwick shortly afterwards fell into Brace's
hands, and, in the spring of 1318, the Scottish
army invaded England by Northumberland, and
took several castles, returning home, "driving
their prisoners like flocks of sheep before them."
Resolved to recover Berwick, Edward the Second,
on the 24th of July 1819, invested that town by
land and sea, but was unsuccessful in all his attacks.
Douglas, t(f create a diversion, invaded England,
and September 20, defeated a large aiiny of priests
and rustics under the archbishop of York, at
Mitton on the river Swale. On account of the
great number of ecclesiastics who fell in this battle,
it is known in history as " the Chapter of Mittou."
The siege of Berwick was in consequence raised;
and the English king attempted in vain to inter-
cept the Scottish army on their homeward maah.
Bruce having been, at the instigation of Edward,
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ROBERT.
excommnnicated by the Pope, the estates of the
kingdom, April 6, 1820, transmitted a spirited
manifesto to his holiness, which caused him to
recommend to Edward pacific measures, to which
that ill-fated monarch would not hearken. He led
a great arm}' into Scotland as far as Edinburgh,
but Bruce having laid waste the whole countr}* to
the Frith of Forth, his soldiers were in danger of
perishing for want of provisions. A solitary lame
bull, which they picked up at Tranent, was all the
prey that they could secure in their march. *' Is
that all ye have got ? " said the eail de Warenne
to the foi-agere as he eyed the sorry animal : ''By
my faith, I never saw beef so dear ! " Edward was
compelled to retreat, and on their way back to
England, his half-famished soldiei-s in revenge
burned the monasteries of Drybui*gh and Meli-ose;
after plundering the shrines, and murdering the
monks.
Bruce himself, subsequently, at the head of an
army, invaded England, and after besieging Nor-
ham cattle, defeated Edward once more at Biland
Abbey, in Yorkshire. A truce was in consequence
ratified between the two kingdoms at Berwick,
June 7, 1323, to last for thirteen years. Brace
was now anxious to be reconciled to the Pope, and
accordingly despatched Randolph to Rome for the
ourpose, when his holiness agreed not to renew
nis former censures. In 1827, on the accession of
Edward the Third to the English throne, hos-
tilities between the two kingdoms almost imme-
diately recommenced ; but the Scots being again
victorious, the English government were at last
convinced of the necessity of agreeing to a per-
manent peace. After several meetings of the
commissioners of both countries, the treaty was
finally ratified in a parliament held at Northamp-
ton, Mareh 4, 1328 ; the principal articles of which
were the recognition of the independence of Scot-
land, and of Bruce's title to the throne, and the
marriage of Joanna, sister of the king of England,
to David, the son and heir of the king of Scots.
Bruce's glorious career was now drawing to a close.
This last act was a fitting consummation of his
laboure. He had achieved liberty, independence,
and peace for his country, the three greatest bless-
ings he could bequeath to it, and he now prepared
to depart in peace. The hardships and sufferings
which he had endured had reduced his once strong
constitution, and he became sorely afflicted with a
disease in his blood, called a leprosy, which
brought on premature old age. The last two
years of his life were spent in comparative seclu-
sion, in a castle at Cardross, on the northern shore
of the Frith of Clyde, where he devoted his time
principally to the building of siiips, and to aquatic
and fishing excursions, hawking, and other sports.
He was very charitable to the poor, and kind and
courteous to all who approached him. It is also
known that, among other animals, he kept a tame
lion beside him, of which he was very fojid. He
contemplated the approach of death with calmness
and resignation. The only thought that troubled
him in his dying hours was, that he was still under
the excommunication of the church ; and to make
all the reparation in his power, he commissioned
Sir James Douglas to carry his heart to Palestine,
and bury it in the holy city. This great monarch,
unquestionably the greatest of the Scottish kings,
expired June 7, 1829, in the 55th yeai* of his age,
and 28d of his reiorn. His henrt was extracted
Seal ot King Robert Bruce.
and embalmed, and delivered over to Douglas,
who was killed fighting against the Moors in
Spam, and the sacred relic of Bruce, with the body
of its devoted champion, was brought home, and
buried in the monastery of Melrose. Bruce's body
was inten-ed in the Abbey Church of Dunfermline,
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EDWARD.
wliero, in the year 1818, in clearing the founda-
tiong for a third church on the same spot, his bones
ivere discovered. King Robert the Bruce was
twice married ; first to Isabella, daughter of Don-
ald, tenth earl of Mar, by whom he had one
daughter, Marjory, the wife of Walter the high
steward, whose son was afterwards Robeit the Se-
cond; and, secondly, to Elizabeth, daughter of
Aymer de Burgh, earl of Ulster, by whom he had
David, who succeeded him, and two daughters.
BRUCE, Edward, crowned king of Ireland,
was the brother of Robert the Bruce, and com-
panion in many of his exploits. In 1308. he was
sent by his brother, with a considerable force,
into Galloway ,^ to reduce that country to subjec-
tion. He took and dismantled several castles and
strongholds held by the enemy; defeated tlie
English twice, once under Sir Ingram de Umfra-
vlile, and again under the earl of Pembroke ; and,
after encountering and dispei*sing a numerous army
of the inhabitants under Donald of the Isles, and
Sir Roland, a Galwegian chiefs he made himself
lord of Galloway. He was actively engaged in all
the scenes of strife and contention of tiiat eventful
period. In 1&13, after having besieged for a long
time the strong castle of Stirling in vain, he con-
cluded an agroement with Sir Philip de Mowbray,
tiie English govei*nor, that the castle should be
surrendered, if not relieved by Edwai'd the Second
bt^fore the feast of St. John the Baptist, at the
ensuing midsummer. This agreement led to the
decisive victory of Bannockbum, which secured
the independence of Scotland, and, with the sub-
sequent successes of the Scots, induced tlie Iiisli
to solicit their aid against their Englisli oppressoi-s.
In 1315 a number of the chieftains of Ulster and
others made an oifer of the crown of Ireland to
Edward Bruce, on condition of his assisting them
in expelling the English fix)m the island. Ed-
ward, though deficient in the coolness and sagacity
that distinguished his brother, possessed a chival-
ric bearing, and a dashing impetuous valour, whToh
was not exceeded by any wamor of his time.
"This Edward," says Barbour, **was a noble
knight, of joyous and delightful mannei-s, but out-
rageously hardy in his enterprises, and so bold in
what he undertook, that he was not to be deteiTed
by any superiority of numbers, as he had gained
such renown amongst his peers, that he was ac-
customed veiy commonly to conquer a multitude
of the enemy with a handful of his own men.^*
He was of a fierce disposition, restlessly ambitions,
and fond of dangerous enterprises. In many
points, both of his character and life, making due
allowance, of course, for the difference of times, he
strongly resembled Joachim Murat, king of Naples.
Eagerly embracing the offer, Edward Bruce em-
barked at Ayr, in May 1315, and landed on the
25th of the same month, near Carrickfergns, at the
head of a small army of six thousand men ; having
with him as leaders, Randolph, earl of Moray, Sir
John Soulis, Sir John Stewart, Sir Fergus of Ar-
drossan, nnd other knights. No sooner had he
found a footing in Ireland, than he attacked the
English wherever he met them ; and in spit€ of
then* superior numbers, was always victonous. He
soon made himself master of the province of Ulster,
and was crowned king of Ireland, May 2, 1816.
His small army being much reduced by the con-
stant fighting in which he was engaged, he receiver*
an accession of force from his brother ; and in th«
spiing of 1317, King Robert himself anived in
Ireland with reinforcements. After gaining a vic-
tory over the Anglo-Irish army neai* Carrickfergns,
and penetrating a considerable distance into the
country. King Robert, from the vast superiority of
numbei-s of the English, and the fickleness and
treachery of the Irish, soon became convinced that
the permanent occupation of Ireland was imprac-
ticable, and returned to Scotland. Edward Bmce,
on his part, remained in Ulster, resolved to main-
tain with his sword the precarious crown he had
won. But his life and conquests were terminated
at once by the fatal battle of Dundalk, October 5,
1317. The Scottish prince, with only two thou-
sand men, resolved to encounter the English army,
which amounted to nearly forty thousand troops.
On this occasion the Irish deserted their Scots al-
lies, and retreated to a neighbouring eminence;
and the English, as might have been expected,
gained a complete victory. Edward Bruce was
killed in an early part of the battle. He had been
singled out by an English knight named John
Maupas, who, after a desperate hand to hand
combat, slew him, but not befoi-e he had hirascli
received his death-wound. At the close of the
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BRUCE,
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EDWARD.
battle, the bodies of the two champions wei*e found
lying stretched upon each other as they had fall-
en. The English leaders nngenerously mangled
and divided the body of Edward Brace into four
qnarters, and preserved the hend in salt in a little
kit or barrel, to be sent as an appropriate pi-eseut
to the king of England. But, according to Bar-
boor, the body thus ignominiously treated was
that of Gilbert Harper, a yeoman belonging to
£dwai*d Bruce^s household, whose intrepidity on
a former occasion had saved the Scots army on
being surprised at Cai-rickfergus ; and who, by a
cnstomary practice of those days, wore the aj-mour
and surcoat of the king, his master, on the day of
buttle, whilst Edward Brace himself was plainly
dressed, and without any ornament or indication
of his rank. The small remnant of the Scottish
army, under the command of John Thomson,
leader of the men of Carrick, retreated to Car-
rickfergus, whence they embarked for Scotland.
From the Braces of Clackmannan, whose direct male line
became extinct in July 1772, most of the families of the
name in Scotland trace tiieir descent. The progenitor of
that house was Sir Robert Brace, who obtained from King
DaTid the Second a charter, — granted to his " beloved and
<iuthfnl cousin/' delecto et fideli oonsanguineo suo Roberto
Brais,— of the castle and manor of Clackmannan, dated 9th
December 1359. By his wife Isabel, daughter of Sir Robert
Stewart, ancestor of tlie family of Rosythe, he had a nnmer-
ons issne. He died about 1390. Sir Robert, his eldest son,
married a daughter of Sir John Scrirogeour of Dndhope, an-
cestor of the earls of Dundee, and had two sons. The elder
carried on the line of the family. Thomas, the younger, was
the progenitor of the Braoes of Kennet near Clackmannan,
which family having terminated in a female, Margaret, only
danghter of the sixth Brace of Kennet, by his wife, a daugh-
ter of Kinninmount of that ilk in Fifeshire, she married, in
1568, Archibald Brace, son of David Bruce of Green, and
grandson of Sir David Brace, the sixth baron of Clackman-
nan. Robert Brace, great-grandson of this Archibald, was
father of David Brace, from whom the family of Kennet are
descended, one of whom, Robert, was a lord of session, under
the title of Lord Kennet He was the son of Alexander
Brace of Kennet, by Mary, second danghter of Robert, fourth
Lord Burleigh. He passed advocate 15th January 1743, was
appointed pn^essor of the law of nature and nations in the
university of Edinburgh, 22d June 1759; in the following
year he was constituted sheriff depute of the counties of SUr-
Ung and Clackmannan, and 4th July, 1764, was promoted to
the bench, and took his seat as Lord Kennet On the 16th
November 1769 he became a lord of justiciary. He died at
Kennet 8th April 1785. Through Lord Kenneths mother the
laird of Kennet claims the barony of Bnrieigh. [See Bal-
four OF Burleioh, I^rd, ante^ p. 211. The Rev. Alcxnn-
Jer Brace of Gartlet, second son of the above Robert, and
brother of David Brace of Kennet, was an eminent divine.
His line is now represented (1856) by William Downing
Broee, F.S.A. of Lincoln's Inn, barrister-at-law
Sir David Brace, the sixth baron of Clackmannan, was
father of Sir Edward Brace of Kinloss, whose grandson,
Edward Brace, the celebrated lawyer, was created in 1602
Ix>rd Brace of Kinloss. Thomas Brace, the grandson of the
latter, was, in 1633, created earl of Elgin in Scotland, and
made a baron of England by the title of Lord Brace of
Whorlton. [See Elgin, earl of.] From Sir George Brace of
Caraock, younger brother of the fir»t lord Brace of Kinloss,
the present earl of Elgin is descended in a direct male line.
Henry Brace, the fifteenth and last baron of Clackmannan,
chief of the Braces, married Catherine, daughter of Alexan-
der Brace, Esq., of the family of Newton, by whom he had
two daughters, who both died in infancy. His own death
took place in 1772. His widow died in 1796, at the ad-
vanced age of ninety-five. In August 1787 she was visited
by the poet Buras, accompanied by Mr. M. Adair, (after-
wards Dr. Adair of Hnrrowgate.) who, in his account of the
excursion, says, '* A visit to Mrs. Brace of Clackmannan, a
lady above ninety, the lineal descendant of that race which
gave the Scottish throne its brightest oraament, interested
the poet*s feelings powerfully. This venerable dame, with
characteristic dignity, informed me, on my observing that 1
believed she was descended from the family of Robert Brace,
that Robert Brace was sprang from her family. Though
almost deprived of speech by a paralytic affection, she pre-
served her hospitality and urbanity. She was in possession
of the hero's helmet and two-handed sword, with which she
conferred on Buras and myself the honour of knighthood, re-
marking that she had a better right to confer that title than
$ome people.^ At her death she bequeathed to the eari of
Elgin, the representative of her family, and chief of the house
of Brace, the sword and what was said to have been the
helmet of Brace above spoken of. They were long preserved in
the tower or keep of Clackmannan, (the remains of a castle of
King Robert Brace,) a view of which is given in Grose's
* Antiquities of Scotland,* and are now at Broomhall in Fife-
shire, a seat of the earl of Elgin.
Sir Alexander Brace of Airth, in the county of Stirling,
lineally descended from Sir Robert Brace, knight of Clack-
mannan, nLvried Janet, daughter nf Alexander, fifth Lord
Livingston, and had several sons. Sir John Brace, the eldest
son, was ancestor of the Braoes of Airth, represented by
Brace of Stenhouse in Stirlingshire, whose ancestor was
created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1629.
The Rev. Robert Brace, the second son, whose life is sub-
sequently given, became the progenitor of the Braces of Km-
naird, and also of the Braces of Downhill, in the county of
I^ndonderry, Ireland, on which latter family a baronet<7
wnK conferred in 1804.
Thomas Bruce, another son, was ancestor of Robert, Vis-
count de Brace of Pans.
BRUCE, Edward, an eminent lawyer and
statesman, the second son of Sir Edward Brace of
Blairhall, Fifeshii-e, by his wife, Alison, daughter
of William Reid of Aikenhead, county of Clack-
mannan, sister of Robert, bishop of Orkney, was
bom about the year 1549. He was educated
for the law, and soon after being admitted a mem-
ber of the faculty of advocates, he was appointed
one of the judges of the commissary court at Ed-
inburgh, in the room of Robert, dean of Aberdeen,
I who had been also a lord of session, and was su-
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perseded in January 1576, on account of his *'in-
liabilitie." From the Pitmedden manuscript in
tlie Advocates* Library we Icani, that on the 14th
of July 1584, Bruce appeared before the judges of
the court of session, and declared, tli.it though
nominated commissary of Edinburgh in the place
of the dean of Aberdeen, he would take no benefit
therefrom duiing the life of Mr. Alexander Sym,
also one of the commissaries, but that all fees and
profits of the place should accrue to the lords of
session. On the 27 th July 1583 he was made
commendator of Kinloss, under a resei^vation of
the liferent of Walter, the abbot of Kinloss. About
the same time he was appointed one of the deputes
of the lord justice general of Scotland. In 1587,
when the General Assembly sent commissionei*s
to parliament to demand the removal of the Tul-
chan bishops from the legislature, Bi-uce energeti-
cally defended the prelates, vindicating their nght
to sit and vote for the chnrch ; and addressing
himself directly to the king, who was present, he
complained that the Presbyterian clergy having
shut them forth of their places in the church, now
wanted to exclude them from their places in the
state. Mr. Robert Pont, a Presbyterian minister^
one of the commissioners of the church, was in-
ternipted in his reply by the king, who ordered
them to present their petition in proper form to
the lords of the articles. When it came before
the latter it was rejected without obsei-vation. In
1594 Bruce was sent on an embassy to Queen
Elizabeth, to complain of the harbour affbrded to
the earl of Bothwell in her dominions, when, ra-
ther than deliver him up, she commanded the earl
to depai't the realm of England. In 1597 Bruce
was named one of the parliamentaiy ovei'seers of
a taxation of two hundred thousand pounds Scots,
at that time granted to James the Sixth, for
" Reiking out ambassador and other wechty af-
fairs ;" and on 2d December of that year he was
appointed one of the lords of session. In the sub-
sequent year he was again sent to England, to
obtain the queen^s recognition of James as her
successor to the English throne. Although he
failed in the object of his embassy, his skill and
address enabled him to secure many of the Eng-
lish nobility to his sovereign's interest. In 1601
he was for the third time despatched to England
with the earl of Mar, to intercede for the earl of
Essex, but they did not anive till after the exe-
cution of that unhappy nobleman. Not wishing,
however, to appear before Elizabeth without an
object, the ambassadoi-s adroitly cou verted their
message into one of congratulation to the queen
on her escape from the conspiracy in which Essex
had been engaged. On this occasion Bruce did
not neglect his master's cause, having had the
good foi*tune to establish a correspondence between
James and Cecil, which contributed materially to
James's peaceable accession to the throne of Eng-
land. On his return he was knighted, and raised
to the peerage by the title of Baron Bruce of Kin-
loss. Two yeare afterwards he accompanied King
James to England, and March 3, 1603, was nomi-
nated a member of the king's council. Shortly
after he was made master of the rolls, when he
resigned his seat as one of the lords of session.
He died January 14, 1611, in the 62d year of bis
age, and was buried in the Rolls chapel, in Chan-
cery Lane. London, where a monument was erect-
ed to his memory, with his effigies in a recumbent
posture, in his robes as master of the rolls, an en-
graving of which is inserted in Piukerton's Gallery
of Scottish Portraits, vol. i. He had married
Magdalene, daughter of Sir Alexander Clerk of
Balbii-nie, in Fife, some time lord provost of Edin-
burgh, by whom he had two sons and a daughter.
Through one of his sons he was ancestor of the
noble house of Aylesbur}' in the British peei'age,
and through the other of that of Elgin and Kin-
cardine in Scotland. The male lines of both
houses are now extinct. [See Elgin, earl of.]
The daughter was the wife of William, second
earl of Devonshire, to whom King James, with
his own hands, gave ten thousand pounds as her
mai-riage portion.
BRUCE, Robert, a distinguished minister and
a principal leader of the church of Scotland during
the reign of James the Sixth, was bom, some ac-
counts say in 1554, and others in 1556, but ac-
cording to Wodrow, about 1559. He was the
second son of Alexander Bruce of Airth, iu the
county of Stirling, by Janet, daughter of Alex-
ander fifth Lord Livingstone, and Agnes, daaghter
of the second earl of Morton. By descent, he was
a collateral relation of his great namesake Kini;
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Robert the Brnce, while James Bruce the Abys-
{tinian traveller, was his descendant in the sixth
^neration. U is father, a rude and powerful baron,
nas occasionally engaged in feuds with his neigh-
bours, like others of his class, and we find it re-
corded in Bin-el's Diaiy (p. 13.) that on the 24th
November 1567, at two in the afternoon the laird
of Airth and the laird of ^^'emyss met in the High
Street of Edinburgh, when they and tlieir follow-
ei-s fought a bloody skirmish, many being wounded
on both sides, with * shot of pistol.' The eldest
son, as he was to inherit the family propeity, was
educated at home, but the second son, being de-
signed for the law, after attending a course of
philosophy in the university of St. Andrews, was
sent to Paris, where and at the university of Lou-
vain in the Low Countries, he studied humanity
and the principles of Roman jurisprudence. He
completed his education at the univei*sity of Edin-
burgh, and conducted for some time his father s af-
fairs before the com*t of session, as well as man-
aged such business as was intrusted to him by his
friends and acquaintances. ^ His reputation,' says
VVodrow, * for knowledge in law and practice was
so much daily advancing that a design was fonned
to make him one of the senatoi-s of the college of
justice; and with this view his father provided
him in the lands and barony of Kinnaird.' It is
stated that the corrupt system of those days, which
extended even to the court of session, enabled his
father to secure for him a judgeship by patent.
He preferred however to enter the ministry, con-
trary to the wishes of his parents, and in particular
of his mother, who only consented, after his father
had given his reluctant peimission, on condition
that he relinquished the estate of Kinnaird, in
which he had been infeft. * That,' he says, * I did
willinglie ; cast my clothes from me, my vaine and
glorious apparell ; sent my horse to the foire, and
emptied my hands of all impediments.' [Calder-
woods History of the Kith of Scotland^ vol. iv. p.
636.] In October 1583, he went to the university
of St. Andrews, to study theology under Andrew
Melville, then professor of divinity in the New
College, and continued there till 1587. He said to
Mr. James Melville, one day while walking with
him in the fields, ^ that ei-e he cast himself again in
that torment of conscience which was layed on him
for resisting the calling of God to the studie of
theologie and ministrie, he had rather goe through
a fire of brimstone half a mile long.' \_Ihid. p. 19.]
In the beginning of February 1584, Andrew
Melville was summoned to appear before the secret
council at Edinburgh, for using certain expressions
in a fast-day sermon, which were held to be se-
ditious. On his appearance he denied the charge,
declined the authority of any civil court in mattera
of religion, and appealed to a trial at St. Andrew's
by his brethren, and the testimony of his own con-
gregation. The university sent Mr. Bruce, then
a student in theology, and Mr. Robert Wilkie,
with an attestation signed by thirty of that body,
declaring his innocence. To avoid imprisonment,
however, he was obliged to retire to England ; but
in April 1586 was permitted to return to St. An-
drews, and while Bruce enjoyed the advantages of
his lectures as theological professor, he seems to
have imbibed no small poition of his indomitable
spirit. In June 1587, he accompanied Melville to
Edinburgh, and in the General Assembly which
met the 2)th of that month, and of which Melville
was elected moderator, he was chosen one of the
assessors. He was also appointed one of the com-
missionei-s to present the acts and petitions of the
Assembly to the king and parliament. By Mel-
ville he was recommended as a fit person to suc-
ceed the deceased Mi\ James Lawson, the succes-
sor of John Knox, as one of the ministers of Edin-
burgh. He was accordingly chosen by the Assem-
bly, but at first declined to accept the charge,
promising, however, to preach till the next Synod,
as he preferred rather to go to St. Andrews, where
he had a call, " for," he says, " I had no will of
the court, for I knew weill that the court and we
could never agree." A deputation was, however,
soon sent to St. Andrews, to invite him back to
Edinburgh. A few weeks after his return, being
present at the administration of the sacrament, one
of the ministers employed in the service desired
Mr. Bruce to sit beside him, and after having dis-
pensed the ordinance in part, left the church, and
sent a message to Mr. Bruce to sen^e the rest of
the tables. Imagining the minister to have been
taken suddenly ill, and being pressed by many in
the congi'egation to undertake the service, he pro-
ceeded to the remainder of the dispensation. He
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after«vards accepted the charge, but would never
submit to ordination, deeming that he had suf-
ficient warrant, in the unanimous call of the people
and the approbation of his brethrea, for undertak-
ing the duties of the ministiy, and as he had dis-
pensed the sacrament he would not allow any sub-
sequent ceremony to disannul that act.
On the 6th Febniary 1588, he was chosen mo-
derator of an extraordinary meeting of the General
Assembly, called to consider the great dangers to
the protestant faith and the realm, arising from
the intrigues of the popish party, previous to the
threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada. In
the ninth session the chancellor, by desire of the
king, appeared and accused James Gibson minister
of Pencaitland, of stating in one of his seimons
that the king had been the real cause of all the
evils brought upon the church by his favourite the
earl of Arran ; and that, if he persisted in his in-
jurious measures he would be ^ like Jeroboam the
son of Nebat, the last of his race.* Gibson was
cited before the Assembly in its foui*teenth ses-
sion, but not appearing when called upon he was
judged contumacious, and ordered to be sus-
pended. This manifest yielding to the court seems
to have been much against the conscience of the
moderator Mr. Bruce, who withdrew himself when
the sentence was about to be pronounced, having
the previous night been admonished in a dream
not to be present on the occasion, by a voice say-
ing to him, ^' Ne intei*sis condemnationi servi
Dei.'* Mr. Gibson's suspension was taken off by
the following Assembly. Thenceforward Bruce's
name appears prominently in all the proceedings
of the chui-ch, and especially in those contests, for
supremacy on the one hand and independent juris-
diction on the other, that were constantly taking
place between the king and the clerpy.
On the thanksgiving day appointed for the over-
throw of the Spanish armada, Mr. Bruce preached
at Edinbui-gh from the 76th Psalm. His two
sermons on this subject were printed by Walde-
grave in 1591, and display a strength of sentiment
and language seldom to be met with in the writers
of those times.
At this juncture there were three parties in
Scotland, namely, the popish faction, the chui-ch
party, and the courtiers. The popish faction con-
sisted chiefly of the earls of Angus, Errol, and
Huntly, the murderer of the " bonnie earl of Mo-
ray," and their followers, with whom the turbu-
lent earl of Bothwell, although a protestant, had
joined for his own purposes. The party of the
church included those lords who had been banished
for the raid of Ruthven, the object of which was
to carry off the king, many of whom had acted in
the Reformation in Scotland, and now depended
for support on the English court. The court party,
with the king himself at its head, was composed
of the secret favoui*ers of episcopacy, the titular
bishops, and the immediate servants of the crown.
The commission of the church,^f which Mr. Bruco
was a principal member, was appointed at this
time to meet weekly, and the popish party were
prosecuted throughout the kingdom b}' a regulariy
organized body, with the utmost severity.
On the 17th Febniary 1589, the queen of Eng-
land transmitted to King James intelligence of
the discovery of a conspiracy of the popish lords,
abetted by Spain. Huntly, Errol, and Bothwell,
who wero then at court, wero immediately impri-
soned. Tliey soon found means of gaining the
king's pardon, but the churoh insisted on their
public repentance, before being admitted to favour
again.
On the 22d October of the same year. King
James sailed to Norway, to marry his queen, the
princess Anne of Denmark. Previous to his de-
parture he constituted Bnice, for whom he enter-
tained feelings of blended respect and fear, a mem-
ber of the privy council, and desired him to take
cognizance of the affairs of the country, and the
proceedings of the council, in his absence, pro-
fessing that he had more confidence in him and
the other ministers of Edinbui*gh than in all his
nobles. Nor was he disappointed, for the country
was never in greater peace than whilst the king
was out of the kingdom on this occasion. Under
the supervision of the clergy, the nobles suspended
for the time their feuds and faction fights, and the
people enjoyed an interval of repose from the dis-
orders and bloodshed which usually distracted the
realm. Desirous of gaining the good will of the
clergy, the earl of Bothwell, who with the duke of
Lennox had been left joint governor of the king-
dom, offered to Mr. Bnice and Mr. Robert RoUocJl,
'! !
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to make his public repentance. Accordingly, on
Tuesday the 9th of November, after a seimon by
Bruce, from 2 Timothy ii. 22—26 (printed with
his other sermons in 1591), the eai'l humbled him-
self on his knees in the High Chui-ch (in the Little
Kirk beforenoon, and in the Gi'eat Kirk afternoon,
says Calderwood), and, with tears, confessed his
licentions and dissolute life, promising to prove ano-
ther man in time coming; which, indeed, he proved
by becoming woi-se instead of better. That same
night, according to Calderwood, or soon after, he
earned off the earl of Gowi*ie*s daughter from
Dirleton, and his evil courses were so far from be-
ing restrained that the atrocity of his past conduct
was soon eiiceeded by greater crimes.
From Upsal in Norway the king wrote a fiiend-
ly letter to Bruce, thanking him for the care he
had taken of the peace of the country in his ab-
sence, and acknowledging that he was worthy of
the quarter of his ^^ petite kingdom.^^ He subse-
quently received two other letters from his ma-
jesty, dated from the castle of Croneburg, 1 9th
February and 4th April 1590, announcing his in-
tention of returning home, which, in the former,
he said would be ^* like a thief in the night," and
desiring him to take order that he and his queen
might have a proper reception on their amval.
The chancellor Maitland, who was with the king,
also wrote him three lettci-s on state matters,
which, with the king's, are all given in full in
Calderwood's History.
On the 1st May 1590, the king returned, with
his queen, at whose coronation in the Abbey
church of Holyrootl, on Sunday 17th May, Messra.
Bruce, Lindsay, Balcanquhnl and the royal chap-
lains were app<^nted to assist, and Bruce had the
iionour of anointing her majesty with oil. This
he did, not as a religious rite but a civil ceremony.
On the 24th the king went to the Great Kirk and
returned thanks to Mr. Bruce and the clergy for
the religious and civil care of his kingdom which
they had taken in his absence. On the 9th of the
ensuing June Bruce himself was married to Mar-
garet, daughter of James Douglas of Parkhead,
when his father restored to him his inheritance of
Kinnaird. His father-in-law, Douglas, some years
afterwards became known in histoi7 as the assas-
sin of James Stuart, earl of An-an, the former fa-
vourite of King James, and the inveterate enemy
of the clergy.
Next to Andrew Melville, Bruce had the great-
est influence in the church, and he at all times
used the utmost boldness in his admonitions to
the king, both from the pulpit and in his private
conferences with him. The spirit of the age knew
not toleration, and the characteristics of the lead-
ing clergy at this period were a want of charity
for those of a different opinion, an uncompromis-
ing and contemptuous public censure of the sover-
eign and the court, and a constant dictation to the
civil government, in mattere of state as well as of
religion, altogether unwaiTanted, and which often
led to sedition and anarchy. Austere, however,
as were their doctrines, then* lives were pure and
their motives upright, while the discipline which
they established in Scotland has for long pi-eservcd
the religion of our countrymen.
From James^ want of due energy in administer-
ing justice, the feuds and disorders of the nobility
and people broke out again, after his return from
Denmark, with increased violence. On Sunday,
6th June 1591, the king attended divine service
in the Little Kirk, when Mr. Brace preached from
Hebrews xii. 14, 15. In the courae of his sermon
he asked, *' What could the great disobedience of
the land mean now, when the king was present,
seeing some reverence was borne to his shadow
when he was absent? It meant, he said, the
universal contempt of his subjects ; therefore, he
counselled the king, to call to God, before be ei-
ther ate or drunk, that the Lord would give him a
resolution to execute justice upon malefactoi's,
although it should be with the hazard of his life ;
which if he would enterprise courageously the
Lord would raise mapy to assist him, and all these
impediments would vanish away, which are now
cast in the way; otherwise, he added, you will
not be suffered to bi*uik (enjoy) your crown alone,
but every man will liave one." [Calderwood^ vol.
v. p. 129.] This rebuke rankled in the king^s
mind, and on the Tuesday following, he called the
ministers of Edinburgh before him and the court
of session, and complained of these personal cen-
sures from the pulpit, but without effect. The
ministei-s, and particularly Bruce, continued their
public exhortations to his majesty, whenever oc-
II
J!
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casions arose to call for tliem, of which numerous
instances are recited in Calderwood^s History of
the Kirk. The freedom with which Bruce op-
posed the encroachments, and censured tlie follies
and vices, of the court had begun to excite feel-
ings of jealousy and alarm in the breast of the
king, and his fearless maintenance of the rights
and privileges of tlie church, joined to his great
power over the people, added to his majesty's
growing hatred of him.
On 21st May 1592, Mr. Bruce was again elected
moderator of tlie General Assembly. On the 5th
of the following month parliament passed the long
and anxiously expected act by which presbyteri-
anism was established as the i^ligion of Scotland.
In November of the same year Mr. Bruce and
other ministers were appointed a standing council
of the church at Edinburgh, to watch the designs
of the papists, who, at that juncture, were pai*ti-
cularly active, arising, in a great measure, from
the favour shown to the popish lords by the king
himself. This council of the clergy was viewed
with great dislike by James as an encroachment
on his prerogative, and in the following December,
irritated at the opposition given by the ministers
to the arrival at court of his favourite, Captain
Stuart, sometime earl of Arran, and the counten-
ance supposed to be shown by them to the turbu-
lent earl of Bothwell, after the raid of Falkland,
he sent for the magistrates and ministers of Edin-
burgh, and brought a special charge of treason
against Bruce, for harbouring that restless noble-
man. Bruce denied the charge, and demanded
the author. Sevei-al were pi-omised, but none
were given. On the following Sunday he and
Balcanqnhal, at the request of the king, warned
the people against Bothwell /rom the pulpit, and
desired them not to give him any encoui-agement
or protection. On the 8th of the same month
some of the ministers went down to the palace to
urge a proof of the treason whereof Bruce was
accused. The king, however, had had time for
reflection, and he wished the matter passed over.
This would not satisfy the minicJtei-s, and a day
was fixed for producing the accusers ; — of whom
two, the Master of Gray and Mr. Thomas Tyrie,
were named. On Sunday, the 10th of the same
month, Bi-uce, lecturing from 1 Samuel xii., said
that the king was surrounded with Hat's, and that
he would discontinue preaching until he were
freed from that heinous accusation which had been
bronght against him, namely, that he and others
had conspii-ed to take the crown off the king's
head, and put it on BothwelPs. The presbytery,
the kirk session, and the town council, as well as
Bruce himself, were urgent for a trial, and the
Master of Gray, mentioned as the principal ac-
cuser, indignantly quitted the c^urt, and by letter
vindicated Brace from the charge, offering *on
Bruce's honest quarrel in that behalf,' to fight any
man, except the king himself. Assuredly, for
such an unfounded calumny the pusillanimous
monarch was sufficiently harassed. On Thursday,
the 14th of December, the day appointed for the
production of the accusers, Bruce, accompanied by
the kirk session and others, again proceeded to the
palace, and demanded that they should be brought
forward, but none were forthcoming, and the king,
who was heartily tired of the whole business, and
^misl3'ked' that it had been insisted on so fiir,
put them off with fair promises, and so the matter
ended. On the 7th of the following January,
Brace exhorted the king, in his sermon, new to
execute justice impartially, othenvise, the Chron-
icles, he said, will keep in memory king James the
Sixth to his shame. After Bothwell had forced
his way into Holyroodhouse, in August 1593, it la
well known that he got a i*emission for his past
offences from the king, till the tenth of November,
when the parliament should sit and confirm it.
An agreement was subsequently entered into be-
twixt the king and Bothwell, that the former
might go to Falkland, or where he pleased, and
take what persons be liked with him, and the lat-
ter should refrain from the court, and in the mean-
time would not be molested. To this agreement
Bruce was a witness. In the month of September,
however, the king, in violation of it, published a
severe pi*oclamation against Bothwell. On tlie
8th of October the three popish earls were excom-
municated by the Synod of Fife. The king, not-
withstanding, continued to show them counten-
ance, and by his influence got the act of abolition
passed in their favour. This act, sometimes called
the act of oblivion, allowed liberty to the accused
to pass freely among the king's subjects, on certain
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conditions. Alarmed at tbis, the fiiends of the
eharch met, as thej had long been accnstomed to
do, in the gallery of Brace's house, and ft*amed a
petition to the king that the popish lords should be
closely committed to prison till they made their pub-
lic recantation Mr. Bruce, preaching before the
chancellor, secretary, and justice-clerk, December
16th, said that the king's reign would be short and
troublesome, if the act of abolition wei-e not re-
scinded. In March 1594, after the forfeiture of
Both well, and his mustering men to appear in
arms against the king, Bruce told James from the
pnlpit that, however Bothwell were out of the
way, he should never want a particular enemy till
he fought the Lord's battles against the wicked ;
that Lord Bothwell had taken protection of the
good cause, at least the pretence thereof, to the
king's shame, because he took not upon him the
quarrel, and he understood not how he could pursue
Bothwell, till he had proven the last band broken
and indenture betwixt them, whereto he was one
witness. These speeches, says Calderwood, galled
the king. On the 9th of April, Sir Robert Mel-
ville and the laird of Carmichael were sent by the
king to the presbytery of Edinburgh, to ask their
advice as to how Both well's forces could be dis-
persed. Deeming this but a snare the brethren
gave a general answer, and though pressed for a
more particular one, they declined it. Sir Robert
complained that the nobility had left the king.
Mr. Bruce said that the king's doings and pro-
ceedings lost him esteem among all his subjects,
especially the meaner sort, who were oppressed,
and though the mlnistiy should exhort them to
assist him, they would not if he amended not;
therefore his advice was that he would turn and
repent of his sins.
The year 1596 is marked by her histonans as
the period when the Presbyterian church of Scot-
land had attained to her full glory. In the sum-
mer of that year, Mr. Bruce was appointed by the
assembly to visit the churches in the province of
Glasgow, where he was received with the greatest
respect and honour, so high was his reputation for
faithfulness, wisdom, and usefulness. The king,
o£fended at the warmth of his reception in the
west, vowed he should lose his head for his
coudnct in regard to Bothwell. It is i-elatcd by
Maxwell, bishop of Ross, in a pamphlet entitled,
*The Burden of Issachar,' published in 1646, that
when Bruce returned to Edinburgh, " entering the
Canongate, King James, looking out at his win-
dow in the palace of Holyrood, with indignation
(which extorted from him an oath), said. Master
Robert Bruce, I am sure, intends to be king, and
declare himself heir to Robert de Bruce." If this
be true, the story told by the same writer, and by
Spottiswood, and repeated by all the episcopalian
historians, as to Brace's saucy bearing and inso-
lent answers to the king, in the matter of the pro-
posed recall of the three popish earls, cannot be
i-elied upon. As Brace was, at this time, entirely
out of favour at court, it is not at all likely that
he would have been consulted by the king on such
an occasion. He is said to have been sent for to
Holyrood, and on being ushered into the king's
bedchamber, James opened unto him his views
upon the English crown, and his fears lest the
papists in Scotland, of whom these lords were the
chief, should join with the Romanists in England,
and endeavour to prevent his succession. He
proposed, therefore, to pardon and recall them, in
order to gain them to his interests. To this Bruce
is represented to have answered, " Sir, you may
pai*don Angus and Errol and recall them, but it is
not fit, nor will yon ever obtain my consent to
pardon or recall Huntly." Tlie king desired him
to consider the matter till next day, but he con-
tinued inexorable, and finally declared to the king,
*• Sir, I see your resolution is to take Huntly into
favour, which, if you do, I will oppose, and you
shall choose whether you shall lose Huntly or me,
for both of us you cannot keep." [Spottiswood,
p. 417.] We do not believe the statement. The
crisis of the church's fate had arrived, and Brace's
own troubles and sufferings were now about to
commence, so that his word had ceased to have
any effect on the self-will and determination of
King James, who may be said to have been the
first of his family that aimed, in a systematic
mannpr, at arbitrary power. This he did by en-
deavouring to overthrow tlie church, which had
proved such a strong check upon his proceedings.
The clergy, on their part, contended for complete
independence. On both sides the encroachment
was gi*eat. The ministers were peipetually as-
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serting the liberty of the church, to whicli the
king, from the belief that it inteifered with his
prerogative, and the fi*eedom and frequency of
their personal rebukes, had conceived an utter
aversion. It is impossible to defend the conduct
of either party. The popular impression has for
long been against the king, but whoever examines,
with a candid and impartial spirit, the histories of
Knox, and Calderwood, will readily discover that
the high-handed conduct of the clergy approached
to an intolerable tyranny. Charles the First and
his two successors persecuted both the church and
the people of Scotland, but his father only opposed a
dominancy on the paii; of the clergy which, if not
thwarted as it was at the outset, would in time
have overturned the monarchy.
The banished noblemen, finding favour at court,
returned without formal leave, and to the mortifi-
cation of the clergy and the astonishment of the
people, the countess of Huntly made her way into
the confidence of the queen, whilst Lady Living-
ston, also a papist, was intrusted with the care of
the infant princess. The grievances of the church
were immediately carried to the throne, but they
were heard with coldness, or dismissed without re-
lief. Bruce and Melville were appointed by the
Assembly to wait on the queen, and treat with her
about the religious reformation of her household,
but they were denied admittance, as she was en-
gaged at a dance! The ministers appointed the
firat Sunday of December as a day of fasting and
humiliation for the dangers that threatened reli-
gion. In the meantime one of the ministei's of St.
Andrews, named David Black, was cited by the
king, before the privy council, for using in a ser-
mon certain expressions, alleged to be seditions,
against the king and queen, and against Queen
Elizabeth. Black declined the authority both of
the king and the privy council, till the church first
took cognizance of the matter. The clergy sup-
ported him, and the court and the church were
now at open and irreconcilable collision with each
other. The proceedings of the court were sufll-
ciently arbitrary. On the 16th December a pro-
clamation was issued charging the commissioners
of the (jcneral Assembly to leave Edinburgh,
which was at once obeyed, and on the night of the
16th another appeared commanding twenty-four
of the citizens to depart from the town, under pain
of treason. Next day, the famous 17th December
1596, a tumult was suddenly raised by the popu-
lace of Edinburgh, for which, though mainly in-
cited by the two rival court parties, the Cubicn-
lars, or gentlemen of the bed-chamber, and the
Octavians, as the eight commissioners of the trea-
3UI7 were called, the clergy were blamed; and
his ms^esty took advantage of this unhappy riot
to cany out his designs for a change in the whole
framework and constitution of the church. On
the day mentioned, Balcanquhal preached from
the pulpit of St. Giles\ to a numerous concourse of
people, consisting of the well-affected citizens of
Edinburgh and of such noblemen and gentlemen
as supported the protestant cause, and after ser-
mon, he requested those present to assemble in the
east or Little Kirk, to consider how the danger
threatening religion might be avoided. At this
meeting Mr. Bruce made an exhortation, showing
the perils of the church from the return of the
popish lords, and he desired all present to hold up
their hands and swear to defend the present state
of religion against all opposers whatsoever. A pe-
tition to the king was agreed to, praying that h'n
m^esty would secure them from the dangerous plots
of the papists, and that the citizens who had been
banished without a cause, might be put npon tbeh
trial, or have liberty to return to their homes. A
deputation, consisting of the Lords Lindsay and
Forbes, the lairds of Bargeny and Balquhan, two
bailies of Edinburgh, and Messra. Bruce and Wat-
son, was sent to present the petition to the king.
A minister named Cranston, till the return of the
deputies, read to those assembled the history of
Haman and Mordecai, and similar passages of
Scripture. James was, at the time, sitting with
his privy council in the Tolbooth adjoinmg St
Giles\ in a room above that where the conrt of
session was held, and on entering, Bruce, address-
ing him, said, " They were sent by the noblemen
and barons convened in the Little Kirk, to bemoan
the dangers threatened to religion by the dealings
that wei-e against the two professors.'' The kmg
demanded "What dangers?" Bmce replied, "Oui
best affected people that tender religion are dis-
charged of the town ; the Lady Huntly, a pro-
fessed papist, entertained at court, and it is sus-
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pected her hasbaud i3 not far off." Without
deigning a reply, the king inquired "who they
were that dared to as8crable without his authori-
ty?" "Dare!" said Lord Lindsay, "we dare
more than that, and shall not suffer the tinith to
be overthrown, and stand tamely by." This lan-
guage and the pressure of the people into the
apartment alarmed the king for his personal safe-
ty, for which he was, at all times, nervously ap-
prehensive. He abruptly quitted the room, and
hurried down stairs to the hall where the judges
lat. The deputation returned to their friends,
and while acquainting them with what had taken
place, the people without, fancying that the min-
isters were in danger, flew to arms, and displayed
the Blue Blanket, the banner of the city. The
uproar was increased by an enthusiastic citizen,
named Edward Johnston, crying out, " The sword
of the Lord and of Gideon against the courtiers,
enemies of the truth." ^Balfour's Annals, vol. i.
p. 400 ] The riot was at last suppressed, and the
king, highly incensed against the clergy and the
inhabitants, retired next day to Linlithgow, after
issuing a severe proclamation, ordering all who
were not indwellers to remove out of Edinburgh,
and appointing the courts of justice to be held at
Perth. On the pai-t of his brethren, Bruce wrote
a letter to Lord Hamilton, requesting him to in-
tercede with his majesty for the ministers, and to
defend them against the machinations and calum-
nies of their enemies, but instead of doing so, that
nobleman sent a garbled copy of his letter to his
majesty, which much enraged him. On the 20th
December two proclamations were issued, the one
charging the four mmisters of Edinburgh and some
special citizens, to enter in ward in the castle, and
the other commanding them to compear before the
council at Linlithgow on 25th December, to an-
swer for treasonably stirring up the tumult of the
17th of that month. Mr. Bruce proposed to re-
main in the city as he had not mixed in the tu-
mult, but his friends, convinced of his danger,
pressed him to withdraw himself. He and Mr.
Balcanquhal, therefore, retu*ed into England, but
before his departure he wrote a spirited declara-
tion of his innocence. This characteristic monu-
ment of his eloquence, his independence, and his
injuries, will be found in Calderwood. He also
wrote a letter of bitter remonstrance to Lord
Hamilton, renouncing his friendship, and saying
that even the earl of Hnntly, his lordship^s ne-
phew, would not have acted in the manner that
he had done.
In the course of a few months after, the king
was reconciled to the city, and Mr. Bruce obtain-
ed permission to return, with the rest of his bi-e-
thren. On the 24th April 1597, they got access
to the king, who approved of their leaving the
country, and said if they had not fled he might
have done that in his fury which he might have
afterwai-ds repented of. They wei-e not, however,
permitted to preach till the 24th of July. Soon
after, Mr. Bruce and his colleagues were ordered
to remove fix>m Edinburgh to any place they
might select. They answered that this was quite
contrary to the last conference they had with his
majesty, and before they would submit to such an
ignominy, they would renounce the favour they
had obtained, and submit themselves to trial,
though it should bring their heads under the axe.
In January 1598, when the proposed appointment
of four new ministers to Edinburgh came before
the commissioners of the Assembly, Mr. Brace
objected to the settlement of Mr. Peter Hewatt
and Mr. George Robertson, two of those named,
as being too young and not acceptable to the peo-
ple. Calderwood gives a detail of the many turns
that took place in this matter, which occasioned
Mr. Bi-uce fresh trouble and perplexity, and copies
his meditations on the subject from his own Diary
or Journal. It was not till the meeting of the
Dundee assembly of that year that the king de-
clared himself reconciled to Mr. Bruce and the
other obnoxious ministers. Before James was
brought to this point, says Calderwood, Mr. Bruce
offered five or six times to enter in wai-d, and
abide the law for the tumult of the 17th Decem-
ber. The king said that were it not for pleasuring
the commissioners of the Assembly, with whom he
professed to take plain part, a dozen of them had
trotted over Tweed ere that time. ICalderwood's
History, vol. v. p. 691.] In this Assembly Mr.
Bruce joined his brethren in maintaining that min-
isters should have no vote in parb'ament, a mea-
sure proposed by the court, in order to introduce
bishops into the church. The measure was car-
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ried, as the assemblies were now managed entirely
by the king, and even the commissioners of the
chnrch were all pi*e-appointed by the court.
Ill May of the same year (1598) Mr. Bruce was
admitted to the Little Kirk of Edinburgh. At
first he refused the imposition of hands, thinking
that it would invalidate his foimer ministry. The
king and the commissionei-s of the Assembly,
who were entirely subservient to his majesty, in-
sisted upon it, and after a good deal of disputation
with them, the full details of which will be found
in Calderwood's History, he ultimately submitted
to it as a ceremony not of ordination but merely
of confirmation and entry. His troubles however
did not end there. The king was determined to
cause him as much annoyance as possible, and
took every opportunity to molest him. It really
looks as if he had a special delight in tormenting
and pei'sonally persecuting him. In January 1599,
he was called befoi-e the council, with the other min-
istei*8, for their freedom in reproving the prevailing
vices of the time, and the king vainly attempted
to perauade them to promise to obey ceitain acts
of assembly passed according to his own pmposes,
and to refi'ain in future from meddling, in their
sermons, with any of his laws or proceedings. In
the following month he arbitrarily deprived Mr.
Bruce of a pension which had been conferred upon
him out of the abbey of Arbroath, of twenty-four
chaldei*s of victual, by a gift under the seals, for
his life, and transferred it to Lord Hamilton, the
nobleman who had garbled ^Ir. Bruce's letter, as
already stated. But Mr. Bruce raised an action
against his lordship before the court of session,
and had judgment pronounced in his favour, in
spite of an attempt on the part of the king to
ovei'awe the judges. His majesty's wrath' against
Mr. Bruce rose to such a pitch that for fifteen
weeks he sent some Mvolons message or other to
him every Saturday, to disturb him in his studies,
so that he was most anxious to leave Edinburgh.
In the following December the king in the absence
of Bnice in the country, ordered the process to be
revived, or as it is technically called, * wakened,'
in the court of session, relative to his pension. The
lords were threatened not to give judgment in his
favour, and even the advocates were debarred fi*om
pleading in his behalf. On his return he went to
the king to remonstrate. ** I have," he said,
"your majesty's grant, written with your own
hand, wherein you were pleased to say I deserved
it, though it had been the quarter of your kingdom ;
which I shall keep as a monument to posterity,
as your majesty also bade me." The king turned
calm, and said, "Save my honour, Mr. Robert,
and I shall not hurt you." " What way?" asked
Bruce. " Come up the morn," said the king,
" submit to my will, and render the gift." " Par-
don me," said Bruce, " I will not benefit my enemy,
nor give my right to any subject; but if your ma-
jesty will have it to your own use, I will give up
my grant most willingly, providing you gratify not
my competitors, nor bereave me causelessly of
my right, for the pleasure of any other subject."
This the king promised. Next day, when the
case was called in the court of session, Mr. Bruce
appeared for himself, and declai*ed, "I had my
gift of his majesty's free liberality. If his majesty
think that gift meet for his own use, look, how
freely his majesty gave it me, I will as freely ren-
der it again. But as for my Lord Hamilton, or
any neighbour man of the ministry, I am no way
obliged to them, so I look that his majesty will
suffer me to enjoy my right against them." But
the chancellor, under the contrel of the king, who
was pi-eseut, refused Mr. Bruce's bill. The de-
creets in his favour were annulled, and the pen-
sion was bestowed on the minister of Arbroath.
In August 1600, the Gowrie conspii-acy took
place, and Bruce, being unfortunately for himself
and for the chureh, one of those who entertained
doubts as to the ti-eason of the earl of Gowrie,
(who had been brought up under his direction,) and
his brother, refused to offer up thanks in the pulpit
for his majesty's dclivemnce fi-om the conspiracy,
though he had no objection to do so in general
teims for his preservation from danger. Although
the king himself had related the stoiy in public at
the cross of Edinburgh, Bruce and three of his
brethren absolutely refused to repeat it to their
congregations. " Ye have heai-d me, ye have
heard my minister, ye have heard my council, yc
have heard the yerle of Mai%" exclaimed the en-
raged monareh with eagerness, that half betrayed
the suspicion of his heai"t. Tlie chancellor in-
stantly pronounced a sentence dictated bv the
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coancil, probibidDg them from preachiug in the
kingdom nnder pain of death. On the day fol-
lowing, they gave in a application, with articles
of the extent to which they were willing to comply,
but they were ordered to beg the king^s pardon,
believe the whole report, and publisb it as troth.
Still refusing, the ministers were summoned to
Stirling for their obstinacy. Mr. Bmce offered to
publish it from the pnlpit as far as he understood
the conspiracy, and to believe in it for bis own
part, if Henderson, the earl of Gowrie's servant,
should confess at his execution that he had been
put into the secret room to assassinate the king.
Sir David Murray the comptroller, interrupted him
by saying, " Will ye believe a condemned man
better than the king and council?" *' My lord,"
replied Bruce, ** if he die penitent I will trust him.
If God receive his soul, I think we may receive
his testimony." ** You will not trust me, and the
noblemen that wore there with me, except ye try
me," said the king. ** Will cannot be restrained,"
was Brnce's answer. " I may well lie to you with
my mouth. I cannot trust but after trial." The
other three ministers, on their submission, were
allowed to return to their charges, but Bruce was
ordered to enter into ward in the tower of Airth,
a Ibrtress built by his ancestors, and celebrated in
popular tradition as the scene of one of the ex-
ploits of Wallace. Thence he was ordered to
quit the kingdom on the eleventh of November,
and continue in exile during the royal pleasure.
*^ A great impediment to the course of Episcopacy,"
says Calderwood, *^ was thus removed out of the
way. From that time, the banner of the truth
was never so bravely displayed in the pulpits of
Edinburgh as before."
Knowing James* character as he did, and his
determination to get rid of every one who was at
all obnoxious to him, Bruce might justly have
fancied that the king had very much exaggerated
the circumstances of the case, and it must be con-
fessed that there was enough of mystery in the
conspiracy as described, to cause grave doubts to
be entertained regarding the exact truth; but
there can be no question that Bruce^s conduct in
stickling as he did, on such a matter, gave the
king a mighty advantage, and tended to hasten
the overthrow of the church of which he was one
of the most influential leadera. His proscription
and banishment, at the time of her greatest danger,
removed a formidable obstacle in the way of James'
designs for the full introduction of episcopacy, and
proved fatal to the independence and almost to the
existence of the presbyterian church, whicli she
did not recover till the memorable year 1688, when,
as if to prove how " the whirligig of time brings^
about its own revenges," one who had been con-
veited by his preaching, the celebrated Alexander
Henderson, was the principal instrument of her
restoration.
Bruce sailed from Qneensferry at midnight of
the 6th November (1600) for Dieppe in Norman-
dy, where he annved in five days. At the moment
of his embarkation, a luminous glow spread itself
over the heavens in an unusually brilliant manner,
which the people, ignorant of such phenomena,
superstitiously imputed to the divine approbation
of his conduct. In May of the following year, the
Lady Mar obtained a license to Mr. Bruce to go
to liOndon to confer with Lord Mar and Edward
Bruce, Lord Kinloss, the king's ambassador, who
had previously sent for him twice. He accompanied
his lordship to Berwick, where he remained till
October, when he received his majesty's permission
to retum to Scotland, though he still refused to
proclaim Gowrie's treason fh>m the pulpit, saying
he was not persuaded of it. He was commanded
to keep ward in his own house of Kinnaird, where
he continued till 15th January 1602. He after-
wards had a conference with the king at Brechin,
and another at Perth, and on June 25th subscribed
a resolution to the cflfect that he was convinced of
his majesty's innocence and the guilt of the Ruth-
vens, according to the acts of parliament. This,
however, he did as a subject, not as a minister.
When the commissioners of the church m*gcd him
to proclaim his acknowledgment of the conspiracy,
and ask pardon for bis incredulity, he boldly an-
swered that he could not preach injunctions, to
which the Scottish church had never been accus-
tomed ; that in the chair of Grod he would preach
the words of truth as the Spirit should direct, and
that he plainly saw thev were not anxious about
his obedience to the act, but the disgrace of his
ministry. In consequence he was not allowed to
preach in Edinburgh. The people of his former
2e
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charge were most anxious to have him back again,
and sent two commissioners to the Assembly which
met in November 1602, to desire that they would
restore tiim, one of whom was the celebrated
George Heriot, who was a firm friend of Brace.
After several confei-ences, from wliich no good re-
sulted, he resolved to retire from the unequal con-
test, and on the 25th Februaiy 1608, his chuix^h
was declared vacant by the Assembly. His last
interview with King James took place April 5,
1609, at the moment when his majesty was setting
ont for England, but though very well received
and rather as a baron than a minister, there was
nothing said of his being restored to his chai'ge
in Edinburgh.* After the king had mounted his
horse, Mr. Bruce went again to him, when the
king, at paiting, said, **Now all particulars are
passed between me and you, Mr. Robert." Not-
withstanding this gracious reception, he had re-
solved that Bruce should never again be a minister
of Edinburgh.
The various conferences that took place between
Mr. Bruce and the king and privy council, on the
subject of the Gowrie conspiracy, are given in full
both by Caldei*wood and Wodrow. The * Nar-
rative by Mr. Robert Bruce, concerning his
troubles,' printed in the Bannatyne Club Miscel-
lany, also contains a considerable portion of them.
Mi\ Pitcaini, in the second volume, and in the
appendix to the third volume of his * Criminal
Trials,' has gathered together a valuable collec-
tion of materials for illustrating the truth of this
famous conspiracy, and with his usual discrimina-
tion has done ample justice to Brace's chai-acter.
" Throughout the protracted controvei*s} ," he says,
" between Brace and the king, the latter obvious-
ly had the worst of the argument, and tyrannically
put down his able but dauntless and pertinacious
antagonist by a most unlawful stretch of arbitraiy
power, after he had failed in all his attempts at
foiling him with his own weapons."
Beyond a threat by the Commissioners of the
Assembly to bring him to trial for his disobedience
and distrast in the Gowrie affair, he does not seem
to have been again disturbed till Febraary 27,
1605, when they summoned him to Edinburgh to
hear himself formally deposed. On bis appear-
ance, after a good deal of debate, they inhibited
him from preaching. He appealed to the-Assem-
bly, and still continued to preach. In August, he
was ordered to Inverness, under pain of ontlawr}',
where for four yeare he preached every Sunday
forenoon and Wednesday afternoon. One day,
while passing through Fisher street in that town,
with two of his friends, he was shot at by a gun,
but the ball fortunately missed him. At the re-
quest of the magistrates of Aberdeen he went to
that city, where he remained about a quarter of
a year, but was aftei-wards charged to retnra to
Inverness. On a vacancy occurring at Forres, he
preached thei-e for some months, at the desire of
the magistrates and people, but subsequently went
back to Inverness. In August 1618, at the solici-
tation of his son, who was then at court, he re-
ceived permission to return to Kinnaird. He
preached for some time at Stirling during a va-
cancy. Afterwards he obtained leave from tlie
privy council to retire to his house at Monkland,
but in consequence of his preaching to those who
came to hear him, he was, at the instance of the
bishop of Glasgow, obliged to return to Kinnaird.
In 16SI, when the Scots Estates wci-e about to
ratify the celebrated five articles of Perth, Bruce
ventni'ed to appear in Edinbnrgh, and in conse-
quence of a letter from the king, he was cited be
fore the council, and after being questioned, was
committed to Edinburgh castle, whei'e he remained
for several months, after which he was again ban-
ished to Inveraess. The council wrote to the
king inteix;eding for him to be allowed to stay at
his house of Kinnaird till the winter was past, but
his majesty, hearing of the crowds that flocked to
hear him, refused him any indulgence, saying in
his answer, " We .will have no more popish pil-
ginmages to Kinnaird, he shall go to Inveraess "
He continued there till September 1624, when he
obtained a license to retnra to Kinnaird about bis
domestic affairs. In the following Mareh King
James died, when the severity against him was
much mitigated, and be was not required to go
north again. In 1629 Charles the Firet wrote to
the council to restrict him to Kinnaird and to two
miles around it. The church of Larbert, which
was within his limits, having been neglected and
left without a minister by the bishops, he not only
repau'ed it, but preached there every Sunday tc
li I
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large congregations. Amongst otliera who came
to hear him was Alexander Hendei-son, minister
of Leuchars in Fife, who by one of his sermons on
John X. 1., was converted from episcopacy, and
afterwards, as above stated, took a prominent part
in restoring prcsbyterianism to its former suprem
acy. At the celebrated Shotts communion in
1630 Mr. Bruce was present and took part in the
services. He died August 13, 1631. On the
morning of that day, having breakfasted with his
family in the usual manner, he felt death approach-
ing, and warned his children that his Master called
him. He then desired a Bible to be brought, and
finding that his sight was gone, he i*equested his
daughter to place his hand on the two last vei*ses
of the Pipistle to the Romans. When his hand
was fixed on the words, he remained for a few
moments satisfied and silent. He had only
strength to add, "Now God be with you, my
children ; I have breakfasted with yon, and shall
sup to-night with the Lord Jesus Christ." He
then closed his eyes, and peacefully expu^. He
was buried in the aisle of the church of Larbert ;
and Calderwood says that between four and five
thousand pei-sons followed his body to the giave.
Tlie person of Robert Bruce was tall and digni-
fied. His countenance was majestic, and his ap-
pearance in the pulpit gi'ave, and expressive of
much authority. His manner of deliveij was slow
and engaging. In public prayer, which with him
was always extemporary, he was short and senten-
tious ; but so emphatic was his language, so ardent
were his expressions, that he appealed to his audi-
ence to be inspired. H is knowledge of the Scripture
was extensive, and accurate beyond the attainment
of his age. His skill in the languages and in the
science of those times, as well as his acquaintnnce
with the laws and constitution of the kingdom,
was equal if not superior to that of any of the
Scottish refoimei-s. Less violent than Melville,
more enlightened than Knox, says a writer in the
Scots Magazine, he viewed with a brighter and
milder eye the united interests of the church and
nation. His capacity for civil affaii-s was perceived
and acknowledged by his sovereign, and to this
may be imputed his misfortunes and disgrace.
The subjoined portrait of ^Ir. Brace is from
an engraving by J. Stewart, from an original
miniature in the possession of Bruce of Kinnaird,
prefixed to the Scots Magazine for December 1802.
His sci-mons, of which sixteen were printed
during his life, in two volumes, (1590 and 1591)
display a boldness of expression, a regularity of
style, and a force of argument seldom to be found
in the Scottish writers of the sixteenth centuiy.
Being written in the genuine Scottish of the time of
James the Sixth, a translation of the two volumes
into English was pnblislied at London in 1617, 4to,
and is that m hich for a long time was most com-
mon in Scotland. An edition of his seimons, with
his life by Wodrow, was printed in one volume for
the Wodrow Society in 1843, from the MS. in the
libraiy of the univereity of Glasgow.
By his wife he left a son, Robert, his succes-
sor in the lands of Kinnaird, and two daughtei*s.
Contemporary with the subject of this notice
was another Robert Bruce, a trafiScking popish
priest, whose lettere are, in the ' Scots Wortliies,*
most enoneously ascribed to this leading minister
of the Reformed Church of Scotland.
BRUCE, Sir William, designed of Kinross,
an architect of eminence in the seventeenth cen-
tury, was the second son of Robert Bruce, third
baron of Blairhali, by Jean his wife, daughter of
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JAMES.
Sir John Preston of Valleyficld. He was a steady
loyalist, and, according to Sir Robert Donglas,
naving got acquainted witli General Monk, he
pointed oat to him in snch strong terms the distress
and distractions of our country, and the glory that
would be acquired in restoring the royal family,
what the general at last opened his mind to him,
and signified his inclination to serve the king, but
said it must be done with caution and secrecy.
IDougku' Baronage, p. 245.] This, however, is
extremely unlikely, as it is well known that Monk
kept bis intentions closely concealed from every
one to the veiy last. Bruce had the honour, it is
farther stated, of communicating Monk's plans to
the king himself, in consequence of which, when
Charles the Second came to the throne, he ap-
pointed him clerk to the Bills, the very year of
the Restoration. Subsequently, in consideration
of his great taste and architectural skill he was
appointed master of the king's works and architect
to his majesty. He acquired the lands of Balcas-
kie in Fife, and was created a baronet by his ma-
jesty's royal patent to him and his heirs male,
21st April 1668. From the earl of Morton he ob-
tained the lands and barony of Kinross, by which
he was ever after designated. When after the
Restoration it was determined to erect additions
to the palace of Holyroodhouse, Sir William Bruce
designed the quadrangular edifice as it now stands,
connecting it with the original north-west towel's,
now forming part of the quadrangle. In 1685 he
built the mansion-house of Kinross, which was
originally intended for the residence of James
duke of York (afterwards James the Second of
England and Seventh of Scotland) in the event of
his royal highness being prevented by the Exclu-
sion Bill from succeeding to the throne. In 1702,
he designed Hopetoun house, the seat of the earl of
Hopetoun, in Linlithgowshire. Ho also designed
Moncrieffe house, Perthshire. He died in 1710.
Sir William Bruce was twice married, firat to
Mary, daughter of Sir James Halket of Pitfiri'ane,
Bart., and secondly, to Magdalene Scott. His
son. Sir John Bruce, married Lady Christian
Levcn, daughter of John duke of Rothes, and wi-
dow of the third mai-quis of Montrose, but died
without issue, when the title devolved on his cou-
sin. Sir Alexander Bruce, second son of the fourth
baix>n of Blairhall, on whose death, as he never
married, it became extinct. The estates went tc
Anne, sister of the second baronet, who married,
first, Sii* Thomas Hope of Craighall, by whom she
had three sons, and, secondly. Sir John Carstairsi
of Kilconquhar, and had to him one son and three
daughtera. After her death, this son inherited
the estates of his grandfather, Sir William Bruce.
BRUCE, James, a celebrated traveller, eldest
son of David Bruce, Esq. of Kiunaird, and of
Marion Graham of Airth, was bom at Kinnaird
House, in Stirlingshire, December 14, 1730. His
family were descendants of a younger son, by his
grandmother, Helen Binice, the heiress of Kinnaird,
of Robert de Bruce, and the estate had been in
possession of her family for upwards of three cen-
turies. His grandfather, David Hay, Esq. of
Woodcockdale, changed his name to Bruce on
maiTying that lady and succeeding to Kinnaird.
At the early age of eight he was sent to school in
London, and after thi-ee years spent there, he was
removed to the celebrated seminary at Harrow-
on -the-Hill, in Middlesex, where be made great
proficiency in classical knowledge, and where be
remained till May 1746. On his return to Scot-
land, he was, in the winter of 1747, entered at
the university of Edinburgh as a student of law ;
but, not liking the pursuit, and partly on account
of his health, he soon went home, where he took
great delight in the sports of the field. His
views being directed towards the East Indies, in
July 1753 he went to London, for the purpose
of soliciting the permission of the East India
Company, to go out and settle under their aus-
pices as a free trader. In the metropolis he be-
came acquainted with Mrs. Allan, the widow of
an opulent wine-merehant, whose daughter, Adri-
ana, he soon married, in February 1754; and,
becoming a partner in the business, was induced to
give up his intention of going to India. Mrs.
Bruce falling into a consumption, her husband set
out with her to the south of France, in the hope
that she would be benefited by a residence there ;
but she died at Paris, within a year of her mar-
riage. Bruce continued in the partnership, bot,
committing the principal management of the busi-
ness to another, he applied himself to the acqmro-
ment of the Spanish and Port'iguese languages.
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JAMES.
which he learnt to speak with accuracy and ease.
lu July 1757 he proceeded on a journey, fii-st
through Poi*tugal, and afterwaixls through Spain.
While at Madrid, he was very anxious to explore
the collections of Arabic manuscripts, buried in
the monastery of St. Lawrence, and contained in
the library of the Escuinal, but, by the jealousy
of the government, was refused permission.
He afterwards visited France and the Nether-
lands, and on receiving the intelligence of his
father^s death, he returned to Loudon in 1758.
Some of his remarks on the countries through
which he passed are quoted fi\)m his manuscript
journals, in his IJfe by Dr. Murray. The family
estate to which he succeedexl yielded him an in-
come, which, though moderate, was sufficient to
enable him to retire from the wine trade, which he
did m 1761. He now devoted himself to the study
of the languages of the East, particularly the
Arabic and the Ethiopic ; and to improving him-
self in drawing. There being a rumour of a war
between Great Britain and Spain, Bruce, through
his friend Mr. Wood, then under-secretary of
state, obtained an introduction to Mr. Pitt, after-
wai-ds Earl of Chatham, to whom he submitted a
project for a descent upon Spain, at Ferrol in
Galicia. He was soon after infonned by Mr.
Wood, that the minister intended to employ him
on a particular service, and advised him to settle
his affaii-s iu Scotland, and be ready at a moment's
notice. The resignation of Mr. Pitt put an end
to his hopes of employment at that time. But a
memorandum of the intended expedition which he
had drawn up for Mr. Pitt, had been laid before
the king, and was strongly recommended by Lord
Halifax. He also received some encouragement
from Lord Egremont and Mr. Greorge Grenville,
but, by the death of the former, his expectations
were again disappointed. At the beginning of
1762, Lord Halifax, at the suggestion of Mr.
Wood, proposed to him a journey to the coast of
Barbary, with the view of exploring the interior
of that country, and making sketches of the
Roman antiquities, which, according to Dr. Shaw,
were to be found there. In a conversation which
Bruce had with his loi-dship, the discovery of the
source of the Nile was one of the topics touched
uix)n, and the adventurous spirit of our traveller
was at ouce kindled mto enthusiasm at the idea of
such an enterprise. To investigate those remains of
Roman art, and Gi*ecian colonization, which had
hitherto baffled the researches of modern travel-
lers; to penetrate to the mysterious sources of the
Nile, which Julius Caosar had in vain desired to
discover, were pursuits worthy of his ambition,
and gratifying to his fondest wishes. Sweden had
just sent out Ilasselquist, Kalm, and others, pupils
of the great LinnsBUs, to exploi-e the most distant
iX'gions of the earth. The king of Denmark had
lately employed a company of scientific mission-
aries, to investigate the ancient and present state
of Arabia, and other Eastern countries. France
and Spam were sending out philosophers to Siberia
and Peru, with the object of asceitaining, by means
of an astronomical process, the precise figure of the
earth. The love of science, and the desire to pro-
mote the civilization of mankind, had eveiywhcre
inspired a wish to prosecute discoveries; and
Bruce, impelled by similar motives, and urged by
the most generous ambition, promptly acceded to
the proposal that was made to him, and was
appointed consul-general at Algiers, which at
that juncture became vacant. After being sup-
plied with the best instruments necessary for his
purpose, he set out for Italy through France. At
Rome he received orders to proceed to Naples, to
await his Majesty's commands; from Naples he
again returned to Rome, and proceeding to Leg-
horn, ho embarked there for Alters, where he
an'ived March 15, 1763, taking with him an able
Italian draughtsman. While he remained in
Italy, he spent several months improving himself
iu the study of drawing and of antiquities. He
made sketches of the temples at Paestum, which
he caused to be engraved, and intended to publish ;
but as he afterwards complained to his friend, Mr. •
(subsequently Sir Robert) Strange, some one had
obtained access to the engravings at Paris, and
published them by subscription at I^ndon. He
spent about two years at Algiers, and, having a
facility in acquiring languages, he in that time
qualified himself for appearing on any part of the
continent of Africa, without the help of an inter-
preter. He also learned the rudiments of surgery
from the consulate surgeon. A dispute with the
Dey, relative to Mediterranean passes, had de-
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JAMES.
rained hiin longer then he expected at Algiei*s, but
it was at last adjusted; and Bruce seems to have
throughout sustained the functions of his official
character with spirit and firmness. In May 1765
a suc^ssor was appointed, on whose an-ival he
proceeded to Mahon, and tlience to Carthage. He
next visited Tunis, and travelled to Tripoli across
the Desert. He jonmejed over the interior of
tliese states, and made drawings of the architec-
tural remains which he met with in his way. At
B('ngazi, a small town in the Mediten-anean, he
suffered shipwreck, and with extreme difficulty
saved his life, though with the loss of all his bag-
gage. He afterwards sailed to Rhodes and
Cyprus, and, proceeding to Asia Minor, travelled
through a considerable part of Syi'ia and Palestine,
visiting Hassia, Latikea, Aleppo, and Tripoli, near
which last city he was again in imminent danger
of perishing in a river. The niins of Palmyi-a and
Baalbec were next carefully surveyed and sketched
by him, and on his return to England, his draw-
ings of these places were deposited in the royal
library at Kew ; " the most magnificent present in
that line," to use his own words, " ever made by
i subject to a sovereign." He published no par-
ticular account of these various jounieys; but Dr.
Murray, in the second edition, introduced from
Bruce's manuscripts some account of his travels in
Tunis. In these different journeys several yeare
passed, and he now prepared for the grand expe-
dition, the accomplishment of which had ever been
near his heart, the discover)' of the source of the
Nile. In the prosecution of that perilous under-
taking, he left Sidon, June 16, 1768, and amved
at Alexandria on the 20th of that month. He
proceeded from thence to Cairo, where he was in-
ti-oduced to All Bey, the chief of the Mamelukes,
*from whom he received letters to the shereef of
Mecca, the naybe of Masuah or Masowa, and the
king of Sennaar. He also met at Cairo father
Christopher, a Greek whom he had known at Al-
giers, who was now archimandrite, under Mark,
patriarch of Alexandria, and was furaished by the
patriai-ch with letters to several Greeks in high
stations in Abyssinia.
On the 12th of December following he embarked
on the Nile, and sailed up the river as far as 8y-
ene, visiting in the way the ruins of Tliebes.
From the Nile he crossed the desert to Cosseir
on the Red Sea, from whence ho sailed for Jidda,
in April 1769; but instead of going direct, he
went up the gulf to Tor, and thence along the
Arabian coast to Jidda, where he arrived on the
3d of May. There he had the good fortune to
meet a number of his own countrjrmen from India,
ship-captains and merchants in the service of the
East Lidia Company, who paid him every atten-
tion, and kindly exerted their influence with the
authorities on his behalf. Metical Aga, the min-
ister of the shereef of Metica, who was originally
nn Abyssinian slave, interested himself warmly in
Bruce's welfare. He ordered one of his confiden-
tial sei^vants, Mahomet Gibberti, a native of Abys-
sinia, to accompany him in his journey, and he
wrote to Ras Michael, the governor of Tigre, at
that time the most powerful chief in Abyssinia,
recommending the traveller, as an English physi-
cian, to his protection.
In September 1769 Bruce sailed for Masuah,
the maritime key of the entrance into Abyssinia,
on the western coast of the Red Sea. He was
detahied there for several weeks, exposed to great
danger of his life by the villany of the naybe, a
chief whose cruelty and avarice caused him to be
dreaded by all travellers. After many perils from
the fierceness, the deceit, and the thievish rapacity
of the inhabitants, he at last made his way to 6on-
dar, the capital of Abyssinia, where he amved
about the middle of February 1770. At that time,
the connti-y was engaged in one of the fiercest civil
wars that had ever wasted it. Ras Michael and
the young king were absent with the army; but
Bnice became acquainted with Ayto Aylo, a man
of rank and influence; and having been successful
in curing many pei-sons of the smallpox, which
was at that time raging in the capital, he was in-
troduced by Ayto to the iteghe, or queen dowa-
ger, and to her beautiful daughter, Ozoro Esther,
the wife of Ras Michael, who, with several of the
young nobility, became his friends and protectors,
and continued to be so during his stay in Abyssi-
nia. When Ras Michael and the young king rp-
turned to the capital, he was presented to them,
and received a veiy flattering i*eception. His ex-
pertness in horsemanship, and his boldness and
intrepidity, recommended him to the Abyssiniaua
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BRUCE,
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JAMES.
generally, while the king and his minister con-
ceived a warm partiality for him. The Alexan-
drian patriarch had, by a pastoral letter, enjoined
the Coptic and Greek Christians, then in Grondar,
to pay him all honour and homage. He endeared
himself to most of the young nobility by instruct-
ing them in some of the military exercises of
Arabia and Emx>pe. High offices in the couit
were offered for his acceptance. To obtain the
protection necessary to enable him to accomplish
the purposes of his journey, he accepted the gov-
ernment of a small province, and even enrolled
himself among the lords of the Bed Chamber of
the Abyssinian monarch. Sevei-al months were
employed in attendance on the king, and in an
nusaccessful expedition round the lake of Dembea.
He obtained at length a feudal grant of the teni-
tory in wliich the fountains of the Kile had been
so long hidden ; and towards the end of October
he set out for the sources of the Bahr el Azrek,
which he supposed to be the principal branch of
the Nile, though it is now generally agreed that
the main stream is the Bahr el Abiail. At this
long-desired spot, the soui-ce.of the Nile, he ar-
rived on the 14th of November ; and hie feelings
on the occasion were of a very singular and mixed
character. At fii-st he felt a degree of exultation
that he had seen what, he imagined, no European
had ever witnessed before him ; but immediately
the most afflicting dejection overpowered his spi-
rits when he compared the small benefits likely to
result from his labours, with the difficulties which
he had ali'eady experienced, and the dangers which
he had still to encounter. Having accomplished
the chief object of his journey, he now directed
his thonghts towards returning to his native coun-
try. He arrived at Gondar, November 19, 1770,
but found it was by no means an easy task to ob-
tain peimission to quit Abyssinia.
The country being distracted with a civil war,
several engagements took place between the king's
troops and the forces of the rebels, particularly
three actions at Serbraxos, on the 19th, 20th, and
28d of May, 1771. In each of them Mr. Bruce
acred a prominent pai*t, and for his valiant con-
duct in the second he received, as a reward from
the king, a chain of gold, consisting of one hun-
dred and eighty-four links. At Gondar, after
thus distinguishing himself, he again earnestly so-
licited the king's permission to return home, but
his entreaties were long resisted. His health at
last giving way, fi*om the anxiety of his mind, the
king consented to his departure, on condition of
his engaging, by oath, to return to Abyssinia in
the event of his recovery, with as many of his
kindred as he could engage to accompany him.
After a residence of nearly two years in that
wretched country, Mr. Binice left Gondar, Decem-
ber 16, 1771. Convinced that if he should again
put himself within the power of the naybe of Ma-
suah, he would not be allowed to escape so easily
as he did before, he did not attempt to return by
the same route as that by which he had entered
Abyssinia. He preferred rather to journey through
those deseits, hitherto unexplored by European
travellers, in which the armies of the Persian
Cambyses had perished in ancient times.
When he left the capital of Abyssinia he was
accompanied by many friends, at parting with
whom he shed teai-s. That province, of which he
himself had been solicited to accept the govern-
ment, was the last within the Umits of the Abys-
sinian empire through which he had to pass. A
Moor, named Yasine, who had accidentally been
the companion of his journey on his firet entrance
into Abyssinia, and who had been appointed by
him deputy -governor of the province, took this
last opportunity of testifying his gratitude to his
benefactor, by entertaining him with respectful
hospitality, and negotiating for his friendly treat-
ment by the Arabs, through whose ten'itories he
was next to travel. Committing himself to the
desert, he made his way, in a few days, to Teawa,
where he amved, March 21, 1772. Canying
powerful recommendations to the sheikh of this
place, Binice expected to be hospitably entertain-
ed, and to obtain fresh camels, water, and guides;
but he was miserably disappoiuted. The sheikh
Fidele was one of the most faithless, rapacious,
and needy of all the Arabian chiefs, and a gi'eat
deal worse than the naybe of Masuah. Fancying
that the traveller possessed immense riches, he
resolved, either by craft or violence, to make these
riches his own. But Bruce not only refused to
comply with his demands, but signified his deter-
mination to resist force by force, and secretly
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JAMES.
despatched messeugcrs to solicit assistance from
Abyssinia and Seunaar. In the meantime he was
supplied with lodging and entertainment: the
sheikhas own wives cooked his meals, and he was
called, nnder his character as a physician, to admin-
ister remedies to the Ai'ab chief and his family.
On one occasion, when the sheikh was nnder the
influence of intoxication, he menaced the travoUer
with instant death unless he produced his trca-*
sures; but Binice, who always can-ied aims,
quickly overpowered tlie treacherous and cowai'dl}-
Arab by his promptness and intrepidity. He hail
won the favour of the chiefs daughter, and,
wanicd by her and her women, he was enabled to
guard himself against the secret snares of the wily
sheikh. At last sufficient protection amved for
him ; and having predicted an eclipse of the moon,
which was exactly accomplished on the 17th April,
the sheikh was glad to get rid of him. Camels,
guides, water, and other necessaries, were now
readily supplied; and at parting, Bruoe, much to
Xlie sheikh's astonishment, bestowed upon him a
handsome but an ill-desen'ed remuneration.
After encountering many perils, he aiTived,
April 29, at the capital of the kingdom of Sennaar.
Here the selfish knavery of a banker, on whom he
had an order for a supply of money, which he de-
clined to pay, reduced him to the necessity of dis-
posing of the greater part of the gold chain which
he had earned by his bravery at Serbraxos ; by
which he was enabled to make preparations for
his dangerous jouniey through the deserts of Nu-
bia. He left Sennaar, September 5, and arrived,
October 3, at Chendi, which he quitted on the
20th, and travelled through the desert of Gooz, to
which village he came, October 26, and left it
November 9. He then entei-ed upon the most
dreadful and perilous part of his jouniey. He
and those with him travelled in constant di*ead of
being suddenly attacked and robbed by the wan-
dering Arabs. Their water began to be exhausted ;
theii* camels became lame ; and their own f^et
were lacerated and swollen. To add to their mis-
eries, the direful simoom, whose blast is death,
repeatedly overtook them; and had they not,
though with infinite difficulty, avoided inhaling its
poisonous breath, they must have all instantly
perished. Gigantic columns of sand started sud-
denly up in ranks before and behind, and ap-
proached with rapid and tremendous movements,
as if to overwhelm them. Even their camels, at
last overcome with fatigue, sunk under their bur-
dens and expired. They were now under the
necessity of abandoning their baggage in the de-
sert ; and it is impossible to describe the anguish
of Mi\ Brace's feelings when he saw himself ob-
liged to relinquish his journals, his drawings, his
collection of specimens, his precious Ethiopic
manuscripts ;• every memorial, iu short, that could
testify to the inhabitants of Europe that he had
indeed travelled into Abyssinia, and penetrated to
the sources of tlie Nile. With the greatest diffi-
culty he leached Assouan, where he arrived, No-
vember 19. After some days' rest, having pro-
cured fresh camels, he retm'Ued into the desert
and i*ecovered his baggage. He now proceeded
gaily down the Nile to Cairo, where he arrived,
January 10, 1773, after more than four years' ab-
sence. An aot of kindness to one of the officers
of Mohammed Bey, who had by this time sup-
planted Ali Bey in the administration of the Egyp-
tian govei-nment, proved the occasion of introduc-
ing him to that nilcr. Grrateful for the favours he
had received fix>m tiie servants of the East India
Company at Jidda, he procured from Mohammed
Bey a firman, permitting British vessels beiongmg
to Bombay and Bengal to arrive at that port with
their merchandise, on the payment of more mode-
rate duties than had ever before been exacted fi-om
them in any port of the Red Sea.
Thia was Bruce's last memorable ti-ansactlon m
the East. At Cairo his career was nearly finished,
by a disorder in his leg, occasioned by a worm in
the flesh. This accident kept him five weeks in
extreme agony, and his health was not established
till about a y^ar afterwards, at the baths of Por-
retta, In Italy. On his rctum to Europe, he was
received with all the admiration due to his enter-
prising character. After passing a considerable
time in France, particularly at Montbard, with his
celebrated friend the Count de Buffon, he at last
arrived in England, which he reached iu the sum-
mer of 1774, having been absent from it about
twelve yeai-8.
His reception at coml was very flattering. The
drawings w hich he presented to the king were ac-
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JAMES.
cepted to enrich the collection of hid sovereign at
Kew ; and his majesty bestowed upon him, in rec
tiirn, the sum of two thousand poands. Tliese
drawings were so exqaisiteiy beautihii, that it was
insidiously stated tliat they were not executed, as
he pretended, by his own pencil. Dnring his hong
absence, Iiis relations considering him dead, took
measures to possess themselves of his pro-
perty. A number of lawsuits was the ine-
vitable consequence of his return. He was
also, soon after retiring to his^ paternal^
estate, attacked by the ague; which he hixiV
caught at Bengazi, where he had suffered
sliipwreck, and which tormented him from
time to time for sixteen years. His bio^
grapher, Captain Head, has done justice to
^*- the steady courage with which he encoun-
tered danger, and the tact and judgment
with which he steered his lonely course
til rough some of the most barren and bar-
barous countries in the world."
He married a second time, May 20, 177G,
Mary, eldest daughter of Thomas Dundas
of Fingask. By Mi-s. Bruce, who died in
1784, after a long and lingering illness, ho had two
sons and one daughter. His ti'avels were not
published till 1790, when they appeared in five
large quarto volumes, embellished with plates and
charts, and dedicated to the king. The work
abounds with adventures so extraordinary, and
describes instances of perseverance and intrepidity
so wonderful, and gives such cunous accounts of
the manners and habits of the people of Abyssinia,
that it startled the belief of many. The state-
ment, in particular, that the Abyssinians were in
the practice of eating raw meat cut out of a living
cow, was deemed altogether unworthy of credit,
and set down as a fabrication of the author's fer-
tile imagination. De Tott in France, and Dr.
Johnson and othei-s in England, doubted the ac-
curacy of many of his statements, and treated his
pretensions to veracity with ridicule. Bruce was
vindicated, however, by Dalnes Barrington, Sir
William Jones, and Buffbn ; and posterity has
done him ample justice. His statements have
been verified and con-oborated by every traveller
who has since been in or near Abyssinia. From
his discoveries, geography and natnrnl histoiy
have derived considerable improvements; and his
illustrations of some parts of the sacred writings
are both original and valuable.
Mr. Bruce spent the latter years of his life
chiefly at Kinnaird, the mansion-house of which
he rebuilt, and of which a representation is an-
nexed, dividing his attention betwixt his museum
his booKS, and his rural improvements. His fig-
ure was above the common size, being upwards
of six feet high ; his limbs were athletic and well
proportioned, his complexion sanguine, his coun-
tenance manly and good-hnmoured, and his man-
ners affable and polite. He excelled in all per-
sonal'accomplishments, and was master of most
languages ; being so well skilled in oriental litera-
ture, that he revised the New Testament in the
Ethiopic, Samaritan, Hebrew, and Syriac, adding
many useful notes and observations. The fii-st
edition of his work was disposed of in a short time,
and he was prepai-ing a second edition for the press
when death interrupted his labours. On the
evening of April 26, 1794, on the departure of
some company whom he had been entertaining at
his house at Kinnaii-d, in handing a lady to her
can-iage, his foot slipped on the stairs, and he fell
down headlong. He was taken up speechless, his
face, particularly the forehead and temples, being
severely cut and bruised, and the bones of his
hands broken. He remained in a state of insensi-
bility for eight or nine hours, when he expired on
Sunday April 27, 1794, in the 65th year of his
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age. Ilia usual dress, when in the country, was a
spotted flannel jacket and a turban, with a long
Btaff in his hand.— Zty^ by Capt. Head.
The following is a full length poitrait of him,
fW>m an engraving by Kay :
BRUCE, Michael, a tender and ingenious
poet, the fifth son of Alexander Bruce, weaver,
was born at Kinnesswood, in the parish of Port-
moak, Kinross-shire, March 27, 1746.. His mo-
ther belonged to a family of the same name and
humble rank in the neighbourhood. Both parents
were Burgh er-Secedera, and were remarkable for
their piety, industry, and integi-ity. He early dis-
covered superior intelligence, which, with his
fondness for reading and quiet habits, induced his
father to educate him for the ministiy. In his
younger years he was employed as a herd on the
Lomond Hills. He received the usual couree of
instruction at the village school of Portmoak, and
the neighbouring town of Kinross. In 1762 he
was sent to the university of* Edinburgh, where he
apnlied himself, durincf the four succeeding yeai-s.
with no less assiduity than success, to the study oi
the several branches of literature and philosophy.
Before leaving home, he had given evident signs
of a propensity to poetry, in the cultivation of
which he was greatly encouraged by Mr. David
Arnot, a fanner on the banks of Loch I>even, who
directed him to the perusal of Spencer, Shakspeare,
Milton, and Pope, supplied him with books, and
acted as the judicious guide and friendly counsellor
of his youthful studies. Mr. David Pearson, of
Easter Balgedie, a village in the neighbourhood of
Kinnesswood, a man of strong pai*ts, and of a seri-
ous and contemplative tuni, also contributed, by
his encouragement and advice, to lead him to the
study of poetry ; and the names of these two un
pretending individuals, for their disinterested kind-
ness to the friendless Bruce, are worthily recorded
in all the memoii*s of his life.
Soon after his coming to Edinburgh, he con
tracted an acquaintance with Logan, then a stu-
dent at the same university. A congenial feeling
and a similarity of pursuits, soon led these twv
poets to become intimate companions. When not
at college, Bruce endeavoured to earn a scanty
livelihood by teaching a school. In 1765 he went
to Gainie}" Bridge, near Kinross, where he taught
the children of some farmers in the neighbourhood,
who allowed him his board and a small salary.
This he quitted in the summer of 1766, in which
year he entered as a student in the divinity hall of
the Bnrgher Synod, and removed to a school at
Forrest Mill, near Alloa, in which he appears to
have met with less encouragement than he ex-
pected. At this place he wrote his poem of
* I^chleven.' In the autumn of that year, ** his
constitution," says Dr. Anderson in his Britbh
Poets, " which was ill calculated to encounter the
austerities of his native climate, the exertions of
daily labour, and the rigid frngality of humble
life, began visibly to decline. Towards the end of
the year, his ill health, aggravated by the indi-
gence of his situation, and the want of those com-
forts and conveniences which might have fostered
a delicate frame to maturity and length of days,
terminated in deep consumption. During the
winter he quitted his employment at Fondest Mill,
and with it all hopes of life, and returned to his
native village, to receive those attentions and con-
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ARCHIBALD.
solations which his sitoHtion required from the
anxiety of pai-ental affection and the sympathy of
friendship.*' He lingered through the winter, and
in the spring he wrote the well-lcnown and deeply
pathetic elegy on his own approaching death ; be-
ginning • —
" The spnng returns; but not to me returns
The venial joy my better years hmve known ,
Dim in my breut life's dying tuper bums,
And all the joys of life with heaUh are flown.**
This was the last composition which he lived to
finish. By degrees his weakness increased, till he
was gradually worn away, and he expired July 6,
1767, in the twenty-first year of his age.
Soon after his death his poems, which are not
numerous, wei-o revised and connected by his friend
I^gan, who published them at Edinburgh in 1770,
with a preface; but in this edition several other
)K>ems were injudiciously inserted to fill up the
volume, which afterwards led to much uncertainty
as to which were really Bruce's. The beautiful
' Ode to the Cuckoo,' the episode of * Levina,' in
the poem of ' Lochleven,' the ' Ode to Paoli,' and
the * Eclogue after the manner of Ossian,' which
are clearly ascertained to have been the composi-
tion of Bruce, were subsequently claimed by I-o-
gan's biographer as his. Logan himself, it seems,
put forth some pretensions to being the author of
the ' Ode to the Cuckoo,* and in July 1782 applied
for an interdict in the court of session against
John Robertson, printer in Edinburgh, and Wil-
liam Anderson, bookseller, and afterwards provost
of Stirling, who were about to bring out an edition
of Bruce's works, containing the poems mentioned;
which interdict was removed in the succeeding
August, Mr. Logan not being able to substantiate
his pleas. The attention of the public was called
to Michael Binice*8 poems by Lord Craig, in a
paper in the Mirror in 1779, and they were re-
printed in 1784. In 1795 Dr. Anderson admitted
the poems of Bruce into his excellent collection of
the British poets, and prefixed a memoir of the
author. In 1797 a new edition, including several
of Bmce's unpublished pieces, was published by
subscription, nnder the superintendence of the
venerable principal Baird, for the benefit of the
poet's mother, then in her ninetieth year. In 1837
appeared a new edition of Bruce^s poems, with a
life of the author, fix>m original sources, by the
Rev. William Mackelvie, Balgedle, Kinross-shire,
which contains all the information that can now
be collected regarding the poet. In Dr. Drake's
* Literary Hours,' there is a paper written with a
view of recommending the works of Bruce to the
admirers of genuine poetry in England, as Lord
Craig, in the MiiTor, had long before reconmiended
them to readers of taste in Scotland. In 1812 an
obelisk, about eight feet high, was erected over
Brace's grave in Portmoak churchy ai-d, bearing as
an inscription merely the wonls — *' Michael Brace,
Bora March 27, 1746. Died 6th July, 1767."
Bruce's characteristics as a poet are chiefly
simplicity and tenderness. He possessed in a
high degree judgment, feeling, and sensibility ; and
without much imagination or enthusiasm, he is
always graceful, elegant, and pleasing. His
^ Lochleven,' the longest and most elaborate of his
poems, is in blank verse, and shows considerable
strength and harnxony. His * Sir James the Rose '
contains all the attributes of the historical ballad.
His two Danish odes possess the trae fire of
poetry, and appear to have been modelled upon
the Norse odes of Gray. His song of ' Lochleven
no more' is full of a sad and touching pathos
which goes directly to the heart. The * Ode to
the Cuckoo,' has been characterised by no less a
judge of literary merit than Edmund Burke, as
" the most beautiful lyric in our language."
BRUCE, Archibald, the Rev., a voluminous
writer, and eminent minister of the Secession
church, was born at Broomhall, near Denny,
Stirlingshire, in 1746. He gave early indication
of decided piety, and even fi-om his boyhood his
views were directed to the oflSce of the holy min-
istry. Having received the elements of a classi-
cal education at a countiy school, he prosecuted
the study of the languages and philosophy at the
university of Glasgow. He studied divinity under
Professor Moncrieff of Alloa, and in August 1768,
was ordained minister of the Associate (Antibur-
gher) congregation at Whitburn. After the death
of Mr. Moncrieff of Alloa, in 1786, he was elected
professor of divinity in his room, by the General
Associate Synod, and continued to occupy the
chair till the year 1806, when he separated from
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ARCHIBALD.
that body, owing to his disapproving of tlic doc-
trines of the * Narrative and Testimony,* on the
subject of the powers of the civil government in
religions matters. He and tliree othera having
declined the authority of the Synod, and with-
drawn from its commnnion, foimed themselves
into what was then called the ^'Constitutional
Associate Presbytery," afterwards the "United
Original Secedere," at the formation of which Mr.
Bruce presided as moderator. He disobeyed the
summons of Synod to appear befoi*e the presby-
tery of Edinburgh, and sentence of deposition was
accordingly pronounced against him. Two of
those who had joined with him, Mr. James Ait-
ken, minister at Kirriemuir, and Mr. Thomas
M*Crie, of Edinburgh, afterwards the celebrated
Dr. M*Crie, were also deposed. The fourth, Mr.
James Hog, minister at Kelso, escaped deposition,
by dying during the progress of the proceedings in
the church courts against him. The i-eader is re-
feired to the life, in this collection, of Dr. M'Crle,
for the reasons of this secession. The majority of
the Synod of Original Seceders was at the meeting
of the Assembly of 1852, united to the Free Church
of Scotland, of which they ai-e now a component
part.
After Mr. Bruce's separation fix)m the General
Associate Synod, he continued to superintend the
tlieological class connected with the Constitutional
Pi-esbytery. He died February 28, 1816. About
the beginning of that year he was seized with
occasional fainting fits, which alarmed his friends,
and on the day of his death, which was the Lord^s
day, he had performed as usual, though somewhat
indisposed, the exercises of the pulpit. After re-
turning home, and while conversing with a mem-
ber of his congregation, he almost instantaneously
expired, without a struggle or a groan. He was
in the seventieth year of his age. " He possessed,"
says Dr. M'Crie, "talents of a superior order,
wliich he had cultivated with unwearied industry.
To an imagination which was lively and fertile,
he united a sound and coiTect judgment. His
reading, which was various and extensive, was
conducted with such method, and so digested,
that he could at any time command the use of it;
and during a life devoted to study he had amassed
a Steele of knowledge, on all the branches of learn-
ing connected with his profession, extremely rare."
" He was more qualified for writing than public
speaking; but though his utterance was slow, and
he had no claims to the attractions of delivery, yet
his discourses from the pulpit always commanded
the attention of the judicious and serious, by the
pi-ofound views and striking illustrations of divine
truth which they contained, and by the vein of
solid piety which ran through them. His piety,
his erudition, his uncommon modesty and gentle-
manly manners, gained him the esteem of all his
acquaintance; and these qualities, added to the
warm interest which he took in their literary and
spiritual improvement, made him revered and be-
loved by his students." In a note appended to
the Life of Dr. M*Crie, by his son, the latter says,
" It may be mentioned as a curious illustration of
the zeal with which Mr. Bruce prosecuted his L't-
erai7 labours, that he brought a printer to Whit-
bum, and employed him exclusively for many
years in printing his own publications."
Of his numerous works a list is subjoined:
The Kirkind, or Golden Age of the Church of Scothmd,
Canto I., a satire on the reign of Moderation, published ano-
njinouslr, 1774.- This poem he intended afterwards to have
continued, but graver subjects prevented him.
Free Thoughts on the Toleration of Popery, published
under the assumed name of Calvinus Minor, Scoto Britanno^
1780, a work irequentlj quoted by Mr. M^Gavin m * Tbe
Protestant,* as evincing much talent and research.
True Patriotism^ or a Public Spirit for God and Religion
recommended, and the want of it reprehended; a Sermon
preached before the General Associate Synod, on a day ap-
pointed for humiliation, from the text, Judges, v. 28, * Curse
ye Meroz,' &c 1785;
Annus Secniaris, or the British Jubilee, a Review of an
Act of Assembly, appointing the 5th of November 1788, an
anniversary thank^ving in commemoration of tbe Revolu-
tion, 1788, large 8vo. Ifa this work, which was published
under the assumed name of Cidvinus Presbyter, the author
enters, at great length, into the origin, progress, and tendency
of religious festivals both in ancient and modem times, and
seems to have bestowed a great deal mors labour on the
subject than its practical utility appears to have required.
The Catechism Modernized and adapted to the meridian of
patronage, and late improvements in the Church of Scotland,
with suitable Creeds and Prayers; a small anonymous trea-
tise, 1791. This was a cutting satire on the chief promoters
of patronage, in the shape of a parody on the Assembly's
Shorter Catechism, each question in the Catechism having its
corresponding question in the treatise. The parody, it was
thought, was carried too far, and in the advertisements of bis
publications, this treatise was never included.
Reflexions on the Freedom of Writing, and Impropriety of
attempting to suppress it by Penal Laws, occasioned by a
proclamation issued against seditious publications, 1794:
published under the character of a North British Protestant
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BRUNTON.
A reniteutial Kptstle and Humble Supplication to his
Holineas the Pope, in the name of the People of Great
BriUun, for a perfect recondliation and perpetual allianoe
with Rome, 1797; a derer anonymous poem, hi which he is
Teiy successful in exposing and ridiculing the superstitions of
the Romiah church.
Introductory and Occasional Lectures to Students, as read
in the Theok^cal Hall at Whitburn. Vol i., 1797. The
second volume was in the press, and nearly ready for publica-
tion, at the time of Mr. Bruce*8 death. It was completed
and edited by Dr. M*Cne.
A TransUtion. from the French, of Pictet's Disoourses on
True and False Religion, witn a vindication of the religion
and reformation of Protestants, and an account of the life and
irritings of the author prefixed, 1797.
Principal Differences between the religious principles of
those called the Anti-Government Party and of other Presby-
terians, especially those of the Secession in Scotland, on the
bead of magistracy. A small pamphlet, 1797.
A Historico-PoIitico-EcclesiastiGd Dissertation on the su-
premacy of dvil powers in matters of religion, 1798. This
was a subject which, at that period, was keenly agitated in
the Secesdon Church, on the bringing forward their new
* Narrative and Testimony.*
The same year (1798) he edited, from a manuscript in the
theological library at Whitburn, Memoirs of the Public life
of James Hog of Camock, and of the Ecdesiastical PkDoeed-
ings of his Times. This interesting pamphlet contains notices
of some of the leading events in several meetings of Assembly
immediatdy after the Revolution.
A Review of the proceedings of the General Assodate
Synod, and of some Presbyteries, in reference to the Ministers
who protested against the impodtion of a new Testimony.
One volume 8vo of 400 pages.
Poems, Serious and Amudng, by a Rev. Divine, 1812.
In this small volume are collected the poems which, in the
course of several years, he had sent to the periodicals of the
day.
A critical account of tlie Life of Mr. Alexander Moms, a
cdebrated preacher and professor of theology in Geneva and
Holland, with sdect Sermons of Moms appended, translated
from the French by Mr. Bmce, 1813.
Shortly before his death, he was engaged in preparing for
publication a volume of sermons on Practical Subjects.
Beddes the publications here noticed, Mr. Bmce wrote
several pamphlets on questions that were keenly agitated in
his day, tihich were published anonymoudy.
BRUCE, James, the Rev., a miscellanooiiB
writer, born of parents in a hamble station in life,
was a native of the north-west part of Forfarshire.
About the year 1780 be was a distinguished
scholar at the university of St. Andrews. He
afterwards removed to Cambridge, where he be-
came a Fellow in Emmanuel college, and took his
degree of M.A. He subsequently entered into
holy orders in England, where he remained many
years in the capacity of a curate. About the be-
ginning of the present century be returned to
Scotland, and became a clergyman in the Scottish
episcopal church. About the year 1808 he began
to furnish i-evicws for the Anti-Jacobin Magazine
and Review, now discontinued, and to the British
Critic, two monthly publications, which were then
the only periodical works which devoted any part
of their space to the interests of the Church of
England. These two publications were for a long
time chiefly conducted and supported by Mr.
Bruce, and his friend, the late Right Rev. Dr.
George Gleig, bishop of Brechin, and Primus.
Notwithstanding his talents and his varied and
solid attainments, Mr. Bruce never rose to any
church preferment; but died in the year 1806 or
1807, in comparative obscurity in London, after
leading a most laborious literary life. He does
not appear however to have published any sepa-
rate work, except —
A Sermon preached at Dundee on the death of George
Teaman, Esq., entitled The Regard which is due to the Me-
mory of Good Men, 1803, 8vo.
Mr. Brace's Reviews extend from vol. xv. to vol. xxii. of
the Anti-Jacobin. Of the foUowing, among many other
works, the criticisms were written by him : — Overton's Trae
Churchman; Gleig's Sermons; AbdoUatipb's History; Skin-
ner's Primitive Tratli; Bishop of Lincoln's Charge; Dau-
beney*s Vindide; Pinkerton's Geography; Repton's Articles;
Bisset's History; Grant's Poems; Dialogues, &c. ; Godwin's
life; Hill's Synonymes, a very able and learned critique;
Academicus' Remarks; Davis's Attic Researches; Martin's
Sermons; Barrow's Travels; Remarks on Bishop of Lincoln's
Charge; Hill's Theological Institutes; and Godwin's Fleet-
wood.
BauitTON, a surname evidently derived from the lands oi
Brufutane on Branstane burn, a small stream in Mid Lothii>n,
which separates the parish of Duddingston from Inveresk and
IJberton on the south, and flows into the Frith of Forth near
Fisherrow. The ruins of Branstane castle on the Esk, built
about 1580, are of considerable extent. Crichton of Bran-
ston, the secret agent of Henry the Eighth in the conspiracy
against Cardinal Bethune, generally signed himself BrowuUm
in his letters.
BRUNTON, Mrs. Mary, an ingenious novelist,
the only daughter of Colonel Thomas Balfour of
Elwick, was bom in the Island of Burra, in Ork-
ney, November 1, 1778. Her mother was Frances,
only daughter of Colonel Ligonier of the 18th
dragoons, and niece of field-marshal the earl of
Ligonier, to whose charge she had early been left
an orphan. Under her mother's care, she became
a considerable proficient in music, and an excel-
lent French and Italian scholar. While yet
young, she evinced a strong partiality for the
perusal of works of poetry and fiction. In her
sixteenth year the charge of her father's house-
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GEORGE.
hold devolved upon licr, and from that period till
her twentieth year, she had little leisui-e for self-
impi-ovement. When she was only twenty, she
married the Rev. Alexander Brunton, then minis-
ter of the parish of Bolton, near Haddington,
afterwards D.D., professor of oriental languages,
and librarian in the university of Edinburgh, and
one of the ministers of the Tron church of that
crty. In the quiet of a Scottish manse, Mi-s.
Brunton 's taste for books retumcd in all its
strength, and, under the direction of her husband,
she pursued a course of reading not only in criti-
cism and the belles lettres, but in philosophy and
history. She also acquired some knowledge of the
German language, and taught herself to draw.
At this time she felt so little inclination for com-
position, that the mere writing of a letter was irk-
some to her.
In autumn 1803, on the removal of her husband
to Edinburgh, she accompanied him ; and her cir-
cle of acquaintances being now widened, she min-
gled more with people of talent and distinction in
literature than she had had the opportunity of
doing in East Lothian. It was chiefly for the
employment of accidental intervals of leisui'e, as
we are informed by her husband, that Mrs. Bnin-
ton began the writing of * Self- Control ;' a consid-
erable part of the fii*st volume of which was fin-
ished before she informed her husband of her
project. This novel was published at Edinburgh
in 1811, in two volumes ; it was dedicated to Miss
Joanna Baillie, and its success was so complete,
that it had not been out above a month, when a
second edition was called for. The faults of the
book were great ; but as a first appearance it was
a most promising perfonnance. The beauty and
correctness of the style, the acutcness of observa-
tion, the discrimination of character, and the lofti-
ness of sentiment which it displayed, were univer-
sally acknowledged. The work was published
anonymously. In December 1814 appeared, 'Dis-
cipline,' in three volumes ; the reception of which
was more favourable than the author herself had
anticipated. She afterwards designed a collection
of short naiTatives, under the title of * Domestic
Tales.' The first of these, the * Runaway,' was to
contain the story of a truant boy, whose hai*dships
<;hou1d teach him the value of home ; with which
she wished to blend some account of the peculiar
manners of Orkney. While arranging her plans
for this series of tales, she commenced the story
of * Emraeline,' the object of which was to show
how little chance there is of happiness when a
divorced wife marries her seducer. This tale she
did not live to finish.
In the summer of 1818, Mi-s. Bnmton had the
prospect of being for the first time a mother ; bnt
a strong impression had taken possession of her
mind, that her confinement was to prove fatal.
Under this belief she made every preparation for
death, with the same tranquillity as if she had
been making arrangements for a short absence
from home. The clothes in which she was laid in
the grave were selected by herself; she herself had
chosen and labelled some tokens of i-emembrance
for her more intimate friends ; and she even drew
up in her own handwriting a list of the persons to
whom she wished intimations of her death to be
sent. But these gloomy anticipations, though so
deeply fixed, neither shook her foititude nor dimin-
ished her cheeifulness. They altered neither her
wish to live, nor the ardour with which she pro-
pared to meet the duties of returning health, if re-
turning health was to be her portion. Her fore-
bodings proved only too well-founded. After
giving birth to a still-born son, on the 7th of De-
cember, and recovering for a few days with a
rapidity beyond the hopes of her medical attend-
ants, she was attacked with fever, which advanced
with fatal violence, terminating her valuable life
on December 19, 1818, in the forty- first year of
her age. In the spring of 1819 the unfinished
tale of * Emmeline,' with some extracts from her
con*espondence, and other pieces, was publislied
by her husband, who prefixed a brief but elegant
and affecting memoir of her life, to which we arc
indebted for these detaild.
BRUNTON, George, a miscellaneous writer,
the eldest son of a respectable citizen of Edinburgh,
was bom in that city, January 81, 1799. He re-
ceived the rudiments of his classical education at
the Canongate high school, an institution now dis-
continued. Having adopted the legal profession,
he became in 1831 an advocate's first derk, which
entitled him to practise as a solicitor before the
supreme couits of Scotland. The bent of hie
I !
! i
_ I
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ALEXANDEK.
genius, however, was towards literary pursuits.
He wrote several articles, both in prose and poetry,
in the * Ediuburgli Magazine,' the ' Scottish Lite-
rary Gazette' and 'Tait's Magazine.' In 1834,
he became editor of the 'Scottish Patriot,' an
Edinburgh newspaper, as he had previously been
of another called the * Citizen.' In conjunction
with Mr. David Haig, assistant-librarian to the
faculty of advocates, a gentleman distinguished in
Scottish history and antiquities, Mr. Brunton pub-
lished, in 1832, * An Historical Account of the
Senatoi-s of the College of Justice, from its Insti-
tution in 1532;' of which he compiled the earlier
portion. It had so happened that at the time Mr.
Brunton was collecting materials for a similar work,
Mr. Haig had been for a year or two previous en-
gaged in an undertaking of the same nature. An
accidental conversation which the latter had with
Mr. Bnmton in the Advocates' Library, led to a
discovery that, unknown to each other, both were
contemplating a work exactly the same, the only
difference being in the plan and arrangement.
The result was, an agreement between them to
combine their researches. About the same time,
one of Mr. Brauton's brothers entered into part-
nership with the brother of Mr. David Haig, as
booksellers and stationers in Edinburgh, and with
a view to promote the success of their relatives,
they commenced a weekly periodical, entitled
* The Scots Weekly Magazine,' which was exclu-
sively devoted to the elucidation of Scottish history
and antiquities, and Scottish life and manners;
but which not being successful was soon discon-
tinued. In the beginning of April 1836, Mr.
Brunton's declining health induced him to proceed
to the Continent, and he died at Paris, June 2 of
that year, leaving a widow and three children.
Brtce, a snmame supposed to hare been originally Bruce,
which in eariy records is indifferently written Bruis or
Bmys. There is one well authenticated instance in which
the name of Bmce was chan^ into Bryce, by an ancestor of
the family of Bmce of Scoutbush and Killroot, in the county
of Antrim, Ireland, a scion of the ancient Scotch house of
Bruce of Airth, being descended from the Rev. Edward
Bruce, or Bryce, younger brother of the laird of Airth, who
settled in Ireland about 1608. The name continued for a
long time Bryce, bnt in 1811, the possessor of Scoutbush,
resumed, by royal license, the family name of Bruce. The
reason for changing the name is thus descnbed by Mrs.
Bruce^s grandfather, in a letter to bis son, relative to the
fiunily descent, in 1774-5. *' One of my ancestors had a dis-
pute with his chief who attacked him. He, according to the i
laws of Scotland, retreated as far as wood, water, &c., would i
allow him, then turned in his own defence and killed bis chief. i
In those days, two or three hundred years ago, the chie6 had
great influence. He was prosecuted with great virulence.
The sentence was, * that he should be either banished or {
change his name.* He said he had done nothing sinful or
shameful to fly his oomitry, bnt put a tail to the « and made
it y; thus it was Bryce, bnt when my grandfather went to
Ireland, he spelled his name with an t, and since it has so
remained.** — Burke.
Bryce is s<Hnetime8 used as a fhrst or Christian name.
From 1203 to 1222, ot^ Bryce or Bricius, a son of the noble i
family of Douglas, was bishop of Moray.
BRYCE, Alexander, the Rev., an eminent
geometrician, was born at Boarland, parish of
Kincardine, in 1713. lie received the first rudi-
ments of his education at the school of Dounc,
Perthshire; and, after studying at the university
of Edinburgh, proceeded to Caithness, in MAy
1740, as tutor to a gentleman's son. He resided
there for three years, and during that time, at his
own expense, and in the midst of much obstmc-
tion, he completed a ' Map of the North Coast of
Britain, from Raw Stoir of Assynt, to Wick in
Caithness, with the Harbours and Rocks, and an
account of the Tides in the Pentland Frith,' which
was published in 1744 by the Philosophical, after-
wards the Royal, Society of Edinburgh. In June
1744 be was licensed to preach by the Presbytery
of Dunblane; and, in August 1745, having re-
ceived a presentation from the earl of Morton, he
was ordained in the church and parish of Kirk-
new ton, in the Presbytery of Edinburgh. In the
winter of 1745-46 he taught the mathematical
classes in the university of Edinburgh, during the
last illness of Professor Maclauriu. In 1752, after
much anxious search, he discovered, among some
old lumber in a garret at Stirling, the Pint Jug,
the standard, by statute, for weight and for liquid
and dry measure in Scotland, committed by an old
act of parliament to the keeping of the magistrates
of that burgh. At the request of the magistrates
of Edinburgh, he afterwards superintended the
adjustment of the weights and measures kept by
the dean of guild, and, for so doing, was made a
burgess and guild brother in 1754* He wrote
several scientiflc papere, which were published in
the Transactions of the Royal Society of London,
amongst which may be mentioned *An Account
of a Comet observed by him in 1766 ;' * A new
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Method of measuring the Velocity of the Wind ;'
and ' An Experiment to ascertain to what quan-
tity of Water a fall of Snow on the Earth's Sur-
face is equal.' He also contributed several papers
to Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine. By the influ-
ence of Stnait Mackenzie, lord privy seal of Scot-
land, for whom he planned the observatoiy at
Belmont castle, he was appointed one of his ma-
jesty's chaplains in ordinary. In 1774 the free-
dom of the town of Stirling was conferred on him,
in consequence of his advice and assistance in sup-
plying that town with water. In 1776 he made all
the requisite calculations for an epitome of the
solar system on a large scale, afterwards erected
by the earl of Buchan at his seat at Kirkhill. Mr.
Bryce died January 1, 1786.
BRYDONE, Patrick, F.R.S., author of an
ingenious and entertaining Tour in Sicily and
Malta, the son of a clergyman in the neighbour-
hood of Dumbarton, was bom in lf41. He re-
ceived an excellent education at one of the uni-
veraities, and subsequently distinguished himself
by his tours in foreign countries. About the time
of his first proceeding to the continent, Dr. Frank-
lin's discoveries in electricity had aroused the cu-
riosity of scientific men; and, with the view of
ascertaining the precise state and temperature of
the air on the summits of the highest mountains
in Europe, Mr. Brydone, after providing himself
with the necessary instruments, visited Switzer-
land and Italy, and crossed both the Alps and the
Apennines. In these excursions he often wit-
nessed phenomena of a most remarkable nature,
but not uncommon in those regions. In 1767, or
1768, he accompanied Mr. Beck ford of Somerly,
in Suffolk, in a scientific cxcui-sion to the conti-
nent. He next travelled, in 1770, to Italy, and
some of the islands of the Mediterranean, with
a gentleman of the name of Fullarton, who sub-
sequently commanded in India, and was a commis-
sioner for the government of Trinidad. In 1771
he returned to England, and soon after obtained
an appointment under government. In 1773 he
published his *Tour through Sicily and Malta.'
He was a member of the Royal Societies of Ivon-
don and Edinburgh, and of several other learned
bodies. He died at I^enncl House, near Cold-
stream, 19th June 1818. He married the eldest
daughter of Principal Robertson, the historian.
His own eldest daughter was countess of Minto,
who died in 1853. His works are :
Toot through Sicilj and Malta, in a series of Letters to
William Beckford, Esq. Lond. 1773, 2 vols. 8vo.
Palsy cured by Electricity. Phil. Trans. Abr. xi. 163. 1 7n7.
Meteor observed at Tweedmouth. 1772. lb. ziiL 415.
Electrical Experiments on Hair. lb. 416.
Fatal Effects of a Tbnnder Storm in ScutUnd. lb. xvl
186. 1787.
BuocLBUOH, duke of, in the peerage of Scothmd, a title
possessed by the distinguished house of Scott, which has bng
held a very high rank in titles, worth, and importance in the
kingdom, while their territorial possessions are more exten-
sive and valuable than those of any other family in Scotland.
The history of the earliest generations of the Bucdeoch fam-
ily is mvolred in obscurity. . There is in the poesesnon of the
present Lord Polwwrth, who is himself a noble branch of the
Scotts, a genealogical table, prepared by and holograph of Sir
Walter Scott, of Abbotaford, Bart, in which he traces the
origin and descent of this family as follows : —
I. Ucbtred Fiu-Scott, or Filios Scott, who flourished at
the court of King David I., and was witness to two charters
granted by him to the abbeys of Holyroodhouse and Selkirk,
dated in the years 1128 and 1130. It is, however, believed
that from the days of Kenneth III. the barony of Scotstonn
in Peebles-ehire had been possessed by the ancestors of this
Ucbtred, who, being descended from Galwegian forefathers,
were called Scots, Galloway being then inhabited by the clan
to whom that name properly belonged.
II. Richard Scott, son of Ucbtred, witnessed a cfaartar
granted by the bishop of St. Andrews to the abbey of Holy-
roodhouse about the year 1158.
III. Richard Scott, son of Richard, who married Alida,
daughter of Henry de MoUa,' with whom he received lands is
Roxburghshhre in the reign of Alexander the Second.
IV. William Scott, son of Richard, attended the court of
Alexander the Second, and witnessed several of bis cliarterai
V. Sir Richard Scott, son of William, married the daugh-
ter and heiress of Mnrthockstone of that ilk, in the county of
Lanark, by which marriage he acquired the property of Mnr-
thockstone, now called Murdieston. He then assumed into
his arms " tlie bend of Murdiestoun,** and disposed thereon
his own paternal crescents and star. He swore fealty to Ed-
ward I in 1296. and died m 1320.
VI. Su* Michael Scott of Murthockstooe, son of Sir Rich-
ard and the heiress of Murthockstone, was a gallant warrior,
who distinguished himself at the battle of Halidon hill, 19th
July 1333. He was one of the few who escaped the carnage
of that disastrous day ; but he was slain in the unfortunate
battle of Durham, thirteen years after..
In the Genealogical Table of Sir Walter Scott, from which
these six generations of the family are stated, it is said that
this Sir Michael left two sons, " the eldest of whom (Robert)
carried on the family, the second (John) was ancestor of the
Scotts of Harden.''
Robert Scott of Murthockstone died before 7th Dec 1389,
as appears from a crown charter of that date to bis son
Walter.
W^alter Scott of Murdieston and Rankelbum, son of Robert,
obtained a charter from King Robert II. of the superioritict of
the barony of Kkknrd, m the county of Peebles, dated 7th
December 1389. He was one of the principal persons on the
ll '
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borders who were bound to keep the peace of the inarches in
1398. He is said to have been killed at the battle of Homil-
don, on 14th Sept. 1402, bat this is inconsistent with an in-
Ktmment entered in the Bncclench Inventory by which he
guve saane to Andrew Ker of Altonnbume of the lands of
Lurdenlaw, dated SOth July, 1413.
Robert Scott of Murdieuton and Rankelbom, obtained a
charter from John Inglis of Manir, of the half lands of Branx-
bolm, &C. dated at Manir kirk, last of January 1420. This
appears to have been the first acquisition by the family of the
lands of Branxholm. Robert died in 1426, leaving two sons.
Sir Walter his heir, and Stevin Soott of CasUelaw.
Sir Walter $cott of Kirkurd, knight, the eldest son, had a
charter of the lands of Lempetlaw, within the barony of
Sprouston, from Archibald, earl of Douglas, on the resigna-
ti<m of Robert Soott his father, dated 2d July 1426. He
likewise obtained a charter of the lands and barony of Eok-
ford, &C. from King James II., dated 3d May 1437. He
exchanged his lands of Murdieston in Clydesdale, with
Thomas Inglis of Manir, for his half of the barony of Branx-
holm, (poetically Branksome,) in Roxburghshire, 23d July
1446. According to tradition, Inglis having one day com-
plained of the usuries which his lands of Branxholm sus-
tained from the inroads of the English borderers, Scott oflered
him his estate of Murdieston in exchange, which was instantly
agreed to, and when the bai^n was completed, he drily ob-
served that the Cumberland cattle were as good as those of
Teviotdale. He immediately commenced, like a true border
chieftain, a system of reprisals upon the English, which was
regularly pursued by hi^ descendants for several generations.
Sir Walter Scott of Branxholm was one of the conservators
of truces with England in 1449, 1451, 1453, 1457, and 1459.
He exerted himself in an eminent degree in suppressing the
rebellion of the Douglases in 1455, and was one of the many
Scottish barons who rose upon the ruins of that once potent
family, having obtained from James the Second a grant of
their lands of Abbington, Phareholm, and Glendonanrig, by
charter, dated 22d February, 1458-9. That monarch also
granted to him and to Sir David his son, the remaining half
of the barony of Branxholm, to be held in blanch for the pay-
ment of a red rose, for their brave and faithful exertions in
favour of the king against the house of Douglas. They like-
wise had conferred on them part of the barony of Langholm
in the county of Dumfries. Sir Walter established the prin-
cipal residence of the Buccleuch family at Branxholm castle,
and died sometime between 1467 and 1470, possessed of* a
great part of those pastoral lands in Selkirkshire and Rox-
borghshiro, which still form a principal part of the family
property. By his wife, Margaret, daughter of Cockbum of
Henderland, in the county of Peebles, he had two sons ; Su:
David, his heir, and Sir Alexander Scott, who was rector of
Wigton, director of the chanceiy, and clei-k register of Soot-
land, in 1483. He fell on the side of James the Third at the
battle of Sauchiebum, 11th June, 1488, leaving two sons,
Walter and Adam.
Sir David Scott of Branxholm was concerned m most of
the transactions of the reign of James the Third, and sat in
the parliament of 1487, under the designation of * dominus de
Buccleuch,* being the first of the family so designated. He
enlarged and strengthened the castle of Branxholm, which
Sir Walter Scott has made the principal scene of his poem of
*The Lay of the Last Minstrel* He was instrumental in
Bnppressing insurrections on the borders, and was a conserva-
tor of peace with England. He died in March 1492. By
bis wife, a daughter of Lord Somerville, he had three sons
and two daughters. David, the eldest son, erroneously re-
presented by the peerage writers to have carried on the line of
the family, predeceased him previous to March 1484, without
issue, as did also William, the second, and Robert, the third
son, the latter designed of Allanhanch and Quhitchester, who
deceased between 1490 and 1492, leaving two sons, Sir
Walter and Robert of Allanhanch.
Sir Walter, the eldest sou, was served heir to his grand-
father. Sir David, in the lands of Branxholm, &c., on 6th No-
vember, 1492. He accompanied King James the Fourth to
the battle of Flodden m 1518, and was one of the few who
escaped the carnage of that fatal day. He died in 1516.
By his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Walter Ker of Ceesford,
widow of Philip Rutherford, son and heu- of Rutherford of
that ilk, he had two sons. Sir Walter and William of Quhit-
hope, 1515.
Shr Walter Scott was served heir to his father in 1517.
He was warden of the west marches, and besides various
deeds of valour during the mmority of James the Fifth, is
celebrated for an abortive attempt to rescue that monaroh
from the control of the earl of Angus, when his majesty ac-
companied that powerful and ambitious noble, in 1526, on an
expedition against the turbulent border clan of the Arm-
strongs. James sent him a secret message, complaining bit-
terly of the durance in which he was held by the Douglases,
and soliciting his aid, and as Angus, with the young king,
and a considerable retinue, was returning to Edinburgh bj
Melrose, ** Walter Scott of Buccleuch suddenly appeared on »
neighbouring height, (at Halyden near Mehxwe, 18th Julj
1526) and at the head at a thousand men, threw himself be-
tween the earl of Angus and the route to the capital Angus
instantly sent a messenger, who commanded the border chief
in the royal name, to dismiss his followers; but Scott bluntly
answered that he knew the king's mind better than the
proudest baron amongst them, and meant to keep his ground,
and do obeisance to his sovereign, who had honoured the
borders with his presence. The answer was intended and
accepted as a defiance, and Angus mstantl/ commanded his
followers to dismount His brother George, with the earls of
Maxwell and Lennox, forming a guard round the young king,
retired to a little hillock in the neighbourhood, whilst the
earl, with Fleming, Home, and Ker of Cessford, proceeded
with levelled spears, and at a rapid pace, against Buccleuch,
who also awaited them on foot His chief followers, how-
ever, were outlawed men of the borders, whose array ofi*ered
a feeble resistance to the determined charge of the armed
knights belonging to Angus; the conflict, accordingly, was
short; eighty of the parly of Buccleuch were slain; the chief
(wounded) was compelled to retire, and on the side of the
Douglases, the only material loss was the death of Ker of
Cessford, a brave baron, who was lamented by both parties.'*
ITytler'tHigtoty of Scotland, vol v.^»ge 202.^ This event
occasioned a deadly feud betwixt the Soots and the Kers,
which raged for many years on the borders, and caused much
bloodshed.
A summons of treason was raised against Sir Walter, but
the king, after emancipating himself from the domineering
influence of the Douglases, declared in parliament, 6th Sep-
tember 1528, that he was innocent of all the crimes imputed
to him, and ordered the summons to be cancelled. When
the property of the earl of Angus was confiscated. Sir Walter
obtained a grant of the lordship of Jedburgh forest by charter,
3d September 1528. In the followmg year, whilst the king
was executing summary justice upon Johnnie Armstrong and
the marauders of the borders, Sir Walter, with those of the
border chieftains under whose protection they were, was im-
pr«oned until after his return. Buccleuch, having used
2f
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satirical expreesions against Henxy the Eighth, became ex-
tremely obnoxioas to the £ngliflh, and the eari of Northum-
berland, in October 1532, with fifteen hondred men, ravaged
and plundered his lands, and bamt Branxholm castle, but
fiuled in their principal object, which was to kill or take him
prisoner. In retaliation Sir Walter and other border chiefs
assembled three thousand men, and conducting them into
England, laid waste Northumberland, as far as the river
Beamish, baffled and defeated the English, and returned home
loaded with booty. In 153d, he was summoned before the
justidaxy at Edinburgh, for alleged assistance given to Lord
Dacre and Sir Kerstiall Dacre, at the time of the burning of
Caveris and Denholm. He appeared in court 19th of April
that year, and submitted himself to the will of the king, who
put him in prison. An accusation so little consistent with
his uniform hostuity towards the English, probably had itu
origin in the feuds betwixt the Scotts and the Kers. It is
mentioned in the notes to the * Lay of the Last Minstrel,*
that Sir Walter was imprisoned and forfeited in 1535, for
levying war against the Eers; but the assistance given to
the Dacres is the only point insisted on in the summons
against him. After the death of James the Fifth he was re-
stored by act of parliament, 15th March 1542-8, during the
regency of Mary of Lorraine. He distinguished himself at
the battle of Pinkie in 1547, but eventually lost his life m a
nocturnal rencontre on the High Street of Edinburgh with a
party of the Kers, headed by Sir Walter Ker of Cessford, on
4th October 1552. He was thrice married, first, to Elizabeth
Carmichael, of the Hyndford family, by whom he had two
sons; secondly, to Janet Ker, daughter of Andrew Ker of
Femiehirst (contract dated January 1530) ; and thirdly, to
Janet, daughter uf John Betlinne of Creich. By the List he
had two SODS and four daughters.
This lady, the heroine of * the Lay of the Last Minstrel,"
was a woman of a masculine spirit, as appears by her riding
at the head of her dan after her husband's murder, and by
her efforts to avenge his death. Upon 25th June 1557
dame Janet Bethune, Lady Bucdeugh, and a great number
of the name of Scott, were ddaitit (accused) for coming to
the kirk of St Mary of the Lowes, (now Yarrow) to the num-
ber of two hundred persons bodin in feir of wdre (arrayed in
armour), and breaking open the doors of the said kiric, in
order to apprehend the laird of Cranstoun for his destruction.
On the 20th July, a warrant from the queen regent is pre-
sented, dischai^i^ng the justice to proceed against the Lady
Bucdeuch till a new calling. Before her marriage with Buc-
dench she is said to have been twice married, first to Sur
James Creichton of Granston-Riddd, who died about 1539,
(this marriage, however, is not well authenticated), and se-
condly to Simon Preston of Craigmillar, from whom she was
divorced, and on 2d December 1544, she took for her tlurd
husband the laird of Bucdeuch. This masculine hidy, in the
superstition of the age, was accused of admmistering love
potions to queen Maiy, to make her enamoured of the earl of
Bothwell, with whom she herself is represented as having car-
ried on a criminal connexion after the death of Bucdeuch.
One of the pUcards preserved in Buchanan's Detection ac-
cuses of the murder of Damley '^the Erie Bothwell, Mr.
James Balfour, the personn of Flisk, Mr. David Chalmers,
blak Mr. John Spens, wha was prindpal deviser of the mur-
der, and the queue, assenting thairto, tlirow the persuasion
of the Erie Bothwell, and the witchcraft of Lady Bucdeuch.**
David, the eldest son of Sir Walter, and Elizabeth Car-
michael, predeceased his father before 1544, without issue.
Sbr Walter was succeeded in 1552 by his second son, Sir
William Scott of Fawsyde, who married Grizel, second daugh-
ter of John Bethune of Crdch, the sister of his fiithei's third
wife, and by her he had a son, Su: Walter, who was served
hdr to Sir Walter his grandfather 6th January 1553.
This Sir William Scott signed the associatioa in sup-
port of James the Sixth in 1567, but subsequently joined the
party of the unfortunate Maiy, and remained till her death
one of her meet zealous and conspicuous adherents. The day
alter the regent Murray was assassinated, he and Ker of Fer-
neyhirst, before they could have learned the fact by ordinary
means, broke across the English border, plundered and bunt
the country, and continued and extended their depredations
in the hope of kindling a war betwixt the two kingdoms.
Being asked how he could venture upon such^n outrage so
long as the earl of Murray was regent, he answered, " Tush,
the regent is as cold as my bridle-bit" It would thus appear
that like the Hamiltons and other partisans of Maiy, he
must have been aware beforehand of the intended assassina-
tion. In retaliation the earl of Sussex and Lord Scrope, by
order of Queen Elizabeth, entered Scotland, the one on the
east and the other on the west and laid waste the a4Jaoent
counties with fire and sword. The castle of Branxholm was
blown up by gunpowder, and the lands of the chief of Buc-
deuch plundered to its very gates. As soon as the English
had retired he set about rebuilding and enlai^g his castki
It was not finished, however, till after his death, as appean by
inscriptions on its walls quoted by Sir Walter Scott in the
notes to * the Lay of the Last MinstreL' In the well-con-
certed enterprise against the king's party in Stirling, 4th
September 1571, when the town was surprised, and the re-
gent Lennox and several of the chief nobility made prisooers,
Scott of Bucdeuch was one of the prindpal actors; but by
too long a delay in leaving the place, the whole were rctseoed,
except Lennox, who was killed in the contest, and Buakucfa
who surrendered himself to the earl of Morton. He died 17tl
April 1574. By his wife. Lady Margaret Dou^as, eldest
daughter of David, seventh eari of Angus, he had a son, Sii
Walter, and two daughters.
His only son. Sir Walter Scott of Branxhohn, was infeft in
the baronies of Branxholm, &&, as hdr to umqohil David
Scott, his *' guidchur's," (grandfather) brother, on 21st June
and 10th October 1574. He reodved the honour of knight-
hood from James the Sixth, by whom, in 1590, <m the fidl of
his step-father, the eari of BothweH*, [see Botbwkll, tax\
of^ ante, p. 360] he was appointed keeper of Liddesdale, and
warden of the west marches. In the following year when
Bothwell broke out into rebellion he expected the asastasce
of his stepson, but Bucdeuch, for his own security, joined
Ker of Cotsford, Home of Broxmouth, Lauder of Bass, Kfr
of Linton, Douglas of Cavers and others, in a bond (recorded
Aug. 6th 1591) to use their utmost endeavours to take Both-
well, and amongst other conditions they engage to " lay aside
all particular querrellis, dddlie fddis and oontrauenaes stand-
ing amangis thame, and for no caus sail schrink frome his
Miyesteis seruice." On the following day he found security
to leave the country for three years, when he retired to France,
and on the 29th was deprived of his office of keeper of lid-
desdale, on account of his quitting the realm. After his re-
turn a conunission was granted to him and Lord Hume, war-
den of the east marches, and Sir Robert Ker, heir of Cessford,
warden-depute of the middle marches, to convocate the lie^
within theur bounds to oppose the earl of BothwelL He sub-
sequently carried on an active predatory warfare against the
English, and is renowned for the singularly daring expkit of
rescuing one of his dependents, known by the name of Kin-
mont Will, from Carlisle castle on April 18th, 1596. Thif
achievement is the subject of the ballad of Kinmont Wilhe.
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inserted in the ^' Minstrelsy of the Scottish border.** On the
occasion of a tmce^ as was the costom of the mardies, of a
single day for the transacting of badness, William Armstrong,
a fUlower of Scott, was towards erening set upon and taken
prisoner bj a party of the English whilst riding home alone
on the north bank of the liddle. He was conveyed to the
casUe of Carlisle, and bronght before Lord Scrope, to whom
be comphdned loudly of the breach of the trooe in his person.
Buoclench made a regular application to Lord Scrope for
defivery of the priwner, but receiring no satisfactory answer,
he next applied to Bowes, the English ambassador, who ad-
vised Lord Scrope to liberate Willie at once. His lordship
made some excuse about advertising Queen Elisabeth, when,
impatient of dehiy, Buocleuch sent him a challenge, which,
bowerer, he declined to accept He now resolved to attempt
his rescue himself, although a peace then subsisted between
the two countries, and he assembled two hundred chosen
horsemen. Their tiysting place was at Woodhouselee, upon
the Esk, the nearest point to the castle of Carlisle upon the
Scottish marches, and not above ten or twelve miles from
that fortress. The hour of rendezvous was after sunset, and
the night bemg dark, Bucdeuch and his men arrived unper-
ceived under the castle, where, failing to scale the walls, they
forced their way through a small postern into the fortress,
and with shouts and sound of trumpet relieved Willie.
Elixabeth, highly indignant at this daring exploit, ordered
her ambassador Bowes to complam to King James. Bowes
made a long speech in the convention at Edinburgh, 27th
May 1596, and concluded by stating that peace could no
longer continue between the two kmgdoms, unless Sir Wal-
ter Scott were delivered into the queen's hands to be punished
at her pleasure. Bucdeuch answered that he went to Eng-
huid to relieve a sntrjeot of Scotland nnlawAilly taken on a
day of truce, and that he committed no hostility nor offered
the least wrong to any within the castle, yet he was content
to be tried by oommisdoners appointed by both sovereigns.
To this, as might be expected, Elizabeth would not agree.
Some English borderers having crossed into Liddesdale and
wasted the country, the chief of Bucdeuch retaliated by a
raid * into England, in which he not only carried off much
spoil, but apprehended thirty-dx of the l^nedale thieves, all
of whom he put to death. In a letter to Bowes, printed in
the Foedera, Elizabeth expressed her indignation at this far-
ther outrage, and there seems to have been at one time a
dedgn entertained of assassinating a chieftain who had made
himsdf so formidable on the borders, to which, it was alleged,
Queen Elizabeth herself was privy. Matters were at length
settled by commisdoners, that delinquents should be delivered
up on both ddes, and that the chiefs themsdvee should enter
into ward in the oppodte countries, till these were given up
and pledges granted for the maintenance of the future peace
of the borders. It is said that it required all King James*
authority to induce Bucdeuch and Ker of Femiehirst to agree
to this arrangement Bucdeuch chose for his guardian, dur-
ing his reddence in England, Sir William Sdby, master of
the ordnance at Berwick, and surrendered himsdf into his
hands, 7th October 1597. He appears to have remained in
England till February 1598. According to an andent family
tradition he was presented to Elizabeth, who asked him how
he dared to undertake an enterprise so desperate as that
of attacking the castie of Carlisle ? He boldly answered,
** What is there, madam, that a man may not dare?** The
queen, it is said, was struck with the reply, and remarked to
tlHMO around her, " This is a man indeed. With ten thou-
sand such men our brother of Scotland might shake the firm-
est throne in Europe.** After the succession of James to the
English throne, Bucdeuch was very active in quieting the
borders, and to accomplish this end he raised a regiment of
the boldest and most desperate of the borderers, and carried
them over to fight against the Spaniards in the wars of Hol-
land. He attained oondderable renown as a military com-
mander under Maurice prince of Orange, and was, for his ser-
vices and military merit, raised to the peerage of Scotland,
16th March 1606, under the tiUe of Lord Scott of Bucdeuch.
The locality of the title is in one of the minor vales of
Selkirkshire, and tradition attributes its origin to a recess, or
in modem Scotch, a cleugh therein. A tradition preserved
by Scott of Satchells m his True History of the Right Hon-
ourable name of Scott, published in 1688, and quoted by Sir
Walter Scott m the notes to * The Lay of the Last Minstrel,*
gives the following romantic origin of the name of Bucdeuch :
*' Two brethren, natives of Galloway, banished for a riot or
insuirection, came to Rankelbum in Ettrick Forest, where the
keeper recdved them joyfully on account of thdr skill in the
mysteries of the chase. Kenneth MacAlpin, king of Scotland,
came soon after to hunt in the royal forest, and pursued a
buck from Ettrickheuch to the glen now called Buddeuch,
about two miles above the Junction of Rankdbum with the
river Ettrick. Here the stag stood at bay ; and the king and
his attendants, who followed on horseback, were thrown out
by the steepness of the hill and the morass. John, one of
the brethren from Galloway, had followed the chase on foot ;
and now coming in, seized the buck by the horns, and, being
a man of great strength and activity, threw him on his back,
and ran with this burden about a mile up a steep hUl, to a
place called Cracra-cross, where Kenneth had halted, and
laid the buck at the soverdgn's feet, who said,
** * And for the buck thou stoutly brought
To us up that steep heuch.
Thy desiguatlon ever shall
Be John Scott iu Bududeuch.* "
But Jamieson confirms and places beyond doubt the our-
rectness of the definition of the word dettgh given by Ruddi-
man, viz. " a rock or hill, a dift or diff, from the Anglo-Saxon
clif,^ as used at least until long after the origin of the name
Bucdeuch.
It is synonymous, or at least then was, with Aeu^A, a height
The word bvck is also by Jamieson and Richardson, derived
from the Teutonic buck-en^ to bow, to bend, and when used
as an adjective it means of a round or drcular shape, as bvch-
basket^ a round basket for dothes; hwJ^wheaL, rounded
wheat; bucket^ a small round vessd for water. It occurs
also in the Scotch, as buckie shell, a round or spiral shell ;
buckitanej a large round stone; and in topography in the
Buck of the Cabroch (in Aberdeenshire), a circular portion
of that remarkably deep and continuous hollow or delL The
word Bucdeuch, therefore, would appear to imply the round
or drcular rock or hill which gives name to the ravine in
question, and the tradition may be regarded as one of those
attempts to unlock the etymology of local names which, set-
ting alike chronology and history', whether general or family,
at defiance, have nevertheless a plaudble au*, and pass, because
unquestioned, with the minority of mankind.
The first Lord Scott of Bucdeuch married Mary, daughter
of Sir William Ker of Cessford, sbter of Robert first earl of
Roxburgh, and died in 1611.
His only son Walter, second lord, was created, 16th March
1619, eari of Bucdeuch, with the secondary titie of Lord
Scott of Whitohester and Eskdale, with remainder to his
heirs male, and afterwards extended to heirs whatsoever, lie
had the command of a regiment in the service of the states
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BUCCLEUCH,
452
THIRD DUKE OF.
of Holland against the Spaniards. He married Lady Marj
Hay, fonrtb daughter of Francis, ninth earl of Errol, by whom
he had a son Frands and two daoghters. He died in 1683.
Francis, second earl of Bucdeuch, added Dalkeith to the
family property, having acqaired it from the Morton family
in 1642. He was a zealous royalist, and on that acoonnt his
heirs were mnlcted by Cromwell in the laige fine of fifteen
thousand pounds sterling, now equal to about two hundred
thousand pounds. He died in 1651, in the twenty-fifth year
of his age. By his countess, Lady Margaret Lesly, only
daughter of John earl of Rothes, widow of Lord Balgonie, he
had two daughters, Mary and Anne.
The elder daughter, Mary, succeeded as countess of Buc-
deuch in her own right Being one of the greatest matches
in the kingdom, she instantly became, though a mere child,
the object of deep matrimonial intrigues. At the early age
of eleven she was married to Walter Scott, eldest son of Sir
Gideon Scott of Highchester, of the house of Harden. At
the time of the marriage her husband was only in his four-
teenth year, and a student at the university of St Andrews.
He was afterwards created earl of Tarras for life. [See Tar-
RAS, earl of.] They were married by Mr. Hary Wilkie,
minister of Wemyss, without proclamation, by virtue of an
order fix)m the presbytery of Kirkcaldy. The marriage was
prindpally brought about by her mother, ♦'a witty, active
woman,** as B. illie styles her, in reference to whom it was
said that Monk *' governed ScoUand through her.** [IktUUe's
JjeUert^ vol. ilL p. 438.] This marriage caused a great noise
at the time, and became the subject of discussion before the
provindal Synod of Fife in 1659, upon an accusation against
the presbytery, for granting a warrant for the marriage with-
out proclamation of the banns. The presbytery was, how-
ever, absolved, because the order was grounded upon an act
of the General Assembly, allowing such marriages in case of
necessity or fear of rape ; and the Udy's friends were appre-
hensive of her being carried off. On an application to the
court of session, by the curators of the countess, she was sepa-
rated firom her husband until she should be twelve years of
age. Various parties contended for the charge and custody
of the youthful countess during this period, and Oliver Crom-
well was even appealed to on the subject. It was at length
arranged that General Monk should be her custodier. His
residence was fixed at Dalkeith House, of which, and the
Parks, he obtained a lease for five years. Tradition says that
he phinned the Restoration in the rooms overhanging the
river, still existing in the House. During the separation of
the countess from her husband, they carried on a very affec-
tionate correspondence as husband and wife ; and so soon as
she became twelve years of age, to enable her to contract
marriage l^ally, the parties were remarried. In Lamont*s
Diary, under date 18th June 1660, it is mentioned that " the
Lady Baldeuch took journey for London, and while there was
toudied by his majesty for the cmells in her arme.** The
countess died in two years afterwards without issue. She
was succeeded in the titles and estates by her only sister,
Anne, countess of Bucdeuch, bom in 1651, at Dundee,
then the place of refuge of the prindpal nobility about the
time that it was besieged by Monk. This lady, who was
esteemed the greatest heiress of her time, was in 1663, at the
age of twelve, married to the duke of Monmouth (then only
fourteen), son of Charles the Second, by Lucy Walters,
daughter of Richard Walters, Esq. of Haverfordwest, county
of Pembroke. Lament mentions that '* the marriage feast
stood at London in the earl of Weyms' house, where his ma-
jesty and the queen were present with divers of the court**
On his marriage Monmouth assumed the name of Scott, and
himself and his duchess were, 20th April 1663, created duke
and duchess of Bucdeuch and eari and countess of Dalkeith,
with remainder to then- heirs male, in default of which to the
heirs whatever descending firom the duke*s body socoeeding
in the estate and earldom <iX Buodeuch. His grace*s honours,
Scottish and English, were forfeited upon his execution 15th
July, 1685. The duchess had the liferent of the Scotch titles
and estates in terms of a crown charter of r^rant, Qffooeed-
ing on a resignation,) dated 16th January 1666. To prevent
the Scotch tiUes becoming extinct at her death, she resigned
them into the hands of the crown ; and obtained a rcgrant on
17th November 1687 to herself, and afler her death to James
earl of Dalkeith, her eldest son, and his heirs male, and of taillie.
Thb is still the regulating grant of the honours and estates.
The affecting scene between Monmouth and his duchess, pre-
vious to his execution, b well known. It is said that James
the Second, (of England, seventh of Scotland,) while he rig-
orously condemned his nephew to the block, entertaineu,
nevertheless, a strong degree of favour for the duchess. Her
grace possessed great dedsaon of character, which, how-
ever, she only displayed in the management of her family,
and of her great possessions, to which she added consider-
ably. She appears never to have interfered in politics, and
preserved the favour both of James II. and of William IlL
She added to the present palace of Dalkdth, and oc-
casionally lived there in princely splendour. Six snildren
were the finits of the marriage. Of these twc were sons,
James, earl of Dalkeith, and Henry, created earl of Deloraine
in 1706. [See Deloraine, earl of.] The duchess married,
secondly, Charles, third Lord Comwallis, by whom she had
one son and two daughters, and died 6th Febmaiy 1732.
Till the day of her death she continued to keep up Uie state
of a princess of the blood, bdng attended by pages, served on
the knee, and covered with a canopy in her room, and no one
was allowed to dt m her presence. Lady Margaret Montgo-
mery related that she had dined with the duchess at Dalkdth,
and bdng a relative was allowed a chair, but the rest of the
guests stood during the dinner.
Her ddest son, James earl of Dalkeith, lived chiefly in
Flanders during the rdgn of King William, but returned to
Scotland on the accesdon of Queen Anne in 1702, and died
in 1705, in the thirty-first year of his age. He married Lady
Henrietta Hyde, second daughter of Lawrence first eari of
Rochester, leaving four sons and two daughters, and, prede-
ceasing his mother, his ddest son Frands (bom 11th Janu-
ary 1695) became, at her death, second duke of Bucdeuch.
In 1743 he obtained by act of parliament a restoration of the
«arldom of Doncaster and barony of Scott of Tyncdale, two of
the English honours of his grandfather, the duke of Monmouth.
He married, first, 5th April 1720, Lady Jane Douglas, eldest
daughter of James second duke of Queensberry, by whom he
had a son, Frauds, earl of Dalkdth, who predeceased his
father, and secondly, Miss Powdl, but by that lady had no
issue. On the approach of the Pretender to Edinburgh in
1745 he sent his tenantry to assist in defending the dty. He
died 22d April 1751. His son, the earl of Dalkdth, had
married Caroline, eldest daughter and coheiress of the famous
John duke of Argyle and Greenwich, by whom he had four
sons and two daughters. His ddest son, Henry, succeeded
his grandfather. One of the daughters, Frances, married to
Archibald I/>rd Douglas, was a posthumous child.
Henry, third duke of Bucdeuch, was bom 13th September
1746. In March 1764 his Grace and his brother the Hon,
Campbell Scott set out on thdr travels, accompanied by the
celebrated Dr. Adam Smith. The brother was assassinated
on the streets of Paris on the 18th October 1766, in his nine-
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I-^
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mtuvA mwcll^0m& id mBthviSif.
m.
(£imhm of ^ntj^an. fetelr 65 ^ng dElrgar.
I* ^htt, (ntiqprttir to ht) tduitb to ^vkolm Catnnore, jihtg of Stotlsnb.
l«r. DIRJICT UNE. to, LINE OP COMYN. Titular Earia
1 2 3 4aE5
Ferfui,
F1ntE«ri<m
reoefd,aboot
ilta
WUBuB Comyn,
Jortlotaryof
SootUnd, beeanM
EariinUlO*
inrigfalof
hit wife
onljoiiUd of
EmI Ferfu.
tbeirBon,
ConsUble of
SootUmd.
Died 1389.
John, his son,
CiMUtobleof
Scotland.
Died 1813,
ODder foifeitare
L
brother of
John.
9. Hcnxydo
BMomoDt, in
rifht of his wif«,
▲Uea^dof
II. Sitbrart, Jirsi ^amtlg, $osaI ITnu.
3 8
Or AkxAnd«r
Stewart,
4Ui son of
Bob«rtIL,b7
Bissboth M ore,
craatod 1874.
DM ISM.
Sob«t,his
brother, DolM
of Albany,
Goreraor of Soot-
land, rosigned In
ftnNur of
John, hU ■00,
third EarL
DIfld atVemeaO,
I4f4.
m. Sitamb ^anrilg, ybu of ^onu
1 2&3
Mofdoeh, John's
brother, Duke of
Albany.
Exeeatcd 1435.
HUe vested
in the Crown.
\'
Jamca Stewart,
brother uterino
of James n.,
2d son of
Stewart of Lorn
and Qaeen Jane
Created 1469.
X Atezander,
hie iOD.
Died lfi05.
3. John, his son,
died without
lY. ^itie of ^onglas of ^oc^ltfaen anb SiUiswA of ^om.
4 5 6
Bobeit, id Km
of Donglae
of LoehleTen,
in right of
hie wife
Christian Stewart,
grand-daughter
of John,
thlidEari.
Jamea, their pon,
died 1601,
leaving an only
daughter,
Mary, Countess
in her
ownTteht,
m. Jamee&aktne,
son of 7th e«ri
of Mar.
Y. tSrskinoe Qfita of par) anb Jonglas.
6 7 8
JamciBnldne,
aeo of 7th eari of
Mar, ia right
ofhiswllk
Mary.
nm i«4a
u
VI. €x»hSait, ^xm of Carbrosf .
9
10
DavM Stewart,
hiaaon.
DiediaW.
David Enldoe,
4th Lord Cardroea,
by deed of io^
ceaalon, execoted
by. William,
elgbthEarl,
Coofirmei by
act of
Soots Parliament,
169&
DM174i.
Henry David,
hiaion.
Dladl7f7
Jirhtt of tvxtnoM, ton6mtb.
13
H«iry David,
looefhia broths
Hon. Henry
BrakfaM.
Died 1M7.
David Stewart,
hiaaon,
>orn 1816,
aiTied,wlth
ARMORIAL BBARIHOS OF BRSKINB,
SAKL OF BUOHAK.
Quarttfiogi t— 1. for Earldom of Biiehan. 2. (1 A 4) for Mar, (3 A S) for Emklne. a. 0 A 4) for Stewart (^ iSi^l
a A S) Aw Comyu, earls of Buchaa 4. for Fairfiu. Augmeutailou for lordslii|i ol Cjsdroaa.
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BUCCLEUCH.
453
BUCHAN.
teenth year. His remains were brought home by the duke,
and depodted in the family vault at Dalkeith. On his
|raoe*8 return he devoted himself principally to the improve-
ment of his vast estates. On the commencemant of the war
with France in 1778, he raised a regiment of fendbles, chiefly
from among bis own tenantry, and by his condescen-
uon and kindness of manners and close application to his
military dudes, he secured the aflection and esteem of all
under hb command. He married, in 1767, Elizabeth, daugh-
ter of the last duke of Montague, by whom he had three sons
and four daughters, viz. George, who died in infancy ; Charles
William Heniy, eari of Dalkeith; Henry James Montague,
who succeeded as Lord Montague in 1790, on the death of
his grandfather the duke of Montague, but died in 1845,
without male issue, when the title became extinct; Mary,
married to James George, earl of Conrtown ; Elizabeth, tu the
earl of Home; Caroline, to the marquis of Queensberxy ; and
Harriet, to the sixth marquis of Lothian. On the decease of
William fourth duke of Queensbeny without issue, 28d De-
cember 1810, Duke Heniy succeeded to that dukedom [see
QiTKKNSBERRT, duke of ] and to considerable estates in Dum-
fnes-shire. It was to the influence of this duke of Buocleuch
that Sir Walter Scott was indebted for his appomtment, in
December 1799, to the office of sheriff depute of Selkirkshire,
and afterwards, in 1806, to that of one of the prindpal clerks
of the court of session. His Grace died 11th Januaiy 1811.
His eldest son, Charles William Henry, fourth duke of
Buccleuch and sixth of Queensbeny, was bom 24th May
1772, and in 1807 was summoned to the House of Peers as
Baron Tynedale. He married, 28d March 1795, Harriet
Ratherine Townshend, youngest daughter of Thomas first
Viscount Sydney. Her grace died in 1814. There is a very
affecting correspondence on this event between the duke
Mud Sir Walter Scott, in Lockhart's life of the poet The
duke was a constant friend and correspondent of Sir Walter,
and at an early period of his difficulties he gave his name as
security for a loan of four thousand pounds to the embarrassed
man of letters. He also bestowed on the Ettrick Shepherd
the life-rent of the fium of Altrive, on his favourite braes of
Yarrow. By his duchess he had two sons, Walter Frauds,
earl of Dalkdth, who succeeded him, and Lord John Douglas
Soott, an officer in the army, and six daughters. He died at
Lisbon, 20th April 1819.
Walter Frands Montague Douglas Scott, filth duke of
Bocdeuch, and seventh of Queensbeny, was bom 25th No-
vember 1806; married, 13th August 1829, Lady Charlotte
Thynne, youngest daughter of the second marquis of Bath,
with issue. His grace sits in the House of Peers as eari
of Doncaster. He was lord privy seal from February 1842 to
January 1846; lord president of the council from January to
July 1846; is lord lieutenant of Mid Lothian and of Rox-
burghshire, captain general of the king's body guard in Scot-
hind, and high steward of Westminster. His grace presented
to the Bannatyne Club an edition of the Chartulaxy of Md-
rose, prepared at his own expense, containing a series of an-
dcnt charters, from the eleventh to the fourteenth century,
highly interesting to the students of Scottish history, which
was issued in 1837, in 2 vols. 4to.
His grace was educated at St. John's college, Cambridge^
and graduated M.A. in 1827. In 1834 he received the de-
gree of D.C.L. from Oxford, and in 1842 that of LL.D. from
Cambridge. His eldest son, William Henry Walter, eari of
Dalkeith, was bom in 1831 ; lord-lieut of Dumfries-shire,
1858; elected M.P. for Mid Lothian 1853; subsequently
re-dected. In Sep. 1839, an entertainment was given by his
tenantry to the duke at Branxhoim, the andent seat of the
Buccleuch family. A pavilion was erected on the occasion^
constructed in the form of an andent baronial hall, and seated
to contain upwards of one thousand persons. The andent
war cry of the dan, * Bellenden,* from a phioe of that name
situated near the head of Borthwick water, painted in bold
letters, was prominent over the seat of the duke. Of Branx-
holm castle (celebntted in the poetry of Sir Walter Scott), the
only portion remaining is pai-t of a square tower, which is
c6nnected with the present mandon house, the residence of
his grace's chamberlain.
Dalkdth palace, the pnndpal residence of the family, has
twice in the present century been honoured by a visit firom
royalty, viz., in 1822, when George the Fourth came to Soot-
land, and in September 1842, when Queen Victoria first
arrived in this country.
BucHAN, andently BoguHAif or Bucquhanb, a surname
originally derived from the district of Buchan, formerly a
county of itself, which comprises the north-eastern part of
Aberdeenshire, with part of Banffshire. The name, like that
of Bouchaine in France, Buchianioo in Naples, and some oth-
ers, seems to have had its origin from Bou or Boi, an old
French word now only found in the Spanish and Portuguese,
primarily from the Latin word 6o«, an ox, and in reference to
the flesh of oxen or cattle, although the district is now more
famed for its com than its cattle. It is probable that the
names of many similar places in England, as Bukenham or
Buckingham, &c, had the same origin. In another form we
have it in Buccaneers, a Spanish word indicating the kind of
food {Bwxm^ dried ox flesh) on which these freebooters of the
new world almost exdudvdy sustained themadves.
The earldom of Bucuan, in the Scottbh peerage, at pre-
sent enjoyed by the Erskine family, but formerly possessed
by the Comyns, is one of the most andent in Scotland.
The first earl of Buchan on record was Fergus, who flour-
ished about the time of William the lion. He is supposed to
have been one of the seven earls of Scotland who, bdng dis-
pleased at Malcolm theF'ourth's serving under Henry the Seoobd
of England at Toulouse, were disposed to seize his person
and eject him from the throne in the assembly at Perth in
1160. He had no family name, but as Skene affirms that all
the earldoms of Scothuid were given by King Edgar to members
of the royal family at that time, it is probable he was related
to the line of Malcolm Canmore. He is mentioned as having
made a grant of a mark of silver annually to the abbacy of
Aberbrothwick, founded by King William.
His only child Marjory or Margaret, countess of Buchan in
her own right-, took for her second husband, in 1210, William
Comyn, sheriff of Forfar and justidary of Scotland, who be-
came earl of Buchan in right of his wife. He was the third of
the Comyns in Scotland, and had been previoudy married to
a lady whose name is not known, and by whom he had two
sons, of whom Walter, the second son, was earl of Mentdth
(which title see). By his second wife, the countess of Buch-
an, he had three sons and a daughter, Elizabeth, married to
William earl of Mar. He died in 1233, and was survived by
his countess.
Thdr son, Alexander Comyn, second earl of Buchan of
this name, acted a prominent part in the busy reigns of Alex-
ander the Second and Third. In 1244 he was one of the
guarantees of the peace with England, and in 1251 was ap-
pointed justidary of Scotland, but bdng one of the Scottish
party who were obnonous to King Henry the Third, he was
removed from that high office four years afterwards. In 1257,
however, he was restored to it, and hdd it till his death. He
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BUCHAN,
454
EARLDOM OF.
married Elizabeth, seoond daughter of Roger ae Qmnci, eari
of Winchester and constable of Scotland, on whose death, in
1264, without male issue, the earl of Buchan obtained, in
right of his wife, a full share of her father's estates in Gallo-
way and in other counties; and on the resignation of the
office of constable by Margaret countess of Derby, the elder
sister of his wife, in 1270, he became, in right of the latter,
constable of Scotland. He was one of the magnates Scotiss,
who, on 5th February 1284, engaged to maintain the succes-
sion of the princess Margaret of Norway to the crown, on the
death of her grandfather, being the first of thirteen earls pre-
sent at the parliament held at Scone on that day. In 1286,
on the death of Alexander the Third, he was chosen one of
the tax guardians of Scotland. He died in 1289, and was
succeeded by his son John, also constable of Scotland.
John, third earl of Buchan of the Comyn family, adhered
to the English interest, and with a tumultuous band of fol-
lowers he encountered King Robert the Bruce, 25th Decem-
ber 1307, but his troops fled at the first onset of Bruce's
army. In the following year he assembled a numerous force,
but was defiBated by Bruce, with great slaughter, at Inverury,
22d May 1808. Soon afterwards he retired to England,
where he died before 28th April 1818. His wife, Isabel, the
daughter of Duncan, earl of Fife, was the high-spirited lady
who pUced the crown on the bead of Robert the Bruce, as
referred to in that article.
John's brother Alexander was styled fourth earl of Buchan,
and Henry de Beaumont, an Englishman who manied Alex-
ander's eldest daughter, Alice, assumed the title of fifth earl
of Buchan, in right of his wife. He died in 1341.
In 1371 a grant of this earldom was obtained from Robert
the Second by Sir Alexander Stewart, knight, his fourth son
by his first wife, Elizabeth More, long mown, from his sav-
ageness, by the name of the Wolf of Badenoch. He had also
the earldom of Ross for life, in right of his wife, Euphame,
countess of Ross, by whom he had no issue, but he left five
natural sons, Alexander, earl of Mar, Sir Anarew, Walter,
James and Duncan, from whom several families of the name
of Stewart are descended. Having seized the bishop of
Moray's lands he was excommunicated, and in revenge he, in
May and June 1390, burnt the towns of Forres and Elgin,
with the church of St Giles, the maison dieu, and the cathe-
dral, and eighteen houses of the Canons, for which he did
penance in the Blackfnar's church of Perth, before the altar,
and was obliged to make full satisfaction to the bishop. He
died 24th July 1394.
At his death it devolved on liis brother Robert, duke of
Albany, when it was granted to John Stewart, his eldest son,
bom in 1380, to whom bis father gave the barony of Coul
and O'Niel in Aberdeenshbre, and who, for his valour, was
sumamed " the brave John o' CouL" In 1416, he was sent
to England to complete the treaty for the release of James
the First, in which he was unsuccessful. In 1420, he went
to France, at the head of seven thousand Scotch auxiliaries,
to support the right of Charles the Seventh to the French
crown against the English. At the battle of Beaugd in An-
jou, 22d March 1421, he defeated the Englbh under the
duke of Clarence. [See ante^ p. 39.] He was slain at the
battle of Vemeuil in Normandy, 17th August 1424. His
portrait will be found at p. 43. By his wife Lady Elizabeth
Douglas, seoond daughter of Archibald, fourth earl of Doug-
Uis and duke of Touraine, he left an only daughter, Mai^garet,
married to Greorge, seoond Lord Seton, and from them were
descended, in a right line, all the lords of the now extinct
house of Seton, earls of Winton (see WnrroN, earl of).
The earldom of Ross which his father had procured for him
fell to the crown on his death, but the earidom of Buchan de-
volved on his brother Murdoch, duke of Albany, at whose
execution in 1425, it was forfeited.
In 1466, it was bestowed on James Stewart, SDrnamed
" Hearty James," uterine brother of King James the Second.
He was the second son of Sir James Stewart, the black
knight of Lorn, by Jane, queen of Scotland, the widow of
James the First In 1471, on. the fall of Lord Boyd, be
was constituted high chamberlain of Scotland, and in 1473,
he was sent ambaasador to France, when he obtained a safe
conduct for passing through England. He died before 1500
His son and grandson both succeeded as earla of Buchan.
John, master of Buchan, eldest son of the latter, had, by
his seoond wife, Margaret, daughter of Walter Ogiivie of
Boyne, a daughter. Christian Stewart, who succeeded to the
title, and by her marriage in 1469 with Robert Doogiaa,
seoond sou of Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven, uterine
brother of the regent Moray, he became earl ot Buchan, in
right of his wife.
They had two daughters, and a son, James, who became
fifth earl of Buchan of this family. He died 26th August,
1601, aged 21. By his wife, Margaret, seoond daughter of
Walter, first Lord Ogilvy of Deskford, he had an only chiU,
Mary Douglas, countess of Buchan, in her own right, by
whose marriage with James Erskine, son of John, seventh
earl of Mar, lord high treasurer of Scotland, and first Lon)
Cardross, [see Cardboss, lord,] this earldom passed into the
Mar branch of the Erskine family. Of this first eari of
Buchan of the house of Erskine, there is a portrait in Smith's
Iconographia Sootica, of which tlie following is a cut:
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BUCHAN.
455
BUCHAN.
Jmnes Erakinef sixth earl of Buchan, was one of the lords
of the bedchamber to King Charles the First, and resided
ranch in England. He died in 1640. Hb eldest son James,
seventh earl, married Lady Marjory Ramsay, eldest daughter
of the first earl of Dalhonsie, by whom he had fbnr daughters
and one son, William, who succeeded in October 1664 as
dghth earl of Buchan. At the reTolution he adhered to the
party of King James, but falling into the hands of King Wil-
Barnes forces, he was conmiitted prisoner to the castle of Stir-
ling, where he died in 1695, unmarried. At his death, the
snooession to the earidom opened to David, fourth lord Gar-
dross, eldest son of Henty the third lord; and in the pariia-
ment of 1698 an act was passed allowing him to be called in
the rolls of parliament as earl of Buchan.
Heniy David, the tenth earl, nuuried Agnes, daughter of
Sir James Stenart of Coltness, baronet, and granddaughter of
Sir James Stenart, lord advocate to King WilUam and
Queen Anne, popularly called Jamie Wylie; and by him had,
with a daughter and a son David, who died young, David
Stenart Erskine, the eleventh earl, and his two celebrated
brothers, the Hon. Henry Erskine, father of the 12th earl,
and Thomas, created Lord Erskine, lord chancellor; notices
of whom are subsequently given in their place, under the
bead of Erskikb.
Earl Henry, the father of these three celebrated brothers,
was a man of infinite good nature and polite manners, but
ordinaxy understanding. In 1745, when the young Chevalier
anived in Edinburgh, he had a great desire to be introduced
to him, but not wishing to commit himself by joining the
standard of rebellion, he, along with his brother-in-law, the
celebrated Sir James Stenart of Coltness, requested their
friend Lord Elcho, who was Sir James's brother-in-law, and
one of the prince's firmest adherents, to take them, as it
were, upon compulsion, to the court at Holyroodhouse.
Nest day, therefore, according to concert, they were seized at
th0 cross of Edinburgh, by a party under the command of
dpho, and straightway brought into an ante-chamber of the
palace. The prince, however, on the matter being explained
to him, refused to see them, imless as avowed adherents.
Sir James Steuart consented, was introduced, and ruined,
while the earl of Buchan, with a low and sarcastio obeisance
to Lord Eldio, turned upon his heel, and left the palace. He
thus saved his estates firom confiscation, but unfortunately, it
was only to squander much of their value in another way.
At his death m 1767 he left his children little better inherit-
ance than their talents, for which they were more indebted to
tbdr mother than to hun.
Henry David Erskine, twelfth earl of Buchan of the name,
son of the celebrated Hon. Henry Entkine, by his wife, the
daughter of Qeorgs Fullerton, Esq. of Broughton Hall, died
in 1857. Bom in 1783, he was three times married. His
eldest son Henry, Lord Cardross, died in 1837, leaving a son,
bom in 1884, and died in 1849. His second son, David Stuart
Erskine, bom in 1815, succeeded as 13th earl; married, with
issue. Besides that of Lord Cardross, the earl also holds the
secondary title of Lord Auchterhouse, conferred in 1606.
Of the principal families of this name are the Buchans of
Auchmaooy, in the parish of Logie-Buchan, Aberdeenshire,
who have been proprietors of that estate, as appears from
Robertson*s Index of Scarce Charters, since the year 1818,
holding it of the eari of Buchan until the forfeiture of the
Comyns in the reign of King Robert the Brace. In 1508,
James the Fourth gave Andrew Buchan of Auchmaooy a
new charter, and erected his lands into a free barony, which
has been inherited by his lineal male descendants ever smoe.
The family of Auchmaooy were remarkable for their steady
loyalty to the Stuarts, and their opposition to the Covenant.
Of this family was the celebrated Major-General Buchan, the
last officer who had the chief command of King Jame8*s
forces in Scotland, after the revolution of 1688. He was the
third son of James Buchan of Auchmacoy, by Maigaret,
daughter of Alexander Seton of Pitmedden, and was bom
about the middle of the seventeenth century. He entered the
army young, and after serving in subordinate ranks in France
and HolUmd, he was in 1682 appointed by Charies the
Second lieutenant- colonel, and in 1686, by James the
Seventh, colonel of the earl of Mar's regiment of foot in
Scotland. He received the thanks of the privy council for
various services, and in 1689 was promoted by King James
to the rank of m^or-general. After the fall of the Viscount
Dundee at KiUiecrankie, and the subsequent repulse of his
successor. Colonel Cannan, at Dunkeld, he was appointed by
King James, who was then in Ireland, commander-in-chief of
all the Jacobite forces in Scotland. He took the field in April
1690, and on his arrival from Ireland a meeting of the chiefs
and principal officers was held at Keppoch, to deliberate on the
course which they ought to pursue, when it was unanimously
resolved to continue tide war. As, however, the labours of the
spring season were not over, they postponed the muster of
the clans till these should be completed, and in the meantime
directed Major-general Buchan to employ the interval in
beating up the enemy's quarters, along the borders of the
lowhmds, for which purpose a detachment of twelve hundred
foot was to be placed at his disposal {^Balcarret,'] It sc
happened that the general^s brother, lieutenant-colonel
Buchan, had joined the party of the government, and at this
time commanded King William's fbroes in the dty and county
of Aberdeen, and he was directed by General Mackay to
march upon any point where he could co-operate with Sir
Thomas Livingston, who, at the head of a large force, was
acting as a check upon the movements of the Jacobite forces
in the Southem Highlands. At Cromdale, early in the mom-
ing of the first of May (1690), Livingston surprised and
defeated General Buchan and the forces under his command,
then reposing in the low grounds, on the south banks of fhe
Spey, which gave rise to the well-known song of *Tlie
Hangfas of Cromdale,' beginning—
** Afl I came in by Auchlndown
A little wee bit firae the town.
When to the Highlands I was bown,
To view the haws o* Cromdale:
I met a man In tartan trews,
I itpeer*d at him what was the news,
Quo' he, the Highland army rue*
That e'er we came to CromdulA
We were in bed, Sir, every man.
When the English host upon us came;
A bloody battle then began.
Upon the haws of Cromdale.
The Englbh horse they were so mde.
They bathed their hoofk In Highland blood,
But our brave elans they boldly stood,
Upon the haws of Cromdale.
But, alas! we could no longer stay.
For o'er the hiUa we came away,
And sore we do lament the day,
And view the haws of Cromdale^**
The names of Montrose and Cromwell are, in the rest of ihe
song, by an absurd anachronism, substituted for those of
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WILLIAM.
Buchan and Livingstone, while some of the clans enunerated
were not in the skirmish at aU. The poputar songs of a
country sometimes make sad havoc with fact and even pro-
bability, as histoty is often ** made void throogh traditions.^
Buchan afterwards, at the head of a considerable force, being
joined by Farqnharmn of Inverey with about six hundred of
Braemar Highlanders, left the neighbourhood of Abeigeldie,
where he had been for some time, and descended into the low
parts of Aberdeenshire, Meams, and Banff, but were opposed
by the master of Forbes and Colonel Jackson, with eight
troops of cavalry. Buchan, however, purposely nuignified
the appearance of his forces, by ranging hb foot over a large
extent of ground, and interspersing hb baggage and baggage
horses among them, which inspired the Master of Forbes and
Jackson ,with such dread that they considered it prudent to
retire before a foe apparently so formidable. They accord-
ingly retreated to Aberdeen at full gallop, a distance of twen-
ty miles. Buchan, who had no immediate design upon Aber-
deen, followed them, and was joined in the pursuit by some
of the neighbouring noblemen and gentlemen. The inhabit-
ants were thrown into a state of the greatest consternation at
his approach, and the necessary means of defence were adopt-
ed, but Buchan made no attempt to enter the town, and
marched southward. On the advance, however, of General
Mackay, he crossed the hills to the right, and proceeded to
Inverness, where he expected the earl of Seafonh*s and other
Highlanders to join him, when he intended to have attacked
the town, but Seaforth was obliged to surrender to the gov-
ernment, and crossing the river Ness, Buchan retired up along
the north side of the Loch. At length, unable to collect or
keep any considerable body of men together, after wandering
through Lochaber, he dismissed the few who still remained
with him, and along with Sir George Barclay, and other offi-
cers, took up his abode with Macdonell of Glengaiy. After
the submission of the Highland chiefii to the government of
King William, Buchan and Cannan, with their officers, in terms
of an agreement with the ruling powers, were transported to
France, to which country they liad asked and obtained permis-
sion from King James to retire, as they could no longer be ser-
viceable to him in Scotiand. Although he had failed to re-
trieve the fortunes of the fallen monarch, there are letters to
him and other documents in the possession of Mr. Buchan of
Auchmacoy, from James himself, and his queen, their secre-
tary Melfort and others, expressive of their undiminished con-
fidence in his military skill and attachment to their cause
On the breaking out of the rebellion in 1715, the marquis of
Huntiy wrote a letter to General Buchan, soliciting him to
join the forces of the earl of Mar, and he is supposed, though
not in command, to have been present with the marquis of
Huntiy *s troops at the battle of Sheriffmuir, Nov. 18, 1716,
but when the marquis, to save his life and estates, withdrew
from the earl of Mar's army, a few days after, it is doubtful
whether the general followed hb example, as by a letter from
the countess of Enrol, dated 15th May 1721, it appears that
he was still in communication with the exiled family. Hb
portrait b in the house of Auchmacoy, Aberdeenshire.
A family of the name of Buchan possesses the estate of
Kelloe in Berwickshire. Lieut.-general Sir John Buchan,
son of George Buchan, Esq. of Kelloe, by the daughter of
Robert Dundas, Esq. of Ambton, who dbtinguished himself
in the Peninsular war, was, for hb services, created a knight
commander of the Bath in 1831. He died in 1850. For ad-
ditional information as to thb family see Supplkmsstt.
BUCHAN, WiLLLAjtf, M.D., a medical writer
of great popularity, was born in 1729, at Ancrum,
in Roxbnrghshire. His father possessed a small
estate, and in addition rented a farm from the
duke of Roxburgh. He was sent to Edinburgh
to study divinity, and spent nine years at the
university. At an early period he exhibited a
mai'ked predilection for mathematics, in which he
became so proficient as to be enabled to givp
private lessons to many of his fellow-students. He
afterwards resolved to follow the medical profes-
sion, in preference to the Church. Before taking
his degree, he was induced by a fellow-student to
settle in practice for some time in Yorkshire. He
soon after became physician to the Foundling
Hospital at Ackworth, in which situation he ac-
quired the greater part of that knowledge of the
diseases of children which was afterwards pub-
lished in his 'Domestic Medicine,' and in his
' Advice to Mothers.* He retunied to Edinburgh
to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Phy-
sicians, and soon after married a lady named
Peter. On the Ackworth Foundling Hospital be-
ing dissolved, in consequence of parliament with-
drawing its support from it, Dr. Buchan removed
to Sheffield, where he appears to have remained-
till 1766. He then commenced practice in Edin-
burgh. In 1769 he published his celebrated work,
' Domestic Medicine ; or, the Family Physician ;'
dedicated to Sir John Pringle, president of the
Royal Society. In the composition of it he is said
to have been assisted by Mr. William SmeUie. It
was published at Edinbni'gh at six shiUings ; and
so great was its success, that, in the words of the
author, " the first edition of ^ve thousand copies
was entirely sold off in a comer of Britain, before
another could be got ready." The second edition
appeared in 1772, and before the author's death
nineteen large editions had been sold. The work
was translated into every European language, and
became very popular, not only on the continent,
but in America and the West Indies. From the
empress Catherine of Russia the author received
a large medallion of gold, with a complimentary
letter. Many other letters and presents from
abroad were also transmitted to him. Dr. Buchan
subsequently removed to London, where for many
years he enjoyed a lucrative practice. In his lat-
ter years he went daily to the Chapter Coffee-
house, St. Paul's, where patients resorted to him.
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BUCHAN,
457
EIJSPETH.
to whom he gave advice. Before leaving Eklln-
bargh he delivered several courses of natural phi-
losophy, illustrated by an excellent apparatus
bequeathed to him by his deceased friend, James
Ferguson, the celebrated lecturer. On his re-
moval to London, he disposed of this collection to
Dr. Lettsom. He died February 25, 1805, and
was interred in the cloisters of Westminster Ab-
bey. He left a son, also an eminent physician
and the author of several medical works.
Dr. Bnchan*s works ai'e :
Domestic Medicine ; or a Treatise on the Prevention and
Core of Dieeaaea, bj regimen and simple medicines. Lond.
1769. 2d edition, with additions. Lond. 1772, Svo.
Cantions concerning Cold Bathing and Drinking Mineral
Waters ; being an additional chapter to the 9th edition of bis
Domestic Medicine. Lond. 1786, 8va
Letters to the Patentee concerning the Medical Properties
of Fleecj Hosiery ; with Notes and Obsenrations. 8d edit.
Lond. 1790, Sto.
Observations on the Prevention and Core of the Venereal
Disease ; intended to guard tbe ignorant and unwary against
the baneful efiects of that insidions malady, Ac Lond. 1796,
8vo. Several editions.
Observations on the Diet of the Common People ; recom-
mending a method of living less expensive, and more oondudve
to health, than the preeent Lond. 1797, 8vo.
Advice to Mothers on the subject of their own Health, and
on the means of promoting the health, strength, and beauty
of the'uro&pring. Lond. 1803, 8vo. 2d edit Lond. 1811, 8\-o.
The works of his son, Alexander P. Buchan,
M.D., London, are:
Enchiridion Syphiliticum, or Directions for the Conduct of
Venereal Patients. Lond. 1797, 8vo.
Practical Observations concerning Sea Bathmg, with Re-
marks on the use of the Warm Bath. Lond. 1804, 8vo.
New edition of Armstrong on Diseases of Children, with
notes. Lond. 1808, 8vo
Bionoraia, or Opinions concerning Life and Health. Lond.
1811, 8vo.
New edition, being the 21st, of Dr. Buchan*8 Domestic Me-
dicine. Lond. 1818, 8vo.
Account of an appearance off Brighton Cliff, seen in the
ur by reflection. Nic Jour. xiv. 840. 1806.
BUCHAN, or Simpson, Elspbth, the found-
ress of a sect, partly enthusiastic mlllenarians, and
partly harmless fanatics, was bom in 1788. She
was the daughter of John Simpson, the keeper of
an inn, at Fetney-Can, situated half-way between
Banff and Portsoy ; and, in her 22d year, she went
to Glasgow, and entered into service. There she
married Robert Buchan, a potter, one of her master*s
workmen, in the delft-work, Broomielaw, by whom
she had several children. Although educated an
Episcopalian, she adopted, on her marriage, the
principles of her husband, who was a Burgher Se-
ceder. Afterwards, laying claim to the gift of in-
spiration, which she supported by asserting that
she had had a vision ^* in the fields," when about
six or seven years of age, and tliat at the age of
thirty-four " the power of God wrouglit so power-
fully upon her senses that she could make no use
of food for weeks,'^ she began, sometime about the
year 1779, to promulgate singular doctrines. Mr.
Hugh White, a minister of the gospel, a licentiate
of the Church of Scotland, and recently admitted
into connection with the synod of Relief at Irvine,
being called to Glasgow 'at the April sacrament of
1783, Mrs. Buchan heard him preach, and being
much taken with his discourse, she wrote several
letters to him, and a correspondence ensued, which
terminated, four months afterwards, in her visiting
him at Irvine. On her appearance there she was
kindly received, and by her artful conversation
soon converted not only Mr. White but his wife
to her own peculiar notions, and through him a
few of his hearers, none of whom, however, were
of the wealthy of his flock. The latter portion
of his congregation, disapproving of their minister's
conduct, brought him before the presbytery, who
after he had disregarded a suspension, and con-
tinued to preach his new doctrines, were compelled
to depose him from the office of the ministry. He
afterwards preached, and otherwise laboured to
propagate his fanatical tenets, fii-st in a tent,
and subsequently in his own house. His adher-
ents met during the night, sung hymns, which was
a great part of their worship, and the uninitiated
were instructed in the new faith by their pretended
prophetess, who signed her name *^ Elspat Buch-
an," and, though illiterate, had some natural abil-
ity. She gave herself out to be the woman spoken
of in the 12th chapter of the Revelation, and Mr.
AVhite to be the man-child she had brought forth.
This and some other of her ravings brought upon
her and her party the indignation of the towns-
people. They rose, assembled round Mr. White's
house, broke the windows, and might have pro-
ceeded to greater extremities but for the interpo-
sition of the magistrates. After repeated applica-
tions to have her proceeded against as a blas-
phemer, the magistrates thought it prudent, in
April 1784, to dismiss her and several of her ad-
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BUCHAN,
458
ELSPETH.
herentB from the town. Tbey conduct^ her
safely without the bounds of the borough, but at
parting, she and her companions were pelted by
the youthful mob who were following them, with
dirt and stones. The first night they stopped in
the neighbourhood of Kilmaurs, and being joined
by Mr. White and a few others in the morning,
the whole proceeded till they came to the parish
of Closebum, Dumfries<shire, where they took up
their abode for a season. The farm of New Cam-
ple in the parish of Closeburn, in the outhouses or
offices of which they took up their abode, (now
called Buchan Ha\) continued to be their resi-
dence till 24th December of that year, when, un-
der a popular belief that Mra. Buchan was a
dealer in witchcraft, they were assailed by a
mob of rustics, but were protected by the sheriff,
and forty -two of the rioters tried before him
for the breach of the peace. The persons who
came from Irvine were mostly females, but among
them were a few men of respectable character and
easy circumstances, including a Mr. Hunter, a
lawyer and fiscal of that town. They were joined
at New Cample by a lieutenant of marines, by
name Charles E. Conyers, who resigned his
commission, and by a few from the counties
on the English boi*der, but their number never
amounted to more than fifty. Their proceedings
and the few conversions they made caused a sen-
sation^ and they were beset with letters inquiring
into their principles and views. They could num-
ber one countess at least among their correspondents,
besides several clergymen of the church of Eng-
land ; and they began vauntingly to publish their
correspondence. They also issued from the press
two parts of a work called ' The Divine Diction-
ary,* containing their notions and revelations,
each accompanied with the following blasphemous
attestation :
" The traths contained in this publication, the writer re-
ceived from the Spirit of God in that woman, predicted in
Rev. xil 1. though they are not written in the same siropli-
citj as delivered — hy a babe in the love of God, Hugh
WHrrs. Revised and approven of by Elspat Simpson.*'
Nothing could be more injurious to their cause
than to write such a book. So little reason was
mixed with their madness^ that it is difficult at
times in its pages to comprehend their meaning or
to correctly grasp at their belief. It showed them
to be Illiterate, visionary, and rhapsodical.
Their main doctrine was that a coming of Christ
in person, or what is called the millennium, was
Just at hand ; on which occurring, they would be
taken up to meet him in the air, transformed into
his likeness, and would reign with him for a thou-
sand years. They believed that none of them
were to taste of death ; that the approach of the
Saviour would be hastened by their assuming the
position of waiters or expectants, and in particu-
lar by their living like the angels in heaven.
They emaciated their bodies by fasting. They
renounced all earthly connections. Such of them
as were in the relation of husband and wife ceased
to know each other as such. They asserted that
sin no longer existed in their heart,— that there
was impropriety in praying for the pardon of sin,
— that the soul had no existence separate frt>m
the body, — that at conversion a spiritual life was
infused, which consisted in rejoicing in God, sing-
ing hymns, and waiting in ecstacy for the appear-
ing of their Redeemer. Mrs. Buchan was not
only the high priestess but the treasurer of the
party. She kept the common stock of the brethren
and sisters, for they had all things in common.
All the funds they brought with them, and they
were considerable, she contrived to get into her
hands. She dealt out their food to them — and
that in small portions; she led their hymns; she
poured out her rhapsodies over the Bible; she
asserted herself to be not only the woman men-
tioned in the Apocalypse, but the mother of Christ,
who had been wandering in the world ever since
his days, and that she would never die. Although
she had a husband and son left behind in Glasgow,
and two daughters who were of the party and
living before her eyes, she asserted, and got her
followers to believe her, that every thing was false
about her parentage, man-iage, or motherhood.
Notwithstanding these absurd views, the Buchanites
were temperate, civil, and peaceful in a remarkable
degree. The young women particularly excited
much commiseration. When the trial of the riot-
ters came on, they would not prosecute, nor scarcely
bear witness in refei*ence to the injuries they had
received, until the one first called had been impri-
soned for suppressing the truth.
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BUCHANAN.
After the trial they saw they could only be in
safety by having a little spot of gronnd they could
call their own. Accordingly tboy removed to the
neighbonring county of Galloway, and pos-
sessed a farm called Auchencaim, near the vil-
lage called *the Nine-mile Tollbar.' Here they
remained until the death of the prophetess. Va-
rious defections, however, took place. Tlie young
women were induced to m&ny in the neighbour-
hood, or otherwise returned into society. The
former was even the case with Mi*s. Buchan^s
daughters. A few continued, however, until she
died in May 1791.
On her death -bed, this wretched impostor called
her followers together, and endeavoured to cheer
their drooping spirits by asserting that though she
DOW appeared to die, they need not be discour-
aged, for in a short time she would return and
conduct them to the New Jerusalem. After her
death, her credulous djsciples would neither dress
her corpse nor bu^ hen, untiil compelled by the
authorities. The last survivor of the sect, whose
Dame was Andrew Innes, died in 184^8. He ha^
kept the skeleton of Mrs. Bachan beside him^ al-
ways expecting that she would come alive again,
as she had foretold, and carry all her followers to.
heaven. The Buchanites were remarkably peace-
able an^t; industrious, and excelled in the manu-
ractui:e of spinning wheels, since superseded by
the spinnjng-jennies of the great steam-factories.
BUCHAN, Peter, an industrions ballad col-
lector, see SurPLEMKHT.
BfTCHA^TA^, a sorname belonging to a nnmeitms dan in Stir-
lingsbire, and the countiy on the north ride of Loch Lomond.
The repoted fimnder of the Bachanans was Anaelan, aon of
O'Kjan, king of Ulster in Ireland, who is said to have been com-
piled to leave his native conntiy, bj the incorrions of the
Danes, and take refiige in ScotUnd. He Unded, with some at-
tendants, on the northern coast of Argyleshiie, near the Len-
nox, about the joar 1016, and having, according to the family
tradition, in all such cases made and provided, lent his assist-
ance to King Malcobn the Second in repelling bis old enemies
the Danes, on two different occarions of their arrival in Soot-
land, he received from that king for his services, a grant of
bmd m the north of Scotland. The improbable character of
this genealogj is manifested by its farther stating that the
aforesaid Anselan married the heiress of the hmds of Buchan-
an, a lady named Dennistoan ; for the Dennistonns deriving
their name from hmds given to a family of the name of Dan-
ziel, [see Denkistoum, surname o^] who came into ScotUnd
with Ahm the father of the founder of the abbey of Paisley,
and the first daptfer^ seneschal, or steward of Scotland, no
I of that name could have been in Scotland until long
after the period here referred to. It is more probable that a
portion of what afterwards became the estate of Buchnnan
formed a part of some royal grant as being connected with
the esUtes of the earls of Lennox, whom Skene and Naper
have established to have been remotely connected with the
royal family of the Canmore line, and to have been in the
fint instance administrators, oo the part of the crown, of the
lands which were afterwards bestowed upon theno.
The name of Buchanan is territorial, and is now that of a
parish in Stirlingshire, which was anciently called Inchcaileocli,
(* old woman^s ishmd,') from an ishmd of that name in Loch
Lomond, on which in earlier ages there was a nunnery, and
latterly the parish church for a century after the Reforma-
tion. In 1621 a detached part of the parish of Luss, which
comprehends the lands of the family of Buchanan, was
included in this parish, when the chapel of Buchanan was
used for the only phu» of worship, and gave the name to the
whole parish.
Begarding the etymology of Buchanan (or, as it was for-
meriy spelled, Boucbannane) the following curious passage
occurs in Bleau's Atlas, published in HoUand in 1658 : ** Bu-
chanan qui out de belles Signeuries sur la riviere d*Anerio dn
ooste du Midi, et sur le ko de Leimond duooete dn Tocoident,
Tune desquelles appartient au chef de la famille, (jni s*appelle
vulgairment Buchanan, laquelle a donne le nom a tonte la
maison : le mot, qui signifie one possession, est compose, et
veut dire nn terroir bas et proche dee eanx, car Much on
Buch signifie un lieu has, et Annan de Teau ; et en effect il
est ainsi," &c. [Tome vL pp. 96, 97.] We have not a doubt
that the name Buchanan has the same origin as the worxi
BucHAX (see ante, p. 458), being its diminutive of Bnchan-
ino or Bnqubanino, the little Buquhan or catUe-growing dis-
trict.
Anselan (in the fiunily genealogies styled the third of that
name) the seventh laird of Buchanan, and the sixth in de-
scent from the above-named Irish prince, but not unlikely to
be the first of the name, which is Korman French, is digni-
fied in the same records with the magniloquent appellation ot
seneechal or chamberlain to Malcohn the first eari of Leve-
oax (as Lennox was then a^ed). He and two of his sons,
Qilbert and Hethlen, are witnesses to a charter granted by
the same earl to Gilmore son of Maoldonich, of the lands of
Luss, in the reign of King' Alexander the Second, a nobleman
of no great influence or power, descended fifom administrators
of one of the abthaneships of Dull, or royal Unds reverting to
the crown by demise of younger branches, in which charter
they are more ooireotly designed the earPs clients or vassals.
In 1225, this Anselan obtained from the same eari a charter
of a small ishmd m Loohlomond called Chuieinch, witnesses
Dougal, Gilchrist, and Amalyn, the earrs three brothers, the
name of which ishmd afterwards became the rallying cry of
the Buchanans. The same AnseUn is also mentioned as a
witness in a charter granted by the earl of Lennox of the
Unds of Dahnanoch in mortification to the old church of Kil-
patrick, by the designation of Absalon de Buchanan, Absalon
being the same as Ansalon. He had three sons, vis. Meth-
len, ancestor of the MaoMiUans; Colman, ancestor of the
MacCoImans; and his successor Gilbert
His eldest son, Gilbert, or Gillebrid, appears to have borne
the surname of Buchanan. There is a charter of oonfirmation
of that of Clareinch, and some other lands of Buchanan,
granted in favour of this Gilbert by Kmg Alexander the
Second in the seventeenth year of his reign, and of our Lord
1281. The same Gilbert is also witness to a charter, by Mal-
colm eari of Lennox, to the abbot and monks of Paisley, dated
at Kenfirew m 1274. \ChartMiary of DumbartoHshire \
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BUCHANAN.
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BUCHANAN.
Sir Manrice Bocbanan, grandaon of Gilbert, and sod of a
chief of the same name, receiyed iirom Donald earl of Len-
nox, a charter of the lands of Sallochj, with confirmation of
the upper part of the carrocate of Buchanan. As his name
does not appear on the roll of parties who swore fealty to Ed-
ward the First, his desoendanta claim the merit of his having
refused to do so. To the bond of fealtjr, however, a Malcolm
de Buchanan attached his name. Sir Maurice also obtained
a charter of confirmation of the lands of Buchanan from King
David the Second in the beginning of his reign.
Allan, the second son of the first Sir Maurice, married the
heiress of I^enj of that ilk, descended from Gillespie Moir de
Lanj, supposed to have lived about the beginning of the
tenth ceutuiy. According to a family manuscript pedigree,
quoted in Buchanan of Auchmar's account of the Leny
branch, the eariy proprietors of the estate of Leny had no
charters, but carefully preserved a large sword, and one of
the teeth of St Fillan, the possession of which was held to be
a sufficient title to the knds. John, the thbd son, was al-
ways reputed the ancestor of the Buchanans of Auchneiven.
Sir Maurice de Buchanan the second, above mentioned,
married a daughter of Menteith of Rusky, and had a son,
Walter do Buchanan, who had a charter of confinnation of
some of his lands of Buchanan firoro Robert the Second, in
which he is designed the king*s * consanguineus,* or cousin.
His eldest son, John, married Janet, daughter and sole heir-
ess of John Buchanan of I^ny, fourth in descent from Allan
already noticed. John, who died befora his father, had three
sons, viz. Sir Alexander, of whom next paragraph ; Walter,
who succeeded his father; and John, who inherited the lands
of Leny, and carried on that family.
Sir Alexander Buchanan, the eldest son, accompanied the
earl of Buchan to France, when he went to assist the French
king Charles against Henry the fifth of England, and dis-
tinguished himself at the battle of Beaug^ in Normandy, in
March 1421. The victory was principally owing to the val-
our of the Scots auxiliaries. It is stated in Buchanan of
Auchmar*s account of the martial achievements of the family
of Buchanan that it was Sir Alexander Buchanan who, in
this battle, slew the duke of Glyeuce, a feat commonly attri-
buted to the earl of Buchan. He is said to have pierced the
duke through the left eye and brain, on which the latter fell,
when seizing his coronet, Buchanan boro it off on his spear-
point. He is also said to have sold the coronet, which was
set round with jewels, to Stewart of Damley for one thou-
sand angels of gold, and that the latter pawned the same to
Sir Robert Houston for five thousand angels. Sir Alexander
Buchanan was killed at the battle of Verneuil, on the 17th of
August of the same year.
The armorial bearings of the Buchanans lend countenance
to the assertion that Sir Alexander Buchanan assisted in
slaying the duke of Clarence. The crest is a hand holding a
ducal crown. The double treesun with Jleurs de lu was
granted to him by the king of France. The mottoes ** Audi^
ces Juvo,** and ** Clarior Hinc Honos,** an correspondent to
each other and to the devices.
Sir Alexander died unmarried, and the second son, Sir
Walter, succeeded to the estate of Buchanan.
This Sir Walter de Buchanan married Isabel, daughter of
Murdoch, duke of Albany, governor of ScotUnd, by Isabel,
countess of Lennox in her own right With a daughter,
married to Gray of Foulia, ancestor of Lord Gray, he had
three sons, viz. Patrick, his successor; Maurice, fzeasnrer to
the princess Margaret, the daughter of King James the First,
and dauphiness of France, with whom he left Scotland ; and
Thomas, founder of the Buchanans of Carbeth.
The eldest son, Patrick, acquired a part of Strathyre in
1455, and had a charter under the great seal of his estate ol
Buchanan dated in 1460. He and Andrew Budianan d
Leny made^in 1455 mutual tailzies of their estates in favour
of one another, and the heirs of their own bodies, paanng
some of their brethren of either side. He married Galbraith,
heiress of Killeam, Bamore, and Auchenreoch. He had two
sons and a daughter, Anabella, married to her cousin, James
Stewart of Baldorrans, grandson of Murdoch, duke of Albany
Their younger son, Thomas Buchanan, was, in 1482,
founder of the house of Dmmakill, whence, in the third gen-
eration, came the celebrated George Buchanan. One of Sir
Walter Scott's colleagues at the clerk's table of the court of
session was Hector Macdonald Buchanan, Esq. of Drumakill,
**a frankhearted and generous gentleman," says Lockliart,
" not the less acceptable to Scott for the Highland prejudices
which he inherited with the high blood of Clanranald ; at
whose beautiful seat of Ross priory, on the shores of Lochlo-
mond, he was almost annually a visitor; a drcumstance
which has left numy traces in the Waveriey novels.**
Patrick's elder son, Walter Buchanan of that ilk, nuvried
a daughter of Lord Graham, and by her had two sons, Pa-
trick and John, and two daughters, one of them married to
the laird of Lamond, and the other to the laird of Ardkin-
glass.
John Buchanan, the younger son, succeeded by testament
to Menzies of Amprior, and was the facetious " King of Kip-
pen," and faithful ally of James the Fifth. The local pro-
verb, ** Out of the world, and into Kippen," was meant to
show the seclusion and singularity of this district of Stirling-
shire, of which the feudal lord was formeriy styled King.
The name is supposed to be derived from the Gaelic word
Ceap-beinn, * foot of the mountidn,' and the parish is partljr
in Perthshire. An insulated portion of the latter county
about two miles long and half-a-mUe broad, embraces tha
village of Kippen. The minister's manse stands on the east'
em boxmdary, so that his dinner is cooked in Perthshire and
eaten in Stirlingshire. The way in which the laird of Am-
prior got the name of ** King of Kippen" is thus related by a
tradition which Sir Walter Scott has introduced into his
Tales of a Grandfather. [Hittory of Scotland.}—^' ^m^ea
James the Fifth travelled in disguise, he used a name which
was known only to some of his principal nobility and attend-
ants. He was called the Goodman (the tenant, that is) of
Ballengeich. Ballengeich is a steep pass which leads down
behind the castle of Stirling. Once upon a time when the
court was feasting in Stirling, the king sent for some venison
firom the neighbouring hills. The deer was killed and put on
horses' backs to be transported to SUrling. Unluckily the)
had to pass the castle gates of Amprior, belonging to a chiei
of the Buchanans, who chanced to have a considerable num-
ber of guests with him. It was late, and the company were
rather short of victuals, though they had more than enough
of liquor. The chief, seeing so much fat venison passing his
very door, seized on it, and to the expostulations <rf' the keep-
ers, who told him it belonged to King James, he answered
insolently, that if James was king in Scotland, he (Budian-
an) was king in Kippen ; being the name of the district in
which Amprior lay. On hearing what had happened the
king got on horseback, and rode instantly from Stirling to
Buchanan's house, where he found a strong fierce-looking
Highlander, with an axe on his shoulder, standing sentinel at
the door. This grim warder refused the king admittance,
saying that the laird ^ Amprior was at dinner, and would
not be disturbed. *Yet go np to the cjmpany, my good
friend,' sud the kmg, * and tell him that the Goodman (f
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BUCHANAN.
461
BUCHANAN.
BiUlen^ch is come to feast with the King of Kippen.* The
porter went grumbling into the house, and told his master
that there was a fellow with a red beard at the gate, who
called himself the Goodman of Ballengeioh, who said be was
onme to dine with the King of Kippen. As soon as Bachanan
heard these words, he knew that the king was come in per-
son, and hastened down to kneel at James's feet, and to ask
forgiveness for his insolent behaviour. But the king, who
onlj meant to give him a fright, forgave him freelj, and, go-
ing into the castle, feasted on his own venison, which Buch-
anan had intercepted. Buchanan of Amprior was ever after-
wards called the King of Kippen.** He was killed at the
baUle of Pinkie in 1347.
Tbe elder son, Patrick, who fell on Flodden field, during
his fatber*s lifetime, had married a daughter of the earl of
Argjia She bore to him two sons and two daughters.
Tbe younger son, Walter, in 1519 conveyed to bis son Wal-
ter, the lands of Spittal, and was thus the founder of that
house. On the 14th December of that year, he had a charter
from his father of the temple-lands of £aster-Catter. In
1531, he had a remission from James the Fifth, for seizing
and detuning in the castle of Glasgow, John duke of Albany,
then governor of Scotland. In this deed he is styled ** Wal-
ter Buchanan in Spittel,** the property of which was then in
the hands of his brother George Buchanan of that ilk, who
resigned bis lands of Spittel of Easter-Catter to Edward, son
of the said Walter Buchanan, as appears by the confirmation
in favour of this Edward, by Gavin, archbishop of Glasgow,
dated 18tb September 1531.
The elder son, George Buchanan of that ilk, succeeded his
grandfather, and was sheriff of Dumbartonshire at the critical
epoch of 1561. He must have succeeded to the estate when
very young, as in the register of the privy seal of Scotland,
quoted in the appendix to Pitcaim*8 Collection of Criminal
Trials, under date July 11, 1526, ^ere is a respite to George
Buchanan of that ilk, and twenty-two others, *' extract furtb
of the respitt of Johne erie of Levinax, for his tressonabill as-
s^ng, taking and with balding of our souerane lordis castle
and fiotalice of Dumbertene fra his seruandis keparis thairof.**
He was at the battle of Pinkie, on the queen*s side, in 1547,
m which, besides Buchanan of Amprior, many others of the
name of Buchanan were slain. He was also at the battle of
Langside fighting for Queen Mary, in 1568. On January
26, 1598-4, Robert Buchanan of Spittel, Mungo Buchanan in
TulKchewne, and eight other Buchanans, were ordained to be
denounced rebels, for not relieving George Buchanan of that
ilk, of a deereet-arbitral, pronounced by Ludovick duke of
Lernox, upon a submission entered into by the laird of
Fttcbanan, taking burden on him for his friends, on the one
part, and Allan or Aw lay M'Caula of Ardincaple and his
firiends, on the other part, " be the quhilk decrete, the said
George has been decemit to mak payment to the said Allane,
and vtheris his friendis, of a certaine sowme of money, for
sum violence done, and attemptit agam's thame be the said
Geoi^ friendis.** [Pttowm*s Triak, vol. i part iL p. 306.]
By Margaret, daughter of Edmonstone of Duntreath, George
Buchanan had a son, John, who died before his father, leav-
mg a son. By a second lady, Janet, daughter of Cunning-
hame of Craigans, he had \t^am, founder of the now ex-
tinct house of Auchmar. A descendant of this bouse, Wil-
liam Buchanan of Auchmar, published at GUsgow, m 1723,
a quarto volume entitled an * Historical and Genealogical es-
say upon the family and surname of Buchanan, with an En-
quiry into the Genealogy and present state of ancient Scot-
tish surnames, and more partioilariy of the Highland Clans.*
An octavo edition of the same appeared at Edinburgh in
1775. In drawing up this account of the Buchanans, Auch-
mar's work has of course been consulted, but in the eariy
portion especially of the genealogies, we should not be dis-
posed to rely implicitly on its statements, either in respect of
the name of Budianan or any other of the " andeut Scottish
surnames^ which it contains.
John Buchanan, above mentioned as dymg before bis fa-
ther, George Buchanan of that ilk, was twice married, first
to the Lord Livingston*s daughter, by whom he had one son,
Geofge, who succeeded his grandfiither, and secondly to a
niece of Chisholm, bishop of Dunblane, and had by her a
daughter nuurried to Mr. Thomas Buchanan of Ibcot, lord
privy seal.
The son. Sir George Buchanan, married Mary Graham,
daughter of the earl of Monteith, and had, with two daugh-
ters, a son. Sir John Buchanan of that Qk, who in 1618, mor-
tified (or bequeathed) six thousand pounds Scots to the uni-
versity of Edinburgh, for maintaining three bursars at the study
of theology there ; and an equal sum to the university of St
Andrews, for maintaining upon the interest thereof, three
bursars at the study of philosophy there, and constituted the
magistrates of Edinburgh managers or patrons of both mor-
tifications. This on the authority of Buchanan of Auchmar,
although Bower in his History of the University of Edin-
burgh does not mention any such bequest. Sur John married
Anabella Erskine, daughter of Adam, commendator of Cam-
buskenneth, a son of the Master of Mar. He had a son,
George, his successor, and a daughter married to Campbell
of Rahein.
Sir George Buchanan the son married Elisabeth Preston,
daughter of the laird of Craigmillar. He was colonel of the
Stirlingshire regiment during the whole of the civil wars in
the reign of King Charles the First, and was, with his regi-
ment, at the battle of Dunbar m 1650. He was also at tbe
fatal conflict of Inverkeithing in the following year, and with
Major-general Sir John Brown of Fordel, colonel of the Mid
Lothian regiment, at the head of their regiments, stopped
the passage of Cromwell*s troops over the Forth, for some
days. The Scots were, however, eventually defeated with
great loss, and Sir George Buchanan, with Sur John Brown
and other officers, taken prisoner, in which state he died in
the end of 1651, leaving, with three daughters, one son, John,
the last laird of Buchanan, who was twice married, but had '
no male issue. By his second wife, Jean Pringle, daughter
of Mr. Andrew Pringle, a minister, he had a daughter Janet,
married to Henry Buchanan of Leny. John, the last laird,
died in December 1682. His estate was sold by his creditors,
and purchased by the ancestor of the duke of Montrose.
The barons or lairds of Buchanan built a castle m Stirlmg-
shire, where the present Buchanan house stands, formerly
called the Peel of Buchanan. Part of it exists, forming the
charter-room. A more modem house was built by these
chiefs, adjoining the east side. This mansion came into the
possession of the first dake of Montrose, who made several
additions to it, as did also subsequent dukes, and it is now
the chief seat of that ducal family in Scotland.
The principal line of the Buchanans becoming, as above
shown, extinct in 1682, the representation of the family de-
volved on Buchanan of Auchmar. This line became, in its
turn, extinct in 1816, and in the absence of other competi-
tors, the late Dr. Francis Hamilton -Buchanan of Bardowie,
Spittal, and Leny, as heir-male of Walter, first of the family
of Spittal, established in 1826 his claims as chief of the clan
Of this gentleman, the author of an account of Nepaul, and
other works on India, a separate notice is given. See
Buchanan, Hamiltom Francis.
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BUCHANAN,
462
GEORGE.
The last lineal male descendant of the Buchanans of Lenj
was Henry Buchanan about 1723, whose daughter and heir-
ess, Catherine, married Thomas Buchanan of Spittal, an offi-
cer in the Dutch service, who took for his second wife, Eliza-
beth, youngest daughter of John Hamilton of Bardowie, the
sole survivor of tier fumily, and by her he had four sons and two
daughters. Their eldest son John, bom in 1758, succeeded to
the estate of Bardowie, and assumed the additional name of
Hamilton, but dying without mule issue, was succeeded by bis
brother, the above named Dr. Francis Hamilton-Buchanan.
The first of the Buchanans of Ardocli whs WilliHm Bach-
duan who, in 1693, acquired that estate in the parish of Kil-
maronock, Dumbartonshire. He whs descended from John
Biiclianaii, eldest son of the second marriage of Thomas
Buchanan of Garbeth, grandson of Thomas Buchanan, third
son of Sir Walter Buchanan, thirteenth laird of Buchanan.
The Buchanans of Ardinoonnal and Auchintorlie, in the
same county, are also a branch of the ancient house of Buch-
anan of that ilk and of Leny. Of this family was George
Buchanan, a merchant in Glasgow, and his three brothers,
Andrew of Dnimpeliier, in I^iiarkshire ; Niol, of Hillingtoii,
county of Renfrew, M.P. for the Glasgow district of burghs,
whose male line is now extinct; and Archibald of Auchin-
torlie. These four brothers were the original promoters, in
1726, of the Buchanan Society of Glasgow, one of the most
flourishing benevolent institutions in the west of Scotland.
Mary, their sister, married George Buchanan of Auehintoshen
in Dumbartonshire. The Drumpellier branch of tlie Buchanan
family is represented by the descendant of Andrew's second
son, Robert Carriok Buchanan, Esq. of Drumpellier.
•— — _ •
The name of Buchanan was at one time so numerous in
heritors that it is said that the laird of Buchanan could, in a
Bummer*s day, call fifty heritors of his own surname to his
house, upon any occasion, and all of them might with conve-
nience return to thdr respective reddoices before night, tlie
most distant of their homes not being above ten miles from
Buchanan castle.
In Pitcaim*s Criminal Trials, vol ii. pp. 544 — 567, is given,
under date of May 31, 1608, the trial of one Blargaret Hert-
syde, wife of John, afterwards Sir John Buchanan, a female
servant of her majesty, Anne, queen of Jaines the Sixth, for
stealing the queen*s jewels. The uncommon nature of tlie
crime, and the interest of the pleadings induced him to insert
the entire aiguments. He remarks that the real cause of the
criminal prosecution of this servant of the queen is under-
stood to have originated in Mrs. (afterwards Lady) Buchan-
an's being too deeply vened in certain court intrigues, and it
was deemed necessary to get rid of her, even in the face of
the most strenuous remonstrances on the part of her miyesty.
She was in the following August found guilty, and banished
to Orkney. On this case, Balfour has the following entry in
his Annals, (voL U. p. 26,) "John Buchanan and his wyfle,
Margaret Hartesyde, that had layim longe in prisson heire,
for the allegeit stoaliing some of the queins Jewells (hot the
courtiers talked, that it was for revellmg some of the queins
socretts to the king, wich a wysse chalmbermaide wold not
have done), was, by ane sentence, condemned to perpetualle
ezyle, in tht iylandes of Orkney, and declared to be ane in-
famous persons.** The sentence was, however, recalled in the
following November.
Vohime third of the same Collectiofi contains the radict-
ment of several persons of the name of Buchanan, and among
them Patrick the son of George Buchanar of Auchmar, un-
der date June 6, 1623, for the slaughter of one Duncac
M^Fariane, in the preceding ApriL The accused gave in a
suppticatioo which revealed incidents of a most horrible na-
ture. It appears finom it that the M^Farlanes had seized one
William Buchanan, while hunting, and after torturing him
for ten hours had barbarously murdered him. His tongue
and entrails they cut out, and having slain his dogs, they
took out the tongue and entrails of one of them and trans-
ferred them to each other, and so left him and the dogs lying
on the earth, where they vrere not discovered for eight days
the ofience of Buchanan beings that he had inquired aftei
some goods said to have been stolen by the said Duncan
M'Farlane; and the latter having afterwards stolen an ox
from one of the party, he was pursued, and firing his gun at
them was slam in self-defence. The M'Farlanes on tb«r
part also gave in a supplication giving a different complexion
to the case, and the laird of Buchanan came forward and
offered to submit the matter, as it arose out of the murder of
one of his dan, to the earls of Mar, Menteith, Wigtoun, and
Linlithgow, but no records remain as to the result of this ex-
traordinary case.
BUCHANAN, George, a distinguished re-
former and Latin poet, is perhaps the only man
but one whom Scotland has ever produced who
was acknowledged by the acclamations of Europe
to be the princeps — "Poetarum sui secuH facile
princeps" — the decidedly first in the art he culti-
vated, not only of his country but his age. Thia
applies, however, only to poets writing in Latin oi
Greek. He was born at Kiilearn in Stirlingshire,
on the western bank of the rivulet of Blane, in
February 1506. — As Richai'dson writes,
*' Triumphant even the yellow Blane,
Though by a fen defaced.
Boasts that Buchanan's eariy stnun
Consoled her troubled breast**
He belonged to a family which was rather ancient
than rich. He was the third son of Thomas,
second son of Thomas Buchanan of Dmmikill,
who, having received the farm of Moss, otherwise
called Mid-Leowen, from bis father, was called
Thomas Buchanan of Moss. George's father
died of the stone in the flower of his age, and
owing to the insolvency of his grandfather about
the same time, his mother, Agnes, daughter of
James Hariet of Trabrown, was left in extreme
poverty, with five sons and three daughters. Her
brother, James Hariet, is said to have sent him,
(after he had, according to a doubtful tradition,
received the rudiments of his education at a school
supposed to have been then established at Kill-
earn,) about 1520, to Paris, where he improved
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BUCHANAN,
463
GEORGE.
his knowledge of Latiu, acquired the Greek Ian-
linage without the aid of a tutor, and began to
cultivate hia poetical talents. He seems to have
possessed a knowledge of the Gaelic, (which Dr.
Irving incorrectly conjectures to have been the
current speech of his native district at that peritfd,
there being evidence that the Macfarkuws, who
occupied the wild region of the Dumbtrton High-
lands in the vicinity, spoke English before his
time, although they also we the Celtic to this
day,) for it is related thai when in France, having
met with a woman who was said to be possessed
with the devil, and who professed to speak all
languages, be accosted her in Gaelic, and as nei-
ther she nor her familiar returned any answer, he
entered a protest that the devil was ignorant of
that tongue,— a trait of humour in entire accord-
ance with the gravity of his after character. The
death of his uncle, two years afterwards, having de-
prived him of his resources, he returned to Scotland
in 1522. It is stated that at this time his poverty
was so great that in oi*der to get back to his na-
tive country, he joined the corps then in course of
being raised in France as auxiliaries to the duke
of Albany in Scotland. In 1523, after a twelve-
month spent at home for the recovery of his health,
being then only seventeen years of age, he served
as a common soldier with the French auxiliaries,
and proceeded with them when, under the com-
mand of the regent Albany in person, they
marched across the borders, and about the end of
October of that year laid siege to the castle of
Wark, fi-om which they were compelled to retreat.
After one campaign he became tired of a military
life, and the fatigue and hardships he had en-
dured on this occasion so much affected his health,
which in lib youth seems not to have been robust,
that he was confined to his bed for the remaiudei*
of the winter. The brief notice he gives of this
in his short biography of himself, would seem to
imply that he considered this service a useful part
of education. His words are ^^ studio rd mUitaris
cognosceruUe m castra est per/ectus,^* ** The exer-
cise which I commend firet," says Milton, ** is the
exact use of their weapon, to guard and to strike
safely with edge or point; this will keep them
healthy, nimble, strong and well in breath, is also
the likeliest means to make them grow large and
tall, and to inspire thew with a gallant and fear*
less courage, wMefa, being tempered with season-
able lectovei and precepts to them of true fortitude
and petience, will turn into a native and heroic
valom*, and make them hate the cowardice of do-
ing wix>ng." Milton wrote these words about the
year 1650, a time when recent events had given
him good cause to appreciate the effect of such a
character upon a nation^s welfare, and to compre-
hend the distinction between the logic of the
schoolmen, and the logic of Oliver Cromwell,
and of
brandSf
Well wielded m some hardy hands,
And woonds by GalUeans given.
In the ensuing spring Buchanan and his bro-
ther, Patrick, entered students at the university of
St. Andrews, and he took the degree of bachelor
of arts, October 8, 1525, at which time he was a
pauper or exhibitioner. In the following summer
he accompanied John Mair, or Major, then pro-
fessor of logic in St. Salvador's college, St. An-
drews, to Palis, and became a student in the Scot-
tish college there. In March 1528 he took the
degree of M.A., and in June 1530, after being the
previous year defeated as a candidate, he was
chosen procurator of the German Nation, which
comprehended the students fi'om Scotland. The
principles of Luther having, about this time, made
considerable progress on the Continent, Buchanan,
whose mind was more embued with the spirit of
classical antiquity than with the trammels of the
Catholic church, readily adopted them, and be-
came a steady friend to the Reformation. He had
in 1529 received the appointment of professor in
the college of St. Barbe, where he taught grammar
for three yeare, without deriving much i*emunera-
tion from his labours. In an elegy, apparently
composed about this period, he paints in forcible
and gloomy colours the miseries to which the pro-
fessors of humanity in Paris were then exposed.
In 1532, whilst at this college, he became tutor
to Gilbert Kennedy, earl of Cassillis, ** a youth of
the most promising talents, and of an excellent
disposition," then residing near the college of St.
Barbe, and to his lordship he inscribed his first
work, being a translation of the famous Thomas
IJnacrc's Rudiments of Latin Grammar; which
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BUCHANAN,
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was published in 1533. He resided with the earl
in France for about five years, and in May 1537
he returned with him to Scotland.
*'*' While he was residing at the earPs seat in the
country," says his biogi-apher, Dr. Irving, "he
composed a little poem which rendered hhn ex-
tremely obnoxious to the ecclesiastics, an order of
men whom it is generally hazardous to provoke.
In this poem, which bears the title of ' Somnium,'
and is a happy imitation of Dunbar, he expresses
his own abhorrence of a monastic life, and stigma-
tizes the impudence and hypocrisy of the Francis-
can friars. The holy fathers, when they became
acquainted with this specimen of his sarcastic wit,
speedily forgot their professions of meekness, and
resolved to convince him of his heterodox pre-
sumption in disparaging the sacred institutions of
the church. It has repeatedly been alleged that
Buchanan had himself belonged to a religious or-
der which he has so frequently exposed with the
most admirable powers of ridicule ; but this seems
to have been a tale fabricated by the impotent
malice of his theological enemies. That he had
actually assumed the cowl, has never been affirm-
ed by any eai-ly writer sufficiently acquainted with
his history : it is not, however, improbable, that
during the convenient season of his youthful mis-
fortunes, the friai's were anxious to allure so pro-
mising a novice ; and this suggestion is even
countenanced by a passage in one of his poetical
productions."
Buchanan had determined to resume his foimer
occupation in France ; but King James the Fifth
retained him in Scotland in the employment of
tutor to his eldest natural son, (by Elizabeth
Shaw, of the family of Sauchie,) James Stewart,
afterwards the abbot of Kelso, who died in 1548,
and not his half brother, the famous earl of Mur-
ray, as erroneously stated in several of his me-
moirs. We learn from the lord high treasurer's
accounts, quoted in the Appendix to the firat vol-
ume of Pitcaim's ' Criminal Trials,' that, August
21, 1537, Buchanan was paid, by oi'der of the
king, twenty pounds ; and the same sum in July
1538, when he also received a rich gown of Paris
black, with a cassock, on occasion of Maiy of
Guise's public entry into Edinburgh. At the re-
quest of the king, to whom the incensed priests
had found means of representing him as a man of
depraved morals and dubious faith, he wrote his
' Palinodia' and * Franciscanus,' the latter a pow-
erful and bitter satire against the Franciscan fri-
ars. " This production," says Dr. Irving, " as it
now appears in its finished state, may without
hazard be pronounced the most skilful and pun-
gent satire which any nation or language can ex-
hibit. He has not ser>'ilely adhered to the model
of any ancient poet, but is himself original and
unequalled. To a masterly command of classical
phraseology, he unites uncommon felicity of rersi-
fication; and his diction often rises with his in-
creasing indignation to majesty and splendour.
The combinations of his wit arc variegated and
original; and he evinces himself a most sagacious
observer of human life. No class of men was
ever more completely exposed to ridicule and in-
famy; nor is it astonishing that the Popish clergy
afterwards regarded the author with implacable
hatred. The impurities and the absurdities which
he rendered so notorious, were not the spontaneous
production of a prolific brain; their ignorance and
iiTcligion presented an ample and inviting harvest
Of the validity of his poetical accusations, many
historical documents still remain. Bnchanan has
himself related in plain prose, that about this
period, some of the Scottish ecclesiastics were so
deplorably ignorant, as to suppose Martin Lnther
to be the author of a dangerous book, called the
New Testament."
The following account and (in part) only trans-
lation yet attempted of this admirable satire k
fi'om the pen of an able but anonymons critic, and
will not be unacceptable to our readers.
After asking his friend —
" Unde noTUS rigor in vultu ! tristisque seven
Frons caperata minis, tardique modastia gressus?
lUaqne frenatse oonstans custodia lingiuc ? &c"
He makes him thus reply —
** Oft musing on the ills of human life,
Its baojant hopes, wild fears, and idle strife,
And joys of hue— how changeful! tho' serene,
That flit ere you can tell where they have been—
(Even as the bark, when ocean's surges sweep.
Raised by the warring winds, along the deep.
Is headlong by the howling tempest driven,
While the staid pilot, to whose charge is given
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Her guidance, skilfully the ImIto applies,
" Principio hue omnes tanquam ad vivaria cumiiit.
And in the tempest^s face ahe fairlj forward flics,)
Quels res nulla domi est, quibus est irata noverca.
] have resolved, my earthly wanderings past, •
Quoe dums pater, aut pUgosi dextra magistri.
In rest's safe haven to secure at last
T.^rritat, aut legum timor, aut quos dedita somno
Whatever of fleeting life, by Fate's decree,
Excercet nullis Lethcea ignavia curis :
Ere end ray pilgrimage, remains to me,—
Deinde quibus gelidus arcum prsecordia sanguis
To give to heaven the remnant of my days—
Obstitit ingenio, quos sacro a fonte Camoenoc,
And wash away in penitence and pmise,
Quoe Pallas Phoebusque fugat, quoe sidere tono
Far from this wild world's revelry uncouth, .
Aspicit infausto voluoer Tegeaticus ortu.
The sins and follies of my heedless youth.
0, blest and hallowed day 1 with cincture liound.
Adde his, quos febris, quos vexat dira plirenesis, &c
Ikly shaven head the grey hood veiling round,
St Frauds, under thine auspicious name,
Adjice prsetcrea quos pneceps alea nudat,
1 will prescribe unto this fleshly frame
Quos Venus enervat, Ac"
{ A life astherial, that shall upward rise,
j
j Aly heavenward soul commercing with the ski<*si.
lie rapidly snms np his sketch of the order, m '
1 This is my goal— to this my actions tend—
of a set of men
1 My resting-place— original and end."
" Whom fear, wrath, frenzy, dulness, sloth, and crime,
1 To tbis explanation of his friend's object, the
Ambition, ruin, weariness of time, ]
poet thus replies —
Unhappy love, home cbang'd or hostile found.
And dark hypocrisy together bound."
•» If 'tis thine aim to reach the goal of life
Thro' virtue's path, and, leaving childisli strife,
In allnsion to this preclons collection, he ther
To free thy darkcn'd mind from error's force,
makes the following caustic remarks —
To trace the laws of virtue to their source,
1 And nuse to heavenly things thy puiged sight,
" Still deathful is the drug envenomed draught,
I view thy noble purpose with delight ;
Tho' golden be the bowl from which 'tis quaflTd :
But if a shadowy good doth cross thy way,
The ass, in Tyrian purple tho' array'd,
And lure thee, phantom-like— but to betray—
Is as much ass, as asslike when he bray'd ;
Oh ! while 'tis time, restrain thy mad career.
Still fierce will be the lioness— the fox
Anu a true friend's yet timely warning hear;
Still crafly— and still mild the mighty ox—
Nor let old error with bewildered eye,
The vulture still will whet the thirsty beak—
Nor let the blind and senseless rabble's cry,
The twittering swallow still will chirp and squeak .
More move thee than stem reason's simple sway,
Thus tho' the vesture shine like drifted snow.
That points to Truth the undiscovered way : —
The heart's dark passions lurk unchang'd below
But deem not, that high heaven I dare defy
Nor when the viper lays aside his skin
Less baleful does the venom woric within,
Or raise again vain war against the sky,
i
For, from my earliest youth I have revcnnl
The tiger finets against his cage's side
The priests and holy fathers, who appennui.
As wild as when be roam'd in chainless pride :
By virtue's and religion's holy flame,
Thus neither crossing mountains nor the main,
Worthy a bright eternity of fame.
Nor flyiiig human haunts and folUes vain,
But seldom underneath the dusky cowl.
Nor the black robe nor white, nor cowl-clad heau.
That shades the shaven head and monkish scowl.
Nor munching ever black and mouldy bread.
I picture a St Paul: the priestly stole
Will lull the darkly-working soul to rest.
And calm the tumults of the troubled breast.
The glutton's and the adulterer's grovelling Inst,
For always, in whatever spot you be.
Like soulless brute each wallowing in the dust,
And the smooth hypocrite's still smiling brow.
Or near tiie sun, beneath a scorching clime.
That tells not of the villany bek)w.'»
Still, still will follow the fierce lust of crime-
Deceit, and the dark working of the mind.
Where'er you roam will not be lefl behind."
After some preliminary remarks, the poet goes
on to ennmorate the various classes of men who
The king appeai-s to have been either unable or
compose this respectable body—
unwilling to protect the author of this poem against
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the powerful aud vindictive body of men whom he
liad attacked. He was accordingly comprehended in
the general arrest of persons suspected of Luther-
anism, "and to the eteraal infamy of the nation,"
says Dr. Irving, " his invaluable life might have
been sacrificed to the rancour of an unholy priest-
hood. After he was committed to custody, Car-
dinal Beaton endeavoured to accelerate his doom
by tendering to the king a sum of money as the
price of his innocent blood. * * While his
keepers were fast asleep, he escaped through the
window of the apartment in which he was confined,
and fled into England." But his disastei-s were
not over. On the bordei-s he was molested by the
moss-troopers, who at that time had possession of
the whole frontier of the two kingdoms, and his
life was again exposed to gi-eat danger fi'om the
contagion of a pestilential disease then raging in
the north of England. On reaching London, he
was entertained by Sir John Rainsford, an Eng-
lish knight, to whom he has gi*atefully inscribed a
small poem. He proceeded in the course of the
same yeai* to Paris ; and thence, on the invitation
of Andrew Govea, a learned Portuguese, who was
principal of the college of Guienne, lately founded
in that city, to Bordeaux. There he became pro-
fessor of Latin, and taught with applause for three
years, in which time he wrote four tragedies ; two
of which, entitled ^Baptistes,' and 'Jephthes,'
wero original, aud on scriptural subjects, but on
the Greek model ; and the other two were trans-
lations of the * Alcestis ^ and the ^ Medea ' of Euri-
pedes. His * Baptistes,' the earliest of his dramatic
compositions, and his translation of the ^ Medea,*
were performed on the academical stage with ap-
plause surpassing his expectations. The great
theme of the former is civil and religious liberty,
and some of his allusions in it bear ready applica-
tion to the persecuting conduct of Cardinal Bea-
ton. "Buchanan's tragedies," says a contempor-
aiy critic, "are not considered among the most
perfect of his compositions. We have no inten-
tion here to enter upon a criticism of them. It
may be sufficient to mention, as a proof how little
he pi-eserved the keqnng of his picture, that he
frequently alludes to the classical mythology, and
to things with which the Hebrews were unac-
quainted. To some of the chai*acters in J^hthes
he gives Greek names, and the chorus speaks of
the wealth of Croesus, who was not bora till about
six hundred yeai-s after Jephtha. At the same
time it ought to be added, that the language of
his translation of the Medea appeared to his learned
contemporaries so thoroughly classical, that he
was suspected by some of having published in his
own name, a genuine relique of antiquity. This
we conceive to be one of the highest testimonies
that could be adduced of the classical purity of
Buchanan^s Latin style — ^higher than any evidence
founded merely on the authority of any modern
scholar. In the tragedies of Buchanan, repre-
sented in the college of Guienne, the celebrated
Michael de Montaigne was a fi*equent performer.
And Buchanan appears at one time to have formed
a project of composing a work on education, in
which he intended to exhibit as a model, the early
discipline of his pupil Montaigne, a very remark-
able one (his fattier gave him an old Grerman pro-
fessor in place of a nurse, that he might learn
Latin as his mother tongue — and he did it). We
certainly have great doubts as to the excellence of
George^s scheme of education, nor do we tldnk
the world has suffered much by the loss of it.
In the Baptistes^ Buchanan attacks priestcraft
as keenly as in the Franciscanus^ as the following
terse and vigorous lines will amply testify: —
Nostriqae caetns vititun id est vel maxiinmn,
Qni aanctitatis plebem imagine fallirous:
PrsBcepta tuto lioeat ut spemere Dd ;
Contra instituta nostra si qnid aadeas,
Conamor aoro evertere adversaries,
Tollere veneno, sabditisqoe tcstibus
Opprimere : falsis regias romoribus
Implemus aures: quioquid animum offendent,
Rnmore falso ulcisdraur, et inoendimus
Animum furore turbidnm, et calnmmis
Annamus ins sievientis impetum.
One of Milton's biographers has ascribed to Mil-
ton, but without foundation, an English version 0/
the Baptistes. This was Mr. Peck (New MemouiB
of the Life and Poetical Works of Mr. John Mil-
ton. Lond. 1740, 4to,) who first indeed deckred
that the translation of the Baptistes under this
title * Tyrannical Groverament Anatomized ; or,
a discourse concerning evil councillors ; being the
Life and Death of John the Baptist,* was an ori-
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GEORGE.
glnal work of Mr, Milton's ; announcing it in the
following terms: ^His Baptistes is the sixth of
Mr. John Milton's nine most celebrated English
poems ; and one of the hitherto unknown pieces
of his, whereof I am now to give an account.'"
Buchanan also wrote several poems on various
subjects, particularly one with the object of secur-
ing the patronage of Olivier, chancellor of the
kingdom, to the college of Guienne, in which he
succeeded. Besides these, he addressed a Sapphic
ode to the youth of Boi*deaux, with the view of
recommending to them the study of the liberal
arts. During his residence there, the Emperor
Charles the Fifth passed through Bordeaux, on
which occasion, in name of the college, he pre-
sented his majesty with an elegant Latin poem.
He was still, however, exposed to danger from
the malice of Cardinal Beaton, who wrote to the
archbishop of Bordeaux to have him apprehended,
but his letter fell into the hands of one who was
friendly to the poet, and he was suffered to remain
unmolested. In 1543, the plague having broken
out at Bordeaux, he quitted that place, and became
for some time domestic tutor to Montaigne, then
ten years old, who records the fact in his Essays.
In 1544 he went to Paris, where, as one of the
regents or professors, he taught the second class
in the college of the Cardinal de la Moine, and
appears to have remained there for the next three
years. In 1547 he accompanied his friend, An-
drew Govea, to Portugal, and became one of the
professors in the univei-sity of Coimbra, then re-
cently established, and of which Govea was ap-
pointed principal. His brother, Patrick Buchanan,
was also one of the professors; and Dempster says,
but not truly, other two Scotsmen, John Ruther-
ford and William Ramsay. It was the weakness
of this writer to magnify the learaing of our coun-
trymen, although in that age of strife and per-
secution at home they might have been students
there. The death of Grovea, in the ensuing year,
left him, and those of his colleagues who, like
himself, were foreigners, at the mercy of the
bigoted priests ; and three of them were subjected
to the discipline of a moderate confinement in the
dungeons of the Inquisition, among whom was
Buchanan himself, who was accused of being an
enemy to the Romish faith, and of having eaten flesh
in Lent, and other equally heinous crimes. After
being confined a year and a half, he was sent to a
monastery, with the view of receiving edifying
lessons from the monks, whom he represents as
men by no means destitute of humanity, but to
tally unacquainted with I'eligion. Here he con-
tinued several months, and employed his leisui-e
in writing a considerable part of his inimitable
Latin version of the Psalms ; not as a penance as
has been absurdly stated, but for occupation and
his own pleasure. He obtained his liberty in
1551, and received a small pension from the king,
but found his situation extremely disagreeable.
In a poem entitled ^ Desiderium Lutetias,' he ex>
presses his anxious desire to leave what he in
another poem (^ Adventus in Galliam') character-
ises as
Jejuna misene tesqoa Lusitanin,
Glebasqne tan tain fertiles penuriie,
and to return to Paris, (which he represents undei
the allegorical name of Amaryllis), in the follow-
ing beautiful lines: —
0 formosa Amaiylli, toa jam septima bnuna
Mo procal aspecta, jam septima detinet testas:
Sed neque septima bruma nivalibus horrida uimbis,
Septima nee rapidis candens fervoribus lestas
Extinxit yigiles nostro sub pectore onras.
Tu mihi mane novo carmen, dam roscida tondet
Arva pecns, medio ta carmen soils in oesto,
Et cam jam longas pneceps nox ponigit umbras ;
Kec mihi qoo tenebris condit nox omnia, vultus
Est potis occultare tuos : te nocte sub atra
Alloquor amplector, falsSqoe in imagine somni
Gaudia sollicitam palpant evanida mentcra,
At cum somnus abit, &c.
Buchanan returned to France by way of Eng-
land in the beginning of 1553, when he was ap-
pointed a professor in the college of Boncourt. It
seems to have been about this time that he wrote
some of those satirical pieces against the monks
which are found in his 'Fratres FrateiTimi.*
Having dedicated, a poetical tribute, written on
the capture of Vercelli in 1553, and also his tra-
gedy of Jephthes, published in 1554, to the Mar-
shal Comte de Brissac, then governor of the
French, dominions in Italy, that nobleman, in
1555, sent Buchanan to Piedmont, as preceptor
to his son, Timolesse "de Cossd. In this capacity
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ho continued for tive years, residing with his pupil
alternately in Italy and France. He now devoted
his leisure to examining tlie controversies on the
subject of religion which then agitated Europe.
He also composed part of his philosophical poem
* De Sphera,* and wrote his Ode on the surrender
of Calais, his Epithalamium upon the mai*riage of
Mary Queen of Scots to the Dauphin, and pub-
lished the first specimens of his version of the
Psalms and his translation of the Alcestis.
On the breaking out of the civil war in France,
in 1560, Buchanan quitted the family of Brissac,
and from the alarming aspect of affairs in that coun-
tiy, retu rned to Scotland. Tlie precise period of h is
return has not been ascertained ; but it must have
been either that year or the following one, as in
January 1562 he was at the Scottish court, where,
though a professed adherent of the Reformed
religion, he was well received. In the following
April we find him officiating as classical tutor to
the queen. Mary was then in her twentieth year,
and a letter from Randolph, the English ambassa-
dor, states that Buchanan read with her every af-
ternoon a portion of Livy.* With reference to
this incident Dr. Irving contends that Buchanan's
manners must have been courteous and polished.
We own we cannot assent to this opinion. The
general manners of the age were not very refined.
But we think there is evidence to show that
George Buchanan*s manners were coarse even for
his age. The answer, energetic but coarse, which
he is reported to have made to the countess of
Mar, when she demanded how he had presumed
to lay his hand upon '* the Lord's anointed," is
quite characteristic of the man. Dr. Irving also
defends Buchanan from a more serious imputation
to which some of his writings have given rise ; and
instances poets, both ancient and modem, who
protested with solemnity that, though their verses
were loose, their conduct was correct. The excuse
appears to us a lame one. And this instance only
confirms our dislike to celibate schoolmasters.
In 1563 he was appointed by parliament with
* '^There is with the Queene one called Mr. (xeorge
Bowhanan, a Scottishe man, verie weill lemed, that
was schollemaster nnto Mons. de Brisack^s sone, very
godlye and honest" — Randolph to CecU, Edin. Jan.
30th, 1561.
others to inspect the revenues of, and regulate the
instruction at, the universities ; and, by the Gen-
eral Assembly of the Church, which met 25th De-
cember that year and of which he was a member,
one of the commissioners to revise ' The Book of
Discipline.' In 1564 the queen conferred on him
for life the temporalities of Crossragnell Abbey,
then vacant by the death of Quentin Kennedy,
which amounted annnally to the sum of five hun-
dred pounds Scots. In 1566 he was appointed by
the earl of Murray, who, as commendator of the
priory of St. Andrews, held the right of nominat-
ing to that office, principal of St. Leonard's col-
lege, St. Andrews, in which capacity it appears to
have been one of his duties to read occasional lec-
tures in divinity. Although a layman, he was as
one of its members, on account of his extraordi-
nary abilities and learning, chosen moderator of
the General Assembly of the church which met at
Edinburgh on the 25th of June 1567.
It is uncertain at what precise period his admi-
rable version of the Psalms was first printed, but
a second edition appeared ^in 1566. The work
was inscribed, in an elegant dedication, to Queen
Mary. To the earl of Murray he inscribed his
' Franciscanus' during the same year.
The conduct of Mary had justly excited against
her the indignation of a large portion of her sub-
jects, and after the murder of Darnlcy and her
marriage to Both well, Buchanan, who had for-
merly praised her immoderately, now attacked her
in terms equally unmeasured, heaping upon her all
the stores of invective which his copious vocabu-
lary afforded. W"e are no admirers of that weak
and flagitious woman; but Buchanan had been
treated by her with courtesy and kindness — ^had
even received very considerable benefits at her
hands ; and assuming that his former praises were
sincerely bestowed, because he believed them mer-
ited, when the object of those praises had put on
« character the reverse of that for which they were
intended, though neither his defence nor even his
approbation of her new character would by any
reasonable person have been required; yet the ex-
posure, the reprobation, and the punishment of her
faults, her follies, and her crimes^ would have
come more becomingly from another hand than
his. He al^ joined the party of the earl of Mur-
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ra3% whom be accompanied to the conference at
York and afterwards to that at Hampton Court.
At the desire of the earl he was prevailed npon to
write his famous ' Detectio Mariie Regins,* which
was produced to the Commissioners at Westmin-
8tcr, and afterwards circulated with great industry
by the English court. It was not, however, pub-
lished till 1571, a year after the regent Murray's
assassination by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh. On
that event taking place he wi-ote ^Ane Admo-
nitionn direct to the trew Lordis, Mantenaris of
the Kingis Graces Authoritie,' in whicii he ear-
nestly adjured those whom he addressed to protect
the 3'oung king and the children of the late regent
fix>m the perils which seemed to await them.
About the same time he also wrote a satirical
tract in the Scottish dialect, entitled the ^Cha-
moilcon,' with the view of exposing the vacillating
policy and conduct of Secretary Maitland.
Shortly after the assassination of the regent,
and in the same year (1570) Buchanan was ap-
pointed by the Estates of the realm one of the
four preceptors to the young king, then in his
fourth year, on whicli occasion he resigned the
office of principal of St. Leonard's college. Vari-
ous anecdotes are told of his severity; and the
impression he left on the mind of his pupil appears
to have been anything but an agreeable one.
Francis Osborne [Advice to a Son^ p. 19] relates
that Ring James used to say of a person in high
place about him, that he ever trembled at his ap-
proach, it reminded him so of his pedagogue.
There is no saying how far the severity of the
pedagogue, taken along with other circumstances
connected with his birth, may have tended to pro-
duce that extreme timidity of character which
marked the royal pedant through life. All the
tutor's pains, though they may have forced into
him some ^^glancings and nibblings of knowledge,"
did not, however, succeed in imparting any love
for his principles of government. King James
regarded his Histoiy of Scotland as an infamous
invective; and admonbhed his heir-apparent to
punish such of his future subjects as should be
guilty of retaining it in their custody. It may be
said that it wonid have been no easy matter to
have made a hero, or even an average king, out
of such materials as were to be found in the char-
acter of James, from whatever parentage inher-
ited. Still we cannot help thinking that Buchanan
must have committed some grievous faults in hin
education ; for he evidently had it in his power to
produce some impression — and the impression he
made was entirely of the yenus pedant. Homer
tells us that the precept which Peleus impre:>:sed
particularly upon his son Achilles was —
And the soits of excellence which he sought after
were such as might be supposed to have been
pointed out to him by his tutors, his father Pclcns,
and the centaur Chiron. James, too, had some
vague glimmering of an idea of excelling — but of
excelling in what? in writhig bad prose and woi-sc
verse — for we have carefully read some of his
works, and we cannot agree with his panegyrists
that they exhibit any degree of excellence, except
perhaps that of producing a laugh by their tran-
scendent absurdity. As to the "purity of style"
which some have found in them, we can only say
that to us the style or language appears to be on
a level with the logic, which is of the most despi-
cable description. In short, James's idea of IiIa
vocation was —
" To stick the doctor's chair into the tlirone,
Give law to words, or w.or witli words alone,
Senates and conrts with Greek and Latin ruU*.
And turn the ooundl to a gramraar school**
And a veiy poor grammar school it would have
been of which he was master. Not forgetting also
** The right divine of kings to govern wrong."
About the ^ame time that he was nominated
preceptor to the king, Buchanan received the ap-
pointment of director of the Chancery, which he
held but a short time. Soon after, the office of
keeper of tlie privy seal was conferred on him.
This office, which he held for several yeara, enti-
tled him to a seat in parliament. He likewise re-
ceived from Queen Elizabeth a pension of one hun-
dred pou nds a-y ear. The office of lord privy seal he
resigned in favour of his nephew Thomas Buchan-
an of Ibert. In 1578, he was joined in several
parliamentary commissions, legal and ecclesiasti-
cal, and particularly in a commission issued to
visit and reform the universities and colleges of
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GEORGE.
L
the kingdom. The scheme of reformation sug-
gested, and afterwards approved of by parliament,
wa3 drawn up by him.
In his dialogue ^ De Jure Regni apud Scotos,'
with a dedication to King James, dated at Stir-
ling, January 10, 1579 (in which dedication he
certainly administei*s a dose of something very
like flattery to the yonng king, when he tells him
that " he perceives that by a kind of natural in-
stinct he abhors flattery, the nurse of tyranny"),
Buchanan maintains that all power is derived
from the people ; that it is more safe to intrust
our liberties to the definite protection of the laws,
than to the precarious discretion of the king ; that
the king is bound by those conditions under which
the supreme power was originally committed to
his hand ; that it is lawful to resist and even to
punish tyrants. During the minority of Ring
James, several coins were struck with a naked
sword on one side, supporting a crown on its
point, and suiTOunded with this legend, pro. me,
gi, mereor, in. me. furnished, it may be inferred,
by Buchanan. The work is exhibited in the form
of a dialogue between the author and Thomas the
son of Sir Richard Maitland ; and that his opin-
ions were far in advance of his time appears from
the fact of their being attacked, among others, by
his learned countrymen Blackwood, Winzet, and
Barclay, while the work itself was condemned, in
1584 by the Scottish parliament, in 1664 by the
privy council of Scotland, and In 1683 by the uni-
versity of Oxfoi-d, which in that year doomed
Buchanan*s political works, with those of Milton,
Languet, and other dangerous writers, to the
flames. In the seventy-fourth year of his age he
composed a brief sketch of his own life. The last
twelve years of his existence he employed in writ-
ing in Latin his History of Scotland, * Rerum Sco-
ticamm Historia.' Of this work the histoiy of
the period in which he himself lived occupies the
largest portion, and is by far the most interesting.
More accurate infoimation than what was known
in Buchanan*s time now enables the reader to dis-
regard the many fictions and ti-aditions disfiguring
the earlier portion of our annals, which he has m-
troduced into his narrative, but in what relates to
his own times his recital of facts may be consid-
ered in general correct. He survived the publica-
tion of this, the greatest and the last of his works,
scarcely a month. Broken by age and infirmities,
he had retired the preceding year from the court
at Stirling to Edinburgh, resigning all his public
appointments, and calmly awaiting death.
Shortly before his death, some of his friends
having gone to the printing office to look at his
history, found the impression had proceeded as far
as the passage relative to the interment of David
Rizzio ; and being alarmed at the boldness with
which the historian had there expressed himself,
they returned to Buchanan's house, whom they
found in bed, and stated to him their apprehen-
sions that it would give oflence to the king. ^' Tell
me, man," said Buchanan, '^ if I have told the
truth." " Yes, Sir," replied his nephew, ** I think
so." " Then," rejoined the dying historian, " I will
abide his fend, and all his kin's. Pray to God for
me, and let him direct all." Buchanan expired a
little after five in the morning on Friday the 20th
September 1582, in the 77th year of his age. He
was buried in the cemetery of the Greyfriars ; and, .
says Dr. Irving, "his ungrateful country never
afforded his grave the common tribute of a monu-
mental stone."
It was unfortunate for Buchanan that his coun-
try's language was so rude and unformed at tlie
time he wrote, for no writer, we apprehend, can
hope to live, who writes in any other but his own
" land's langnage." But Buchanan, if for nothing
else, cannot fail to be held in lasting remembrance
as a man who beai'ded kings when it was some-
thing to beard them ; and who, though but a poor
scholar, when a scholar was little more than a
despised menial, spoke defiance with his dying
breath against the whole race of the Stuart
kings.
Take him all in all, Buchanan was certainly a
remai'kable man. Of his merits as a poet, an his-
torian, and a political writer, he has left enduring
memorials in his works. As a philologist he was
consulted and his opinion respected by the first
scholars of Europe in an age which was fertile in
great scholars. But, with the exception of certain
jests, many of them not of the most refined na-
ture, little or nothing is known by most of the
present generation of the man or of his writings.
Even his own countrymen, if inquired of respect-
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BUCHANAN,
471
GEORGE.
ing him or them, can reply only by vague geuer-
alities.
His death took place in his house in a close in the
High street, Edinburgh, now removed, which stood
on the site of the west side of Hunter square, called
Rennedy^s close. Buchanan^s residence was in the
first court on the left hand going down, the close
having consisted of two courts connected by a
narrow passage, the first house in the turnpike
and above a tavern. Finding, when on his death-
bed, that the money he had about him was not
suflScieut to defray the expenses of his funeral, he
sent his servant to divide it among the poor, add-
ing,— " that if the city did not choose to bury
him, they might let him lie where he was." An
edition of his works was published by Ruddiman
at Edinburgh, in 2 vols, folio, in 1715, and ano-
ther by Peter Bui-mann, Leyden, in two vols. 4to,
in 1725. In the latter the editor, besides his own
critical annotations, incorporated the notes, disser-
tations, &c. of his predecessor.
The subjoined woodcut is from Visotinti's Il-
lustrious Men. It represents him in later life,
and being nearly contemporary, is of authority.
Buchanan's works ai*e *
Rudimenta Grammatices Tbomse Linacri. ex Anglico Scr-
moDe, in Latlnnm yersa. Lat. apud Ro. Stephanam, 1550,
8vo.
FrancisoaniiB, et alia Poemata. Basil. 1664, 8ro. 1594,
8vo. 1609, 8vo. Lugd. Bat. 1628, 24ino. Amst. 24mo.
Amst. 1G87, 12itio.
Ane Admonitione direct to the tren Lordis maintainaris of
the King*8 Grace's autlioritie. Printed at Stirling, 1671, by
Lckprevik, Timo; London, by J. I>«y, 1671, 12ino.
De Maria Sootonim Regina, totaque eioa contra Regem con-
inratione, foedo cnm Bothnelio adnlterio, nefaria in maritam
crudelitate et rabie horrendo inmiper et deternmo eiosdem
Parricidio plane Hiatoria. No place, date, or pnnter^a name,
12mo.
The same in the old Scottish dialect, under the title, Ane
Detection of the dninges of Marie Qnene of Scottes, toncli-
and the murder of hir Husband, and her oonspiracie, adnl-
terie, and pretended marriage with the Erie Bothwell ; and
ane Defence of Uie treu Ix>rdi8 mainteiners of the Kingis
Graces, action, and anthoritie. Translated out of the La-
tine, qnhilke was written by G. B. No place, date, or print-
er*B name, 12mo. Both this and the aliore are supposed to
have been printed by John Day, 1677, 1661. In English,
1689, 8vo.
TragedisB Sacne, Jephthes et Baptistes. Paris, 1564, 4to.
Franooforti, 1678, 8to. Geneva, 1693, 8vo. Amsterdam,
1660, 8vo.
Euripidis Alcestea, ad fidem manuacriptorum ac vetemm
editionum emendavit et Annotationibus inatruzit Jaoobus
Henricus Monk, A.M. Collegii S. S. Triiiitatis Socius
et Grseoarum Literarum apud Cantabrigienses Professor
Regius. Accedit Georgii Buchanani Versio Metrica. 1816,
8vo.
Baptistes, erroneously said to have been translated by John
Milton. With Notes, by Francis Peck. In Peck's Memoirs
of Milton, p. 265.
De Jure Regni apud Scotos Dialogus. Edin. 1679, 4to.
1580, 4to. 1580, small 8vo. Francf. 1594, 8vo, and usu-
ally appended to his History.
De Jure Regni apud Scotos, or Dialogue concerning the
due priviledge of Government in the Kingdom of Scotland.
Printed in the year 1680, 12mo, and frequently with his His-
tory.
Remm Scoticarum Historia, apud Alex. Arbuthnetum.
Edin. 1582, folio. Eadem, ad exemplar Alex. Arbnthneti.
Genev. ut creditnr, 1683, folio. Franc 1594, 8vo. Ultraj.
1668, 8vo. Traj. ad Rh. 1697, 8vo. Remm Scoticarum
Historia, ad editionem Fribamii ezpressa. Accessemnt Auc-
toris Vita ab ipso scripta, et dialogus de jure regni apud Sco-
tos; item T. Rnddimani index. Edin. 1727, 8vo. Tlie same
in English, Lond. 1690, folio, by Will. Bond. Und. 1722,
2 vols. 8vo. In English with Cuts, 1733, 3 vols. 8vo. Ap-
pendix to the History of Scotland, with the Translation by
Bond. 1722, 8 vols. 8vo. The 14th, 16th, 16th, 17th, 18th,
and 19th books of his history translated into English, and
published for an original, under the title of. An impartial Ac-
count of the Affairs of Scotland, from the death of Kin tr
James V. to the tragical exit of the Earl of Murray ; by an
eminent hand. Lond. 1705, 8vo.
Paraphrasis Psalmorum Davidis Poetica, multoquam ante-
hac castigatior; authore Georgio Buchanano, Scoto poetarum
noetri sseculi facile principe, ejusdem Buchanani Tragoedia,
que inscribitur Jephthes. Antw. 1667, 8vo. Lond. 1582,
16mo. Paraohrasis Psalmorum Dandis Poetica. Antw
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BUCHANAJ^,
472
DAVID.
1582f 12ino, apud Henr. Stepbanuin, 1575. Kadem cum
Theodori fiezie Psalmorum Paraplirasi 6 regioiie oppotiiui.
Morgiis. 1681, 8vo. Herbornse, 1604, 12mo. Idem, £dln.
1621, 12mo. Cum ecphrasi Alexandri Julii et notis variis.
Edin. 1737, 12mo. Amst 1650, 12mo. Nnmerous editions.
!>e Prosodia Ubellus. Ediu. 1600, 1689, 12mo.
Poemata qun extant Lagd. Bat apud Elzev. 1624, 24mo.
Cum Argamentia ongaHs Psalmis prsfixis, opera Natb. Chy-
tRci. Lond. 1686, 12mo.
Operam Poetdcarom, apud Pet Sanctandreanum. 1597, 8vo.
Sphsera Poetioe descripta com Supplemento Pinderi. Herb.
1587, 8vo.
Commentarius in Vitam ejus ab ipsomet Scriptas. Edin.
1702, 8vo.
Fratares Fraterrimi ; tbree booka of Epigrams, and book of
Miscellanies. In English verse, by Robert Monteith. Edin.
1708, 8to.
EpistolaB ad viros sui secoli ciariasimos, eoromqae ad iUmn.
Ix)nd. 1711, 8vo.
Opera omnia recognita et notis illustrata, curanto Tboma
Ruddimano. Edin. 1715, 2 vols. fol. Lagd. Bat 1725, 2
vols. 4to.
A Censore and Examination of Mr. Thomas Ruddimairs
Notes on Buchanan^s Works. Aberdeen, 1753, 8vo.
Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Buchanan, by D.ivid
Irving, LL.D. Edin. 1817, 8vo; originally published in 1807.
BUCHANAN, David, a learned writer of tbe
seventeenth century. Very little is known with
certainty respecting him. Sibbald says he was
descended from the same family as George Bach-
anan, '^ David Buchananus, ex eadem familia ori-
andus,^' but on this Dr. IiTing remai'ks, ** we
cannot discover his authority for such a state-
ment." If, however, Buchanan of Auchmai- is to
be followed, he was the second son of William
Buchanan of Arnprior, and consequently grand-
son of the first Buchanan of Arnprior, ** King of
Kippen," who was second cousin of the gi'cat
Buchanan. Irving further 'says that ^^a student
named David Buchanan was admitted of St. Leo-
nard's College at St. Andrews in the year 1610.
Ills identity with the subject of this memoir may
perhaps be infeiTed, but cannot easily be proved."
He appeal's to have resided for some yeai*s in
Fi*ance, where he published his 'Historia Hu-
niansa Animse,' in 1636. It is supposed that his
'• Histoiie de la Conscience* was also published at
Paris in 1638; the place of publication, however,
is not mentioned on the title-page. On his rctui-n
he seems to have taken a strong interest in the
events springing out of the civil wai-s. It was
probably with a view to iulluence the public mind
at this juncture that, in 1G44, he brought out an
edition of the History of the Reformation by John
Knox, adapting it to the times. In this edition
he omitted the celebrated author's preface, and
inserted one of his own. Many years afterwards
Mr. Wodrow, the celebrated historian, meeting
in the library of the university of Glasgow with a
manuscript copy of the original work, presented
to that institution by Robeit Fleming, the grand-
son of Ejiox, was suiprised, on collating it with
the work issued by David Buchanan, to find vari-
ous in tei-pola Lions and omissions, of which he
gives an account in a letter to Bishop Nicolson,
published in tlie appendix to his Scottish Histor-
ical Library, No. vL Amongst other observa-
tions it is stated that in a note on the margin ^^Jides
sit penes atdharem,^^ he appcai-s to doubt a story
which is inserted on his own authority. To this
work a life of Knox was prefixed, in which he
took as great liberties as with the history.
In 1646 Buchanan published a work entitled
^ Truth its ManifeiJt,* i-clating to the conduct of the
Scottish nation during the civil war, which ex-
cited a gi*eat sensation. In Baillic's Letters his
name occurs in connection, it is probable, with
this publication, and the following extract from
them, with its title as given below, will perhaps
best explain its nature as well as the circumstances
which called it forth. Writing to his friend Wil-
liam Spang, then in Holland, under date April 24,
1646, Baillie says, speaking of the Scottish Com-
missionci's, ^* many of our friends thought it neces-
sare to have our papers printed: among others, Mr
Buchanan, a most sincere and zealous gentleman,
who hes done both in write and print, here and
over sea, many singular services to this parliament,
to his nation, and the whole cause, gott a copie of
our late papers by his private fnendshipc, and
hazarded to print them with a preface of his ownc
and an introduction, both very harmless and con-
sonant to the three following papers which we had
given in to both Houses. In two dayes or tha'c,
3 or 4000 of these papera were sold ; they gave
immediately to the people so great satisfaction
with our proceedings as was marvellous : our
small friends were thereby so inflamed that they
carried fii*st the House of t^mmons and then the
House of Lords, albeit with the great grief and
opposition of the better pairtie in botli Houses, to
vote these papei'S false and scandalous, and as such
to be burnt by the hand of the hangman ; the
i L_
1,
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BUCHANAN,
473
DUGALD.
publisher, Mr. Buchanan, to be ane inceudaiie
betwixt the two nations, and a declaration to be
made for nndeceaving of the people. In all this
thej^knew none of us, they grounded the offence
oil the preface and mtroduction, not on our papers
thomselfe, so we held our peace. The burning of
the papers, and the House of Commons declara-
tion, very site and cunning, hes not yet done much
prejudice to us, only it has made the extraordinar
malice and pnde of some men shyne more clearly.
Mr. Buchanan is gone to a place safe enough ; if
ho come among yow, he is a man worthy of great
honour for many good services."
In the preface to the * Truth its Manifest,* he
speaks of himself as being possessed of moderate
means and as being content with little, ** and so,"
he adds, " not I)eiiig ui*ged by a near nipping neces-
sity, or imaginary poverty, he dare be bold to speak
homo to the point, and tell downright the truth
of things, accoi-ding to his best information."
In the latter part of his life he appears to have
been on terms of intimacy with Sir Robert Gordon
of Straloch, and was his coadjutor in his contribu-
tions to Bleau's Atlas. [See Gordon, Sir Ro-
bert of Straloch.] According to Bishop Nicolson,
David Buchanan revised a great deal of the first
projected draughts of the Thcatrum Scoti» in that
work, ^* but," adds the bishop, *^ his life ended be-
fore the troubles [that is, before the Restoration] ;
and he ouly finished a very few of the county de-
scriptions." [^Scottish Historical Library^ p. 17.]
In the Bannatyne Miscellany, (vol. ii. p. 889,)
may be found a Latin description of the city of
Edinburgh ascribed to David Buchanan ; and it is
supposed, on good grounds, that he furnished to
the Theatrum Scotise the passages relative to
Stirlingshire. According to the same authority
(Bishop Nicolson), he had composed *^ several
short discourses concerning the antiquities and
chorography of Scotland," which, in bundles of
loose papci*s, Latin and English, were in safe cus
tody when the bishop wrote, and are sometimes
quoted by him. It is perhaps of these that Buch-
anan of Auchmar speaks, when he saj-s that he
wi-ote a large Etymologicon of all the shires, cities,
rivers, and mountains in Scotland, which are
printed, and from which Sir Robert Sibbald quotes
some passages in his History of the shires of Stir-
ling and Fife, and Nicolson seems to refer to him,
when he mentions a passage of David Buchanan's
writings as being " m noii$ MSS, p. D. R. iS."
The MS. of a work entitled 'De Scriptoribus
Scotis,' preserved in the Advocates' Library and
in the university library at Edinburgh, is attri-
buted to David Buchanan, and was for the first
time printed for the Bannatyne Club, under the
superintendence of Dr. Irving, in 1837, in one
volume quarto. Sir Robert Sibbald states in re-
fei*ence to his * Historia Literaria,' " The greatest
assistance I had is from some manuscripts of Mr.
David Buchanan, who hath written upon our
learned men in ane excellent style of Latin."
IMemoirs of the College of Physicians^ p. 27.]
Buchanan died in August 1652. The last tes-
tament of a David Buchanan, supposed to be his,
is inserted in the appendix to the 'De Scriptori-
bus Scotis,* printed for the Bannatyne Club.
The separate works attributed to David Buch-
anan are :
Historia Hnmann AnimK, auctore Davlde Buchanano Soo«
to, Paris, 1636, 8vo, a work of about 700 pages. A sobse-
quent edition has the words, ** Impeusis Authoris. Vcmin-
dantur apad Melcm Mondiere," 1638, 8vo.
L*Histou« de la Conscience, par David Buchanan. Fut/ le
tnal, Fay U bien, 1638, 12mo.
Truth its Manifest ; or a short and true Relation of divers
main Passages of things ( in some whereof the Scots are par-
ticularly concerned) from the very first beginning of these
unhappy Troubles to this day. Published by authority.
London, 1645, 8vo. This work, from the way in which he
spoke of his countrymen, roused the ire of the English, and
a little work appeared in answer, styled ' Manifest Truths ;
or an Inversion of Truths Manifest ; containing a Narration
of the Proceedings of the Scottish Anny, and a Vindication
of the Parliament and Kingdome of England firom the false
and injurious Aspersions cast on them by the author of the
said Manifest : Published by Authoritie.' Lond. 1616, 4to.
Life of Knox prefixed to the interpolsted edition of the iiis-
tory of the Reformation in Scotland, edited by David Buch-
anan, and printed at liOudon 1644, folio, and Edin. 1645, 4to.
De Scriptoribus Scotis, Libri Duo. Edinb. Printed for the
first tune for the Bannatyne Club, 1837, 4to.
Buchanan of Auchmar mentions a large Natural History
which he had begun, but which was not completed at his
death, and therefore never printed ; and Watt, in his Biblio-
theca Britannica inserts among his works one entitled A Short
View of the present condition of Scotland, London, 1645, 4to.
Watt's list, however, b not otherwise correct
BUCHANAN, Dugald, an eminent Gaelic
poet, was born in the year 1716, in the paiish of
Balquldder, Perthshire. His father was a small
faimer who also rented a mill, and who appears
to have given him a better education than wa^
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BUCHANAN,
474
DUGALD.
commonly taught ia country schools. Having
been sent, at the early age of twelve, to teach in
a family, he was tainted by the bad morals of his
associates, and fell into vice, of which he after-
wards deeply repented. He was afterwards ap-
pi*enticed to a house-carpenter in Eippen, whence
he removed to Dumbarton. Having afterwards
become a sincere Christian, he was appointed
schoolmaster and catechist at Kinloch-Rannoch,
on the establishment of the Society for Propagat-
ing Chiistian Knowledge, where he composed
those hymns which will make his name known
while the language in which they are written
endures. His mental powers were of a high
order, and during many yeai-s he laboured, with
extraordinaiy zeal and devotedness, in enlight-
ening and instructing the inhabitants of that
remote district. At that period the extensive
tract of country which surrounds Loch-Rannoch
was under the charge of but one minister, who,
in consequence of the wide circuits he was ob-
liged to make, could only perform divine service
at the end of the loch, where Buchanan was sta-
tioned, once in three weeks. On those Sabbath
days, however, that the clergyman was absent,
Buchanan used to assemble the people together,
and after prayer and an exhortation, he read to
them a portion of the Scriptures. He is said to
have rendered essential service to the Rev. James
Stewart of Killin, in translating the New Testa-
ment into the Gaelic language ; and to have ac-
companied him to Edinburgh for the purpose of
aiding in correcting the pi-ess. While there, he
availed himself of the opportnnity to attend the
university, where he heard lectures on anatomy,
and the various departments of natural philoso-
phy. Some gentlemen, struck by his talents,
endeavoured, unknown to him, to procure him a
licence to preach the gospel ; but without success.
He published his hymns about the year 1767.
Of these upwards of fifteen editions have been
printed. He died June 2, 1768, of fever, in the
fifty-second year of his age. ** During his illness
he was frequently delirious, and in that state
would sing of the *Lamb in the midst of the
throne.* In his lucid intervals be expressed his
full hope in the resurrection of the just, and his
desire to depart and be with Christ. The people
of Rannoch wished his remains to be buried among
them, but his relations carried the body away to
their own country, and he was buried in the bury-
ing-ground of the Buchanans at Little Lenny,
near Callander. In his person he was considera-
bly above the middle size, and rather of a dark
complexion, but upon a close inspection his coun-
tenance beamed affection and benevolence. Among
his intimate acquaintance he was affable, free,
jocular and social, and possessed much Interesting
information and innocent anecdotes, in consequence
of which his company was much sought after by
all the families in the country. In his dress he
was plain and simple, wearing a blue bonnet and
a black di*ess,*over which he generally wore a blue
great-coat. After his death his widow removed
to Ardoch, where she remained till the time of her
death. He left two sons and two daughtei-s ; one
of the latter was alive in 1836."
" ' The D(ty of Judgmenty^ * says the editor of
the Beauties of Gaelic Poetry, ^^ displays great
force of imagiuation, and fixes the mind on the
sublime and awful scenes of a world brought to
an end, amidst the wreck of elements, and the
assemblage of the whole human race to judgment
" * The Scuir is full of good poetiy, with appro-
priate reflections on the vanity of mortal enjoy-
ments. It shows the fierce tyrant and the lowly
slave — the hauglity chief and the humble tenant —
the mighty warrior and the blooming vii-gin — the
mercenary judge and the grasping miser — all re-
duced to one level, the grave; to feed the lowly
worm and the crawling beetle.
^* ^ The Dream* contains useful lessons on the
vanity of human pui-suits, and the unsatisfactory
rewai'ds of ambition. The following lines onglit
to be remembered by every one who envies great-
*' ' Cha 'n *eil neach o thrioblaid saor,
A' measg a* chinne-daonn* air fad
*S CO lionmbor osna aig an righ,
Is afg a neach is isle staid.'
" * The Winter^ begins with a vivid description
of the effects of that season, and the preparation of
men and animals to provide food and shelter.
The poet then draws a comparison between the
winter and tne decline of human life, wanting the
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BQCHilNAN,
475
CLAUDIUS.
old mau to prepare for hia future state, as the hus-
bandman prepai-es food and fuel for winter — to
imitate the pnident foresight of the ant and the
bee, and not the idle and improvident fly, dancing
joyously in the sunbeams till he perishes by the
winter's frost. This excellent poem is deservedly
admired as one of the finest specimens of didactic
poetry in the Graelic language.'' — Mackenzie's
Beautiee of Gaelic Poetry, 1841.
BUCHANAN, Claudius, D.D., a divine dis-
tinguished by his devotion to the diffusion of
learning and Christianity in India, was the son of
Alexander Buchanan, a man of respectable learn-
ing and of excellent Character, who was engaged in
various parts of Scotland as a teacher, and was
shortly before his death appointed rector of the
grammar school of Falkirk. He was bom at
Cambuslang, in Lanarkshire, March 12, 1766.
His mother was the daughter of Mr. Claudius
Somers, who had been one of the elders of the
church at Cambuslang about the period of the ex-
traordinary occurrences which took place in that
parish in 1742, in consequence of the preaching of
the celebrated Mr. Whitefield, and retained ever
afterwards a deep and lasting sense of real reli-
gion. In 1773 young Buchanan entered the
grammar school at Inverary in Argyleshire, of
which his father was then master, where he re-
mained till 1779, having made considerable profi-
ciency in the Latin and Greek languages. He
spent the vacation of that year with a schoolfel-
low, John Campbell, at his father's estate of
Airds near the island of Mull, and in the follow-
ing year (1780), at the early age of fourteen, he
became, according to the practice still observed
among the gentry of these parts, where parish
schools are distant and otherwise ill-suited, tutor
in the elementary parts of education to the two
sons of Campbell of Dunstaffuage. Being by his
parents intended for the ministry of the Chm*ch of
Scotland, in 1782 he left the family of Mr. Camp-
bell and went to the university of Glasgow, where
he remained for two sessions. In 1784, from what
cause does not appear, but probably the want of
pecuniary resources, he left Glasgow, and resumed
private teaching in the family of Mr. Campbell of
Knockmelly in Islay, and afterwards at Carradell
in Kintyre. In 1786 he attended with credit one
session in the logic class, and returned to Carro-
dell ; but his studies were put a stop to, by a ro*
mantic idea which he sometime before had formed
of making a pedestrian tour of Europe in imitation
of Oliver Goldsmith. His chief view in this pro-
ject was to see the world, but with an idea of
turning his journey to literary account ; it might
have remained a project, however, when an impru-
dent attachment to a young lady his superior la
burth and fortune, a visitor to the family in Car-
radell where he was tutor, hastened the execu-
tion of the long-formed design. Their affection
wafl mutual, but the disparity of their rank and
station seemed to form an insuperable barrier to
their union. Pretending, in order to obtain the
consent of his parents, that he had been invited
by an English gentleman to accompany his son
npon a tour to the continent, he proceeded to Ed-
inburgh as if to meet the party who had engaged
him, and in August 1787, putting on coarse cIothe9
becoming his apparent calling, that of an itinerant
musician, he left that city with the intention of
travelling to London on foot, and thence to^ the
continent, carrying his violin, on which he could
then play tolerably well, under his arm. He
called at gentlemen's houses and farm-houses,
playing reels, and he sometimes received five shil-
lings, sometimes half-a-crown, and sometimes no-
thing but his dinner and lodging. On reaching
Newcastle, tired with his journey and with living
on charity, he resolved to proceed by sea, and ac-
cordingly embarking at North Shields, he aiTived
in London on the 2d of September. Reflection,
whetted by the sufferings and danger of a veiy
stormy voyage, now induced him to relinquish the
idea of going to the continent, yet he continued
the delusion as respects his parents by addressing
all his letters to his friends at home from places
abroad.
After suffering much distress, being obliged to
sell and pawn his clothes and books, and often
wanting a dinner, he one day observed an adver-
tisement in a newspaper for a clerk to an attor-
ney, and offered himself, when he was accepted.
He subsequently obtained a better situation with
another gentleman in the law, and was next em-
ployed by a solicitor at a salary not exceeding
forty pounds per annum. At this period he led
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a thoughtless and somewhat dissipated life, but
about three years after he had gone to London,
he began to have serious impressions, and soon
became decidedly religious. Having written an
anonymous letter, describing his state of mind, to
the Rev. John Newton, minister of St. Mary's
Woolnoth, London, the friend of the poet Cowper,
that eminent clergyman intimated from the pulpit
his wish that the writer should call upon him.
An early interview accordingly took place between
them, and the result was that Mr. Newton intro-
duced him to a benevolent gentleman of fortune,
Henry Thornton, Esq., who, in 1791, generously
scut him at his expense to Queen's College, Cam-
bridge, where he distinguished himself in mathe-
matics, and received a testimonial from his college,
but declined to take public honours. He after-
wards repaid Mr. Thornton four hundred pounds
for the four years during which he had maintained
him at college. He also placed at Mr. Thornton's
disposal a sum of money sufficient to support a
young man of religious character and good ability
in iJoor circumstances, at the same university.
In September 1795, Mr. Buchanan was ordained
deacon in the Church of England, by Dr. Beilby
Porteous, then bishop of London, and admitted
curate to his friend Mr. Newton. On 30th March
1796, by the influence of Mr. Charles Grant (fa-
ther of the late Lord Glenelg), he was appointed
one of the chaplains to the Honourable East India
Company, and having received priest's orders from
the bishop of Loudon, after visiting his friends in
Scotland, he sailed from Portsmouth for Bengal,
August 11th of that year.
Soon after his airival, 10th March 1797, at Cal-
cutta, he was appointed chaplain at Barrackpore,
a military station about sixteen miles above that
city, where, however, there was no place for pub-
lic worehip, nor was divine service ever required
by the staff to which he was attached, a circum-
stance which caused him much concern at that
period. On the 8d April 1799 Mr. Buchanan
maiTied Mary, third daughter of the Rev. Richai-d
AVhish, then rector of Northwold in Norfolk, who
with her uncle and aunt and her eldest sister had
shortly before gone out to India. Mr. Buchanan
and his friends had been much disappointed that
after his an-ival in India no opportunity was for
some time given to him to promote the great ob-
ject of his thoughts, the advancement of Christian*
ity, but he bore his seclusion with patience, al-
though forbidden by the rules of the Company to
preach to the Hindoos. He soon, however, had
a way opened up to him of usefulness beyond his
highest expectations. Towards the close of 1799
he was Appointed by the earl of Momington (after-
wards Marquis Wellesley), third chaplain to the
Presidency at Calcutta, and he immediately re-
moved to that city and entered on his new duties.
In the succeeding February he preached a sermon
at the new church of Calcutta before his lordship
and the principal officers of the government, on
the day appointed for a general thanksgiving for
the signal successes then recently obtained. For
this sermon Mr. Buchanan rcceived the thanks of
the governor-general in council, with a direaiou
that it should be printed and circulated.
In 1800, on the institution of the college of Fort
William at Calcutta, founded by Lord Wellesley,
and a sketch of the constitution of which was, by
his lordship's desu-e, drawn up by Mr. Buchanan,
who took an active part in the formation and sub-
sequent conduct of that establishment, he was ap-
pointed professor of the Greek, Latin, and Eng-
lish classics, and vice-provost of the college. Al-
ready tolerably versed in the oriental languages,
he conceived he should best promote the honour
of God, and the happiness of mankind, by enabling
every Hindoo to read the Scriptures in his own
tongue ; and in order to carry out these views had
to overcome considerable opposition. He eventu-
ally succeeded in issuing the first versions of the
gospels in Pei-sian and Hindostnuee, which were
printed in India, as well as other translations of
the Scriptures. Although issued fi*om the college
of Fort William, only a very small part of the ex-
pense of these translations was borne by the pub-
lic, the rcst being at the private cost of various
members of that institution, among whom Mr.
Buchanan and the excellent provost held the first
i*ank. He took a deep interest ui the moral and
intellectual improvement of the natives of India,
and with the view of interesting the learned cor-
porations of Britain in this measure, in October
1803 he despatched lettei-s to the heads of all the
difiei-ent univei'sitics in Britain, and to the head-
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mastei-a of Eton, Westminster, Winchester, and
the Charter-house schools, with the following pi-o-
posals, viz. : ' For the most approved essay in
English prose on the best means of extending the
blessings of civilization and tme religion among
the sixty millions, inhabitants of Hindostan, sub-
ject to British authority,' in each university one
hundred pounds. For the best Euglis^h poem on
* the revival of letters in the East,' sixty pounds.
For the best Latin ode or poem on * Collegium
Bengalense,' twonty-five pounds; and the same
sum for the best Greek ode on Ttptcdu ^ag. The
sum of fifty pounds each for the best Latin and
Greek poems was olTered to the successful candi-
date at each of the public schools. No less a sum
than sixteen hundred and fifty pounds was thus
appropriated by Mr. Buchanan to this benevolent
and patriotic purpose. These proposals were ac-
cepted in the summer of 1804, by the several
bodies to which they were offered, with the ex-
ception of the university of Oxfoixl, by which they
were declined on the ground of certain objections
in point of form. Of the prize compositions the
greater number were afkerwai-ds published, as well
fl3 a few of those which had been unsuccessful.
One of these prize productions was a poem on *the
restoration of learning in the East,' by Mr. Charles
(jrant, then fellow of Magdalene College, Cam-
bridge, afterwards Ix>rd Glenelg. In 1805 Mr.
Buchanan transmitted to England a work called
* An Account of the College of PVt William,' as
also his interesting * Memoir of the Expediency of
an Ecclesiastical Establishment for British India,'
a scheme which has since been carried into effect
by the appointment of bishops in India; both of
which were published. The same year his name
appears in the list of members of the Asiatic So-
ciety.
On the 4th of June 1805, Mr. Buchanan ad-
dressed proposals of second prizes, of five hundred
pounds each, to the universities of Oxford and
Cambridge,' for compositions in English prose on
the following subjects, viz. : The probable design of
Divine Providence in subjecting so large a portion of
India to the British dominion ; the duty, the means,
nnd the consequences of translating the Scriptures
into the Oriental tongues, and of promoting Chris-
tian knowledge in Asia ; and, A brief historic view
of the progress of the gospel in different nations
since its first promulgation. He afterwards ad-
dressed a letter of considerable length to the arch-
bishop of Canterbuiy, upon the promotion of
Christian knowledge in India, chiefly with refer-
ence to an ecclesiastical establishment, and the
translation of the Scriptures into the oriental lan-
guages. He was soon after appointed provost of
the college of Fort William, under a new regulation
which admitted only of one superintending officer;
this appointment, however, he declined in favour of
his colleague, the Rev. David Brown, the former
provost. The same year (1805) the university of
Glasgow conferred upon him the degroe of D,D.
The university of Cambridge some years after con-
ferred on him the same honour. So great was his
anxiety on the subject of oriental translations of
the holy Scriptui-es, that about this time he trans-
mitted proposals to the universities of Oxford and
Cambridge that two sermons should be preached
before each of these learned bodies on that sub-
ject, by such persons as they should appoint ; ac-
companied with a request that each of the four
preachers would accept the sum of thirty guineas,
on condition of the delivery to his agents of a
printed copy of the sennon for the college of Fort
William. These offers were in each university
accepted. He sent a similar proposal, with an
offer of fifty pounds for the sermon, to the Direc-
tors of the British and Foreign Bible Society,
which was at first accepted, but afterwards re-
spectfully declined as being considered irregular.
In May 1806 Mr. Buchanan set out on a jour-
ney to the coast of Malabar, and after visiting the
temple of Juggernaut, he passed a week with the
native Christians at Tanjore, and afterwards visited
the Rajah of Travancore. From the sea-coast he
proceeded into the interior of the country, to visit
the ancient Syrian Christians who inhabit the hills
at the bottom of the great mountains of Malayala.
An account of his journey was afterwards printed
in his Christian Researches. In the course of this
jouniey he was successful in obtaining Syriac, He-
brew, and Ethiopic manuscripts of great rarity and
value, which he afterwards presented to the univer-
sity of Cambridge. Previous to his return to Cal-
cutta he made an*angements for the translation of
the Scriptures into the native language of Malabar
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Thus far he had succeeded in his design, and
laid the foundation of that extensive distnbntion
of the holy Scriptnres in their own languages
among the native tribes of the East which, in no
long time after, "was to be vigorously prosecuted,
under the auspices even of the governments in In-
dia, who, owing to a change of policy, were at
that time, from motives of shortsighted political
expediency, opposed altogether to the enlighten-
ment and christianization of the Hindoo. On his
i*eturn to Calcutta he found that the college of
Fort William, which, dming seven years of its
existence, had been productive of benefit so im-
portant to the service of the East India Company,
to oriental learning, and to religion, had been all
but entirely abolished, and his office of vice-pro-
vost, as well as that of provost, suppressed, and
his labours and influence gi'eatly diminished. A
sketch of his proceedings on the coast of Malabai*,
which, under the title of * Literaiy Intelligence,'
he had drawn up, he was obliged to print as a
pamphlet, for the governments of Calcutta and
Madras refused to authorize its appearance in
the newspapers of these presidencies, although it
seems to have been admitted into the Bombay
Gazette. Even the advertisement of a volume of
sermons which, after his return to Calcutta, he had
preached on the prophecies, having reference to
the spread of the gospel among the Hindoos, and
which his congregation wished to have in print,
was not only, by authority, refused insertion in
the goveraroent Gazette, the press being at that
period entirely under the control of the governor,
but he was required, in a letter fi-om .the chief
secretary, to transmit his manuscripts for the in-
spection of the government. It appears from his
lettera that this hostility arose in part ft'om the
steady adherence of Dr. Buchanan to the princi-
ples of the administration of the marquis of Wel-
le^ley, and in part from dislike on the part of the
executive to his evangelical objects and plans.
This prohibition led to a well-timed and excel-
lent memorial from him, on the subject of the hos-
tility to religion and its progress in India mani-
fested by the government, which will be afterwards
noticed.
While in the neighbourhood of Juggernaut, as
Gibbon first derived the idea of his History of the
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire from vis
iting the Capitol at Rome, Dr. Buchanan con-
ceived the design 9f the foundation of some great
literary Institution, which might, by means of
books, extend the knowledge of revealed religion
and aid in the translation of the Scriptures, but
have no connection with missions, and he after-
wards prepared and even printed, though by his
friends in England it was deemed, in the then un-
favourable disposition of the Court of Directors,
not expedient to publish, an elaborate plan of such
an establishment under the title of * The Christian
Institution in the East ; or the College for trans-
lating the Holy Scriptures into the Oriental
Tongues.' The design was but partially carrie<i
into effect, and though its failure is to be regret-
ted, it reflects great honour both on the heart and
head of its originator, whose single purpose, dur-
ing all his labours in the East, was the evangeli-
zation of the inhabitants of India.
In December 1807 he left Calcutta, on a second
visit to the coast of Malabar, on his way to Eu-
rope. About the middle of the following August
he arrived in England, without any thoughts of
again returning to India. In September he has-
tened to Scotland to visit his aged mother, and
during his stay he preached in the Episcopal cha-
pel at Glasgow. He soon aft;er went to Bristol,
where, on the 26th February 1809, he preached a
sermon for the benefit of the Church Missionary
Society, afterwards published, entitled * The Star
in the East.' This was the first of that series of
able and well-directed efforts by which, in pursu-
ance of the resolution he had formed in India, he
endeavoured to cherish and extend the interest he
had already excited for the promotion of Christi-
anity in the East. In April 1809 he spent some *
days at Oxford, collating oriental manuscript ver-
sions of the Bible. He afterwards visited the
duke of Marlborough's library at Blenheim, which
is also rich in oriental manuscripts. He next pro-
ceeded to the university of Cambridge, where he
deposited the valuable biblical manusci'ipts, twen-
ty-five in number, which had been collected by
himself in India. It was at this time that thi^
university conferred on him the degree of Doctor
in divinity.
Dr. Buchanan's first wife had died at sea, op
I I
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her return fix)in England, whither she had gone
on account of her health, on the 18tli June 1805,
lenving him two daughters; and in Febmary 1810,
he maiTied, a second time, a daughter ^ Henry
Thompson, Esq. of Kirby Hall^ near Borough -
bridge, in Yorkshire. This lady died in childbirtli
in March 1813. She was the mother of two sons,
who both died soon after their birth. After preach-
ing for some time in Welbeck chapel, London,
Dr. Buchanan retired to Kirby HaU, the seat of
Ills father-in-law, where for a short period he took
np his residence. The latter part of the year 1810
was occupied in preparing for the press his * Uni-
versity Sermons,' and his great work, the * Chris-
tian Researches in Asia.' The sale of the latter
work was extraordinary, four editions being taken
off in the course of a few months. The labour,
however, which he had undergone in preparmg
this remarkable volume for the press, led to seri-
oos consequences as respects his health. In the
spring of 1811, he had been visited with a slight
paralytic stroke and temporary loss of speech, and
on account of his state of health, he proceeded on
a tour to Scotland, and subsequently visited Ire-
(and and Wales. At this time he foimed the plan
Df a journey to Palestine, but a second stroke in
the following December, which left him in a state
of great nervous debiUty, put an end to the pro-
ject.
In April 1813 the affairs of India came before
parliament. As already stated, previous to quit-
ting Bengal in 1807, Dr. Buchanan had addressed
a memorial to Lord Minto, then governor-general,
on the subject of the hostility which had been
shown, since the period of the marquis of Wel-
lesley's administration, to tlie progi-ess of the gos-
pel in India. To this memorial Lord Minto did
not deign a reply, but transmitted it to the Court
of Directors in England, accompanied by a com-
mentary of his own, of which Dr. Buchanan re-
mained perfectly ignorant till the subject was
brought before parliament, when, with many other
documents relative to Christianity in India, it
was laid on the table of the House of Commons.
He had himself, however, sent a copy of it at the
time, to the Court of Directors, with a letter in
which he expressed a hope that some general
principles on the comparative importance of reli-
gion m politteal relations in India, might be esta-
bMied at home, and transmitted to our eastern
governments for their guidance. This letter was
not published with the memorial to the governor
of Bengal, nor does it seem to have been noticed
by the court. Neither of these addresses, how-
ever, though unacknowledged at the time, was
unproductive of good. In Bengal a more favour-
able disposition on the part of the government to-
wards the promotion of Christianity appeared
shortly after, and the reply of the Directors to the
representations of the governor-general in council,
though not friendly to Dr. Buchanan, was strongly
marked by those enlightened and liberal views,
which he had been so anxious to see established
for the guidance of our Indian governments. In
the course of the debates which took place in the
House of Commons on the affaira of India, Dr.
Buchanan's name and writings were frequently
mentioned, and Sir Henry Montgomery and Mr.
Lushington took it upon them to deny many of
his statements as to the cruel and immoral super-
stitions of the Hindoos. They were, however,
ably and eloquently replied to by Mr. Wilbeiforce,
and Dr. Buchanan himself addressed private let-
ters to these gentlemen in answer to their remarks.
The account given by him of the atrocities of the
idol -worship at Juggernaut was also impugned
and attempted to be invalidated by Mr. C. BuUer,
M. P. for West Looe, who addressed a letter to
the Court of Directors on the subject. Dr. Buch-
anan immediately published a letter to the Hon.
East India Company in reply to Mr. Butler's
statements, and also his * Apology for promoting
Christianity in India.' He had previously pub-
lished a work entitled * Colonial Ecclesiastical
establishment ;' being a brief view of the state of
the colonies of Great Britain, and of her Asiatic
empire, in respect to i-eligious instruction, pre-
faced by some considerations on the national duty
of affording it. He subsequently went to reside
first at Cheshunt, afterwards at Wormlcy, and
latterly at Broxboume, in Hertfordshire, where
at the time of his death, he was engaged in su-
perintending the printing of an edition of the New
Testament for the use of the Syriac Christians
residing on the coast of Malabar. He died at
Broxbourne, February 9, 1816, at the early age
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DAVID.
of 48, and was buried at Little Ouseburu in Yorli-
shire, near the remains of his second wife and
two infant sous. A monumental inscription,
written by the Rev. W. Richardson of York, re-
cords in plain but expressive language the lead-
ing particulars of his life and character. His
Memoirs, by the Rev. J. Pearson, with extracts
from his correspondence, were published in 1817
in 2 vols.; and were republished in 1834, in a con-
densed form by Dr. Bickersteth for the Chiistian
Library, from which the annexed portrait is taken.
Dr. Buchanan *s works arc :
Memoir of the Expediencrir of ah Ecclesiastical Establish-
ment for British India, both as the means of perpetuating the
Christian Religion among our own countrymen, and as a
foundation for the ultimate ci\n1ization of the natives. Lond.
1806, 4to.
llie Star m the East A Sermon. 1809. 8tb edit.
1813, 8to.
Three Sermons on the Jubilee. 1810, 8vo.
The Light of the Worid; a Sermon. 1810, 8vo. 8d
edit 1818.
Christian Researches in Asia ; with Notices of the Trans-
lation of the Scriptures into the Oriental languages. 1811,
8vo. 5th edit 1813, 8vo.
The Three Eras of Light ; being two Discourses preached
before the University of Cambridge, and a Sermon preached
before the Society for Missions to Africa and the East. 1811,
8vo. 2d edit 1818.
The Healing Waters of Rethosda; a Sermon, preached at
Buxton. 1811.
Sermons on Interesting Subjects. Lond. 1812, 8yo.
A Brief View of the Stete of the Colonies of Great Britain,
and of her Asiatic Empire, in respect to religious instruction.
Lond. 1818, 8vo.
An Address to Messrs. Norton, Greenwood, Schnarrv,
and Rhenius, about to sail as Missionaries to TranqueUar.
1814, 8vo.
A Letter to the Hon. East India Company, in reply to the
Statements of Charles Buller, Esq. M.P., ooncemuig the idol
Juggernaut 1818, 8vo.
An Apology for promoting Christianity in India, containing
two letters addressed to the Hon. East India Company con-
cerning the idol Juggernaut ; and a Memorial presented to
the Bengal government in 1807, in defence of the Christian
missionaries in India. Published by order of the House of
Commons. To whicli are now added Remarks on the Letter
addressed by the Bengal government to the Court of Direc-
tors in reply to the Memorial With an Appendix, contain-
ing various official papers, diiefly extracted from the parlia-
mentary records relating to the promulgation of Christianity
in India. 1813, 8vo.
The First Four Years of the College of Fort William.
1814, 4to.
Memoirs : by J. Pearson. 1817, 2 vols. 8^^o.
BUCHANAN, David, an enterprising pablish-
er and printer, of whose ancestry, any more than
of others of the same name in this work, no more
is known than that, as bearing tlie name of a bar-
ony^ he was, and must have been, descended from
the ancient family of Buchanan of that ilk, at
some stage, more or less remote, of its varioos ram-
ifications. He was bom in Montrose in 1746, and
stndied at the university of Aberdeen, where he
obtained the degree of M.A. He commenced the
art of a printer in his native town, at a time when
that art had made comparatively little progress in
the north of Scotland, and, indeed, was practically
unknown in most of the provincial towns, combin-
ing with it the business of publishing, in the
course of his trading lie republished several stand-
ard works in a style equal, if not superior, to any-
thing previously attempted in Scotland; among
these were the dictionaries of Johnson, Boyer,
and Ainsworth ; the first of which was then ac-
counted a great undertaking. He also printed
the first of the small or pocket editions of John-
son's Dictionary, which was abridged and prepared
by himself; to which may be added a great vari-
ety of the English classics in a miniature form.
Being acquainted with the classics, he revised the
press himself, correcting previous errors and sup-
plying omissions to the dictionaries. Thus the
Montrose press of that day acquired a high repu-
tation, and its productions were extensively cir-
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calated. Mr. Bachanan died in 1812. — Fiamfy
information,
BUCHANAN, David, eldest son of the pre-
ceding, a miscellaneous writer of some ability,
was bom at Montrose in 1779. His earliest essay
as a political writer was in Cobbett^s Political Re-
gister, being a reply to certain theories advanced by
that politician on a question in political economy.
He was a contributor to the Edinburgh Review,
shortly after the commencement of that periodical,
but the first literary effort of his which attracted
genei*al attention was a pamphlet published in
1806 or 1807, showing the inefficiency of the vo-
lunteer system of Pitt. The opinions so ably ad-
vocated in this pamphlet were supported by Mr.
Wyndham in the House of Commons, and received
considerable notice from other public men of the
day. At the time Mr. Buchanan wrote this pam-
phlet, he resided at Montrose with his father, but
encouraged by the promises and support of a num-
ber of gentlemen belonging to the liberal party,
including Francis Jeffrey and Francis Homer, he
repaured to Edinburgh about the end of the year
1808, and started a newspaper called the Weekly
Register. This paper, although conducted with
much ability, did not continue longer than a year.
The services of Mr. Buchanan were then transfer-
red to the Caledonian Mercury, of which paper he
was editor from 1810 to 1827. A vacancy hav-
ing, in the latter year, occurred in the manage-
ment of the Edinburgh Courant, the editorship of
that paper was offered to the subject of this no-
tice, who at once accepted of it. He was suc-
ceeded in the Caledonian Mercury by Dr. James
Browne, author of the * History of the Highlands
and of the Highland Clans.' In 1857 it came
under the editorship of Mr. James Robie, who
had for many years conducted the Banner of
Ulster^ a Belfast paper, and to his exertions must
be attributed the popular character and prosperous
condition to which it soon attained.
About the year 1814 Mr. Buchanan brought
out an edition of * Smith's Wealth of Nations,'
with a Life and extensive notes, and a volume of
additional matter. He «lso edited an edition of
the Edinburgh Gazetteer in six volumes, and sup-
plied a considerable portion of the articles of that
work. A few years before his death he wrote a
small volume on the principles of commercial tax-
ation, containing valuable matter. To the sev-
enth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica,
he contributed, amongst others, the articles on
Arabia, Asia, Statistics of France, Hindostan, Si-
beria, United States, and Van Diemen's Land, as
well as the article on general Statistics ; — he also,
with Dr. Browne and Mr. H. Smith, compiled the
information contained in the Edinburgh Geogra-
phical Atlas, a work published in folio, in 1836.
Mr. Buchanan died at Glasgow, whither he had
gone on a visit to his son-in-law, Mr. Duff, engi-
neer in that city, on the 13th August 1848. For
the last five or six years of his life, he had suffer-
ed much from disease of the heart, and was at last
cut off by it so suddenly that, only a few hours
before lils death, he had written a paper on taxa-
tion for the immediately succeeding publication of
the Edinburgh Courant. He was connected with
the newspaper press of Scotland for the long pe-
riod of forty years. His style of writing was
at all times clear and concise. He was a man
of nnobtrusive habits, mild and gentle in his de-
meanour, and held in high respect by all who
had an opportunity of forming an estimate of his
character. — Family infomuUion^ and Obituary at
the time,
BUCHANAN, (Hamilton) Francis, of Leny,
surgeon, and author of several works relative
to India, thii-d son of Thomas Buchanan of Spit-
tal (mentioned in the preliminary notice of the
surname of Buchanan, ante^ p. 462,) and Eliza-
beth Hamilton, heiress of Bardowie, in the county
of Lanark, was born at Branziet, in the parish of
Callander, Perthshire, February 15th, 1762. He
received the elementary parts of his education at
Glasgow, but studied for the medical profession at
the university of Edinburgh, where he received
his degree in 1783. Soon after he was appointed
assistant surgeon on board a man-of-war, but af-
ter serving for some time, he was obliged to retire
from that situation on account of bad health,
which kept him for some years at home. He ap-
pears to have gone out to the East Indies some
time before 1791, as we find the following refer- -
ence to him in Dr. Robertson's account of Callan-
der sent to the editor in that year, "The most
learned person who is known to have belonged to
2h
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tliis parish is Dr. Francis Bnchauan, at present in
the East Indies. In classical and medical know-
ledge he has few equals, and he is well acquainted
with the whole system of nature." In 1794 he was
appointed surgeon in the East India Company's
sei-vice on the Bengal establishment, and was sent
with Captain Symes on his mission to the court
of Ava at Amerapoora in 1795, when the latter had
the satisfaction of concluding an advantageous
treaty of amity and commerce with the Burmese
emperor, of which he afterwards published an ac-
count, under the title of * Embassy to the Kingdom
of Ava.' In the course of his medical studies Dr.
Buchanan had paid particular attention to botany
and the kindred branches of natural science, and
during his voyages to and from, and his stay in,
the Birman empire, he was enabled to make some
valuable collections of the plants of Pegu, Ava,
and the Andaman islands, which, with several
drawings, he transmitted to the Court of Directors
at Loudon, and by them they were presented to
Sir Joseph Banks, then president of the Royal So-
ciety of London. He was subsequently stationed
for two years at Luckipore, near to where the
Brahmaputra, the largest river in India, joins the
Ganges, the united rivers forming the easternmost
deltoid branch of the latter, ten miles wide, and
falling into the sea in the Bay of Bengal. At that
place he principally occupied himself in describing
the fishes found in the neighbourhood.
In 1798, the board of trade at Calcutta, on the
recommendation of Dr. Roxburgh, superintendent
of the botanical garden recently established in
that city, employed Dr. Buchanan to visit the dis-
trict and neighbourhood of Chittagong, or Chati-
gong, on the west border of the Birman Empire ;
and here, too, he collected numerous specimens of
plants, which were, as the previous ones, trans-
mitted to Sir Joseph Banks, and extended his
knowledge of the natural history of Assam. In
the following year he was employed in describing
the fishes of the Ganges, of which he published an
account in 1822, with plates. His attainments in
the departments of natural history and statistics
became so highly appreciated that, in 1800, he was
chosen by the Marquis Wellesley, then governor-
general of India, to examine into, and report upon,
the entire agricultural and manufacturing systems
and products of Mysore, then recently acquired by
the British arms, as well as those of the adjacent
province of Malabar, with suggestions for their
improvement, as also upon the general condition
of the inhabitants and the climate and physical
aspect of the country. At that period the rapid
progress of the English conquests made it impos-
sible for the local government to find officers ver-
sant in the local languages of their acquisitions,
and Dr. Buchanan, whose labours had been con-
fined to the northern region of the territories of
the Company, was necessarily unacquainted with
the dialects of the south. It was his practice to
travel a certain distance every day, and each
morning before setting out from the place where
he had rested during the night, he assembled those
who resided in the neighbourhood, and questioned
them on the several points contained in his in-
structions. The answers were such as suited the
hearers to give and the interpreter to communi-
cate ; and the patient and confiding Doctor noted
all down faithfully in his daybook for the use ot
the government. Thus, while everything that he
saw was described perspicuously and correctly
enough, it was not unfrequently very different
with what he heard. The result of his inquuries
was, after his first return to England, published
in 1807, under the patronage of the Court of Direc-
tors, with the title of * Travels in the Mysore,* in
three large quai*to volumes, illustrated with maps
and drawings. The work, from the manner m
which the author collected his information, is
more in the nature of a journal than a reg^ar and
digested account of Mysore ; yet, as a writer in
the Edinburgh Review for October 1808 justl>
remarks, *^ After all the deductions that can be
made from Dr. Buchanan's authority, his book
remains an interesting and valuable publication
relating to a countiy then scarcely known in Eu-
rope. He has rendered an essential service to the
Indian historian by collecting a variety of inscrip-
tions extant in the temples of the peninsula."
The reviewer sums up his opinion of this work by
saying that ^^ those who will take the trouble to
peruse Dr. Buchanan's bt>ok will certainly obtain
a far more accurate notion of the actual condition
and appearance of India, and of its existing arts,
usages, and manners, than could be derived from
,! t
I !
I' I
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FRANCIS.
all the other books relating to it in existence ; but
they will frequently be misled as to its religion,
llteratui'e, and antiquities, and must submit to
more labour than readers are usually disposed for,
in collecting and piecing together the scattered
and disjointed fragments of information of which
the volumes are composed/'
In 1802 Dr. Buchanan was appointed to accom-
pany Captain Knox on his embassy from the gov-
ernor-general to Nepaul, thus again changing the
scene of his labours fix)m the south to the northern
part of Hindostan. In the course of this journey,
and residence in Nepaul, he made large additions
to his collections of rare plants. A description of
Nepaul, which he wrote at this time, he trans-
mitted to the Court of Directors, and it remained
unpublished till 1819, after he had retired from
the Company's service, and was independent of
their smile or their frown, when with fuller mate-
rials he brought it out under the name of an ' Ac-
count of the Kingdom of Nepaul.* Notwithstand-
ing the researches of later travellers, Dr. Buchan-
an's work still remains the standard authority of
the country of which it treats. Indeed it and
the similar work of Colonel Kirkpatrick on the
same state (published in 1811) have furnished
the printipal materials for most of the recent
works on that country. In Blackwood's Maga-
zine for July 1862, there is a review of various
publications, all having reference to that king-
dom, and all published many years subsequent to
Dr. Buchanan's work, and they are one and all
stated to be " very largely indebted to the Doctor
and the Colonel, although their authors rarely
remember to acknowledge their obligations." Such
a testimony is honourable to the observation and
acuteness of Dr. Buchanan, who was among
the fii-st to visit and to describe that remote re-
gion of Hindostan.
On his return from Nepaul, he was appointed
surgeon to the governor -general, the Marquis
Wellesley, of the great merit of whose adminis-
tration he had, like his namesake Dr. Claudius
Buchanan, formed a very high estimate. The
liberal and enlightened policy of that eminent
statesman did more for the regeneration and civi-
lization of India than did that of any of the gov-
ernments which, for many years, had either pre-
ceded or succeeded him. His wise and energetic
measures, joined to his selection and patronage of
men distinguished for their attainments and abil-
ity, in the precise departments for which they were
best fitted, enabled him to establish upon a broad
basis the foundations of our vast and mighty em-
pire in India. When not occupied in official du-
ties. Dr. Buchanan devoted much of his leisure
to the superintendence of the menagerie founded
at Calcutta by the marquis, and to the descrip-
tion of the animals which it contained. In 1805,
on the recall, at his own request, of his noble pa-
tron, he accompanied him to England, and in the
following year he was again sent out to India by
the Court of Directors, for the purpose of making
a statistical survey of the territory under the pre-
sidency of Fort William, which comprehends Ben-
gal Proper, and several of the adjoining districts.
Several papers taken from this survey were com-
municated by him to the Transactions of the
Royal Asiatic Society. After being engaged in
this laborious occupation for upwards of seven
years, he returned to Calcutta ; and in 1814, on
the death of Dr. Roxburgh, he became superin-
tendent of the botanical garden in that city, hav-
ing been appointed successor to that eminent bot-
anist by the Couit of Directors as early as 1807.
Dr. Buchanan had repeatedly received the pub-
lic thanks of the Court of Directors, and of the
GrOveiTior-general in council, for his useful collec-
tions and his valuable information on matters
relative to the different countries of India which
had been the scene of his exertions and his inves-
tigations. The objects of his ambition had now
been fiilly attained in India; his services had been
not only honourably acknowledged but liberally
rewarded by the East India Company; he had
acquired an ample fortune ; and he naturally felt
anxious to retire from the enervating influence of
an eastern climate and the responsibility and la-
bours of public service, to spend the remainder of
his life, and enjoy his well-earned wealth and repu-
tation, in his native land. He accordingly left
Calcutta in 1815, and on his arrival in London,
he presented to the Court of Directors his collec-
tions relative to India, consisting of drawings, of
plants, minerals and drugs, coins and manuscripts,
as also some papers on the geogiaphy of Ava,
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BUCHANAN.
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BURGH.
several genealogical tables, and his notes on natu-
ral history. Before leaving Calcutta, probably on
aecount of his being officially employed to prepare
them, he had been deprived by the marquis of
Hastings, the then governor-general, of all the
botanical drawings which had been made under
his inspection during his last stay i)i India, and
which he intended to have given, with his other
collections, to the library of the India House in
I^eadenhall street, London. This circumstance,
Dr. Buchanan refeiTed to in a paper which he
contributed to the Transactions of the Royal So-
ciety of Edinburgh.
Soon after his arrival in England, Dr. Bu-
chanan proceeded to Scotland, and spent the
latter years of his life at Leny in Perthshire, an
estate to which his father had succeeded as heir of
entail, and which, on the death of his eldest bro-
ther, Colonel Hamilton (who had taken his mo-
ther's name on inheriting Bardowie), without
children, came into his possession with the other
family estates, when he also assumed the name of
Hamilton as a prefix to his pateiiial one. He
married a Miss Brock, and had a son, John Ham-
ilton Buchanan, who succeeded him, and a daugh-
ter, who died young. In 1821, whei^tbc marquis
Wellesley was appointed lord -lieutenant of Ire-
land, Dr. Buchanan was asked to accompany him
in an official capacity, but he declined the offer on
account of his health and love of retirement. In
1826 he was appointed a deputy lieutenant of
Perthshire. The same year he established his
claim to be considered the chief of the clan Buch-
anan [see ante, p. 461]. He devoted much of
his time to the improvement of his residence at
Leny, and introduced into his garden and grounds
many cuiious plants, shrubs, &c. He was a mem-
ber of several learned and scientific societies, and
a fellow of the Royal Societies of London and
Edinburgh. He died June 15, 1829, in the 67th
year of his age.
His works are :
A Jonmey from Madras through the countries of the
Mysore, Canora, and Malabar, performed under the orders of
Marquis Wellesley, for the express purpose of investigating
the state of Agriculture, Arts, and Commerce; the Religion,
Manners, and Customs,- the History natural and civil, and
Antiquities, in the dominions of the Rajah of Mysore, and
the countries acquired by the Hon. East India company in
the late and former wars, from Tippoo Soltaon. lUuatnted
by a map and numerous engravings. Lond. 1807, 8 vols. 4to.
Account of Nepaul and of the Territories annexed to it bj
the House of Goorkha. 4to, London, 1819.
A Genealogy of the Hindoo Gods. 1819. This wotk ma
drawn up by Dr. Buchanan before leaving India, with the as-
sistance of an intelligent Brahmin.
An Account of the Fishes of the Ganges, with plates. 1822
He also contributed largely to various scientific jounials of
the day, particularly those devoted to natural histoiy.
BuiST, a surname derived from the old Scottish word bmtt
or boigt^ a small wooden box or chest, firom boceta, old Nor-
man, a little box of wood. Thus, in the aooonnts of the lord
high-treasurer of Scotland, under date October 11, 1540,
(reign of James the Fifth) mention is made of ** ane Boist to
keip Hoistis in,** that is, a box to keep the host or encharirt;
also in the indictment against Efiy or Euphemia Mackalxane
for witcharafl, &c, June 9, 1591, one of the nnmerous
charges against her was that she had sent with her servant
Janet Drummond, ** ane pictouro of walx (wax) in ane bvut'^
(box) to the celebrated witch Anny Simpson, to be enchanted
by the devil [See PitcatnCs Crhmnal Trials, vol L part L
page *306, and vol. L part ii. page 253.']
BuxKELL, BoMKLB, OT BuKKiLL, (probably finom ionodSe,
a contraction of the Latin word bonaadum, a little good or
^ft, and applied to lands that may have been bestowed on
Home religious body at an early period,) a surname derived
from the lands of Bunkle in Berwickshire, the principal fam-
ily of the name bemg anciently Bunkle of that ilk in that county.
The name has been supposed to have had some relation to a
buckle, as those who bore it carried three bnckles in their
arms, but these might have been more likely the symbols of
the service by which the first grantee held the lands from hri
superior. Sir John Stewart, second son of Alexander, high
steward of Scotland, married the heiress of Bunkle, and there-
after was designated Sir John Stewart of Bonkle. He was the
ancestor of the Stewarta earls of Angus, and one of the oldest
branches, after the royal family, of the name. Bunkle is now
the name of a parish in Berwickshire. The name of Bcode
appears at an early period in Pitcaim*s Crinunal Trials as con-
nected with legal proceedings. Vol. i. p. 158; vol iL p. 417.
BuROESB, a surname evidently derived firom a citizen of a
burgh, possessing all the burgh privileges. The name, how-
ever, is more English than Scotch. An andent family of
this surname was long settled in Berkshire, a descendant of
which, Sir James Bland Burgess, was created a baronet m
1796.
Burgh, a surname in Scotland, the same as De Bonrg,
De Burgh, Bourke, or Burke in Ireland, and Bontnighs in
England, derived from De Bourg, originally French. The
family of De Bourg or Burke was one of the most powerful of
the Norman settlers in England, and nnder Strongbow, the
prindpal branch settled in Ireland in 1169. In process at
time, the name was written Bourk in England and Ireland,
.md in many Irish families it is now Burke, but in 1752, King
George the Second, by letters under his signet royal and sign
manual, granted to the earl of Clanricarde, (Uliick Boorko of
London,) and Thomas Bourke of Ireland, and their descend-
ants, fuU power, licence, and authority, to assume and use the
name of De Burgh. In Scotland the name b limited and
never attained to any (tminenoe.
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BURGH.
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BURNES.
BURGH, James, a voluminous writer, was
bom at Madderty in Perthshire in 1714. After
receiving the rudiments of education at the school
of his native place, he was sent to the university
of St. Andrews, with the view of studying for the
church, but bad health soon obliged him to quit
college. Having given up all thoughts of becom-
ing a clergyman, he entered into the linen trade ;
which not proving successful, lie went to England,
where he was employed at first as a corrector of
the press. About a year afterwards he removed
to Great Marlow, where he was engaged as assist-
ant in a free grammar school. It was here that
he commenced author by writing a pamphlet, en-
titled ' Britain*s Remembrancer,^ published in 1746,
which was followed by various others. This one,
however, being adapted to the feeling of the
times, went through five editions in three yeare,
and was ascribed to some of the bishops. In 1747
he opened an academy at Stoke Nowington in
Middlesex, where, and at Newington Green in
the neighbomrhood, for nineteen years he conduct-
ed his school with great success. Having acquired
a competence, Mr. Burgh determined upon retir-
ing from business, his more immediate object be-
ing to complete one of his works called ' Political
Disquisitions,' the first two volumes of which ap-
peared in 1774 and the thu^ in 1775. Upon
quitting his school in 1771, he settled in Cole-
brooke Row, Islington, where he continued to re-
side till his death, August 26, 1775, in the 61st
year of his age. — Stcn-k's Biographia Scotica.
Mr. Burgh's works (most of which have long
since ceased to be read) are :
Britain's Remembrancer. Lond. 1745, 1766.
Thon^ts on Edacation. 1747.
An Hymn to the Creator of the World. To which was
added, in prose. An Idea of the Creator irom his Works. 2d
edit. 1750, 8yo
A Warning to Dram Drinkers. 1751, 12mo.
The Free Enqnirer. Printed in the General Evening Post.
176a-4.
An Essay on the Dignity of Human Nature ; or, A Brief
Account of the certain and established Means for attaining
the true end of our existence. Lond. 1754, 4to. Reprinted
in 2 vols. 8vo.
The Art of Speaking. Lond. 1762, 1792, 8vo. Three
editions. Used mostly as a school-book.
Crito; or Essays on Various Subjects. 1766-7, 2 vols.
12mo. 2d vol. contains, Essay on the Origin of Evil, and the
Rationale of Christianity ; with one on Political Nature, and
^n the Difficulty and Importance of Education.
The Constitutionalist. Printed in the Gazetteer. 1770.
Political Disquisitions, or an Inquiry into Public Erron,
Defects, and Abuses. Illustrated by, and established upon,
facts and remarks extracted from a variety of authors, ancient
and modem ; calculated to draw the timely attention of gov*
emment and people, to a due consideration of the necessity,
and the means of reforming those errors, defects, and abuses ;
of restoring the Constitution, and saving the State. 1774-^,
3 vols. 8vo.
The Coloniser's Advocate ; a periodical paper in the Gas-
etteer.
Directions, prudential, moral, religious, and scientific
Printed for the sole use of his pupils. Pirated and sold by a
bookseller under the title of Youth's Friendly Monitor.
Burleigh, lord, an extinct title in the peerage of Scot-
land. See Balfour of Burlkiou, lord, anie^ p. 209.
BuRNES, a surname which, like the name of Bum, or
Bums, has been supposed to have been shortened from De
Bumville, a family of that name havmg settled in Soothind
m the reign of David the First. One of them held the lands
of Brocsmouth in East Lothian under William the Lion. As
the name of De Bumville is not now known in North Britain,
this derivation of the now celebrated name of Bums does not
appear quite so fanciful as at first sight soems likely, but a
more probable origin to the name of Bumes and Bums than
has yet been brought forward has been given, founded on
documents relative to the pedigree and name of Bumoe, re-
gistered in the Lord Lyon's office in Scotland, on occasion of
Dr. James Bumes, the eldest brother of the late Sir Alexan-
der Buraes, being appointed in 1837 a knight of the Royal
Hanoverian Gnelphio Order.
The name of Bumes, it is thero stated, is nientioned
80 early as 1290, in a bull of Pope Nicholas the Fourth, to
Edward the First of England, in which his holiness acknow-
ledges letters brought to him from Enghmd, ^*quas delecti
filil Johannes de Bumes miles, et Gulielmus de Linoolnia, tui
nundi, preeentarunt;" and, in various forms of orthography,
the name b found occasionally in the obscure records of Scot-
tish history, till the seventeenth century, when it emei^ges,
traditionally, in connexion with the ancestors of Robert Bums,
the national poet.
Among the documents furnished by Dr. Buraes, is a letter
from John Bumess of Stonehaven, author of *■ Thrummy Cap,*
a tale in Scottish verse, to his kinsman. Provost Buraes of
Montrose, the doctor's father, of date 1824 ; which letter as-
signs as the progenitor of the poef s family, a fugitive Camp-
bell of Burahouse, of the noble house of Ai^le. This it does on
the authority of the Rev. Alexander Greig, Episcopal minister
in Stonehaven, then an old man, whose mother was a Bumess.
The Lord Lyon's patent of arms to the family of Bumes of
Montrose, traces its descent, in consequence, from Walter
Campbell, the proprietor of a small estate in Argyleshire, named
Bumhouse, who fled to Kincardineshire in the north of Scot-
land, during the civil wars of the 17th century, where, for
political reasons or personal concealment, dropping the patro-
nymic of Campbell, he was known only by the name of Bum-
house, which he assumed in its stead ; hence the subsequent oor-
mptions of the name into Bumess, Bume8,and, finally. Bums
It is a curious fact, in connexion with the alleged descent
of the poet's family from the Campbells, that the famous
John, duke of Argyle, after defeating the Pretender's army at
the battle of Sheriffinuir, in 1715, carried on a secret corre-
spondence with the exiled prince, under the assumed name ol
Bvmw, as may be seen in a letter of Horace Walpole to Sir
Horace Mann, dated June 80, 1742. It may also be stated
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BURNES,
486
SIR ALEXANDER.
that in Ayrahire, on the road between Beith and Kilmarnock,
there is a village of the name of Bumhouse.
In a writ of privy seal by King James the Fifth, dated
Stirling 1528, there is a John Humes described as having
been ^* art and part of the convocation and gadering of our
lieges in arrayit battell against omqll Johne Erie of Caith-
ness."
In a public law document, dated at Edinburgh, April 1(>37,
there is recorded as a witness *• J. Bumes,*' residing at Thorn-
ton, in Kincardineshire, within a few miles of Brawlymuir,
the place from whence the poet's fanyly are known to have
come.
The above named Walter of Bumhouse, when forced to
abandon his native Argyleshire, and wander, for refuge, into
the lowlands, was accompanied by his only son, Walter, then
a boy. He settled in the parish of Glenbervifi, and there he
died in indigent circumstances. His son Walter, being an
industrious youth, leamed a trade, saved a little money, mar-
ried, and ultimately took a lease of the farm of Bogjorgan, in
the same parish, where he lived till his death.
Walter had four sons, the youngest of whom, James, was
bora in 1656, and died 23d January, 1743, aged 87 years.
His wife, Margaret Falconer, died December 1749, aged 90
vears. These dates, and many others referring to the name
and family history of Bumes, are found on old tombstones in
the churchyard of Glenbervie.
James also had four sons. William, the eldest, succeeded him
in Brawlymuir, and on his death James, the youngest, removed
from Hawkhill of Glenbervie, to the paternal farm. The lat-
ter had several sons, and died in April 1778, aged 88 years.
George took the farm of Elf hill, in the parish of Fetteresso;
and Robert, the grandfather of the poet, became the tenant
of the farm of Clochinhill, in the parish of Dunnottar.
He had three sons, namely, James, the great-grandfather
of Dr. Bumes and Sir Alexander Bumes, William, the father
of the poet, and Robert He had also four daughters.
The three brothers mentioned above proceeded southwards,
from the Meams, about 1738. William the father of the poet,
then in his nineteenth year, removed first to the neighbour-^
hood of Edinburgh, and afterwards went to Ayrshire. James,
the elder brother, settled in Montrose, where he followed the
trade of a working wright, and became a burgess and town
councillor of that ancient burgh. He died in 1763, aged 44.
His son was also named James. He spelled the name
Bumess, and this is the only exception to the original ortho-
graphy till the poet thought fit to abbreviate it into Bums.
This James Bumes was the relative to whom, on his death-
bed, the poet appealed for some pecuniary assistance, which
however arrived too late for the poet himself; but to his
widow and children he showed through life every mark of
kindness.
James Bumes, his son, and second cousin of the sons of
Bums, was a writer in Montrose, and at one period provost
of that burgh, and justice of the peace for Forfarshire. He
was also principal town clerk of Montrose, and held several
ofiicial appointments in that locality. He was bom in April
1780, and married early in life, Elizabeth, daughter of Adam
Glegg, Esq., at one time provost of Montrose, and had by
her six sons and four daughters. He took a great interest in
matters connected with his native town, was an early friend
of Joseph Hume, M.P., and a reformer all his life. He died
at Edinburgh in 1852, universally respected. The most dis-
tinguished of his sons was the following:
BURNES, Sir Alexander, C. B., an enter-
prising Eastern traveller and diplomatist, the thii'd
son of the above named James Barnes, provost
of Montrose, was bom in that town May 16, 1806.
His great-grandfather was, as we have shown, thp
brother of William Bumes, the father of the poet
Bnras. He was educated at Montrose academy,
and greatly distinguished himself by his profi-
ciency. Having thereafter obtained the appoint-
ment of cadet in the Bombay army, he left school
at the age of sixteen, and arrived at that presi-
dency, October 81, 1821. On the 25th of Decem-
ber 1822 he was appointed interpreter in the Hin-
dostanee language to the first extra battalion at
Surat, and his thorough knowledge of the Persian
language soon after obtained for him, without so-
licitation on his part, from the judges of the Sud-
dur Adawlut, the employment of translating the
Persian documents of that court. His rise in the
aimy was also rapid. His regiment, the 21st na-
tive infantiy, in which he held the rank of lien-
tenant, having, early in 1825, been ordered to
Bhooj, he accompanied it, and during the serious
disturbances at Cutch, in April of that yeai-, he
was appointed quaitermaster of brigade, on which
occasion he gave early promise of that energy and
decision which characterised his after proceedings.
Although not yet twenty yeai-s of age, he was, in.
November of the same year, on the recommenda-
tion of the adjutant-general, Sir D. Leighton, ap-
pointed Persian interpreter to a force of eight
thousand men, commanded by Colonel M. Napier,
of his majesty's 6th foot, assembled for the inva-
sion of Scinde. In August 1826 he was confirmed
on the general stafi^ ad a deputy-assistant -quarter-
master-general. At this period he drew up an
able and elaborate paper on the Statistics of Wa-
gur, whicli was forwarded to Government, in Jaii-
uaiy 1827, by Colonel Shnldham, quartermaster-
general, with many high encomiums on the indus-
try and research of the reporter, and on the value
of the information which the document contained.
For this report. Lieutenant Bumes received the
thanks of Government, with a handsome reward
in money. He had also the high testimony of the
governor, Mountstuart Elphinstone, in his favour.
In the following year marks of approbation were
bestowed on him for a valuable memoir on the
eastem branches of the delta of the Indus. In
addition to the customaiy forms of approbatioiL
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BURNES,
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SIR ALEXANDER
LieutenaDt Buriies was, on this occasion, compli-
mented on the proofs which his labours afforded
of a disposition to combine the advancement of
general knowledge with the exemplary discharge
of his official duties. A few months after, he fur-
nished the authorities with a Memoir supplemen-
tary to the report already mentioned. In the,
early part of the same year (1828) he presented a
memorial, applying for permission to visit the
line of country immediately beyond our northera
frontier, lying between Mai'war and the Indus,
including the examination of the Loonee river.
The projected journey was, however, for a time
delayed, and on the 18th March he was appointed
assistant quartermaster-general to the army.
In September 1829 he acted, in concert with
Major Holland, as assistant to the political agent
in Cutch, in prosecution of the survey of the north-
west frontier, of which an account, written by
himself, will be found in the Ti*ansactions of the
Royal Greographical Society of London, 1834. In
1830 he was appointed ostensibly to take charge
of a rich gift, consisting of English dray-horses,
sent by William the Fourth to Runjeet Singh, the
ruler of Lahore, but in reality to acquire more ac-
curate information as to the geogi-apliy of the
Indus, which, although an unusual route, was the
one selected on this occasion, the horses having
been trans-shipped from Bombay, where they were*
lauded, to a port in Cutch, near the embouchm-e
of that great river. That a better colour might be
given to a deviation from the customary route, at
least so far as Hyderabad in Scinde, their capital,
he was intrusted with presents to the ameers of
Scinde. A regular escort of British troops was
declined, and a guard of wild Beluchees was found
sufficient to insure protection, while they permit-
ted an intercouree with the natives, which a more
regular force would have prevented. The expe-
dition left Mandavee, in Cutch, on the 1st of Jan-
uary* 1831, and arrived at Lahore on the 18th of
July, Lieutenant Burnes having succeeded in
making a full survey of the whole Indus delta, as
well as a map of a portion of its course.
After his return from this mission, having pro-
posed to Lord William Bentinck, then governor-
general of India, to undertake, with the sanction
of the Indian government, an expedition into Cen-
tral Asia, the journey was commenced on the 2d
of January 1832. The details of this journey
have been published in his celebrated * Travels to
Bokhara,' one of the most interesting works in the'
English language. To use his own words, he had
** retraced the greater paii; of the route of the Ma-
cedonians;, trodden the kingdoms of Ponis and
Taxiles; sailed on the Hydaspes; crossed the
Indian Caucasus, and resided in the celebrated
city of Balkh, from which Greek monaichs, far
removed from the academies of Corinth and
Athens, had once disseminated amongst mankind
a knowledge of the arts and sciences, of their own
histoiy, and the world." He returned to Bombay,
January 18, 1833, and soon after, he laid the result
of his travels before the govenior-general, whose
special thanks he received, and his memoirs were
ordered to be transmitted to the Court of Direc-
tors. In the following June he received orders to
proceed to England as the bearer of his own de-
spatches; and he amved in I^ndon early in Oc-
tober, the fame of his adventures having long
preceded him. His reception at the India House,
as well as by the Board of Control, was cordial in
the extreme; and on the 30th of December he
was introduced at couit. He afterwards received
the special acknowledgments of the king, William
the Fourth, for the unpublished map and memoir
which he had presented to his majesty. His cel-
ebrated work on Bokhara was published, at Lon-
don, in the early part of 1834 ; and its success
was almost unprecedented for a book of travels.
Nearly nine hundred copies were sold in a single
day. Mr. Murray, the publisher, of Albemarle
street, gave the author eight hundred pounds for
the copyright of the first edition. It was imme-
diately translated into the German and Fi-ench
languages, and Burnes, in his next visit to Cabul,
in 1837, found that the Russian emissaries had
been using the French edition as a handbook on
their way.
While in England, in 1884, Burnes was made a
fellow of the Royal Society, and an honorary
member of several other leamed bodies. In May
of that year he received, from the Royal Geogra-
phical Society, the fourth royal premium of fifty
guineas for his navigation of the river Indus, and
liis journey to Balkh and Bokhara across Centra!
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SIR ALEXANDER.
Asia. At the meeting of tiie Royal Asiatic Soci-
ety, on February 21, 1835, the late earl of Mun-
ster, vice-president, in the chair. Lieutenant
* Bumes was elected an honorary member for hav-
ing " fixed, with accuracy, the position of Bokhara
and Baikh, and the great Himalayan mountains,
and having done more for the construction of a
map of those countries than had been done since
Alexander the Great." On this occasion he was
complimented by Sir Alexander Johnstone, for
having almost ascertained a continuous route and
line of communication between Western Asia and
the Caspian Sea, as also for his excellent diplo-
matic arrangements with the ameers of Singh.
While yet a mere youth, he had contributed, from
India, many valuable papers to the Royal Asiatic
Society ; and the museum of that society contains
the Bokhara cloak woi*n by him in his travels in
the Punjaub. He was also the author of some
papei-s in the * Journal of the Royal Geographical
Society of London.' To the British Museum he
presented one of the richest collections of Indian
coins in this country, for which he received a let-
ter of thanks from the tnistees of that national in-
stitution.
After a sojourn of eighteen months in Great
Britain, during which time he visited his native
town, Montrose, Lieutenant Bumos left London
on April 5, 1835, and reached India on the 1st of
June, through France and Egypt, and so by the
Red Sea packet. On his arrival at Bombay he
was durected to resume the duties of assistant to
the resident at Cutch, Colonel Pottinger. In the
following October he was deputed on an important
mission to Hyderabad in Scinde, and, in all the
momentous affairs in which he was engaged, and
in subsequent negociations, he displaj'ed his accus-
tomed ability and judgment, and accomplished the
most important results. In November, 1836, he
was intrusted with a mission to Dost Mohammed,
the ruler of Afghanistan, with the view of enter-
ing into commercial relations with him ; and pro-
ceeding from Scinde through the Punjaub, and by
Peshawur to Cabul, he aiiived at the latter place
September 20th, 1837. Meantime, Mohammed,
Shah of Persia, had besieged Hei*at with an army
of sixty thousand men, and the Indian govern-
ment had become alarmed at the prospect of Per-
sia and Russia uniting their forces with those of
Afghanistan, and making a conjoint attack on our
Indian empire. The Persians, indeed, were forced
to retreat from Herat, but the presence of the
Russian agent Vicovitch, at Cabul, perplexed and
alarmed Buraes, who pressed upon Dost Moham-
med the propriety of dismissing him, which he
refused to do, but gave Bumes himself his dismis-
sal, April 24, 1838. On this Burnes was directed
to repair to the governor-general, then at Simla, and
he was there in August of that year. Here it was
resolved to replace Shah Shoojah on his throne at
Cabul, a resolution which led to the most disas-
trous consequences to our troops and to Bumes
himself. Whilst at Shikai-poor, he received a copy
of the London Gazette, announcing his having
been knighted, and advanced to the rank of lieu-
tenant-colonel in the Indian army. He next pro-
ceeded from Scinde on a politi,cal mission into Bel-
uchistan, in which, however, he failed, and in
April 1839, he joined the army at Quettah. On
the final restoration of the Shah Shoojah to Uie
throne of Cabul, in September 1839, Sir Alexan-
der was appointed political resident at that capital,
with a salarj' of tliree thousand pounds a-year.
The indiscreet state of security into which the
British allowed themselves to fall on taking pos-
session of Cabul was fatal to their long continu-
ance in that capital. In one of the last letters
which Bumes wrote to his brother he states that
he was residing quietly in a little cottage in the
neighbom'hood of Cabul, in every way as securely
as if in the vicinity of Montrose. But this state
of things was not to last. At the very outset of
the insurrection which took place in favour of Dost
Mohammed, on the 2d November 1841, Colonel
Bumes was slaughtered, along with his brother
Charles, and seven other officers, in the 36th year
of his age. After his death , was published ' Cabool
being a NaiTative of a Journey to and Residence
in that city, in the years 1836-7-8. By the late
Lieut.-Col. Sir Alexander Bumes.* London, 8vo.
Sir Alexander Bumes was the first traveller
who opened the Indus to the policy of England,
and extended his researches to the shores of the
Oxus, the ruins of Samarcand, and those remote
teiTitories which have, within so short a space of
time, become the scene of great political events,
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BURNET,
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GILBERT.
and of his own melancholy and untimely fate.
His chief characteristics were intrepidity, discre-
tion, and wonderful sagacity. As a proof of these,
it is narrated of him that he dined one Christmas
day, in great state, with one of the riyalis, whose
watches he had on that day twelvemonth regu-
lated, in the disguise of an Armenian watchmaker.
Had he been discovered, his head would not have
remained tve minutes on his shoulders. His bix)-
ther. Lieutenant Charles Bumes, of the 17th regi-
ment of native infantry, who was massacred with
him, was bom on January 12, 1812, and appoint-
ed a cadet on the Bombay establishment, in 1885,
by Mr. Lush, as a compliment to the semces of
Sir Alexander. Dr. James Burnes, who was
created K.H. in 1837, was long physician-general
to the Bombay aimy. He is the author of a
Narrative of a Visit to the Court of Scinde, and a
Sketch of the History of Cutch, 8vo, 1881, and of a
Sketch pf the Hlstoiy of the Knights Templars,
1837. Another brother, Mr. Adam Bumes, is a
solicitor of great respectability in Montrose. Dr.
David Bumes, physician in London, another of the
brothers, who had preserved every letter which
Sir Alexander had addressed to him during twenty
years, died in Montrose in 1849.
Burnet, or Burnktt, originally Burnard, a sarname of
Saxon deriratioD. Robert Barnard, who settled in Teviot-
dale aa earlj as 1128, was the first of the name in Scotland.
In the charter of the foundation of the abbacy of Selkirk by
Earl david, younger son of Malcolm Canmore, Robertns de
Barnard is a witness, and he, or his son of the same name, is
also witness in the same prince's charters, alter he had be- 1
come King David the first
' There are two principal families of the name in Scotland,
namelj, Bamet of Bams, m Peebles-shu«, andentlj designed
of Bometknd, or of that ilk; and Bamet of Leys in iOncar-
dmeshire. Both daun the chiefship. The first profess to be
descended from the above-named Robertas de Barnard, bnt
there is no trace of them in aathentio history till the year
1600, when retaras of the services of the portion of a widQw
of one nomination of tators to another of the name are extant,
by which it appears they had borne for some time the desig-
nation of Baraets of Baraetland, but having also acqoired
lands called Bams, afterwards became designated as Bamets
of Bams. Of this family was descended Dr. Alexander Bur-
net, archbishop of St Andrews after Archbishop Sharp, that
is from 1679 till his death in August 1684. He bad pre-
viously been bishop of Aberdeen, and subsequently anshbidiop
of GUsgow, and while in the latter see, he preached a funeral
sermon on the death of the marquis of Montrose, from the
text, " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord,** published
at Ghisgow in 1678, 4to.
The other principal family of the name, Burnett of l^ys, bus
flourished for more than five centuries in the north of Scot-
land. In 1324, Alexander de Bumard, ancestor of the Bur-
netts of Leys, obtained a charter from Robert the Bmce of
knds m the sliire of Kincardme. The grandson of this Al-
exander, John de Bumard, held the office of king's macer.
His eldest son, Robert Burnett, was the first that bore the
designation of Leys. Alexander Bumett, eleventh pro-
prietor of Leys, had, with seven daughters, six sons. 1. Al-
exander, who predeceased his father, without issue. 2. Tho-
mas, first baronet -8. James, of Craigmyle, progenitor of
the Burnetts of Monboddo and Kemno. 4. Robcnl, Lord Cri-
mond, a lord of session (1661), father of the celebrated Bishop
Burnet (see next article). 5. George, died unmarried. 6.
John, factor for the Scots at Campvere.
The second son, Sir Thomas, was created a baronet of No-
va Scotia, 31st April 1626. He was an earnest supporter of
the covenant The 8d baronet, Sir Thomas, member for Kin-
cardineshire ui the last Scottish pariiaroent was a strenuous
opponent of tlie union. At tLe death of Sir Robert, 6th bar-
onet, unmarried, the title devolved upon his cousin, Su* Tho-
mas, 6th baronet, eldest son of William Burnett of Criggie,
2d son of 8d baronet He married Catherine, sister of Sir
Alexander Ramsay, 6th baronet of Balmain, with issue.
He died in 1788. His eldest son, Su- Robert, 7th baronet,
an officer in the Royal Scots Fnsileen, served throughout the
first American war, and was taken prisoner at Saratoga, on
the surrender of General Burgoyne in 1777. He died in 1837.
His brother, Alexander Bumett of Stracban, 2d son of the
6th baronet, assumed the name of Ramsay, in lien of his pa-
tronymic, Bumett, and was created a baronet, 13th May
1806, on uiheriting the estates of his uncle, Sir Alexander
Ramsay, 6th baronet of Balmain. (See Ramsay.)
Sir Thomas Burnett, 8th baronet of Leys, eldest son of 7th
baronet, died in February 1849, when his brother. Sir Alex-
ander, H.LO.S., became 9th baronet, and died, unmarried,
20th Maroh 1866. His next brother. Sir James Horn Bur-
nett, succeeded as 10th baronet
According to Sir George Mackenzie, the Bumetts of Leys,
in their arms carry the hunting hom, in base, with a High-
lander in a hunting garb and a greyhound, for supporters, to
show that they are the king*s foresters in the north.
BURNET, Gilbert, D.D., a celebrated histo-
I nan and divine, eldest son of Robert Burnet, of
Crimond, (see above,) was bom at Edinburgh,
Sep. 18, 1643. His father, who was strongly at-
tached to episcopacy, was after the restoration
appointed one of the lords of session under the
title of Ix>rd Crimond. His mother, Rachel John-
ston, was sister of Sir Archibald Johnston, Lord
Wannston. His youngest brother. Sir Thomas
Burnet, was an eminent physician in Edinburgh.
Gilbert, after being instructed by his father in
Latin, was at ten years of age sent to Mai-ischal
college, Aberdeen, where he took the degree of
M.A. before he was fourteen years of age. His
inclination at first led him to the study of the
law, but he soon applied himself to that of divin-
ity, and was licensed to preach, in 1661, betore
he had reached his eighteenth year, when his
cousin. Sir Alexander Burnet, oflfered him a bene-
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BURNET,
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GILBERT.
flco, which he refused, on accoaDt of his youth.
In 1C63, about two years after the death of bis
father, he went for about six months to Oxford
and Cambridge. In 1664, he made a tour in
Holland and France, where, especially in the for-
mer countiy, he acquired those pnnciples of toler-
ation in religious matters which afterwards distin-
guished him. On his arrival in London, on his
way home, he was admitted a member of the
Royal Society.
On his retuni to Sco'tland, he was, by Sir Ro-
bert Fletcher, presented to the parish of Saltoun
in East Lothian, in 1665, on which occasion he
received ordination from the bishop of Edinburgh,
lie remained at Saltoun for five yeara, and while
there he distinguished himself by his pastoral assi-
duity. So great was his generosity and self
denial, that of his stipend, all that remained above
what was i*equired for his own subsistence, he
gave away in charity. A parishioner whose goods
had been seized for debt, once applied to him for
some little assistance. He inquired how much it
would take to enable him again to begin bnsiness,
and on being told he ordered his servant to give
him the money. *^ Sir, said his sei-vant, '^ it is all
the money we have in the house." " It is well,"
was the reply, " go and pay it to the poor man.
You do not know the pleasure there is in making
a man glad." Although he afterwards rose to
dignity and wealth, he ever retained an affection-
ate remembrance of the parishioners of Saltoun,
his first cure, and on his death he bequeathed
twenty thousand merks for the benefit of that
parish, to be applied in erecting and partially en-
dowing a new schoolhouse, in enlarging a library
for the use of the parochial incumbent, in clothing
and educating thirty poor children, and in reliev-
ing the necessities of the parochial poor. The
children who continue to reap the fruits of his be-
quest are populai*ly called ** bishops," and occupy
in the church a gallery which bears the name of
" the bishop's laft."
While employed in his ministerial duties, Bur-
net was not inattentive to the neglect and miscon-
duct of many of the clergy who had been thrust
into benefices after the violent introduction of
episcopacy at the Restoration, and in 1666 he
drew up and circulated in manuscript, a strong
representation, or memorial, against certain abuses
of their authority, which he imputed to the Scot-
tish bishops. In 1668 he was consulted by the
government as to a remedy for the disorders that
prevailed in consequence of the overthrow of the
presbyterian form of church government, which
was most in accordance with the feelings, the
rights, and the spirit of the people; and at his
suggestion the expedient of an Indulgence to the
presbyterian ministera was, in the following year,
adopted. This, however, only made matters worse,
as all compromises have inevitably a tendency to
do. About this time he became acquainted with
Anne, duchess of Hamilton, who intrusted him
with the papers belonging to her father and nnde,
upon which he drew up the * M€knoirs of the Dukes
of Hamilton,' which appeared in London in folio
in 1677.
In 1669 he was elected professor of divinity in
the university of Glasgow, and at the urgent re-
commendation of Archbishop Leigh ton, whose ac-
quaintance he had made in 1662, he accepted of
the appointment, and removed to Glasgow, where,
the same year, he published his * Modest and Free
Conference between a Conformist and a Non-
Conformist.' With Leighton he appears to have
lived upon terms of great cordiality, and to Bur-
net the world is indebted for a copious and most
interesting record of the evangelical virtues of
that eminent and amiable prelate.
While engaged upon his memoirs of the dukes
of Hamilton, he was invited to London by the
duke of Lauderdale, by whom he was introduced
to the king. At this time he was offered his
choice of one of four vacant Scottish bishoprics,
but he refused to accept any of them. Soon after
his return to Glasgow, he married Lady Margaret
Kennedy, daughter of the earl of Cassillis, a lady
of distinguished piety and knowledge, whose senti-
ments were strongly in favour of the presbyterians.
A collection of Letters from this lady to John
duke of Lauderdale was published at Edinburgh
in 1828.
In 1672 Mr. Burnet published * A Vindication
of the Authority, Constitution, and Laws of the
Church and State of Scotland,' in consequence of
which he was again offered a Scottish bishopric,
with a promise of the next vacant archbishopric
I i
,1 i
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GILBERT.
which he also declined. He resisted all the efforts
that were made to engage him in support of the
oppressive measures of the court. In 1678 he re-
yisited London, when he was appointed one of the
king^s chaplains in ordinary. In the ensuing year
he deemed it expedient to resign his chair at Glas-
gow, when he removed altogether to Loudon.
The fi-eedom which he used in speaking to the
duke of Lauderdale, regarding the measures of his
government, lost him the friendship of that un-
principled minister; and his opposition to the
popish designs of the court caused his name to be
struck out of the list of his majesty's chaplains.
In 1675, on the recommendation of Lord HolUs,
he was appointed preacher at the Rolls chapel by
Sir Harbottle Gftmstone, Master of the Rolls.
He was soon after chosen lecturer of St. Clement
Danes In the Strand, and became one of the most
popular preachers then in the metropolis. In
1679 he published the first volume of his ' History
of the Reformation,^ which procured for him the
thanks of both houses of parliament. The second
volume appeared In 1681, and the third, whicli
contained a supplement to the two former, in 1714.
Having attended the sick bed of a woman who
had been one of the paramours of the profligate
earl of Rochester, that nobleman sent for him,
and for a whole winter held various conversations
with him upon those topics with which sceptics and
men of loose principles attack the Christian reli-
gion. The happy effect of these conferences, in
leading the earl to a sincere repentance, occasioned
the publication of Mr. Burnet's Interesting account
of the life and death of that nobleman, published
In 1680.
Duriug the affair of the popish plot, Dr. Burnet
was often consulted by Charles the Second on the
state of the nation. The king offered him the
bishopric of Chichester, then vacant, " if he would
entirely come into his interests," but he declined
it on such terms, preferring to remain true to his
principles. In 1682 he published the Life of Sir
Mathew Hale, and some other works. About
this time also he wi-ote his celebrated letter to
King Charles, i-eproving him in the severest style,
both for his public misconduct and his private
vices. His majesty read it twice over, and then
threw it into the fii-e. In 1683, after the execu-
tion of Lord Russell, whom he attended on the
scaffold, he was examined before the House of
Commons, with regard to that nobleman's last
speech, which it was suspected he had written for
him. In 1683 he published a ' Translation of Sir
Thomas More's Utopia,* and one or two other
translations. In 1684 he was, by mandate from
the court, discharged from his lecture at St.
Clement Danes, and also prohibited from again
preaching at the Rolls chapel. In 1 685 he brought
out his *Llfe of Dr. William Bedell, bishop of
Kilmoi*e.'
On the accession of James II. and YII. to the
throne, he obtained leave to go out of the king-
dom, and firat went over to Paris, but afterwards
made a tour In Italy, an account of which he pub-
lished in letters addressed to Mr. Boyle. He
subsequently pursued his travels through Switzer-
land and Crermany. Having arrived at Utrecht,
by the Invitation of the prince of Orange he went
to the Hague, and had a share in the councils
concerning the affairs of England. He became in
consequence an object of great jealousy to King
James, who ordered a prosecution for high treason
to be commenced against him both in England
and Scotland ; but having obtained the rights of
naturalization In Holland, when James demanded
his person from the States, they refused to deliver
him up. His wife. Lady Margaret, being dead,
he about this time married a Dutch lady of for-
tune, of the name of Mary Scott, descended from
the family of Buccleuch.
Dr. Burnet had a veiy important share in the
whole conduct of the Revolution of 1688, the pro-
ject of which he gave early notice of to the court
of Hanover. He accompanied the prince of Or-
ange to England in the quality of chaplain ; and
he was rewarded for his services with the bishopric
of Salisbury, being consecrated March 31, 1689.
In a * Pastoral Letter' to his clergy, concerning
the oaths of allegiance and supremacy to King
William and Queen Mary, he maintained their
right to the throne on the ground of conquest,
which gave so much offence, that, three years af-
terwards, this ' Letter' was ordered by parliament
to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman
In 1698 he was appointed preceptor to the duke
of Gloucester, the son of the princess (afterwards
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GILBERT.
Qaeen) Aiine. On this occasion he wished to re-
sign his bishopric, but was prevailed upon to re-
tain it at the request of King William himself. In
preference to all the ministers, he was by the king
appointed to name the princess Sophia, Electress
of Brunswick, next in succession to Queen Anne,
ip the famous bill for settling the succession to the
throne ; and in 1701 he was chairman of the com-
mittee to which the bill was referred. Having
lost his second wife by the smallpox, in that year
he married Elizabeth, the widow of Robert Berke-
ley, Esq. This lady died in 1709, leaving a pious
book, entitled 'Method of Devotion.' In 1699
he published his * Exposition of the Thirty- nine
Articles.* The scheme for the augmentation of
poor livings, out of the first fruits and tenths due
to the Crown, originated with Bishop Burnet.
He died 17th March, 1715, and was buried at St.
James', Clerkenwell, where a monument is erect-
ed to his memory. His * History of his Own
Times * was published after his death by his son,
Mr., afterwards Sir Thomas, Burnet. Bishop
Burnet possessed a considerable share of vanity
and bustling offlciousness, and seems not to have
had the most capacious judgment, but these weak-
nesses in his character were amply compensated
for, by the excellence of his heart, by his disinter-
estedness, his courage and his public spirit, and
by the remarkable ability which he displayed both
as a divine and a historian. The following is his
portrait :
Bishop Burnet's works are
Disoourae on the Memory of Sir Robert Fletcher of Sal-
toon. Edin. 1665, 8yo.
Sermon preached before the Prince of Orange, on Dan. xii.
a 166a. 4to
Observations on the First and Second of the Canons, ooni-
monlj ascribed to the Holy Apostles. Glasg. 1673, Svo.
Vindication of the Authority, Constitution, and Laws of
the Church and State of Sootknd, in four Conferences; where-
in the Answer to the Dialogues betwixt the Conformist and
the Nonconformist is examined. Ghisg. 1673, Svo.
The Mystery of Iniquity unveiled. Lond. 1672, Svo.
A Rational Method of proving the Truth of the Christian
Religion as it is professed in the Church of England. Lond.
1675, 12mo.
The Dutiful Subject ; a Sermon on Rom. xiiL 5. 1675, 4 to.
The Royal Martyr lamented ; a Sermon on 2 Sam, ii. 12.
1675, 4to.
Relation of a Conference held about Religion, at London,
April 3, 1676, by Dr. Stiliiiigfleet and Gilbert Burnet, with
some Gentlemen of the Church of Rome. I»nd. 1676, Sva
Subjection for Conscience-sake, asserted in a Sennon.
Lond. 1675, 4to.
A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of Eng-
land. Lond. 1677, Svo.
Memours of the Lives and Actions of James and William,
Dukes of Hamilton, &c, in which an account is given of the
Rise and Progress of the Civil Wars of Scotland, with other
Transactions, both in England and Germany, from the year
1625 to 1652. Lond. 1677, foL
History of the Reformation of the Church of England.
Lond. 1679-81, 2 vols. fol. Vol. iii. being a Supplement to
the other two. Lond. 1715, 3 vols. fol. Lond. 1609, 4 vok
fol. Abridged. Lond. 1683, and 1715, fbl.
Letter to the Eari of Rochester as he lay on his Death- bed.
1680, foL
The Life and Death of John, Earl of Rochester. 1680,
Svo. 1724, Svo.
Fast Sermon for the Fire of I^ndon, on Amos iv. 11, 12.
1680, 4to.
Sermon on the Election of the Lord Mayor, on Matth. xii.
25. 1681, 4to.
The Policy of Rome ; or the True sentiments of the Court
and Cardinals there, concerning Religion and the Gospel, as
they are delivered by Cardinal Falavidni in bis History oi
the Council of Trent Lond. 1681, 8vo.
Letters during the late Contest in France, concerning the
Regale. Lond. 1681, Svo.
The last Confessions, Prayers, and Meditations of Lieute-
nant John Stem, delivered by him on the Cart, immediately
before his Execution, to Dr. Burnet ; together with the hut
Confession of George Bororky, signed by him in the prison.
Lond. 1682, fol.
History of the Rights of Princes in dibpoeing of Ecclesias-
tical Benefices and Church Lands. Lond. 1682, Sva
The Life of Sir Matthew Hnle, Knt. Lord Chief Justice ot
England ; Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, and Queen Maiy
1682, 2 vols. Svo. New edit 1774, Svo.
Letter of the Clergy of France to the Protestation. Trans-
lated and exammed. Lond. 1683, Svo.
Copies of certain Letters which have passed between Spain
and England, in Matters of Religion. Lond. 1685, Svo.
Life of William Bedell, Bbhop of Kilmore. Lond. 1685
Svo.
A Letter to Simon Lowth, occasioned by his book of
Church Power. Lond. 1685, 4to.
Reflections on Mr. Varillas' History of the Revolutions
that have happened in Europe, in Matters of Religion, and
more particularly on his ninth Book that relates to England.
Amst 1686, 12mo. Continuation. Amst 1687, 12mo. De-
fence of the same. Amst 1687, 12mo.
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BURNET.
498
GILBERT.
Tnyela, with his Answer to Bir. Varillas. Amst 1686.
LetterSf oontaining an aocoont of what seemed most re-
markable in Switzerland, Italy, &c 1686, 8to.
Trarels throogh Switzerland, Italy, and some parts of
Germany, in the years 1685-6. Rott 1687, 8yo.
Death of the Primitive Peraecotors, transUted from Lao-
tantius. Amst 1687, 12mo.
Letters concerning the State of Italy. 1688, 8yo.
Reflections on Varillas* Book of Heresy, as far as relates
to Enffiah Matters, especially those of Wickliff. Lond.
1688, 12mo.
Vindication of himself fix>m Calumnies, in Parllamentum
Pactficom. Lond. 1688, 4to.
The Case of Compnlsion in Matters of Religion, stated.
Lond. 1688, 8vo.
Sermon preached before the Prince of Orange, on Psalm
cxviil 23. 1688, 8vo.
An Exhortation to Peace and Union ; a Sermon on Acts
TiL26. 1689, 4to.
Christmas Sermon, on 1 Tim. iiL 16. 1689, 4to.
Eighteen Papers relating to the affairs of Church and State
during the reign of King James II. Lond. 1689, 4to.
A Letter to Mr. Thevenot, containing a censure of Mr. Le
Grand*s History of King Heniy the VIII.*s Divorce, with a
Censure of Mr. De Meaux*s History of the Variations of the
Protestant Churches. Lond. 1689, 4to.
Six Papers, with an Apology for the Church of England,
and an Enquiry into the Measures of Submission. Lond.
1689, 4to.
Pastoral Letter concerning the Oath of Allegiance to Ring
William and Queen Mary. Lond. 1689, 4to.
Sermons on various Occasions. London, 1689-94, 4to.
Glasgow, 1742, 12mo.
Some Passages of the Life and Death of John, (Wilmot)
Earl of Rochester. Lond. 1692, 1700, 8vo.
Discourse of the Pastoral Care. Lond. 1692. 4to.
Letter to the Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry, concerning
a book called. Specimen of some Errors and Defects in the
History of the Reformation. Lond. 1698, 4to.
Reflections on the History of the English Reformation.
Amst 4to.
Four Sermons to the Clergy of the Diocese of Sarum,
Lond. 1694, 8vo.
Essay on the Memory of the late Queen Mary, consort to
King WiUiam lU. Lond. 1695, 8vo.
Animadvernons on Mr. HiU^s Vindication of the Primitive
Fathers, against Bishop Burnet Lond. 1695, 4to.
Lent Sermon, preached before the King, on 2 Cor. vL 1.
1695, 4to.
Vindication of his Funeral Sermon on Archbishop TUlotson,
Lond. 1696, 8vo.
Thanksgiving for the Peace; a Sermon on 2 Chron. ix. 8.
1697, 4to.
The time when Christianity was made known; Christmas
Sermon, on GaL iv. 4. 1697, 4to.
Lent Sermon, on Ephes. v. 2. 1697, 4to.
Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of
England. Lond. 1699, foL 1700, 1720, fol.
Reflections on a Book, entitled, The Rights, Powers, and
Privileges of the English Convocation, stated. Lond. 1700,
4to.
Charitable Reproof; a Sermon on Pror. xxvii. 5, 6. 1700.
Defence, m Answer to the Prefatory Discourse. Lond.
1708, 4to.
On a Brief for the Exiles of Orange; a Sermon on 1 Cor.
Eh.26, 27. 1704, 4to.
Collection of Tracts and Disooturses, written in the yean
1677 to 1704. 1704, 2 vols. 4to.
Exposition of the Church Catechism. Lond. 1710, 8va
Remarks on the Bishop of Salisbury's Speech in relation to
the first Article of Dr. Sacheverell*s Impeachment. Nott.
1710, 4to.
Preface to the Introduction to the 8d vol of the History of
the Reformation. Lond. 1713, 8vo.
Fourteen Sermons; with an Essay towards a New Book of
Homilies, in Seven Sermons. Lond. 1718, 8vo.
A Discourse of the Pastoral Care. Lond. 1718, 8vo.
Four Letters which passed between him and Mr. Henry
Dodwell, published by Mr. Rob. Nelson. London, 1718, 8vo.
Introduction to the 3d volume of the History of the Re-
formation. Lond. 1714, 8vo.
Demonstrations of True Religion, in 16 Sermons, at Boyle*s
Lecture. Lond. 1726, 2 vols. 8vo.
History of his own Times. From the restoration of King
Charles II. to the oondnsion of the Treaty of Peace at
Utrecht, in the reign of Queen Anne, published after his
death. Lond. 1724-34, 2 vols. foL Another edit 1725, 6
vols. 12mo. The best edition is that by Dr. Flaxman, with
Notes, Corrections, and Memoirs of the Author. Lond. 1753,
6 vols. 8vo.
Letters between him and Mr. Hutc-hinson on the founda-
tion of Virtue and Moral Goodness. Lond- 1735, 8vo.
Abridgement of the Sermons preached at Boyle*s Lectures.
Lond. 1787, 4 vols. 8vo.
Practical Sermons. Lond. 1747, 2 vols. 8vo.
Thoughts on Education, now first printed from an original
Manuscript 1760, 8vo.
A Memorial ofiered to her Royal Highness the Prinoesi
Sophia, Duchess-Dowager of Hanover; containing a Delinea-
tion of the Constitution and Policy of England; with Anec-
dotes concerning Remarkable Persons of that Time. 1815, 8vo.
Bishop Barnet left tbi*ee sons. William, his
eldest son, was educated as a gentleman-common-
er in the nniversitj of Cambridge, and made
choice of the profession of the law. He was a
great snfferer in the South Sea scheme of 1720,
and became governor, first of New York and New
Jei-sey, and subsequently of Massachusetts and
New Hampshire. He died at Boston in 1729.
He was the author of a tract, entitled * A View of
Scripture Prophecy.'
Gilbert, the second son, was educated at Ley-
den and Oxford for the chnrch. He was made
king^s chaplain in 1718 ; and is said to have been
a contributor to a periodical published at Dublin
in 1725-6-7, entitled * Hibemicus's Letters,' and
also to another called *The Freethinker.' He
distinguished himself as a writer on the side of
Bishop Hoadly in the Bangorian controversy, and
was considered by that eminent prelate as one of
his ablest defenders. In 1719 he published an
abridgment of the third volume of his father's
History of the Reformation. He died early.
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BURNET,
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JAMES.
Gilbert*8 works are :
An Abridgement of the 3d vol. of his Father's Histoiy of
the Reformation. 1719.
The Generation of the Son of Qod as taught in Scriptore,
considered. Lond. 1720, 8vo.
On the Accession; a Sermon on Dent. iv. 6 — 8. 1725, Svo.
A Letter to the Rer. Mr. Trapp, occatdoned by his Sermon
on the real Nature of the Church and Kingdom of Christ.
An Answer to Mr. Law's Letter to the Lord Bishop of
Bangor.
A Full and Free Examination of several Important Points
relating to Church Authority, the Christian Priesthood, the
Positive Institutions of the Christian Religion, and Church
Communion, in Answer to the Notions and Principles con-
tained in Mr. Law's second Letter to the Lord Bishop Bangor.
The Free Thinker, afterwards collected mto 3 vols. 12roOk
Forty-eight Practical Sermons on Various Subjects. 1747,
2 vols. 8vo.
Thomas, the third son, studied at Leyden and
Oxford, and was destined for the law. By his
dissipation in early life, he gave his father mnch
uneasiness. In 1712 and 1713, he wrote several
political pamphlets in favour of the Whigs, and
against the administration of the last four years
of Queen Anne. One of these caused his being
taken into custody in January 1713. One day
being unusually giave, his father asked him what
was the subject of his meditation : — " A greater
work," he replied, " than your lordship*s History
of the Reformation." "What is that, Tom?"
asked the father. "My own refonnation, my
lord." He afterwards became one of the best
lawyers of his time. He was for several years his
majesty^s consul at Lisbon ; and in 1741 was ap-
pointed one of the judges of the court of common
pleas. He also received the honour of knighthood,
and was admitted a member of the Royal Society.
He died January 6, 1753. He was introduced by
Pope into the Dunciad ; and some poems of his
were published in 1777.
Sir Thomas Burnetts works are :
A Letter to the People, to be left for them at the Booksel-
lers, with a word or two of the Band-Box Plot.
Our Ancestors as wise as we, or Ancient Precedents for
Modem Facts, in Answer to a Letter from a Noble Lord.
Tlie History of Ingratitude^ or a Second Part of Ancient
Precedents for Modem Facts.
Trath, if yon can find it ; or a Character of the present
Ministry and Parliament
A certain Information of a certain Discourse that happened
at a certain Gentleman^s House, in a certain Country, written
by a certain Person then present, to a certain Friend now at
London, from whence you may collect the great certainty of
the Account
Some o^w Proofs, by which it appears, that the Pretender
is troly James the Third: tne whole of these published in
1712-18, anon.
The Necessity of Impeaching the late Ministry, in a Letter
to the Eari of Halifax. Lond. 1715, 8ro.
A Travestie of the First Book of the Hiad, under the titb
of Homerides, in conjunction with Mr. Ducket 1715.
The First Volume of his Father's Histoiy of his own Time,
with Exphmatoiy Notes. 1723.
Some remarks in defence of the preceding. 1732.
The Second Volume of his Father's History, to which he
added, A Life of that eminent Prelate. 1734.
Verses written on sereral occasions, between the yean
1712-21. Lond. 1777, 4to.
BURNET, Thomas (Sir), an eminent physi-
cian of the seventeenth century, a brother of the
celebrated Bishop Burnet, practised at Ekiinbnrgh,
and had the degree of M.D. Very little is known
concerning him. On the title-pages of his books
he styled himself ^Medicus Regius, et Ck>Ilegii
Regii Medicorum Edinbnrgensis Socius.* He was
a friend of Sir Robert Sibbald. and joined with
him in a formal declaration against some oppres-
sive and unwarrantable proceedings of the College
of Physicians at Edinburgh, in relation to the
summary suspension of some of the members,
which declaration is dated 20th November 1699.
The date of his death is unknown. He left tw4
very useful works, the titles of which are :
Thesaurus Medicine PracticsB praestantissimoram obsenra-
tionibus coUectus. Lond. 1673, 4to. A collection from the
best practical writers, and treating of 410 diseases, with tbor
causes, signs, and methods of cure. In the aid he gires
some account of Ruminating Man. Of this work twehre edi-
tions are enumerated by Haller, the last of which, greatly en-
Urged by the author, was published at Genera, in 1693, 4ta
Hypocrates contractus, in quo Hipocratis omnia in brevem
epitomen reducta debentur. Edin. 8to, 1685. A neat edi-
tion of this work was published at London in 1743.
BURNET, James, an eminent lawyer, and a
learned and ingenious writer, better known by his
judicial title of Lord Monboddo, son of James
Burnet, Esq. of Monboddo, and Elizabeth, only
sister of Sir Arthur Forbes of Craigievar, Bart,
was bom in 1714, at the family seat in Kincar-
dineshire. He was educated at home, under Dr.
Francis Skene, afterwards professor of philosophy
in Marischal college, Aberdeen, and was subse-
quently sent to study at that university, where he
distinguished himself by his proficiency in ancient
literature, the study of which, in after life, became
his ruling passion. Being designed for the bar,
according to the custom at the time he repaired to
Holland to study the civil law, and after attending
I i
!i '
'I I
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for three years the lectures in the university of
Groningen, be came to Ediuburgh, where he ar-
rived on the forenoon of September 7, 1736, and
that night was an involuntary witness of the fa-
mous Porteous Mob. His lodgings were in the
Lawnmarket, near the Bowhead, and when about
to retire to rest, his curiosity was excited by a
noise and tumult in the street. In place of going
to bed he slipped t^ the door half undressed, and
with his nightcap on his head. He speedily got
entangled in the crowd, and was hurried along
with it to the Grassmarket, where the unfortunate
Captain Porteous was summarily executed by the
mob. This scene made so deep an impression on
his mind as not only to deprive him of sleep during
the remainder of the night, but to induce him to
think of leaving the city altogether. Being by
some one who knew him recognised in the crowd,
in the sort of disguise which his half dressed con-
dition seemed to indicate, he was in danger of
being brought into trouble for his unwilling share
in the transaction of that memorable night, and
was only saved from being implicated by being
able to prove that he had only that very day ar-
rived in Edinburgh from pursuing his studies on
the continent, and consequently knew nothing of
the matter till borne away with the crowd, as
above stated. In after life his lordship frequently
related this incident, and described with much
force the effect which it had upon him at the
time.
He passed his civil law examinations upon the
i2th of February 1737, and, being found duly qua-
lified, was admitted a member of the faculty of
advocates. His practice at the bar, in course of
time, came to be considerable, but he may be said
to have been first brought prominently into notice
in consequence of being engaged as counsel for Mr.
Douglas, in the celebrated Douglas cause. In his
client's behalf he went thrice to France to assist
in leading the proof taken there. In 1764 he was
appointed sheriff of his native county, Kincardine-
shire, and on the 12th February 1767, he was,
through the interest of the duke of Queensberry,
then lord -justice-general, raised to the bench of
the court of session, as successor to Lord Milton,
when he assumed the title of Lord Monboddo.
His first work was on the * Origin and Progress of
Language,' the first volume of which appeared in
1771, the second in 1778, and the third in 1776.
This work was so severely criticised in the * Edin-
burgh Magazine and Review,' by Dr. Gilbert
Stuart, its editor, that it is said the downfall of
that publication, from the general offence which
the article gave, was the consequence. His great-
est work he styled * Ancient Metaphysics,' or the
Science of Universals, with an appendix, contain-
ing an Examination of Sir Isaac Newton's Philo-
sophy, also in 8 vols. 4to,- the first published in
1778, and the last in 1799, only a few weeks be-
fore his death. Lord Monboddo was an enthusi-
astic admirer of the works of Plato and the Gre-
cian philosophers. He carried his enthusiasm in
favour of classical literature so far as to get up
suppers in Imitation of the ancients. These he
called his learned suppers. He gave them once
a- week, and his guests generally were Drs. Black,
Hutton, and Hope, and Mr. William Smellie,
printer, including occasionally Mr. Alexander
Smellie, his son. His lordship was very paitial
to a boiled %q%^ and often used to say, " Show me
any of your French cooks, who can make a dish
like this."
Lord Monboddo's writings contain many acute
and interesting observations, but they, at the
same time, exhibit some peculiar and very singu-
lar opinions. He was a firm believer in the exist-
ence of satyrs and mermaids, and in his disserta-
tion on the ^ Origin and Progress of Language,'
he advanced some whimsical theories, relative to
a supposed affinity between the human race and
the monkey tribe, particularly that the former
"were originally gifted with tails," an assertion
which exposed him to a good deal of ridicule on
the first publication of that work. It was in allu-
sion to this extraoi*dinary idea that Lord Kames,
to whom he would on a certain occasion have
conceded precedency, declined it, saying, *' By no
means, my lord, you must walk first that I may
see your tail !" His patrltnonial estate was small,
producing only during his life about three hundred
pounds a-year, yet he would never raise his rents,
nor dismiss a poor tenant for the sake of obtaining
an increase from a new one. It was his boast to
have his lands more numerously peopled than any
estate of equal size in the neighbourhood. When
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JAMEa
in the country, during the vacation of the court of
session, he wore the dress of a plain fanner, and
lived on a footing of familiarity with his tenantry,
which greatly endeared him to them. His private
life was spent in the enjoyment of domestic felicity
and in the practice of all the social virtues.
Though his habits were rigidly temperate, he took
great delight in the convivial society of his Mends.
He was a zealous patron of merit, and amongst
those who experienced liis friendship was the poet
Bums. An annual journey to London became a
favourite recreation of his during the vacations of
the court of Session. He first began the practice
in 1780, and continued it for many years, till he
was upwards of eighty years of age. In May
1786, during one of these visits to the metropolis,
he was present in the Court of fcing's Bench, when
an alarm was raised that the court room was fall-
ing, and judges, lawyers, and audience, rushed
simultaneously towards the door. Lord Mon-
boddo, however, being short-sighted and rather
deaf, sat still unconcerned; and on being asked
why he did not bestir himself to avoid being buried
in the ruins, coolly replied, " That he thought it
was an annual ceremony, with which, as an alien
to the English laws, he had nothing to do." He
performed all his journeys between Edinburgh and
I^ndon on horseback, with a single servant at-
tending him. A carriage, a vehicle that was not
in common use among the ancients, he considered
as an effeminate conveyance; to be dragged at the
tails of horses, instead of being mounted on their
backs, seemed in his eyes to be a ludicrous degra-
dation of the genuine dignity of human natui*e.
On his return from his last visit, he became vei7
ill on the road, and unable to proceed, when, for-
tunately, he was overtaken by his friend. Sir John
Pringle, who prevailed upon him to travel the re-
mainder of the stage in a carriage. Next day,
however, he resumed his journey on horseback,
and got safe to Edinburgh, though he was obliged
to proceed somewhat «lowIy. While in London
he often went to court, and the king is said to
have taken pleasure in his conversation. He died
at Edinburgh, May 26, 1799, at the advanced age
of 85.
The following is a portrait of Lord Monboddo
by Kay ;
\
f^.
In spite of his eccentricities. Lord Monboddo
was a man of real learning and ability, an acute
lawyer, and an upright judge. He did not gener-
ally assent to the decisions of his colleagues. On
the contrary, he was often in the minority, and
not unfrequcntly stood alone, and more than onoo
had the gratification of having his decision con-
firmed in the House of Peers, when it was directly
opposed to the unanimous opinion of his brethren.
Even in his official capacity many peculiarities
marked his lordship^s conduct. Amongst these
was his never sitting on the bench with the othei
Judges, but underneath with the clerks ; but though
this practice was said to have been owing to the
circumstance of their lordships having on one oc-
casion decerned against him, in a case when he
was pui'suer for the value of a horse, and in which
he pleaded his own cause at the bar, the deafness
under which he laboured affoi'ds a much more
satisfactory reason. The first time he sat there
was upon occasion of the decision of the Douglas
cause, when having been originally, as mentioned
above, the leading counsel on behalf of Mr. (after-
wards Lord) Douglas, he felt a delicacy in giving
his opinion from the bench, and preferred deliver-
ing it at the clerk^s table. His speech in favour o'
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BURNET,
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JAMES.
the paternity is admitted to have been the most
able one on that side of the question. His char-
acter is thus summed up in the fii-st fom* lines of
an epitaph written on him by the unfortunate
James Tytier, who had experienced his benevo-
lence:
** If wisdonif learning, worth demand a tear,
Weep o*er the dust of great Monboddo here ;
A judge upright, to men^ still inclined,
A gcn'rous friend, a father fond and kind.**
He married, about 1760, the beautiful Miss Far-
qnharson, a relative of Mai'shal Keith, by whom
he had a son and two daughters. His wife died
in childbed ; his son died young, and his second
daughter was cut off by consumption at the early
age of twenty-five. Her beauty was thus, in his
* Address to Edinburgh,' celebrated by Burns :
** Thy daughters bright thy walks adorn I
Gay as the gilded summer sky,
Sweet as the dewy milk-white thorn,
Dear as the raptured thrill of joy !
Fair Burnet strikes th* adoring eye,
HeaTen*8 beauties on my fancy shine ,
I see the Sire of love on high,
And own his work indeed divine.**
And her early death was most touchingly comme-
morated by him, in his *' Elegy on the late Miss
Burnet of Monboddo,* of which the following are
the commencing verses :
** Life ne*er exulted in so rich a prize
As Burnet, lovely from her native skies ;
Nor envious death so triumphed m a blow,
As that which laid the accomp1bh*d Burnet low.
Thy form and mind, sweet maid, can I forget ?
In richest ore the brightest jewel set !
In thee, high Heaven above was truest shown,
As by his noblest work the Godhead best is known.
In vain ye flaunt in summer*s pride, ye groves ;
Thou crystal streamlet with thy flowery shore,
Ye woodland choir that chaunt your idle loves.
Ye cease to charm— Eliza is no more! **
Bums was a frequent guest at 13 John Street,
Lord Monboddo's town residence, during the pe-
ctus stay in Ediuburgh in 1788. His lordship's
eldest daughter was married to the late Kirkpa-
trick Williamson, Esq., formerly his derk, after-
wards keeper of the Outer House rolls. — Scoti
Magazine for 1797.— Tjftler's Life of Lord Kaime».
— Kay*$ Edinbwrgh PortraiU.
BURNET, Jamks, a landscape painter of great
promise, fourth son of George Burnet, general sur-
veyor of excise in Scotland, and Anne Cruikshank,
his wife, was bom at Musselburgh in 1788. The
family belonged originally to Aberdeen. He early
displayed a taste for drawing, and with his brother
John, who is acknowledged the first modem en-
graver in Europe, received instractions in the stu-
dio of Scott, the landscape engraver. He after-
wards studied at the Trustees* academy, under
Graham, and was noticed for the natural truth
and beauty of his delineations. In 1810 he ar-
lived in London. *^He had sought,*' says his
biographer, Allan Cunningham, ** what he wanted
in the academy, but found it not; he therefore
determined, like Gainsborough, to make nature
his academy ; and with a pencil and sketch-book
he might be seen wandering about the fields around
London, noting down scenes which caught his
fancy, and peopling them with men pursuing their
avocations, and with cattle of all colours, and in
all positions." His first picture was * Cattle go-
ing out in the Morning,' which was soon followed
by * Cattle returning Home in a shower.' The
latter placed him in the first rank as a pastoral
painter. Ten other productions of his are men-
tioned with great praise, mostly cattle-pieces.
Several of those pictures were eagerly sought
after, and purchased by difierent noblemen at high
prices, others were reserved for his relations and
friends. This promising young artist resided in
his latter days near Lee, in Kent, the beautiful
churchyard of which was one of his favourite i-e-
sorts. He died of consumption, July 27, 1816,
aged 28 years, and was buried at Lewisham.—
Allan CunnhighamLS Lives of Painter $.
BURNET, John, founder of the literary prizes
at Aberdeen, was born in that city in 1729. His
father was an eminent merchant there, and he
himself, after receiving a liberal education, in the
year 1750 commenced business on his own account
as a general merchant. His parents were of the
episcopal communion, but though educated in that
profession, and undoubtedly a man of piety and
2i
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BURNS.
virtue, he himself never attended public worship ;
his religious sentiments not being in unison with
those of any Christian church. Having acquired
a fortune in trade, about 1773 he and one of his
brothera, who had then returned from India, dis-
charged the debts of theii* father, paying on his
account between £7,000 and £8,000. He was
never mamed, and died November 9, 1784. His
email landed estate of Dens in Buchan, Aberdeen-
shire, was inherited by his brother, and afterwards
by his nephew. With the exception of this pro-
perty, and of some moderate legacies and annui-
ties to various relatives, the remainder of his for-
tune was bequeathed to charitable purposes. A
small portion he directed to be set apart, annually,
and allowed to accumulate, fii-st, for two prizes on
subjects prescribed ; and, secondly, for the benefit
of the poor of Aberdeen. This accumulated fund
is for ever to be applied to its objects at the end
of every fortieth year. The accumulation of the
first 25 years, if not less than £1,600, was to be
given thus : £1,200 for the best essay, and £400
for the next in merit, on '^ the evidence that there
is a Being, all-powerful, wise, and good, by whom
eveiything exists ; and particularly to obviate dif-
ficulties regarding the wisdom and goodness of the
Deity ; and this, in the first place, from consider-
ations independent of written revelation, and, in
the second place, from the revelation of the Lord
Jesus ; and from the whole to point out the infer-
ences most necessary and useful to mankiifd.*' The
premiums were to be awarded by three judges,
chosen by the principals and professors of King^s
and Marischal colleges, the established clergy of
Aberdeen, and the trustees of the testator. These
prizes were first announced to the public in 1807,
and repeated notices were given in the newspapers
of their amount, and the subject and conditions of
the essays, one of which was that they were to be
given in on 1st January 1814. On that occasion
the judges awarded the prizes in favour of the
treatises of William Laurence Brown, D.D., then
principal of Marischal college, and the Rev. John
Bird Sumner, of Eton college, afterwards arch-
bishop of Canterbury, which have both been pub-
lished.
BURNETT, John, author of a valuable trea-
tise on various branches of the Criminal Law of
Scotland, was bom at Aberdeen about 1764. He
was the son of William Burnett, procurator-at-
law in that city, and, having been educated for
the bar, was admitted advocate December 10,
1785. In 1792 he was appointed advocate-depute ;
and, in October 1803, on the resignation of Law
of Elviugston, was created sheriff of Haddington-
shire. In April 1810, on the death of the learned
R. H. Cay, he was appointed judge-admiral of
Scotland. He was also for some time standing
counsel for his native city. He died December
8, 1810, while engaged printing his work on the
Criminal Law.
Burns, a surname rendered for ever famons by its bemg
that of the national poet of Scotland, for the origin of whicfa
seeBuRNES.
BURNS, Robert, the most distinguished ot
the poets of Scotland, was bom January 25, 1759,
in a small clay-built cottage, about two miles from
the town of Ayr. His father, William Bumes, a
man of superior understanding and uncommon
worth, was the son of a farmer in the county of
Kincardine; and owing to the reduced drcum
stances of his family, was obliged in the nineteenth
year of his age, with Robert his elder brother, to
quit the place of his nativity, to push his fortune
in some other part of Scotland. *^ On the top of
a hill," says Dr. Irving, " in the vicinity of their
native hamlet, the two youthful adventurers sep-
arated from each other, in an agony of mind which
the uncertainty of their future destiny could not
fail to produce." On leaving Kincardineshire,
William Bumes repaired to Edinburgh, and in
the vicinity of that city was employed as a gar-
dener for several years. He afterwards removed
to Ayrshire, where he was engaged in a similar
capacity by the laird of Fairly. In the service of
this gentleman he continued for two years, and
was next employed by Mr. Crawford of Doonside.
From Dr. Campbell, a physician in Ayr, he after-
wards took a perpetual lease of seven acres of
land, with the intention of converting the ground
into a public garden and nursery. Here he erect-
ed with his own hands that little day-built cot-
tage in which his poet-son was bom, and to which,
in after times, crowds of enthusiastic "pilgrims
frt)m many lands" were to repair to do homage to
the genius of Scotland's bard.
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In December 1757 William Bumes mamed Ag-
nes Brown, who bore him six children, and of
these the poet was the eldest. Before he had re-
duced his ground to a proper state of cultivation,
he was engaged as overseer and gardener to Mr.
Ferguson, a gentleman who had purchased the
estate of Doonholm, and in consequence he seems
to have abandoned his project of commencing as a
nurseryman.
In the sixth year of his age, at which time he
could read tolerably well, Robert was sent, with
his younger brother Gilbert, to a private school at
Alloway Mill, about a mile distant from his fa-
ther's house. His first teacher's name was Camp-
bell, but that gentleman, within the space of a
few months, having been appointed master of the
workhouse at Ayr, a young man of the name of
John Murdoch was engaged by the poet's father
and some other cottagers, to supply his place, board-
ing with each family in turn. By Mr. Murdoch,
who aftenv'ards wrote an excellent account of the
early part of his life, he was instructed in English
grammar. Before he was nine years old, his pro-
pensity for reading was so ardent that he perused
with enthusiasm every book that came in his way.
His taste for poetry and romantic fiction was first
inspired, as he tells us himself, by the chimney-
corner tales of an old woman in his father's family,
remarkable for her ignorance, credulity, and super-
stition, whose memory was plentifully stored with
stories of the marvellous. " She had, I suppose,"
says Bums, writing in 1787, " the largest collec-
tion in the country of tales and songs concerning
devils, ghosts, fairies, brownies, witches, warlocks,
spunkies, kelpies, elf-candles, dead-lights, wraiths,
apparitions, cantraips, giants, enchanted towers,
dragons, and other trumpery. This cultivated the
latent seeds of poetry; but had so strong an efiect
on my imagination that, to this hour, in my noc-
turnal rambles, I sometimes keep a sharp look-out
in suspicious places ; and though nobody can be
more sceptical than I am in such matters, yet it
often takes an effort of philosophy to shake off
these idle terrors."
When about thirteen years of age, to improve
his writing, his father sent him to the parish
school of Dalrymple, week, about with his brother,
during a summer quarter. In 1772, Mr. Murdoch,
being one of five candidates, was appointed liiaster
of the English school at Ayr, and during the fol-
lowing year Burns went to board and lodge at his
house, for farther instruction in the principles of
grammar. In ten days after he was called home,
to assist his father with the harvest. In a short
time, however, he returned to Ayr, where he re-
mained only another fortnight, but during that
period he commenced learning the French lan-
guage, under Mr. Murdoch. On his return home,
he continued the study of it, during his leisure
hours, and made himself so proficient in it, that
he could read and understand any French author
in prose. His fondness for Fi*ench phrases was
shown by his frequently using them in his letters
at this period of his life. He next began the La-
tin with the assistance of Mj*. Robertson, school-
master at Ayr, and attempted it at home without
the aid of a master, but found it so difficult to ac-
quire that he soon abandoned it. He subsequently
spent a summer quarter at the parish school o
Kirkoswald, where he acquired some knowledge
in mensuration, surveying, dialling, &c., and this,
with the brief interval that he spent at Dalrymple,
was all the school education he ever received. In
his letter to Dr. Moore he expresses himself as hav-
ing* l>y reading, about this period of his youth, the
lives of Hannibal and of Wallace, been excited to-
wards a military life by the former, and been filled
with strong patriotic emotions by the latter. At an
early period he met with the works of Allan Ram-
say, and the poems of Robert Fergusson, written
chiefiy in the Scottish dialect, which tended to
give his genius a bias towards poetry, in which he
soon surpassed them both.
But in knowledge of a different sort, the know-
ledge of human nature, he soon became consider-
ably initiated. At Kirkoswald, a village on the
Carrick shore, he obtained, by intercourse with
parties following a contraband trade, an insight
into the vices and follies of mankind, and learned
but too well to imitate and adopt them, and what
is worse to take pride in them. He formed an
attachment with a young girl of the village, of
which he speaks as having greatly agitated him at
the time, but of which no permanent result appears
aft;erwai'ds. " I returned home from Kirkoswald,"
says he, " very considerably improved. My read-
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ing was enlarged with the very important addition
of Thomson^s and Shenstone^s works. ' I had seen
homan nature in a new phasis, and I engaged
several of my schoolfellows to keep up a literary
correspondence with me. This improved me in
composition. I had met with a collection of let-
ters by the wits of Queen Anne^s reign, and I
pored over them most devoutly. I kept copies of
any of my own letters that pleased me, and a
comparison between them and the composition of
most of my correspondents flattered my vanity.
I carried this whim so far that, though I had not
three farthings' worth of business in the world,
yet almost every post brought me as many letters
as if I had been a broad plodding son of the day-
book and ledger."
In the year 1766 his father obtained from Mr.
Ferguson a lease of the farm of Mount Oliphant,
in the parish of Ayr, that gentleman advancing
him at the same time one hundred pounds to stock
it with. Here, after the day's labour was over,
he instructed the family himself in arithmetic and
the principles of i*eligion. At this place he conti-
nued to struggle for the support of his family for
the space of eleven years. The soil of the farm
was extremely barren, and this, with the loss of
cattle and other accidents, involved them in great
poverty. The whole family were in consequence
obliged to toil early and late; and Robei*t, the
eldest, thrashed in the bam at thirteen years of
age, and at fifteen was the principal labourer on
the farm. "This kind of life," he says, "the
cheerless gloom of a hermit, with the unceasing
moil of a galley-slave, brought me to my sixteenth
year, a little before which period I firet committed
the sin of rhyme. You know our country custom
of coupling a man and woman together as partners
in the labours of harvest. In my fifteenth autumn,
my partner was a bewitching creature, a year
younger than myself. I did not know," he adds
afterwards, in language which portrays a juvenile
passion so truly that it may serve for all emotions
of a like nature in every human being, — " I did
not know myself why I liked so much to loiter
l)ehind with her, when returning in the evening
from our labours ; why the tones of her voice made
my heartstrings thrill like an iEoiiau harp ; and,
particularly, why my pulse beat such a furious
ratan, when I looked and fingered over her little
hand to pick out the cruel nettle-stings and this-
tles. Among her other love- inspiring qualities,
she sung sweetly ; and it was her favourite reel to
which I attempted giving an embodied vehicle in
rhyme." A Miss E., to whom he seems to have
been seriously devoted, escaped immortality by
jilting him. Her very name is unknown ; but he
seems pretty soon to have got over the mortifica-
tion to his feelings caused by this event The ob-
ject of his most fervent attachment, however, was
Mary Campbell, a simple Highland girl, who was
dairymaid at Colonel Montgomery's house of Coils
field. He intended to marry her, but she died at
Greenock, on her return from a visit to her rela-
tions in Argyleshire. Their last parting on the
banks of the Ajrr is described in beautiful lan-
guage in his poem, beginning —
" Ye banks, and braes, and streams around
The castle of Montgomery."
The address *To Mary in Heaven,' written on
the anniversary of her death, is one of the most
exquisite of his poems. In 1777 his father re-
moved to Lochlea, a farm in the parish of Tar-
bolton, where Bums continued fh>m his 17th to
his 24th year.
In the year 1780 he formed a kind of literary
institution, called the Bachelor's Club, in a small
public house in the village of Tarbolton, consisting
of himself, his brother Gilbert, and other young
men of the same condition of life, amongst whom
David Sillar, who himself published a volume of
poems in the Scottish dialect, and who is also
known from two poetical epistles addressed to
him by Bums, was afterwards admitted. The
laws and regulations were fnmished by Bums,
and the last one in particular, drawn up by him,
shows the characteristics of his mind at that period.
It declares that every member " must be a pro-
fessed lover of one or more of the female sex," and
that none " whose only will is to heap up money "
can be admitted into membership. This club,
being soon deprived of its most powerful member,
was not long preserved from dissolution ; but he
established a similar institution on his removal
shortly afterward to Mauchline, which still sub-
sists, and appeared in the list of subscribers to the
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first or Kilmarnock editiou of his works. Befoi*e
leaving Tarbolton, he had become a free mason
aud attended two lodges.
He and his brother Gilbert had for sometime
held a small portion of land from their father, on
which they raised flax; in disposing of which
Bums formed the idea of commencing flax-dresser,
and in 1781 he joined a person in the town of Ir-
vine, to learn the trade. Abont six months there-
after the shop accidentally took fire, while he and
some of his compiuiions were * giving a welcome
caronsal to the new year,' when the whole stock
was consumed, and he was left without a sixpence.
Unfortunately his associates at Irvine were not of
a character calculated to increase his reverence for
virtne, or to strengthen in his mind those pious
lessons which had been early instilled into it by
his parents. Among other intimates he numbered
a young sailor of a manly and independent spirit,
but whose laxity of moral principles exerted a
very deleterious effect upon his mind and conduct.
" I had pride before,'* he says, " but he taught it
to flow in proper channels. His knowledge of the
world was vastly superior to mine, and I was all
attention to learn. He was the only man I ever
saw who was a greater fool than myself where
woman was the presiding star ; but he spoke of
illicit love with the levity of a sailor, which hith-
erto I had regarded with horror. Here his friend-
ship did me a mischief, and the consequence was,
that soon after I resumed the plough, I wrote the
* Poet's Welcome ' " — that is, the verses entitled
^Rob the Rhymer's Welcome to his Bastard
Child.'
Meantime, a misunderstanding had arisen be-
tween his father and his landlord, respecting the
conditions of the lease of the farm of Lochlea, and
the dispute was referred to arbitrators, whose de-
cision involved his affairs in ruin, and he died soon
afterwards on the 13th February, 1784.
For the benefit of the family, the two brothers,
Robert and Gilbert, now took the farm of Moss-
giel, near Mauchline, belonging to the earl of
Loudon, on a sublease from Mr. Gavin Hamilton,
writer in that town. This farm consisted of a
hundred and eighteen acres, and was rented at
ninety pounds a-year. Each member of the
family gave his assistance towards the stocking
and management of the farm, and was allowed a
proportion of the produce in the form of stipulated
wages. Robert's amounted to the annual sum of
seven pounds, and such was his fnigality at this
period, that, according to the statement of his
brother Gilbert, his expenditure never, during the
four years of their residence at Mossgiel, was al-
lowed to exceed his income. ** The four years,"
says Mr. Lockhart, in his Life of the poet, "dur-
ing which Bnrns resided on this cold and ungrate-
ful farm of Mossgiel, were the most important of
his life. It was then that his genius developed its
highest enei'gies; on the works produced in these
years his fame was first established, and mnst ever '
continue mainly to rest; it waJ9 then also that his i
personal character came out in all its brightest
lights, and in all but its darkest shadows; and,
indeed, from the commencement of this period, the
history of the man may be traced, st^p by step, in
his own immortal writings. Bums now began to
know that nature had meant him for a poet; aud
diligently, though as yet in secret, he laboured in
what he felt to be his destined vocation. Gilbert
continued for some time to be his chief, often in-
deed his only confidant; and anything more inter-
esting and delightful than this excellent man's
account of the manner in which the poems included
in the first of his brother's publications were com-
posed, is certainly not to be found in the annals of
literary history."
While at Mossgiel he became acquainted with
Jean Armour, who afterwards became his wife.
She was the daughter of a respectable man, a
master-mason in the village of Mauchline, and his
first meeting with her was characteristic. Bums
was shooting by the river side, and Miss Armour,
described as then " a bonny lively lass of seven-
teen, with a piercing black eye, a jimp waist, and
a foot and ankle cast in the most perfect mould,"
was washing clothes in the Scottish fashion, and
lilting a Scottish song. The poet's dog ran over
the clothes in the green, and the laughing damsel
threw a stone at him. * If you liked me you would
like my dog,' said Bums ; — and from this simple
introduction an intimacy took place which haa an
important effect on the future happiness of both.
Bums at this time is represented to have been " a
tall, coarse-featured young man, with a flashing
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eje, and great colloquial powers, frank and affable,
and a heai*t extremely susceptible to tender emo-
tions/* Such a youth was a dangerous lover for
a simple country maiden like Jean Aimour, and
she soon found herself in a state which could no
longer be concealed. At this time the circum-
stances of the poet were not in a condition to per-
mit of his mari7ing. The farming speculation in
which he and the rest of the family were engaged
had utterly failed, and he had resigned his share
in the lease, which he tells us was only nominally
his. He was anxious, however, to afford the only
reparation in his power to Miss Armour, and
agreed to make a legal declaration of their having
been privately married, and afterwards embark for
the West Indies to push his fortune. But to this,
her father, with whom she was a great favourite,
would not agree. He had not previously suspected
her real situation, but on being informed of their
marriage, his distress was so gi'eat that he fainted.
He desired his daughter to cancel the marriage-
lines with which Bums had presented her, and in
the anguish of her heart she obeyed. Bums, on
his part, " offered," says his brother Gilbert, " to
stay at home and provide for his wife and family
by his daily labours. Even this offer they did not
approve of; for humble as Miss Armour^s station
was, and great though her impmdence had been,
she still, in the eyes of her partial parents, might
look to a better connexion than that with my
friendless and unhappy brother, at that time with-
out house or biding-place." In the distraction of
his mind, he wished to leave the country as soon
as he could, and accordingly he entered into an
agreement with a Dr. Douglas, to go out to Ja-
maica as an assistant overseer, clerk, or book-
keeper on his estate. He had not, however, suffi-
cient money to defray the expenses of the voyage,
and the vessel in which Dr. Douglas was to pro-
cure a passage for him was not expected to sail
for some time. To procure a little money to assist
him before leaving his native land, he was advised
by Mr. Gavin Hamilton to publish his poems by
subscription. This was the crisis of his fate — ^the
tuming-point in his history. The suggestion was
immediately acted upon. Subscription-bills were
issued, and the printing of his poems commenced
at Kilmarnock, his preparations going on at the
same time for his voyage to Jamaica, a voyage
which was never to take place. " I weighed my
productions," says Bums, *^ as impartially as was
in my power. I was pretty confident my poems
would meet with some applause : but at the worst,
the roar of the Atlantic would deafen the voice of
censure, and the novelty of West Indian scenes
make me forget neglect. I threw off six hundred
copies, of which I had got subscriptions for
about three hundred and fifty. My vanity was
highly gratified by the reception I met with fipom
the public ; and besides I pocketed, all expenses
deducted, nearly twenty pounds. This sum came
very seasonably, as I was thinking of indenting
myself, for want of money to procure my passage.
As soon as I was master of nine guineas, the price
of wafting me to the torrid zone, I took a steerage
passage in the first ship that was to sail from the
Clyde." He describes himself as skulking at this
time from covert to covert, under all the terrors of
a jail, as Jean Armour having become the mother
of twins, her father had sent the sheriff officers to
apprehend him and force him to find security for
the maintenance of his twin childi*en, and the
pai*ish officers were also after him on the same
grounds, so that he was literally hunted like a
paitridge on the mountains. But the day-dawn
was at hand which was to scatter the clouds
around his path, and light him on his onward way
to immortality.
His volume of poems was published at Kilmar-
nock in 1786, under the title of ^ Poems chiefly in
the Scottish Dialect,* and immediately took bold
of the national mind. *^ No sooner had the vol-
ume appeared," says the Ettrick Shepherd, in his
characteristic memoir of Bums, **than old and
young, grave and gay, high and low, learned and
ignorant, were alike delighted, agitated, and trans-
ported. Shepherds, ploughboys, and maid-ser-
vants cheerfully gave the last savings of their
penny fee, to purchase the works of Robert Bums,
and many protested that they would have given
the same sum to have seen the man who made
them laugh, cry, or feel with regard to all things,
past, present, and to come, as ho listed." The
first impression being speedily disposed of, bis
friends advised him to print a second, but his
printer at Kilmarnock declined to risk another
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edition, unless the poet advanced the price of the
paper, which he was altogether nnable to do. In
this emergency, Mr. Ballantjne, provost of Ayr,
generously offered to advance the requisite sum,
bat ere this, Bums, harassed and impatient to be
gone, had bidden farewell to his friends, and sent
off his chest by night, for fear of its beiug arrested,
to Greenock, intending himself to follow in a few
days, for the purpose of embarking for Jamaica.
He had also composed the last song he thought
he should ever measure in Caledonia, *The gloomy
night is gathering fast,* when his course was sud-
denly changed, and a bright but all too brief gleam
of prosperity shone out dazzlingly on the head
and the fortunes of Robert Bui*ns. Before leav-
ing Scotland, as he thought, for ever, he sent a
collection of his poems, including several that were
not published till many years afterwards, to Mrs.
General Stewart of SUur, from the possession of
whose grandson they passed into a private hand,
and were made known to the public in 1852.
The collection is curious as showing how much
the pieces were afterwards improved by re-
vision.
A friend bad, in the meantime, been secretly
exerting himself on his behalf, and at the twelfth
hour, ere its shadow had for ever passed from the
dial, his exei*tions were crowned with success.
The Rev. Dr. Laurie, minister of Loudon, who
had been very kind to Bums, had sent a copy of
his poems to Dr. Blacklock of Edinburgh, the
amiable blind poet and divine, whom Dr. John-
son, in his visit to Scotland, eleven years before,
had "beheld with reverence." That gentleman,
in acknowledging the volume, highly commended
the poems, and concluded his letter with these
words : — " It has been told me by a gentleman to
whom I showed the performances, and who sought
a copy with diligence and ardour, that the whole
impression is already exhausted. It were there-
fore much to be wished, for the sake of the young
man, that a second edition, more numerous than
the former, could immediately be printed, as it
appears certain that its intrinsic merit and the ex-
ertion of the author's friends might give it a more
universal circulation than any thing of the kind
which has been published within my memory."
On receiving Dr. Blacklock's letter, Dr. Laurie
immediately sent it off by express to Gavin Ham-
ilton, who himself rode after the bard, and deliv-
ered it into his hand. Bums immediately set out
for Edinburgh, where he anived in November
1786.
Some of his biographers, and amongst others
Dr. Irving and Professor Wilson, the latter in his
admirable vindication of the poet, have stated that
his first journey to Edinburgh was peiformed on
foot. But this is not correct, as appears by a let-
ter from Mr. Archibald Prentice, editor of the
Manchester Times, to the professor, dated March
8, 1841. The father of that gentleman, a farmer
in Covington Mains, and a subscriber for twenty
copies of the Kilmarnock edition of the poems, had
been introduced to the poet, and it was arranged,
he says, " that Bums should, on his joumey to
Edinburgh, make the farm-house at Covington
Mains his resting-place for the first night. Ail the
farmers in the parish had read with delight the
poet's then published works, and were anxious to
see liim. They were all asked to meet him at a
late dinner, and the signal of his arrival was to be
a white sheet attached to a pitch-fork, and put on
the top of a com-stack in the barn-yai'd. The
parish is a beautiful amphitheatre, with the Clyde
winding through it, with Wellbrae Hill to the
west, Tinto and the Culter Fells to the south, and
the pretty, green, conical hill, Quothquan Law, to
the east. My father's stack-yard, lying in the
centre, was seen from every farm-house in the
parish. At length. Bums arrived, mounted on a
* pownie,' borrowed of Mr. Dahymple, near Ayi-.
Instantly the white flag was hoisted, and as in-
stantly were seen the farmers issuing from their
houses and converging to the point of meeting.
A glorious evening, or rather night which bor-
rowed something from the moming, followed, and
the conversation of the poet confirmed and in-
creased the admiration created by his writings.
On the following moming he breakfasted with a
large party at the next farm-house, tenanted by
James Stodart, brother to the Stodarts, the piano-
forte-makers of London ; took lunch, also with a
large paity, at the Bank, in the parish of Cam-
wath, with John Stodart, my mother's father,
brother to the late Robert Stodart, of Queen
Street, in your ancient and magnificent town;
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and rode into Edinburgh that evening on the
* pownie,' which he retunied to the owner in a few
days afterwards by John Sampson, the brother of
the immortalized * Tam.' Mr. Sampson took with
him a letter to Mr. Reid, in which the poet ex-
pressed the great pleasure he had experienced in
meeting his friends at Covington.
" My father was exactly the sort of man to draw
forth all the higher powers of Bums' mind. He
combined physical with mental strength in an ex-
traordinary degree ; had a great deal of practical
knowledge ; had read and thought much ; had a
high relish for manly poetry ; much benevolence ;
much indignation at oppression, which nobody
dared to exercise within his reach ; and no mean
conversational powers. Such was the person to
appreciate Burns, ay, and to reverence the man
who penned * The Cottar's Saturday Night ;' and,
accordingly, though a strictly religious and moral
man himself, he always maintained that the vir-
tues of the poet greatly predominated over his
faults. I once heard him exclaim, with hot wrath,
when somebody was quoting from an apologist,
* What ! do they apologise for him I One half of
his good, and all his bad, divided amang a score
o' them, would make them a' better men.'
" Wlien a lad of seventeen, in the year 1809, 1
resided for a short time in Ayrshire, in the hospi-
table house of my father's friend, Reid, and sur-
veyed, with a strange interest, such visitors as
had known Bums. I soon learned how to antici-
pate their representations of his character. The
men of strong minds and strong feelings were in-
variable in their expressions of admiration ; but
the prosy, consequential bodies all disliked him as
exceedingly dictatorial."
His name had reached Edinburgh before him,
and he was now caressed by all ranks. In the
ninety-seventh number of the * Lounger,' a weekly
periodical then published at Edinburgh, Mr. Hen-
ry Mackenzie inserted *An account of Robert
Bums, the Ayrshire ploughman, with extracts
from his poems,' which tended still farther to ex-
tend his fame. In Ayrehire he had known Mr.
Dugald Stewart, professor of moral philosophy in
the university of Edinburgh, and had dined with
him at his seat of Catrine, and by Mr. Alexander
Dalzell he had been introduced to the earl of
Glencaim, of whose generous friendship he alwajra
spoke in enthusiastic terms. From Dr. Laurie he
carried a letter of introduction to Dr. Blacklock,
who had been the means of inducing him to visi'
Edinburgh. By the exei-tions of such influential
friends as these, he was speedily introduced into
the literary and fashionable circles of the metro-
polis, and he did no discredit, but the contrary, to
the society, in every way so new to him, among
which he was now, by a turn of fortune's wheel, so
unexpectedly placed. But yesterday he was a
homeless, skulking fugitive, without a friend to
become security for him to the law, and cared for
by nobody except the sheriff and parish ofScers
who wei-e in search of him. To-day, he had
" troops of friends," and was " the cjmosure of all
eyes," " the observed of all observers." His de-
portment, in whatever company ho happened to
find himself, was manly and becoming. His un-
failing good sense supplied all deficiencies of edu-
cation, and his brilliant conversational powers
seem to have strock every person with whom he
came in contact with as much admiration as his
poetry. Under the patronage of the earl of Glen-
cjurn — the last who possessed the title, and who
thus shed a parting ray of light upon it to gild, as
it were, its dying honours, — Principal Robertson,
Professor Dugald Stewart, Mr. Henry Mackenzie,
— all illustrious and unfading names, — and other
persons of influence and standing, a new edition
of his poems was published in April 1787. Amid
all the adulation which he at this time received,
he ever maintained his native simplicity and inde-
pendence of character. By the earl of Glencaim
he was introduced to the members of the Caledon-
ian Hunt, and in gratitude for their kindness, he
dedicated to them the second edition of his poems,
in an address which must be familiar to every
reader of them. On this his first visit to Edin>
burgh, it appears that he lodged with a writer's
apprentice named Richmond, sharing his room
and bed, in the house of Mrs. Carfrae, Baxter's
close, Lawnmarket, at eighteen pence a week.
Mr. Dugald Stewart, who, as already stated,
knew him in Ayrshire, before the first fruits of
the full measure of his fame burst upon him. In
his letter to Dr. Currie of Liverpool, the first bio-
grapher and editor of Bums, says that " the at-
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tentions he received dui'ing his stay in Edinburgh,
fi'om all ranks and descriptions of persona, were
Bach as wonld have tnnied any head bat his own.
I cannot say,'^ he continues, ** that I coidd per-
ceive any anfavoarable effect which they left on
his mind. He retained the same simplicity of
manners and appearance which had strnck me so
forcibly when I first saw him in the country ; nor
did he seem to feel any additional self-importance
from the number and rank of his new acquaintance.
His dress was perfectly suited to his statioa, plain
and unpretending, with a sufficient attention to
neatness. If I recollect right, he always wore
boots (by this is meant top-boots, for in those
days Wellingtons and Hessians, the latter now
extinct in Britain at least, were unknown) ; and
when on more than usual ceremony, buckskin
bi*eeches."
Being now enabled to see a little more of his
own country, than his limited means had hitherto
permitted him to do, he resolved upon visiting some
of the pastoral and classic districts of Scotland.
Accordingly, leaving ^ the gay and festive scenes* of
Edinburgh, on the sixth of May, after being about
six months in that city, he set out on a tour to the
south of Scotland, accompanied part of the way, by
the late Robert Ainslie, Esq., writer to the signet,
one of the young men of literary tastes whose ac-
quaintance he had made shortly before. They
travelled on horseback. During this excursion he
was introduced to several men of eminence In
theur station, and among the rest to Mr. Brydone,
the traveller, to whom he carried a letter of intro-
duction from Mr. Henry Mackenzie, and the Rev.
Dr. Somerville of Jedburgh, the historian, whom
he describes as "a man and a gentleman, but
sadly addicted to punning.*' The love of fun is
inherent in human nature, and at a certain time
of life is innocent and natural ; just as at a parti-
cular period of the circus performances, a clown,
the humblest of all actors, makes his appearance,
with his commonplace jokes and worn-out witti-
cisms; and some such association as this must
have been at the foundation of Dr. Johnson's
celebrated saying, that ^ punning is the lowest of
all kinds of wit.' At Jedburgh, Burns was pre-
sented with the freedom of the town, an empty
honour, but the only one which corporations have
it in their power to bestow. Since the passing ot
the Burgh Reform Act in 1832, it has scarcely
any meaning, but in Bums' time it had immense
significance.
Having crossed the border into Northumber-
land, he visited Alnwick castle; the hermitage
and old castle of Warksworth ; Morpeth and New-
castle. In the latter town he spent two days,
and then proceeded to the south-west by Hexham
and Wadrue, to Carlisle. He then returned to
Scotland, taking Annan in his way ; and thence
through Dumfries and Sanquhar to Mossgiel,
whero he arrived about the 8th of June, 1787,
after an absence of about seven busy and event-
ful months. He remained with his mother, his
brothers and sisters, for a few days, and, proceed-
ing again to Edinburgh, immediately set out on a
tour to the Highlands. Returning to Mossgiel,
he spent the month of July in the society of his
relatives. In August he again visiteii the metro-
polis, and accompanied by Mr. Adair, afterwards
Dr. Adair of Harrowgate, he the same month set
out on another short excursion to Clackmannan-
shire, returning to Edinburgh by Kinross, Dun-
fermline and Queensferry. When they reached
Dunfermline, Bums hastened to the churchyard
to pay his devotions at the tomb of Robert the
Bruce, for whose memory he had more than com-
mon veneration. *^ He knelt and kissed the stone,"
says the Doctor, " with sacred fervour, and heart-
ily (8UU8 ut mos erat) execrated the worse than
Gothic neglect of the first of Scottish heroes."
This neglect has been repaired. When the new
paiish church of Dunfermline was erected in 1818,
it was made to enclose the burial-place of the
kings who had been interred there, and on this
occasion the tomb of the Bruce was opened. The
body of the hero was found reduced to a skeleton.
The lead in which it had been wrapped up was
still entire, and even some of a fine linen cloth,
embroidered with gold, which had formed his
shroud. His bones having been placed in a new
leaden coffin, half-an-inch thick, seven feet long,
two feet five inches broad, and two feet in depth,
into which was poured melted pitch to preserve
them, he was re-interred with much state and so-
lemnity, by the Barons of the Exchequer, many
distinguished noblemen and gentlemen of the
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county being present. The pulpit of the new
church now marks the spot where all that remains
on earth of the patriot-monarch is deposited. In
September of the same year, the poet agam set
out from Edinburgh on a more extensive tour to
the Highlands, accompanied by Mr. Nicol, one of
the masters of the High School of that city, a man
of congenial sentiments, and the * Willie' of * We
are na fon.' At Athole house, Bums was hospi-
tably entertained by the ducal family. Of his
behaviour during this visit. Professor Walker,
who was then an inmate of the dnke*s family,
gives the following description. "My curiosity
was great," he says, ** to see how he would con-
duct himself in company so different from what he
had been accustomed to. His manner was un-
embarrassed, plain, and firm. He appeared to
have complete reliance on his own native good
sense for directing his behaviour. He seemed at
once to perceive and appreciate what was due to
the company and to himself, and never forgot a
pi-oper respect for the separate species of dignity
belonging to each. He did not aiTOgate conver-
sation, but, when let into it, he spoke with ease,
propriety, and manliness. He tried to exert his
abilities, because he knew it was ability alone gave
him a title to be there. The duke's fine young
family attracted much of his admiration ; he drank
their healths as * honest men and bonnie lasses,'
an idea which was much applauded by the com-
pany." At Athole-house he met for the first
time Mr. Graham of Fintry, to whom he was af-
terwards indebted for his office in the excise. He
afterwards visited the duke of Gordon at Gordon
castle, from which he was hurried away by the
petulance and false pride of his companion Nicol,
who took offence at the poet's visiting the castle
without him.
Returning to Edinburgh, Bums spent the great-
er part of the ensuing winter there, and again
entered into the society and dissipation of the
metropolis. On the last day of December he at-
tending a meeting to celebrate the birthday of
Prince Charles Edward, the lineal descendant and
unfortunate representative of Scotland's ill-fated
race of kings, the Stuarts ; and on this occasion
he produced an ode, breathing Jacobite senti-
ments throughout. Prince Charles died the fol-
lowing year, and thus for ever put an end to the
hopes of his adherents. Among the most pleasing
incidents of his life in Edinburgh was his tracing
out the grave of his predecessor, Fergusson, in the
Canongate churchyard, over whose ashes he erect-
ed a humble monument. During his residence
in Edinburgh at this time he resided with Mr.
Cruickshanks, then one of the masters of the High
School, who lived in St. James' Square, New
Town, and was in the habit of visiting in Creneral's
Entry, Potterrow, Mrs. M^LiChose, the wife of a
gentleman in the West Indies, to whom bis *' Let-
ters to Clannda' are addressed. He was for some
time at this period lame, from a fracture or dislo
cation of his knee, and was attended by Mr. Alex-
ander Wood, the celebrated surgeon.
The copy light of his poems he had sold to Mr.
Creech for a hundred pounds, but his friends sug-
gested a subscription for an edition for the benefit
of the author, ere the bookseller's right should
commence. Tlus was immediately set on foot, the
subscription copy being six shillings. After set-
tling accounts with his bookseller, in the summei
of 1788, he returned to Ayrshire with nearly
five hundred pounds, where he found his brother
Gilbert, who still possessed the farm of Mossgiel,
stmggling to support their widowed mother, three
sisters, and a brother. He immediately advanced
them two hundred pounds, and with the rem^der
he took and stocked the farm of Ellisland, about
six miles above Dumfries, on the banks of the
Nith. Tlie relatives of his " bonny Jean " were
not now so averse to their union as before, and
they were soon regularly married. Previous to
this event she had again become the mother of
twins, he being the father. It was in 1788
that Bums entered upon the possession of Ellis-
land, and this was perhaps for a few months the
happiest period of his life. But the occupation
of a farmer speedily lost all charm for him. He
wanted something more stirring and active, and
on the recommendation of Mr. Graham of Fintry,
he was appointed, on his own application, an offi-
cer of excise for the district in which his farm was
situated. ^* His farm," says one of his biographers,
*^ was, after this, in a great measure abandoned to
servants, while he betook himself to the duties of
his new appointment. He might, indeed, still be
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•een in the spring, directing his plough, a laboar
in which he excelled; or with a white sheet con-
taining his seed com slang across his shoulders,
striding with measored steps, along his tumed-up
farrows, and scattering the grain on the earth.
But his farm no longer occupied the principal part
of his care or his thoughts. It was not at Ellis-
land that he was now in general to be found.
Mounted on horseback this high-minded poet was
pursuing the defaulters of the revenue, among the
hills and vales of Nithsdale, his roving eye wan-
dering over the chaims of nature, and muttering
his wayward fancies as he moved along." When
he exclaims in one of his songs, ^ I hae a gnid
braid sword,' we are to understand him liter-
ally. In the summer of 1791 two gentlemen
who came to visit him, found him accoutred in
Warlike trim. On his head he wore a cap made
of a fox's skin ; and from a belt which served to
confine the wandering of a loose great coat, de-
pended an enormous clayniore. In this garb he
stood on a rock that projects into the Nith, and
amused himself with angling. After having occu-
pied his farm about three years and a half, he
found himself obliged to resign it to his landlord,
Mr. Miller of Dalswinton. About the end of 1 79 1
he removed with his family to Dumfries, where on
a salary of seventy pounds per annum, being all
his income as an exciseman, he spent the re-
mainder of his Ufe.
His fame was now widely circulated over the
three kingdoms. His name and his songs had
become dear to every Scottish l>eart, and his com-
pany was eagerly courted by all who could ap-
preciate genius. Unfortunately, Bmns had not
the firmness to resist the many temptations to dis-
sipation which were thrown in his way, or the
moral courage to refuse the constant invitations
which were sent to him; consequently, he was led
into tmbits of excess, which injured his constitu-
tion, and, in the intervals between his fits of in-
temperance, caused him to suffer the bitterest
pangs of remorse. At this period many of his
most beautiful pieces were written, especially the
best of his songs, which were contributed to an
Edinburgh publication called ^ Johnson's Musical
I Museum,' and afterwards to a larger work, the
well known * Collection of Original Scottish Airs,'
edited and published by Mr. George Thomson.
To the former work his contributions amounted to
no less than two hundred and twenty-eight. On
this point the late Captain Charles Gray, R. M.,
author of * Lays and Lyrics,' in one of a series of
papers which he contributed to the Glasgow Citi-
zen on the lyric poetry of Scotland, has the follow-
ing remarks : " None of his numerous biographers
hitherto has done him justice as to the amount of
his contributions to the ^ Scots Musical Museum.'
Cunie hints, cautiously, that Bums ^ contributed
songs liberally to " Johnson's Musical Museum." '
Lockhart, who is always equal to (he task when
dealing with the higher part of our bard's biogi*a-
phy, fails when putting together the lighter parts of
his materials. That he wished to do every justice to
the character of Bums, as a man and a poet, is un-
questionable; but he lacked the necessary research.
The drudgery overcame his diligence ; — hence his
account of what Bums did for the Museum, is
very vague and unsatisfactory. Cromek, perhaps
the most ardent admirer of the genius of our poet
that ever was bom south of the Tweed, says,
^ Bums contributed, gratuitously, no less than one
hundred and eighty -four original, altered, and
collected songs ; ' and Allan Cunningham states,
that he * had seen one hundred and eighty trans-
cribed by his own hand for the Museum.' It will
be observed, that these statements are far below
the mark, as Mr. Stenhouse, from whom our in-
formation is gleaned, had a far better opportunity
of ascertaining the tmth (the whole of the mate-
rials composing the Museum having passed through
his hands) than either Cromek or Cunningham ;
and we learn fi'om him that Bums contributed no
less than two hundred and twenty-eight songs to
that work, as has been already stated; and we
take credit to ourselves for being the first to claim
for him the merit of his collecting Mid preserving
above fifty Scottish melodies. This labour of love
alone would have entitled Burns to the thanks
and gratitude of his countrymen, had he done
nothing else ; but it was lost in the refulgent blaze
of his native genius, which shed a light on our
national song that shall endure as long as our
simple Doric is understood. In the lapse of ages
even the lyrics of Bums may become obsolete, but
other bards shall arise, animated with his spirit,
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and reproduce them, if possible, in more than their
origlnsd beauty and splendour. We bold our na-
tional melodies to be imperishable. As no one
can trace their origin, it would be equally futile to
predict their end. Their essence is more divine
than the language to which they are wedded.
They can only expire with the lilt of the linnet,
and the lay of the laverock — with the rich and
mellow strains of the mavis, and the bold and
thrilling notes of the blackbird. More than one
author of the present day has asserted that the
peasant muse of Scotland died with Robert Nicholl.
Such an assertion is an-ant nonsense. But granted
that she
* died a cadger powsie's death,
At some dyke-back/
is Nature unable to reproduce another great origi-
nal mind, in the pastoral ranks, when ages shall
have changed the phases of society ? Why should
people of liberal minds give way to such narrow
fancies? The peasant muse of Scotland is *not
dead, but sleepeth.' She will start up in another
garb, and make the ' heights and howes,' the
'streams and bumies' of the land of cakes as
vocal as when erst the Bard of Coila
* Folio w'd his plough upon the mountain side." *
Burns^ promotion in the excise was prevented by
the imprudence of speech in which he expressed
himself in approval of the principles of the first
French revolution, and the freedom with which he
declaimed concerning the urgent necessity of a
radical reform in the parliamentary representation
and government of this country. He even went
so far as to send four carronades, which he had
purchased at the condemnation and sale of a
smuggler brig, he had assisted in capturing in the
Sol way Firth in February 1792, as a present to
the French convention. Both the present and the
letter which accompanied it were intercepted at
the custom-house of Dover, the guns retained, and
the letter transmitted to the Board of Excise in
Scotland. The Board of Excise, in consequence,
deemed it expedient to appoint a superior officer
to investigate his conduct. In an eloquent letter
addressed to one of their number, he exculpated
himself with becoming dignity from the charges
which had been preferred against him; and the
officer who had been commissioned to institute a
formal inquiiy, could discover no substantial
grounds of accusation. Mr. Graham of Fintry, in
whom he had always found a steady and zealous
friend, was re^y on this emergency to secure
him from the threatened consequences of his im-
prudence ; but the board, although they suffered
him to retain his office, sent him an intimation
that his advancement must now be determined by
his future behaviour. A report having gone
abroad that he had been dismissed from the ex-
cise, some gentlemen proposed a subscription for
the relief of his supposed necessities. This benevo-
lent offer he at once declined, and in the letter
which conveyed his acknowledgments, he took
occasion to allude to the reports which had been
industriously circulated to his prejudice. "The
partiality of my countrymen,'* he says in a lofty
spirit of indignation, " has brought me forward as
a man of genius, and has given me a character to
support. In the poet I have avowed manly and
independent sentiments, which I hope have been
found in the man. Reasons of no less weight than
the support of a wife and children have pointed
out my present occupation as the only eligible line
of life within my reach. Still my honest fame is
my dearest concern, and a thousand times have I
trembled at the idea of the degrading epithets that
malice or misrepresentation may affix to my name.
Often in blasting anticipation have I listened to
some future hackney scribbler, with the heavy
malice of savage stupidity, exultingly asserting
that Bums, notwithstanding the fanfarotMde of
independence to be found in his works, and after
having been held up to public view, and to public
estimation, as a man of some genius, yet, quite
destitute of resources within himself to support his
borrowed dignity, dwindled into a paltry excise-
man, and slunk out the rest of his insignificant ex-
istence in the meanest pursuits, and among the
lowest of mankind. In your illustrious hands, sir,
permit me to lodge my strong disavowal of such
slanderous falsehoods. Burns was a poor man
from his birth, and an exciseman by necessity;
but I wiU say it, the sterling of his honest worth
poverty could not debase, and his independent
British spirit oppression might bend, but could
not subdue."
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In 1795 Barns entered the ranks of the Dam-
fries Volanteers. Daring this year Mr. Perry of
the Morning Chronicle, offered him fifty poands
a-year for a poem weekly for that paper, which
woald have been a handsome addition to his
income, bat from the pecaliar feeling he enter-
tained of the sacredness of poetry, probably fancy-
ing that if he became, what he so mach dreaded,
^' the hireling of a party,*^ his mnse woald refase
to give her aid, he foolishly declined the proposaL
His health was now mach impaired, and in the
autnnm of that year he lost his only daughter,
which made a deep impression apon him. Soon
afterwards he was seized with a rhenmatic fever.
Before he had completely recovered, he had the
imprudence to join a convivial circle, and on his re-
turn from it, he caaght a cold which brought back
the fever with redoubled severity. He tried the
effect of sea-bathing, but with no durable success.
This ilbiess was the cause of his premature death,
which took place July 21, 1796. On the 26th of
the same month, his remains were interred with
military honours by the Dumfries Volunteers, in
the South churchyard of Dumfries ; and the cere-
mony was rendered the more imposing, by the
presence of at least ten thousand individuals of all
i-anks, who had collected from all parts of the
country. He left a widow and four sons. On
the day of his interment Mi's. Burns was delivered
of a fifth son, named Maxwell, who died in his
infancy. An edition of his works, in 4 vols. 8vo,
with a Life, was published by Dr. Currie of Liv-
erpool in 1800, for the benefit of his widow and
family. Innumerable other editions of his poems
have since appeared.
In 1828 Mr. Lockhart published his Life of
Burns ; and a complete edition of his Poems and
Letters, in eight volumes, with a Life by Mr.
Allan Cunningham prefixed, appeared in London
in 1834. Besides these, an edition of Bums'
Works with a Life and Notes by the Ettrick
Shepherd and the late William Motherwell, and
'illusti-ations, was published by Messrs. A. Fullar-
ton and Co. in 1836.
Bums is the most popular poet that Scotland
ever produced. With his poems, all, from the
highest to the lowest of his countrymen, are fami-
liar. His principal characteristics as a lyrical
poet were his sensibility and his troth ; and though
he undoubtedly possessed more feeling than ima-
gination, the range and variety of his powers were
really wonderful ; of which ' The Cottar's Satur-
day Night,' * Scots wha hae,' *Holy Willie's
Prayer,' * Tam o' Shanter,' * Death and Dr. Horn-
book,' and * The Beggar's Cantata,' all differing in
style and sentiment, but all unsurpassed in their
way, are striking examples. His humour in de-
lineatmg Scottish character and manners has never
been equalled ; and the language of his country
will be pei'petuated in his verses long after it has
ceased to be spoken, even by the common people,
to whom it is now almost entirely confined. His
songs may be divided into two classes, the tender,
humorous, and pathetic, and the social and heroic.
Those of the first class are the most numerous.
Bums was peculiarly sensible to those impressions
which produce tender emotions in the mind, and
which are ever awakening sympathies of the pleas-
ing or the painful. To the beauties of nature he
was tremblingly alive, but to the grander and
moi*e magnificent scenes his muse seems to have
paid little devotion, although, from the emotions
with which he was inspired by the wUdness of a
tempest howling over a mountain, or raving
through the trees of a forest, it might have been
expected that his songs would have more fre-
quently depicted the grand or sublime in scenery.
'* There is scarcely any eaithly object," said Bums,
" gives me more — I do not know if I should caH it
pleasure — but something which exalts me, some-
thing which enraptures me — than to walk in. the
sheltered side of a wood or high plantation, in a^
cloudy winter day, and hear the stoi-my wind
howling among the trees, and raving over the
plain. It is my best season for devotion to Him
who, in the pompous language of the Hebrew bard,
' Walks on the wings of the wind.*"
Such scenes and objects, however, are not the
legitimate subjects for lyric poetry ; they are
themes for a loftier muse, for a more sustained
effort ; such as the sublime ethics of Milton, the
descriptive * Childe' of Byron, or the moi*e bean-
tifiil didactic * Pleasures ' of Campbell and Rogers.
In delineating all the emotions and operations
of love Bums particularly excelled. With a mas-
ter's pen he painted its kindling, exciting, and ever-
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chaiif(ing caprices, as well as its deeper, steadier
and more settled sentiments, and displayed its
predominating influence over all other considera-
tions where it had taken full possession of the
heart. That sickly cast of love which scarcely
ever permits a natural sentiment to fall from its
lips was not to be found in a single heroine of
Burns : all his females were natural, sincere, and
unaffected, and the glorious stores of the forest,
the field, and the mountain were plundered of
their beauties to adorn them. Their purity was
seen in the opening gowan, wet with the dew, and
their modesty beamed in the eye of the violet ;
tlieir breath breathed in the scented flower of the
hawthorn, and their smile *^ illumed the dark
prospects of life, as Aurora gilded with brightness
the sky of the morning." All nature acknow-
ledged subserviency to her own bard for his ima-
ges ; and her sweet and simple graces were gath-
ered with an eager hand to embellish her fairest
creations. Diamond eyes, ruby lips, and ivory
teeth, with all their polish and brightness, were
tawdry and tinsel similes of art, which found no
favour in his sight. He was the bard of nature,
and he breathed nothing but nature. He surveyed
her fields with the enthusiasm of devotion, and
unfolded their charms in every vai*ied and vivify-
ing hue. The opening of spring, the luxuriance
of summer, the golden plenty of autumn, and the
majesty of a Caledonian winter spread their riches
before him. His eye kindled at the contempla-
tion of their individual enjoyments ; his benevo-
lence sought to make others participators of his
joy; his mind burned to give utterance to his
feelings, whilst poetry flowed spontaneously from
his lips, and thg music of his country waited on
his call to follow his breathings wherever he went.
To use his own expressive words, he tuned " his
wild artless notes, and sung the loves, the joys,
the rural scenes, and rural pleasures, of his native
soil, in his native tongue;" and in the nature,
simplicity, and truth of his lays consist their mar-
vellous power and beauty.
Of his personal appearance perhaps the most
truthful as well as most graphic description is by
Sir Walter Scott, who was once in his company in
1786-7. Scott, who was then a lad of seventeen,
just removed from the High School to a desk in
his father's office, was invited by his. friend and
companion, the son of Dr. Ferguson, to accompa-
ny him to Ms father's house on an evening when
Bmns was to be there. The two youngsters en-
tered the room, sat down unnoticed by tbeir seni-
ors, and looked on and listened in modest silence.
Bums, when he came in, seemed a little oat of his
element, and, instead of mingling at once with the
company, kept going about the room, looking at
the pictures on the walls. One print particularly
arrested his attention. It represented a soldier
lying dead among thcsnow, his dog on one side,
and a woman with a child in her arms on the
other. Underneath the print were some lines of
verse descriptive of the subject, which Bums read
aloud with a voice faltering with emotion. A lit-
tle while after, turning to the company and point-
ing to the prmt, he asked if any one could teU
him who was the author of the lines. No one
chanced to know, excepting Scott, who remem-
bered that they were fi*om an obscure poem of
Langhorae's. The information, whispered by
Scott to some one near, was repeated to Bura^
who, after asking a little more about the matter,
rewarded his young informant with a look of kind-
ly interest, and the words, (Sir Adam Ferguson
reports them,) " You'll be a man yet, sir." " His
person," says Scott, in reference to this interview,
'^ was strong and robust ; his manners rustic, not
clownish ; a sort of dignified plainness and simpli-
city, which received part of its effect, perhaps, from
one's knowledge of his extraordinary talents. His
features are represented in Mr. Nasmyth's pic-
ture, but to me it conveys the idea that they are
diminished, as if seen in perspective. I think his
countenance was more massive than it looks in
any of the portraits. I would have taken the po-
et, had I not known what he was, for a very saga-
cious country farmer of the old Scottish school—
i. e. none of your modem agriculturists, who keep
labourers for their drudgery, but the douce gude-
man who held his own plough. There was a
strong expression of sense and shrewdness in all
his lineaments ; the eye alone, I think, indicated
the poetical character and temperament. It was
large, and of a dark cast, and glowed (I say, lit-
erally glowed) when he spoke with feeling or in-
terest. I never saw such another eye in a human
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kead, thoagh I have seen the most distinguished
men in my time. His conversation expressed
perfect self-confidence, without the slightest pre-
sumption. Among the men who were the most
learned of their time and country, he expressed
himself with perfect firmness, but without the
least intrusive forwardness ; and when he differed
in opinion, he did not hesitate to express it fiim-
ly, yet at the same time with modesty. I do not
remember any part of his conversation distinctly
enough to be quoted, nor did I ever see him
again, except in the street, where he did not recog-
nise jne, as I could not expect he should. He
was much caressed in Edinburgh, but (considering
what literary emoluments have been since his day)
the efforts made for liis relief were extremely tri-
fling. I remember on this occasion I mention, I
thought Burns* acquaintance with English poetry
was rather limited, and also, that having twenty
times the abilities of Allan Ramsay and of Fer-
gusson, he talked of them with too much humility
as his models ; there was doubtless national pre-
dilection in his estimate.**
Somewhere about the very day on which the
Interview above referred to happened, Francis
Jeffrey, then a lad of thirteen, was going up the
High Street of Edinburgh, and staring diligently
about him, was attracted by the appearance of a
man whom he saw standing on the pavement.
He was taking a good and attentive view of the
object of his curiosity, when some one idling at
a shop-door tapped him on the* shoulder, and said,
**Ay, laddie, ye may weel look at that man!
That's Robert Bums.**
Of Bums* family, it may be mentioned that Ro-
bert, the eldest son of the poet, was for twenty-nine
years in the T^gacy department of the Stamp office,
Somerset House, London, and afterwards he for
some years resided at Dumfries, on a retiring al-
lowance. He married in London, but his wife
died and is buried at Dumfries. They had one
daughter, Eliza Bums, who, under the patronage
of her uncle William, went out to India, where
she married an Iiishman, (he surgeon of a regi-
ment. Her husband returned home in bad health,
and died in Ireland, leaving an only daughter.
William Nicol Bums, the second son, and James
Glencaim Burns, the youngest, both entered the
East India Company's service, from which they
both retired, the first as colonel, and his brother
as lieutenant - colonel. The former married in
India, but returned a widower, without children.
The latter married twice, but was also left a
widower, and the father of two daughters. An-
other of his sons died in 1803. The centenary of
Robert Bums was held throughout the civilized
world in January 1859, with great enthusiasm,
and an account of the proceedings on the occasion
was soon after published in an imperial 8vo volume
by Messrs. A. Fullaiton & Co.
Robert Bums, the poet's eldest son, besides
being an excellent llugnist and an accomplished
musician, was also himself a poet of no mean merit.
The following little Scottish song written by him,
is not unworthy of his gifted sire :
PRETTY MEG, MY DEARIE.
" Ab I gaed up the side o' Nith,
Ae simmer morning early,
Wi' gowden locks on dewy leas,
The broom was waving fiurly ;
Aloft unseen in cloudless sky,
The lark was dnging dearly.
When wadin* through the broom 1 spied
My pretty Meg, my dearie :
Like dawin' light frae stormy night.
To sailor sad and weary,
Sae sweet to me the glint to see,
0* pretty Meg, my dearie.
Her lips were like a half-seen rose,
When day is breaking paly ;
Her een, beneath her snawy brow,
like raindrops frae a lily, —
Like twa young bluebells fill'd with dew.
They glanced baith bright and clearly;
Aboon them shone, o* bonnie brown,
The locks o* Meg, my dearie.
Of a* the flowers in sunny bowers,
That bloomed that mom sae cheerie,
The furest flower that happy hoiur,
Was pretty Meg, my dearie!
I took her by the sma* white hand, —
My heart sprang in my bosom, —
Upon her face sat maiden grace,
Like sunshine on a blossom.
How lovely seemM the morning hymu,
Of ilka birdie near me;
But sweeter far the angel voice,
0* pretty Meg, my dearie.
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Wliile summer light shall bless mj sight,
Or bomiie broom shall cheer me;
ril ne'er forget the mom I met
My pretty Meg, my dearie!**
" The meeting described in the song," says the
author, " is no fiction, neither is the heroine a fic-
titious personage, — her name is Margaret Fullar-
ton. If the song has no other merit, it at least
gives her portrait with faithful exactness. She is
besides of a shape which is elegance and symmetry
personified. She is now (1850), and has long
been, the wife of Mr. Ross, gardener at Mount
Annan, and has a family of beautiful children.
Many years ago, on a summer Sunday morning,
myself and Mr. Smith took a walk up the left
bank of the Nith. When we came opposite to
Ellisland, we took off our shoes and stockings,
and waded the water; when we had passed Ellis-
land, on our way to Friar's Carse, we met Miss
FuUarton 'wadin' through the broom to meet us,
under the exact circumstances described in the
song. The tune is a composition of Neil Gow.
He calls it in his collection 'AL-s. Wemyss of
Cuttlehill's Strathspey.' Every bar speaks the
rough and spiiited accent of the music of the banks
of the Spey."
BURNS, John, M.D., author of *The Princi-
ples of Midwifery,' was born in Glasgow in 1774.
His grandfather, Mr. John Burns, was a teacher
of English in Glasgow, and author of 'Bums'
English Grammar,' a popular school-book in the
west of Scotland in the early part of the eighteenth
century; and his father was the Rev. John Burns,
D.D., for sixty-nine years minister of the Barony
parish of Glasgow. Dr. Bums died in 1839, and
was known previously to his death as the " Father
of the Church of Scotland," having lived to the
age of 96. At an early age John, who was his eldest
son, commenced the study of medicine; and was ap-
pointed surgeon's clerk to the Royal Infirmary of
Glasgow, when that institution was first opened
for the reception of patients in 1792. At this time
he applied himself to the study of anatomy, espe-
cially to that depaitment of it styled relative or
surgical anatomy. He afterwards gave instruc-
tion in it to students, and was the firet individual
unconnected with any public institution who pro-
fessed to teach anatomy in Glasgow. His lecture-
JOHN.
I
ix)om was at the north-west comer of Virgfnla
street, behind the present Union Bank of that
city. In those days all subjects for dissection
were obtained by the students robbing the church-
yards. Mr. Bums being detected in something of
this sort, the magistrates agreed to quash proceed-
ings against him, on condition that he gave up
lecturing on anatomy. This he agreed to do, bat
his younger brother, Allan, took up the lectures
on anatomy, while John began to lecture on mid-
wifery. Their lecture-room was a brick flat, built
on the remains of the old Bridewell, on the north
side of College street. The brothers Bums were
extremely popular as lecturers : Allan was mono-
tonous and unpleasing as a speaker, but first-rate
as a demonstrator. John was much more agreea-
ble in manner. His substance was excellent, his
knowledge exact, and his views practical, while
his lectures were interspersed with jokes and an-
ecdotes, which quite captivated the students.
Hitherto the subject of this sketch was not
known as a practitioner, and when no lectures or
dissections were in hand, he was to be found,
day after day, in Stirling's Library, reading. On
being asked on one occasion, by an acqualhtance,
what became of his patients while he sat there, he
answered, " I have none !" Mr. Bums now came
forward as a medical author. His first work of
any importance was the * Anatomy of the Gravid
Uterus,' which appeared in 1799. This was fol-
lowed in 1800 by two volumes on * Inflammation,'
in which he fii-st described a species of cancer, now
known by the name of fungus haematodes. These
two works were followed by others on professional
subjects, one of which, *The Principles of Mid-
wifery,' has been translated into various European
languages, and has reached a tenth edition. At
an early period of his professional career, Mr.
Burns became surgeon to the Royal Infirmary,
and distinguished himself by the nerve with which
he operated. He subsequently became the part-
ner of Mr. Muir, and, afl«r Mr. Muir's death, of
Mr. Alexander Dunlop — a connection which
brought him speedily into excellent family prac-
tice. Nevertheless, he continued to lecture on
midwifery till 1815, when the Crown having insti-
tuted a professorship of surgeiy in Glasgow uni-
versity, he was appointed to that chair, in which
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ALLAN.
he remained till his death. Mr. Burns bred his
son, Allan, to the medical profession, and, relieved
by his assistance, he graduated, and having been
appointed physician to the Royal Infirmary, was
a good deal employed as a consulting physician.
In 1843, however, young Allan died of the inter-
mittent fever then prevalent, after which Dr.
Bums gave up his practice, but continued the
duties of his professorship. In religion Dr. Bums
was an Episcopalian, having left the church of his
fathers. He lived in good style, and was of a
cheerful disposition. In person he was under the
middle height, with grey flowing locks, and his
dress was veiy neat and antique. He was a fellow
of the Royal Society of London and a member of
the French Institute. With a niece Dr. Burns
was unfortunately lost in the Orion steamer, on
his return from Liverpool, when that vessel struck
on a rock near Portpatrick, on 18th June 1850.
His eldest son John, a major in the aimy, was liis
heir.
There is a fine portrait of Dr. Bums, in the at-
titude of lecturing, by Mr. Graham Gilbert, en-
graved by Mr. James Faed, from which the sub-
ioincd is a woodcut :
Besides his valuable professional publications,
he was the author of a work on the evidences and
principles of Christianity, which was at fii*st pub-
lished anonymously; and it is related that his
father, on reading it, expressed himself much
pleased, and said to his son, *^ Ah! John! I wish
you could have written such a book."
The following are his works :
The Anatomy of the Gravid Utenia; with Practical Infer-
ences relative to Pregnancy and Labour. Glasg. 17i>9, 8vo.
Dissertations on Inflammation. 1. On the Laws of the
Animal Economy. 2. On the histories, causes, consequences
and cure of Simple Inflammation. 3. On the Phagedenic
and some other Species of Inflammation. 4. On the Spon-
goid Inflammation. 5. On the Cancerous Inflammation. 6.
On the Scrofulous Inflammation. Glasg. 1800, 2 vols. 8vo.
Practical Ohsen'ations on the Uterine Haemorrhage, with
Remarks on the Management of the Placenta. Lond. 1807,
8vo.
The Principles of Midwifery, including the Diseases of
Women and Children. Lond, 1809, 8vo. 2d edit. 1813,
8vo. 1817, 8vo. 1822, 8vo. 10th edition, with Smellie's
Obstetric Plates. 1 vol. 1848.
Popular Directions for the Treatment of the Diseases of
Women and Children. Glasg. 1811, 8vo.
Principles of Christian Philosophy. 12mo. Lond., 1828.
Principles of Surgery. 2 vols. 8vo. 1838.
BURNS, Allan, a younger brother of the pre-
ceding, was born at Glasgow, September 18, 1781.
lie was early sent to study for the medical profes-
sion, and such was his proficiency, that at the age
of sixteen he was enabled to undertake the dii*cc-
tion of the dissecting-rooms of his brother. In
1804, having gone to London with the view of
entering the medical service of the army, he re-
ceived and accepted of the offer of director of a
new hospital, on the British plan, established Bt
St. Petersburg liy the empress Catherine, haying
been recommended to the Czar by his physician ;
and accordingly proceedtnl to Russia, wht-re
he did not remain above six months. On his
leaving the Russian capital, in January 1806, he re-
ceived from the empress, in token of her good will,
a valuable diamond ring. In the winter after his
return to Glasgow, he began. In place of his bro-
ther, to give lectures on anatomy and surgery.
In 1809 he published * Observations on some of
the most frequent and impoitant Diseases of the
Heart,' illustrated by cases. In 1812 appeared
his second publication, entitled ' Observations on
the Surgical Anatomy of the Head and Neck,' also
illustrated by cases. Both of these works, which
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BUTE.
embi'Ece all his separate publications, are held in
the highest estimation by the profession. Early
in 1810 his health began to decline, and although
he continued for two yeara longer to deliver lec-
tures, it was often amid great personal suffering.
He died June 22, 1813.
The following are his works :
Observations on some of the most frequent and important
Diseases of the Heart; on Aneurism of the Tboradc Aorta;
on Preternatural Pulsations in the Epigastric Regions; and
on the unusual origin and distribution of some of the large
Arteries of the Human Body. Illustrated by Gases. Edin.
1809, 8vo.
Observations on the Surgical Anatomy of the Head and
Neck, niustrated by Cases and Engravings. Edin. 1812, 8vo.
An edition of his 'Surgical Anatomy of the Head and
Neck ^ was published in America, with a life of the author,
and additional cases and observations, by Granville Sharp
Pattison, professor of Anatomy in the university of Maryland.
Mr. Bums also contributed to the Edinburgh Medical and
Surgical Journal an Essay on the Anatomy of the parts con-
cerned in the operation for Crural Hernia, and one on the
operation of Lithotomy.
BuRNTiSLASD, LoRD, a title in the peerage of Scotland,
conferred, 15th April 1672, for his life only, on Sur James
Wemyss of Caskieberry, the husband of Mai^ret, countess
of Wemfss in her own right On his death in 1685, it, of
course, became extinct. His son David succeeded his mother
as earl of Wemyss in 1705. [See Wemtbs, earl of.] The
ancient name was Bertiland or Bryntiland, now corrupted
into Burntisland.
BURREL, or BUREL, John, a minor poet,
who wrote a description in vei-se of the entry of
Anne of Denmark, the queen of James the Sixth,
into Edinburgh in 1690, preserved in Watson's
Collection of Scots poems, was a burgess of Edin-
bui*gh, and is supposed to have been a goldsmith,
and one of the priuters at the kiug's mint^ This
conjecture is strengthened by the minuteness with
which he dwells on the jewellery displayed on that
occasion, when the dtizens of Edinburgh put on
all their finery, and had recourse to all the usual
devices and allegories of the age, to welcome
home their queen. The name of his poem, which,
though quaintly enough expressed, is interesting
and curious as a^ record of the manners and re-
joicings of the period, is * The Description of the
Qveenis Maiesties maist honourable entry into the
tovn of Edinbvrgh.' The display made by the
citizens on this occasion is thus referred to :
" To rocreat hir hie renoun.
Of curious things thair wes all sort.
The stairs and houses of the toun
With tapestries were spred athort,
Quhair Hbtones men micht behauld,
With Images and Anticks auld."
And again,
*^ All curious pastimes and oonsaits,
Cud be imaginat be man,
Wes to be seen on Edinburgh gnits,
Fra time that brauitie began;
Ye might haif hard on enerie streit,
Trim melodie and musick sweit."*
He sums up the in\^^ntory of jewellery exhibited
on the occasion by this expressive verse :
" All predus stains micht thair be sene,
Qnhilk in the warid had ony name,
Saye that quhilk Cleopatra Queene
Did swallow ore into hir wame! **
In Sibbald*s Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, vol
viii. p. 465f this poem was reprinted. Barrel was
also author of another poem, entitled ^ The Passage
of the Pilgrims,' inseited in Watson's Collection.
Dr Irving describes both poems as ** insipid.''
Little is known of Burrel's personal history
Among the title-deeds of part of the old property
at the foot of Todrick's Wynd, Edinburgh, was
found a disposition of a house by ^* John Bnrrell,
Goldsmith, yane of the printer's in his miyestie's
cunzie-house," 1628, and he is supposed to be the
same person. — WilsoiCs Memorials of Edinburgh.
Bute, Marquis of, a title in the peerage of Great Bri-
tain, possessed by a branch of the Stewart farofly descended
from Su: John Stewart, a natural son of King Robert the
Second. The Scotch title is earl of Bute, and dates <»ly
from 1703. The higiier tiUe of marquis was conferred m
1796, on the fourth earl, the son of the celebrated prime
minister in the early part of the reign of George the lliird.
Sir John Stewart, the founder of this noble fatiuly, receivrd
iirom his father, about 1385, a grant of lands in the Isle of
Bute, the ancient patrimony of the Stewarts, Malcolm the
Second, sometime before the year 1093 having granted Bute to
Walter the fintt lord-high-steward of Scotiand, who gave it to
a younger son, with whom and his posterity it remained about
a century, when it was re-annexed to the possessions of Uie
lord-high-steward, by the intermarriage of Alexander Stewart
with Jean, daugliter and heiress of James, lord of Bute. The
island of Bute afterwards became subject to the Norwegians,
but did not long remain so, and it would appear that on its
restoration to the Scottish crown, it reverted to the possesffioo
of the family of the high-steward, for in the fatal battle ck
Falkirk betwixt the English and Scotch m 1296 the men of
Buteshire, known at that time by the name of the lord-high-
steward's Brandanes, served under Sir John Stewart, and
were almost wholly cut off with their valiant leader
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THIRD EARL.
Along with the lands, King Kobert the Svcoiid conibnred
on his son above named, Sir John Stewart, the hereditary-
office of sheriff of Bute and Arran. These Robert the Third
confirmed by charter, * dilecto fratri noetro, Joanni Seneecallo
de Bute,' 11th November 1400. There is a tradition that Sir
John Stnart's mother's name was Leitch. AJthongh desig-
nated *^ Sir** in Dmican Stewart's History of the Stewarts and
bj peerage writers, who generallj follow each other, no autho-
rity is given for the title, and he is not so called in any con-
temporary document Of the different varieties of spelling of
the name of Stewart, the Bate family have preferred Uiat of
Stnart, the mode of orthography adopted by Mary queen of
Scots on gcnng to France, there being no io in the alphabet of
that country.
A descendant of this Sir John Stewart in the seventh gen-
oration. Sir James Stuart of Bute, grandfather of the first
eari, was created a baronet by King Gharies the First, 28th
March 1627. He was a firm adherent of that unfortunate
monarch, and early in the dvil wars garrisoned the castle of
Rothesay, and, at his own expense, raised a body of soldiers
in the ldng*8 cause. He was appointed by his miges^ his
lieutenant over the west of Sootland, and directed to take
possession of the castle of Dumbarton. Two firigates were
sent to his assistance, but one of them was wrecked in a
storm, and Su: James was ultimately obliged to retire to Ire-
land, to avoid imprisonment. His estate was sequestrated,
and on recovering possesson of it, he was obliged, by way of
compromise, to pay a fine of five thousand marks, imposed by
parliament in 1646. When Cromwell obtained possession of
Scotland, the castle of Rothesay was again taken out of his
hands, and a military force placed in it. Sur James was also
deprived of his hereditary office of sheriff of Bute, and declar-
ed mcapable of any public trust. He died at London in
1662, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. By his wife,
Isabella, eldest daughter of Sir Dugald Campbell of Auchin-
breck, baronet, he had two sons and three daughters. His
eldest son. Sir Dugald Stuart, succeeded him, and died in
1672, leaving a son, Sir James Stuart, the third baronet of
the fiimily, and first earl of Bute.
Sir Robert Stuart of TilUecnltry, the second son, was
appointed a lord of session, 25th July, 1701. He was also a
commissioner of justidary, and was created a baronet 29th
April 1707. He was member of parliament for the county of
Bute, and one of the commissioners for the union, which he
steadily supported. In 1709 he resigned his seat on the
bench in favour of his nephew Dugald Stuart of Blau^all,
the brother of the following.
Sir James Stuart of Bute, the third baronet of the elder
branch, succeeded his father in 1672. On the forfeiture of the
eari of Argyle in 1681, he was solidted by government to take
the management of the county of Ai^le, and in April 1688 he
was appointed colonel of the militia of the counties of Argyle,
Bute, and Dumbarton, and in June 1684 sheriff of the district of
Tarbert. In the foHowing February he was appointed sheriff
of Argyleshire, and on the 25th March was admitted a member
of the faculty of advocates. He supported the revolution,
and early dedared his adherence to King William and Queen
Mary. On the accession of Queen Anne, at which time he
was member of the Scots parliament for the county of Bute,
he was sworn a privy coundllor. In 1702 he was named
one of the commissioners to treat of a union with England,
which did not then take effect By patent, dated at St
James', 14th April 1708, he was created in the peerage of
Scotland, eari of Bute, viscount of Kingarth, Lord Mount-
stuart, Cnmbrae, and Inchmamock, to himself and his heirs
male whatever, and took the oaths and his seat as a peer in
parliament, 6th July 1704. He opposed the union with
Enghmd, and did not attend the last Scottish parliament, in
which the union treaty was discussed and finidly agreed to.
His lordship died at Bath, 4th June 1710, and was buried
with his ancestors at Rothesay. His epitaph in Latin is
quoted in Crawford's Peerage. He was twice married, first
to Agnes, eldest daughter of Sir George Mackenzie of Rose-
hangh, Lord Advocate in the reigns of Charles the Second
and James the Seventh.
James, the second earl of Bute, the only son of this
marriage, inherited, after much litigation, the extensive
estates of his grandfather, Sur George Mackenzie of Rose-
haugh. After the accession of George the first he was ap-
pointed one of the commissioners of trade and police in Scot-
land, lord-lieutenant of the oounty of Bute, and a lord of the
bed-chamber. During the rebellion of 1715 he commanded the
Bute and Argyle militia at Inverary, and prevented any out-
break in that part of the country. He was one of the repre-
sentatives of die Soots peerage at the general dections of 1715
and 1722. He died in January 1723, at the age of thirty-three
years. He married Lady Anne Campbell, only daughter of
Archibald first duke of Argyle, and by her (who afterwards
married Fraser of Strichen, in the oounty of Aberdeen) he had
two sons and four daughters. James, the second son, succeeded
to the huge estates of his great grandfather. Sir George Mac^
kenzie, and assumed the additional surname of Mackenzie
This gentleman, who was a member of parliament for dif-
ferent places in Scotland, from 1742 to 1784, was envoy ex-
traordinary to the king of Sardinia in 1758, where he lived in
a splendid style for some years. In April 1763, he was con-
stituted keeper of the privy seal of Scotland, and sworn of
the privy coundL He was deprived of the privy seal in June
1765, but reinstated in office for life in 1766. He married
his cousin. Lady Elizabeth Campbell, fourth daughter of the
great John duke of Argyle and Greenwich, but had no sur-
viving issue. Her ladyship died in July 1799, and her hus-
band, Mr. Stuart Mackenzie, only survived her about nine
months, dying of grief for her loss 6th April 1800, in his
dghty-second year. An ardi within the rails of the duke of
Argyle's monument in Westminster Abbey contains a bust of
Mr. Stuart Mackenzie, by Nollekens, and a tablet, with
mathematical instruments, and an appropriate inscription.
As he left no male issue, the succession to his Scottish estates
fell to be regulated by an entail executed by Sir George
Mackenzie in 1689. Although the latter was one of the first
lawyers of his day, his settlements were so ambiguously
worded that they gave rise to protracted litigation. His
estates were daimed by the Hon. James Archibald Stu»rt
Wortley, next brother of the first Marquis of Bute, and his
nephew, Lord Herbert Windsor Stuart, second son of the
Marquis. The judgment of the court of session was in favour
of the former, and, on appeal, it was affirmed by the House
of Lords, 4th March 1803. [See Mackknzib, Sm Gbobgr.]
John, third earl of Bute, the first and favourite minister of
George the Third, was bom in the Parliament dose, Edin-
burgh, May 25, 1718. The lofty old buildings in that famed
locality, which formed the fashionable flats of the early part
of the last century, where so many of the Scots nobility,
judges, and eminent citizens of the capital, at one period re-
sided, were destroyed by the great fire of 1824, and the whole
dose has been remodelled to such an extent with modem im-
provements that it has lost all its original features, and to
complete the change the good old name of Close, which con-
nected it with St Giles* cathedral, "and which,** says Wil-
son, **is pleasingly assodated with the doistral courts of the
magnificent cathedrals and abbeys of England, has been re-
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TFIIRD EARL.
placed by the modern, and^in this case, ridicnlons, one of
Square." [MemoriaU of E^nbwrgK, vol. i. p. 118.] The
third earl of Bate received his edacation at Eton, and snc-
ceeded his father in 1723, when he was onlv ten /ears old.
In April 1737 he was chosen one of the representative peers
of Scotland, and re-chosen at the general elections of 1761,
1768, and 1774. In 1738, he was made a knight of the
Thistle. On the landing of the Pretender in Scotland in
1745, th^ earl proceeded to London, and ofiered his services
to the government Under the act of 1747, abolishing the
heritable jorisdictions, he had an allowance of two thoosand
pounds for the sheritfship, and one hundred and eighty-six
pounds, nine shillings and threepence for the regality of
Bute ; in all, two thousand one hundred and eighty-six pounds
nine shillings and threepence, -in full of his claim of eight
thousand pounds.
At an exhibition of private theatricals his lordship attracted
the notice of Frederick, prince of Wales, in consequence of
which he was invited to court, and, in October 1750, was
appointed by his royal highness, a lord of his bed-chamber.
After the death of the prince, he was, in 1766, nommated by
the widowed princess, groom of the stole to her son, the
young heir-apparent, afterwards George the Third. In this
capacity he obtained unbounded influence with the princess
of Wales, in consequence of which the tutors of her son, the
earl of Haroourt and the bishop of Norwich, resigned their
offices, and their snooesaors. Lord Waldegrave and the bishop
of Lincob, also opposed him unsnccessfnlly. Two days after
the aooeesion of George the Third to the throne, in October
1760, Lord Bute was sworn a privy councillor, and appointed
groom of the stole to his mig'esty. In March 1761, on the
dismissal of the whig ministry, he resigned that office, and
was appointed one of the principal secretaries of state. The
same year, on the resignation of the princess Amelia, be was
appointed ranger and keeper of Richmond park, and invested
with the order of the garter; and, May 29, 1762, he was con-
stituted first lord of the treasury. He signalized his admin-
istration by the patronage which he extended to literature,
and it was by his recommendation that a pendon was con-
ferred on Dr. Johnson. Home, the author of the tragedy of
* Douglas,* was also indebted to him for a place. His princi-
pal measure, as prime minister, was the conclusion of a treaty
of peace with France, after a sangninaiy and expensive war,
the peace of Paris being concluded February 10, 1763 ; but
the English nation, intoxicated with the successes which bad
crowned the British arms, disapproved of the treaty, and the
eari became so unpopular as a minister that he and his coun-
try were attacked in the most scurrilous terms by Wilkes and
other party writers, through the medium of the *■ North Bri-
ton,* and similar unprincipled publications. He was also
accused of bestowing many lucrative government offices on
his countrymen, and a popular odium was excited against
Scotsmen in London, which has long since happily passed
away. Even Dr. Johnson himself, with all his enlaigement
of feeling, was remarkable for the prejudice which be enter-
tained against the natives of Scotland.
On 8th April, 1763, Lord Bute suddenly retired from office;
and although he never afterwards openly interfered with pub-
lic business, he retained the confidence of the king, and was,
but without reason, suspected of exerting a secret influence
over the royal counsels. He was even blamed as the author
of the Stamp Act, which kindled the first flame of discord
between Great Britain and her North American colonies.
The remainder of his life was spent in retirement chiefly at a
residence at Christchurch m Hampshire, in the cultivation of
literature and sdenoe. He employed the architect Robert
Adam to build a splendid mansion for him at Luton Hoo, m
Bedfordshire, where he accumulated a valnable libraiy, and
one of the richest collections of paintings, especially of the
Dutch and Flemish schools, in the kingdom. The architects
George and Robert Adam, and Joshua Kirby, were all em-
ployed and munificently encouraged by him. His favourite
study was botany, and he wrote, in nine vols. 4to, a botanical
work which contained all the different kinds of plants in Great
Britain, and only sixteen copies of which were printed, though
the expense exceeded a thousand pounds. Butea, a genus of
planta belonging to the natural order Leguminoss, was named
after him. In 1765, nis lordship was elected one of the
Trustees of the British Museum. He also held the office of
chancellor of the Morischal college, Aberdeen, and on the in-
stitution of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1780 be
was chosen theii^ president. He was an honoraxy fellow o^
the Royal College of Phj^sidans at Edinburgh, and to him the
university of that city was indebted for its botanic garden. He
died at London, March 10, 1792. He married, Aug. 24, 1738,
Mary, only daughter of Edward Wortley Montagu, M.P, eldest
son of Sidney Wortley Montagu, second son of Edward first eari
of Sandwich, K. G. Her mother was the celebrated Lady
Mary Wortley Montagu, whose own name was Pierrepont, the
daughter of Evelyn, first duke of Kingston. The countess
was bom at Pera, during her father*s embassy at Constanti-
nople, in February 1718, and on the death of her father in
February 1761, she succeeded to the liferent of his vast
estates in Yorkshire and Cornwall, her brother, Edward
Wortley Montagu, having been dbinherited on account of the
eccentricity of his conduct On the 3d April of the latter
year she was created a peeress of Great Britain by the title of
baroness Mountstuart of Wortley, in Yorkshire, with re-
mainder to the heirs male of her body, by her husband the
earl of Bute, and died at Isleworth 6th November 1794, in
her 77tli year, having had five sons and six daughters. The
eldest son, John, succeeded as fourth earl.
The second son, the Hon. James Archibald Stnart, (Wort-
ley Mackenzie,) bom in 1747, was M.P. ftrom 1768 to 1806,
during which period he sat thrice for the county of Bnte. In
1779 he raised the ninety-second regiment of foot, and on
27th December of that year was appointed its lieutenant-
colonel commandant In 1780 he proceeded with his regi-
ment to the West Indies, where his health was severely af-
fected by the extreme heat of the dimate. At the peace of
1788, the regiment was disbanded. In 1794 he succeeded
his mother, the baroness Mountstuart, in her extensive pro-
perty in Yorkshire and Comwall, and in consequence aaramed,
by sign manual, the sumame of Wortley, 17th January 1795;
and six years afterwards, namely in 1800, he also succeeded
his uncle, the Right Hon. James Stuart Mackenzie, in hit
estates in Scotland, his claim to which, as already stated, was
confirmed by a final decision of the House of Lords, in 1808,
on which he took the additional name of Mackenzie for himself
only. Mr. Stuart Wortley Mackenzie married in 1767 Mar-
garet, daughter of Sir David Cnnningfaame of Mihiecnug, in
AyrBhir^ baronet, by Lady Mary Montgomery, daughter ot
Alexander, ninth earl of Eglinton, by whom be had issue.
His son, James Archibald Stuart Wortley, lord privy seal,
and subsequently lord president of the coundU was in 1826
created Baron Whamcliiie in the peerage of the United King-
dom, and dying in 1845 was succeeded by bis son John Stuart
Wortley, second Lord Whamdifie.
The Hon. Frederick Stuart, the third son of the third eari,
was M.P. for Bute, and died at London, 17th May 1802, in
the fifty-first year of his age, unmarried.
The Hon. Sir diaries Stuart, the fourth son, a distingmsbcd
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general, was made a knight commander of the Bath in Jan-
nary 1799, for his conquest of Minorca, in November of the
preceding year, and died in May 1801. His eldest son,
Charles Stoart, for his diplomatic services, was, in January
1828, created Baron Stuart de Rothesay, in the peerage of
the United Kingdom, bat dying m 1815, without issue, his
title became extinct.
The Hon. William Stuart, the fifth son, bom in March
1755, was educated for the church at Winchester school, and
at the anivernty of Cambridge, and in 1779 was presented
by his father to the vicarage of Luton. In 1798, he was in-
stalled a canon of Windsor and consecrated bishop of St
David's, and on 25th November 1800 was translated to the
archiepiscopal see of Armagh and primacy of Ireland. He
married 8d May 1796, a daughter of Thomas Penn, Ksq.,
proprietor of Pennsylvania, and left issue. He died in 1805.
John, the fourth earl and first marquis of Bute, eldest son
of the third earl, bom SOth June 1744, was elected M.P. for
B<»siney in 1766,* and rechosen at the general elections of
1768 and 1774. He was created a British peer by the title
of Baron Cardiffe of Cardiffe castle in Glamorganshire, 20th
May 1776, and being one of the auditors of imprest, when
that particular office was abolished in 1782, as compensation
seven thousand pounds a-year was settled on him for life.
In 1779 he was appointed envoy-extraordinary and plenipo-
tentiary to Turin, and in 1783 ambassador extraordinary to
the court of Madrid. On the death of his father in 1792 he
became fourth earl of Bute, and in 1794 he succeeded hb
mother as Baron Mountstuort. He was created marquis of
Bute, earl of Windsor, and Viscount Mountjoy, in the peerage
of the United Kingdom, by patent to him and his heirs male,
27th February 1796. Being a second time appointed ambas-
sador to Spain, he landed at Cadiz, 2dth May 1795, and pro-
ceeded to Madrid, where he remained till, in consequence of
the prevalence of the French faction, the Spanish court de-
clared war against Great Britain, 5th October 1796. His
lordship was a privy councillor, lord lieutenant, and custos
rotulorum of Glamorgansliirc, and also lord-lieutenant of the
county of Bute, keeper of Rothesay castle, a trustee of the
British Museum, having been so appointed in March 1800,
vice-president of the Welsh charity, and doctor of laws. He
was twice married. His first wife was Charlotte-Jane, eldest
daughter and co-heiress of Herbert, Viscount Windsor in
Ireland, and Baron Momitjoy in England, (who died in 1758,
when his titles became extinct,) and by her the marquis had
ten children.
The eldest sou, John Lord Mountstuart, bom 25th Sep-
tember 1767, married 12th October 1792, Elizabeth, daughter
and sole heiress of Patrick Crichton, earl of Dmnfries, and
died 22d January 1794. He had two sons ; John, the elder,
became sixth earl of Dumfries, in right of his mother, in
1803, [see Du&ikkies, earl of,] and succeeded as second mar-
quis of Bute, in 1814. Ix)rd Patrick Stuart, the younger, bom
20th May 1794, a posthumous son, was raised to the rank of
a marquis' son in 1817, and is heir presumptive to the titles.
Lord Herbert Windsor Stuart, the second son, died in 1825.
Lord Evelyn James Stuart, the third son, was a colonel in
the army, and died 16th August 1842.
The Hon. Charles Stuart, lieutenant Royal Navy, the
foiuth son, was lost in the Leda frigate, going out to the West
Indira 11th December 1795, in the 21st year of his age, before
his father had been elevated to the dignity of marquis.
Lord Henry Stuart, the fifth son, bom 7th June 1777, was
appointed, 1st March 1805, envoy extraordinary and plenipo-
tentiary to the court of Wurtemberg. He married 5th July
1802, Lady Gertmde Emilia Villiers, only daughter and
heuvss of John eari of Grandison in Ireland, by whom he had
issue. He died m 1809, m his thirty-third year, and his Udy
survived him only eleven days. His eldest son, Henry Stuart
of Dromana, county Waterford, bom 8th June 1808, assumed,
with his brothers and sisters, the additional name of Villiers,
and he was raised to the peerage of the United Kingdom as
Lord Stuart de Decies, in May 1839.
Lord William Stuart, the sixth son of the first marquis, bom
18th November 1778, served in the royal navy, in which he
had the rank of captain in 1799. He commanded the Cham-
pion employed in the blockade of Malta, from September
1798 to September 1800, and took the Bull-dog, wliich he
carried from under the batteries of Gallipoli, 15th August
1801. Ho afterwards commanded the Lavinia frigate, in
which he rendered essential assistance to the members of the
British factory at Oporto, in the protection of their persons
and property on their expulsion from Portugal in 1807, and
he received their formal thanks for his conduct on that occa-
sion, conveyed through Mr. Warro their consuL He married
in 1806 the Hon. Georgina Maude, the daughter of Com-
wallis Viscount Hawarden, and by her had one daughter, who
died unmarried, in 1833.
Lord George Stuart, the seventh son, bom at Turin, 4 th
March 1780, was ahio in the navy, and was singuUu-ly unfor-
tunate in his experience of the dangers of the sea, having
thrice suffered shipwreck. He was midsliipman on board the
Providence, sloop of war. Captain Broughton, on a voyage of
discovery in the Pacific ocean, when it was wrecked on a
coral reef near Formosa, 17th May 1797. All hands, how-
ever, were saved, and his lordship retumed to Enghmd from
China the same year. In 1804 he was made captam, and
placed in command of the Sheemess of 44 guns, employed in
the West Indies, when that vessel was lost in a gale of wind
off Trincomalee, in December of that year, or the following
January. On this occasion also all the crew were saved. lu
1800 he had married Jane, daughter of Major general James
Stewart (by whom he had issue), and in 1805 his lordship
and his lady sailed from Penang in the Commerce, but that
vessel was lost in Madras Roads in December of the same
year, when several of those on board were drowned. Lord
George, however, and his lady got safe on shore. He died a
rear-admiral and C. B., 19th Februaiy 1841.
The first wife of the marquis of Bute died 28th January
1800, and he married, secondly, 7th Sept. the same year,
Frances, second daughter of the kte Thomas Coutts, Essq ,
banker in London, sister of the Countess of Guilford, and had
issue, Lady Frances, married to the earl of Harrowby, and
Lord Dudley Stuart, bom 11th January 1803, married a
daughter of Luden Bonaparte, prince of Canino, by whom he
had a son, an officer in the army, 'llie marquis died at Geneva,
16th November 1814. and the titles descended to hb grandson.
John, second marquis of Bute, and sixth eail of Dumfries,
bom 25th September 1767, son of John, Lord Mountstuart.
He had succeeded his maternal grandfather as earl of Dum-
fries, 7th April 1803. On the 26th August 1 805 he assumed,
by sign manual, the arms ,and sumame of Crichton, before
that of Stuart. He married first in 1818 Marin, etdebt
daughter of George Augustus, third earl of Guilford, who died
in 1841 ; secondly in January 1845, Sophia daughter of the
marquis of Hastings, by whom he left, at his death, 18th
March 1848, John Patrick, 7th earl of Dumfries, 6th earl
and dd marquis of Bute, born in 1847.
Butter, the sumame of an old family who possess the
lands of Fascally in Perthshire. The Butters of Gormok
were an older family of the same county. On August 4,
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BYRES.
518
CADELL.
1554, John Batter of Gormok was denounced rebel and pat
to the horn for not underlying the law for art and part of the
slaughter of George Drummond of Leidcreif, and his son Wil-
liam, having been involved in the same feud with the Blairs
of Balthjock and Ardblair, which led to this fatal result
[See ante^ page 320, second coL art. Blair.] His offers of
satisfaction seem to have been rejected. [See PUeainCs Cri-
minal Trials^ vol. i. part i. page •871.] On 24th November
1598, Patrick Butter, iiar of Gormok, and thu-ty other per-
sons, were indicted and put to the bom for besieging the
place of Assintullie, and taking prisoner Andrew Spalding of
Assintullie. In 1660, James Butter, sheriff-clerk of Perth-
shire, bequeathed two fifth parts of the lands of Soones
Lethendj to maintain four poor persons of the burgh <^ Perth.
c
Cadell. anciently Cadella, a surname which has acquired
a high standing in the literary history of our country, from its
connexion with tlie publication of some of the most valuable
and standard works of modem times, and particularly the po-
pular editions of the writings of Sir Walter Scott. The prin-
cipal family of this name in Scotland is Cadell of Cockenzie,
now Tranent, in East Lothian. The name is supposed to
be originally Welsh, but is more likely to have been of
French origin, and is the same as Calder. [See Caldeb
surname of.]
CADELL, Robert, an eminent publisher,
whose connexion with Sir Walter Scott's works
will perpetuate his name, was born at Cockenzie
on the 16th December 1788. He was the son of
Mr. Cadell of Cockenzie in East Lothian, and
about 1807 entered into the employment of the
late Mr. Archibald Constable, the eminent pub-
lisher. About the end of 1811, he was admitted
into partnership with him, on the retirement of
Mr. A. G. Hunter of Blackness from the firm.
The business was for a long penod extensively
carried on under the well-known firm of Constable
and Company. He mariied in 1817 the daughter
of Mr. Constable, who died in a year afterwards ;
and in January 1821, he manied Miss Mylne,
daughter of Mr. George Mylne, accountant in
Edinburgh. By this lady, who survived him, he
liad eight daughters.
In 1826, after the failure of Constable and Co.,
Mr. Cadell became the sole publisher of Scott's
works. In Lockhart's life of his father-in-law there
are some very interesting notices relative to Cadell's
connexion with the great novelist, who has record-
ed in his Diary that " Constable without Cadell is
like ^ttin^ the clock without the pendulum ; the
one having the ingenuity, the other the caution of
the business." Sir Walter's opinion of him is thus
favoui*ably expressed in his Diary, at the time bis
publishers were about to fail : — ** Cadell came at
eight to communicate a letter from Hui-st and Ro-
biiison, intimating they had stood the storm. I
shall always think the better of -Cadell for this—
not merely because * his feet are beautiful upon the
mountains who brings good tidings,' but because
he showed feeling— deep feeling, poor fellow. He,
who I thought had no more than his nnraeration-
table, and who, if he had his whole counting-house
full of sensibility, had yet his wife and children to
bestow it upon. I will not forget this, if all keeps
right. I love the virtues of rough-and-round men
— the others are apt to escape in salt rheum, sal-
volatile, and a white pocket-handkerchief."
A large stock of Sir Walter's works in the hands
of his bankrupt publishers was sold off for half its
cost, a ch'cumstance which created an impression
among the London booksellei's that the value of
the copyrights had been wrought out. Mr. Cad-
ell, however, had a different opinion, and having
secured among the members of his own family
sufficient money to carry out a scheme which he
had quietly matured, he first communicated it to
Mr. Ballantyne the printer, and finding that he
coincided with him in the calculations he had
made, they went together to Abbotsford to pro-
pound it to Sir Walter Scott. In December 1827,
Mr. Cadell became joint-proprietor of the copy-
right of all Sir Walter's works then pubUshed.
Mr. Lockhart, in his ^ Life of Scott,' thus details
Byres, a surname derived from a haronj in the ooontj of
Haddington, which for many c^ituries belonged to the noble
family of Lindsay, ancestor to the earls of Crawford, from
whom it was acquired about the banning of the aeventeenth
century, by the earl of Haddington, who is baron of Binning
and Byres. The barony is now the property of the eari of
Hopetoun. [See Lindsay of tkb Bybes, Lord.I
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CADELL,
619
ROBERT.
the circumstances : — *^ The question as to the pro-
perty of the * Life of Napoleon,* and ' Woodstock,*
having now been settled by the arbiter, (Lord
Newton) in favour of the author, the relative af-
fairs of Sir Walter and the creditors of Constable
were so simplified that the trustee on that seques-
trated estate resolved to bring into the market,
with the concurrence of Ballantyne*s trustees,
and, without further delay, a variety of very val-
uable copyrights. This important sale comprised
Scotfs novels from * Waverley ' to ' Quentin Dur-
ward' inclusive, besides a majority of the shares
of the poetical works. Mr. Cadell*s family and
private friends were extremely desirous that he
should purchase part at least of these copyrights,
and Sir Walter*s were not less so that he should
seize this last opportunity of recovering a share in
the prime fruits of his genius. The relations by
this time established between him and Cadell
were those of strict confidence and kindness,
and both saw well that the property would be
comparatively lost were it not secured ; that
henceforth the whole should be managed as one
unbroken concern. It was in the success of an
uniform edition of the Waverley novels, with pre-
faces and notes by the author, that both antici-
pated the means of finally extinguishing the debt
of Ballantyne and Company ; and, after some de-
mur, the trustees of that house*s creditors were
wise enough to adopt their views. The result
was that the copyrights, exposed to sale for be-
hoof of Constable's creditors, were purchased, one-
half for Sir Walter, the other half for Cadell, at
the price of eiglit thousand five hundred pounds, a
sum which was considered large at the time.
Su- Walter's Diary, of date December 20, 1827,
has the following allusion to this event :—
^^Anent the copyrights, the ^pock puds* were
not finghtened by our high price. They came on
briskly, four or five bidders abreast, and went on
till the lot was knocked down to Cadell at £8,500;
a very large sum certainly, yet he has been of-
fered a profit on it ali-eady. Tlie activity of the
contest serves to show the value of the property.
On the whole, I am greatly pleased with the ac-
quisition.** ^^Well might the *pock puddings*
(the English booksellers),** continues Mr. Lock-
bart, ** rue their timidity on this day ; but it was
the most lucky one that ever came for Sir Walter
Scott*s creditors. A dividend of six shillings in
the pound was paid at this Christmas on their
whole claims. The result of their high-hearted
debtor's exertions between January 1826, and
January 1828, was in all very nearly £40,000.
No literary biographer, in all likelihood, will ever
have such another fact to record. The creditors
unanimously passed a vote of thanks for the inde-
fatigable industry which had achieved so much
for thehr behoof.'*
Into this new enterpiise, which was a scheme
of Mr. Cadeirs, he threw aU the energy of his
character, his business skill, and the zeal springing
from his enthusiastic confidence in Sir Walter's
popularity," and his own unbounded love and ven-
eration for the Great Magician. The whole series
of novels were republished in small octavo five-
shilling volumes, neatly got up, with plates and
embellished title-pages, and explanatory notes by
the author.
After the death of Sur Walter, a fresh arrange-
ment was come to with regard to the copyright,
of which Mr. Lockhart, in his *Life of Scott,
gives the following account : — ** Sliortly after Sii
Walter's death, his sons and myself, as his ex-
ecutors, endeavoured to make such arrangements
as were within our power for completing the great
object of his own wishes and fatal exertions. We
found the remaining principal sum of the Ballan-
tyne debt to be about £54,000. £22,000 had
been insured upon his life ; there were some mon-
eys in the hands of the trustees, and Mr. Cadell
very handsomely offered to advance to us the bal-
ance, about £30,000, that we might, without fnrther
delay, settle with the body of creditors. This was
effected accordingly on the 2d of Febraary, 1833,
Mr. Cadell accepting, as his only secwity, the
right to the profits accruing fi-om Sir Walter's co-
pyright property and literary remains, until such
times as this new and consolidated obligation
should be discharged.**
In May, 1847, Mr. Cadell took upon himself all
the remaining debts upon the estate, on the trans-
fer to him by the family of their i-emaining claim
over Sir Walter's writings. This debt included
an heritable bond over the lands of Abbotsford
for £10,000. This transaction Mr. Lockhart says
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CAITHNESS,
620
EARLS OF.
** crowned a long series of kind services to the
cause and memory of Sir Walter Scott."
Mr. Cadell died 20th January 1849. His health
had been in a declining state for neai-ly a year.
During the last few months of his life he was in
treaty for the sale of the entire copyrights, which
were valued at the enoimous sum of £60,000.
In 1851, they were purchased by Adam and
Charles Black, publishers in Edinburgh. Mr.
Cadell issued Scott^s works in every form and
shape. There was an edition suited to eveiy class
of society, from the splendid Abbotsford, on which
he spent about £40,000, down to the cheap people's
edition in parts, of which he used to boast that
he sold about 70,000 copies. Sir Walter's manu-
scripts were preserved by him with great care, and
it was with pride that he used to exhibit these
literary treasures to his friends. His taste was
sound and discriminating, his plans comprehensive
and liberal, and his application unwearied. His
punctuality was almost proverbial. Exactly at
nine o'clock eveiy morning, except Sunday, he
entered his carriage at Ratho; and, along the
road to Edinburgh, the country people knew the
time to a minute, by the appearance of what they
called " the Ratho coach." The same oi*der and
regularity were conspicuous at his place of busi-
ness in St. Andrew's square, Edinburgh. In the
beginning of 1845, Mr. Cadell had bought the estate
of Ratho, where he resided in his latter yeare.
Caithness, earl of, in the peerage of Scotland, a title pos-
sessed since 1455 by the " lordly line of high St. Clair,** or
Sinclair. It is, however, of very great antiquity, and has
been held by di£ferent families. It was one of the titles of
the ancient Viidngrs or sea kings. In Torfasus* History of
the Orcades, a woik which he compiled from the ancient
sagas and the Danish records, mention is made of Dongaldns
earl or jarl of Caithness so far back as the year 875. In the
* Islands Landnamabok,* quoted in the * Collectanea do Rebus
Albanicis,* it is stated that alter Thorstein the red, son of
Audor the wealthy, had, in conjunction with earl Sigurd the
rich, " conquered Rateness and Sndrland, Ross and Moray,
and more than the half of Scotland, Thorstein reigned as
king over these districts until he was betrayed by the Scotch,
and slain in battle. Audur was in Kateness when she heard
of her son Thoretein^s death,** and flying to Orkney, she
there gave away in marriage Groa, the daughter of Thorstein
the red, " to Dungadr, jarl of Kateness; and his daughter
Grelauga, by her marriage with Thorfinn, earl of Orkney,
brought the former district once more into the possession of
these earls.** This was sometime after the year 920. In the
same century, one Liotus was earl of Caithness and Orkney.
He was probably a Norwegian, and had defeated his brother
Scullius in battle in a contest for the earldom.
In a charter of King David the Furst to the monasteiy of
Dunfermline, in the year 1 129, one Macwilliaun is designated
earl of Caithness.
Harold earl of Caithness and Orkney, a powerful chieftain,
was a good and faithful subject of King William the Lion tUi
1196, when ^ifi broke out into rebellion. The king marched
an army into Caithness, on which the earl submitted, but his
sons, Roderick and Torphin, attacking the roy^l troops, near
Inverness, were defeated, and Roderick slain. The following
year, the earl, instigated by his wife, the daughter of l^Iached,
agam appeared in arms, and was encountered by the king's
forces, who defeated him and took him prisoner. On boing
led fettered before the king, he ordered him to be closely ctm-
fined in a turret of Roxburgh castle, where he remained until
the king's anger was pacified towards him, when be was di»-
missed on his humble submission, his son, Torphin, having
surrendered himself as a pledge for his fidelity. On this
occasion the southern division of Caithness, called Suth-
erland, was taken from Harold IChabnen' Caledomia, page
633] and given to Hugh Freskin, sherif of Inverness, the
progenitor of the earls of Sutherland. Harold having again
rebelled soyn after, the king ordered Torphin*8 eyes to be put
out, and his body otherwise mutilated, and he died miserably
in prison. The earl himself died in 1206. This Harold i*
said to have murdered John bishop of Caithness.
In 1222, John earl of Caithness and Orkney possessed these
earldoms, when Adam bishop of Caithness, a rigorous exactor
of tithes, w^as assaulted in his episcopal palace at Halkirk, by
the people of his diocese, and burnt to death, a monk who at-
tended him, named Serlo, being at the same time killed
The descent of this Adam, says the Orkneyinga Saga, ^ no-
body knew, for the child had been found at the door of some
church.** The men of Caithness thought him rather bard in
hb episoopal government, and chiefly attributed that to the
monk Serlo. It was an ancient custom that the bi^op
should have a spann of butter of t^venty cows from evoy
proprietor in Caithness. Bishop Adam wanted to increase
this impost, and have a spann, first of fifteen, afterwards of
twelve, and, these being successively granted, ultimately of
ten cows. The people complained to the eari of the bishop's
exactions, but he declined to interfere in the dispute, on
which, in a highly excited state, they attacked the bishop'.i
residence. The bishop and his followers were drinking in an
upper apartment, and when the people came, the nicok wimt
out to the door, and he was immediately hewn across the
coimtenanoe and fell dead into the room. The bishop then
went out, intending to make peace with the people, but seiz-
ing him they conveyed him to a smaller house than his own,
and set fire to it, when the unfortunate bishop was burnt to
death. The earl, as he had refused to interpose for the preven-
tion of this deed, was supposed to have connived at it, and
he was, in consequence, deprived of his estate by the king,
Alexander the Second, but was afterwards permitted to re-
deem it, on the payment of a large sum of money, and the
giving up the third part of the eaurldom. Eari John was
murdered in his own house by his servants in 1231, and his
body was consumed to ashes by way of retaliation for the
slaughter of the bishop.
'^ There is,** says Lord Hailes {Annals of Scotland^ vol. I
p. 48. nouy, ** an obscmity in our histories concerning the earls
of Caithness, which I am not able to dispel.** This obscurity
has greatly puzzled the peerage writers and genealogists, who
are unable to reconcile certain discrepancies in dates and per-
sons occurring in connexion with the earidom. According to
Crawford's peerage, Magnus, second sou of Gilibrede, eari of
Angus, obtained this earldom from King Alexander the Se-
ill
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'0ms 0f J^jtotkn]^.
IV.
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L ^mttd tfHiap |arls.
(1) Caitbiib
II. Ibrman Carb.
(2) CARBmnt AND Orxhbt.
in. Jjfme of ^njfQs.
Prince David,
EatI Palatine of
Strathcarn, eldest
son of Robert 11^
created earl of
CfUthoeasearlvin
lilg father's rugn.
Malcolm,
his son.
John,
Malcolm's son,
died aboat
isao.
IV. ^al SUtiawci ^int.
2
Enphemla, his
daogfater, ooiust'
eea of Caithneas,
redgned eazldoDi
infir^onrof
her onde Walter,
Lord Breobln.
Waltttv
Lord BreehlAf
ad son of
BobertIL,
by Biiphcimto
ftOOL
Masrnas.
earl of Orkney,
In right of Ills
wiiiB, dangfator
or sister of
lastEarL
Alan, bis ton,
on realgnatloa of
hlsfklber,!^
grant of James I,
1410. Kmedin
baltlel4»L
Walter, eari of
Ath<d, resumed
title by reversion
on death of hia
SOIL ForMted
tm his exeoatioB,
1487.
Malia&earlof
Stratbeani,
In right of Mi
wUb Isabella,
daac^teroT
BarlMaguiUk
V. (tric^oit.
Bir George de
Criofaton, eld«r
son df Stephen
Criohtonof
Cainia,
cxeatedl4(l
Died 141ft.
ntto extiiiet.
William Shidair,
3d eari of
Orkney, created
eari of Caithness
iiil4&d.
William, hit son,
on reaignatloo of
his flithe? 1476,
slain at Flodden
15181
YI. Jj^hu of limclair.
3 4
John, bis son,
slain Ui battle.
Cleorge,
bis son, died.
1082.
George, his
grmdseo, styied
"•The Wloked
Eari." Died
1448.
George, his
withotttli
1478.
grsat
died
£ampbtll.
VI. Jpbtt of Simlaii wsiraub.
Sir John Campbell
of Glenurchy, cre-
ated earl of Caith-
ness 1677. Belin-
quiabed tiUe 1681.
Created carl of
Breudalbane
same year.
George Sinclair
DfKeisa, grandson
or6thearl,168L
Died, without
Iasae,16da
William Sinclair
of Ratter, 6th in
descent from John
Masier of Caith-
ness, father of
0th iori, obtained
earldom 1772.
Died 1779.
John, his BtXL
Died, without
ia8ae,178$.
John Sinclair
of Mey, great-
grand-nephew of
fifth eari.
Died 1705.
Sir James
Sinclair of Mey,
Bart, 10th Ip
Uneal descent
from 4th Eari.
Died 18^
Alexander,
his son,
I>lodl765.
IS. Alexander
his son.
Died 1855^
14. Jam»,bisson,
bom 1821.
Married, with
ARMS OF SINCLAIR, EARL OF CAITHKKS8.
Qoarterings:-!. for the Uile of Orimev. 2. 8. and 4, for the tiUe of Caithness. O^er alJigitized by
a cruM enffmUod. dividmir the 4 ounrtera. sable, tor Sinclair.
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CAITHNESS,
521
EARI.S OF.
oond, in 1222 [if so, this most have been on the forfeiture of
Eari John] on payment of a yearly duty of ten pounds ster-
ling to the king and his successors. He had a ion, MalooUn,
who succeeded him, of whom nothing is known but his name.
His son John, earl of Caithness, was one of the Scottish no-
Mes to whom King Edward addressed a letter proposing the
marriage of his son to Margaret of Norway, the young queen
of Scotland, dated at Brigham, 12tb March 1269-90. He
was also one of the peers who made default when Baliol held
his first parliament at Scone 10th February 1292-^ In
1296 he swore fealty to Edward the First, but his name does
nut occur in the Remaiics on the Kagman RoU. He died
about 1830. His succession is inrolved in perplexity. It
would appear, however, that this earl John was succeeded by
a daughter or sister, married to Magnus, earl of Orkney, to
whom she brought the earidom of Caithness ; that Magnus,
earl of Caithness and Orkney, had two daughters, his heir-
esses, Margaret, married to Simon Fraser, (supposed to be
the Simon Fraser killed at Ualidonhill in 1333,) and Isabella,
married to Malise, earl of Stratheam, who, in her right, was
ahio earl of Caithness and Orkney, and accordingly was styled
earl of Stratheam, Caithness, and Oriciiey, and that he had
four daughters, coheiresses ; the eldest, whose name is not
given, married to William, earl of Ross; Isabel, to Sir William
Sinclair of Roslin ; Matilda, to a person named de le Arde;
and the youngest, whose name also has not been recorded, to
Reginald Chene. IDougUu' Peerage, vol. L page 293.]
The title was next possessed by a branch of the royal fam-
ily of Stewart; Prmce David, earl-palatine of Stratheam,
eldest son of King Robert the Second, by his second wife,
Kaphamia Ross, having been by his father created earl of
Caithness early in his reign. In several charters he is styled
earl-palatine of Stratheam and earl of Caithness. [See
Stbathearn, earl of.] His daughter Euphamia, countess
palatine of Stratheam, resigned the earldom of Caithness in
favour of her uncle Walter, Lord Brechin, second son of
King Robert the Second, by Euphamia Ross, and he accord-
ingly obtamed from King Robert the Third a charter of the
earidom of Caithness and regality thereof. On being aiUr-
wards created eari of Athol, he resigned the earldom of
Caithness in favom- of his second son, Alan, who obtained
fpim King James the Furst, a grant of the earldom, dated at
^ Perth 15th May 1430, to himself and legitimate heirs male,
whom failing to revert to his father, Walter, earl of Athol.
The following year Donald Balloch, a near relation of the po-
tent lord of the isles, landed in Lochaber, with a considera-
ble force, and ravaged that district in the most relentless
manner. To check his ferocity and defend the western coast,
Alan ^%xi of Caithness and Alexander earl of Mar marched
witb the royal army, and met the island warrior at the an-
cijnt castle of Inverlochy, near Fort William, in tlie county
of Inverness. A bloody conflict ensued, in which the royal
troops were completely defeated. The earl of Caithness was
siam ; acd sixteen of his personal attendants, besides many
barons and knights, were left dead on the field. Having no
issue, the earidom reverted to his father, and on his attainder
for the execrable murder of his nephew. King James the
First, in U37, it was foriieited and annexed to the crown.
The next possessor of the title was Sir George de Crich-
ton, the elder of two sons of Stephen Crichton of Cairns, of
the family of Crichton of Crichton. Havuig acquired the
favour of King James the Second, Sir George was constituted
lord high admiral of ScoUand, and obtained several consider-
able grants of hmd from that monarch in 1450, 1451, and
1452, and in the latter year he was created earl of Caithness,
the honours being limited to the heirs male of his body, by
h-s second wife, Janet Borthwick, daughter of Sir Wiiham
Borthwick of Borthwick and relict of James Douglas, Lord
Dalkeith. He had a daughter Janet, who inherited the
lands of Bamton, in the county of Edinburgh, and who mar-
ried John Maxwell, supposed to be a younger son of Herbert
second Lord Maxwell, by whom she had a son George Max-
weU. The earl of Caithness died in 1455, when the title be-
came extmct, and the large estates of the earldom, with the
exception of Bamton and Caims, appear to have reverted to
the crown.
The earldom was next, by James the Second, conferred,
28th August, 1455, on William Sinclair, third earl of Ork-
ney [see Orkmkt, earl of], lord high chancellor of Scotland,
in compensation, as the charter t)ears, of a claim of right
which he and his heirs had to the lordship of Niddesdale.
He was afterwards designated earl of Orkney and Caithness,
but after 1471, in which year he surrendered to King James
the Third the earldom of Orkney, ho was styled earl of Caith-
ness aione. From him the present branch of the family
which now enjoys the title is remotely descended. He was
twice married, and had a son by each wife, botli named Wil-
liam Sinclair. Passing by the son of the first marriage, he
resigned, in 1476, the earldom of Caithness in favour of his
son by his second wife, Marjory; and he, in consequence,
obtiuned a charter of the whole lands of the earldom, &c., to
him and his heirs whatsoever, 7th December of that year.
William Sinclair, the second earl of this race, was killed,
with his royal master, James the Thu^, at the battle of Flod-
den in 1513. He married Mary, daughter of Sir William
Keith of Inneragy, by whom he had two sous, John, his suc-
cessor, and Alexander Sinclair of Stamster.
John Sinclair, the third earl, in 1516 entered into bonds of
friendship and aUiance, for mutual protection and support,
with Adam, earl of Sutherland, from whom, on account
thereof, he received a grant of some lands upon the east side
of Uie water of UUy ; notwithstanding of which he joined the
Mackays, and other enemies of the earl of Sutherland, and
took part in all the feuds and qnarreb of the country against
the Sutherland family. The earl of Sutherland, in conse-
quence, brought an action before the lords of council and ses-
sion against the earl of Caithness to recover back fiDm him
the lands of Strathully, on the ground that he had not ful-
filled the condition on which the lands were granted to him.
There were other minor pomts of dispute between the earls,
to get all which determined, they both repaired to Edinburgh,
where, by the advice of mutual friends, they referred the de-
cision of their differences to Gavin Dunbar, bishop of Aberdeen,
who pronounced his award lltli March 1524, wluch put an end
to all controversies, and made the earb live in peace with one
another ever afler. In 1529, he and Lord Smclair [see Sin-
clair, lord] invaded Orkney with a numerous force, in order
to assert some claim which they professed to have to the
Orkney islands, arising out of the renewed lordship of the
earldom of Orkney, and were enconntered by the Orcadians,
under the command of James Smclair, governor of Kirkwall
castle, at Summerdale or Bigswell in Stenness, 18th May of
that year, and there they sustained a most disastrous and
signal defeat, the earl of Caithness and five hundred of his
followers being slain, and Lord Sinclair and the survivors
taken prisoners. In the old Statistical account of Frith and
Stenness a copy is inserted of a nineteen years' respite to
Edward Sinclair and his accomplices, for art and part of the
convocation and gathering of the heges in umiycd battle
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CAITHNESS,
522
EARLS OF.
against mnquhile John earl of Caithness, and for art and
part of the slaughter of the said earl and his friends. By
Elisabeth his wife, daughter of William Sutherland of Dnf-
fos, he had two sons, William, who appears to hare died be-
fore his father, and George, fourth earl of G^thness.
The fourth earl was a cruel and avaricious nobleman, who
scrupled not at the commission of the greatest crimes for the
attamment of his purposes. The bishop of Gaithness being in
banishment in England, the earl and Donald Maxkaj^ a chief
with whom he was in terms of friendship, took possession of the
bishop's lands, and levied the rent, for the behoof, as they pre-
tended of the exiled bishop. Mackay possessed himself of the
castle of Skibo, one of the bishop*s palaces, which he fortified,
while the earl, on his part, took possession of the castle of Stra-
bister, another of the episcopal residences. But upon the re-
storation of the bishop, both the earl and Mackay absolutely re-
fused to surrender to him these, or any other parts of his pos-
sessions, or to account to him for the rents they had collected
in his name. On their refiisal, the earl of Huntly, who was
at that time lieutenant-general in the north of Scotland, and
the earl of Sutherland, summoned them to appear before
them at Hehnsdale, to answer for their intromissions with the
bishop's rents, and for their usurpation of his residences,
llie earl munediately obeyed the odl, and although the river
of Helmsdale was greatly swollen by recent heavy rains, he,
in order to show his ready submission, crossed it on foot, to
the great danger of his life, as the water was as high as his
breast Having made a final and satisfactory arrangement,
the earl returned into Gaithness. Mackay was committed a
prisoner to the castle of Foulis.
On the arrival of the queen regent at Inverness, m July
1555, having undertaken a journey to the north at that pe-
riod, for the represuon of the tumults and disorders then pre-
valent, she was met by the earls of Gaithness and Sutherland.
The former had been requested to bring his countrymen along
with him to the court, and having neglected or declined to do
so, he was committed to prison at Inverness, Aberdeen, and
Edinburgh, successively, and was not restored to liberty till he
had paid a considerable sum of money. He obtained a re-
mission under the great seal, loth December 1556, and had
two charters of the office of justiciaiy from Portinculter to
the PentUnd Frith, 17th April 1566 and 14th Febmaiy
thereafter, ratified in parliament 19th April 1567. On the
12th of the latter mon^ and year, he was one of the jury on
the trial of the eari of Bothwell for the murder of Damley,
and when the verdict of acquittal was returned, he protested
in their name that no crime should be imputed to them on
that account, because no accuser had appeared, and no proof
was brought of the indictment He took notice, also, that
the 9th instead of the 10th of February was specified in the
indictment, as the day on whidi the murder was committed.
This George, fourtii earl of Gaithness, had long home a
mortal hatred to John, earl of Sutherland, and it is said that
he instigated his oousm, Isobel Smclair, wife of Gilbert Gor-
don of Gartay, and sister of William Sinclair of Dumbaith, to
poison the earl and countess, who was near her confinement,
while at supper at Helmsdale, in the month of July 1567.
Their only son, and heir, Alexander Gordon, made a very
narrow escape, not having returned in time from a hunting
excursion to join his father and mother at supper. The eari
and countess were carried next morning to Dunrobin, where
they died within five days thereafter, and to free himself fin>m
the imputation of being concerned in this murder, the earl of
Gaithness punished some of the earl of SutherlancTs most
faithful servants, under the colour of avenging his death,
llie deceased earFs ^ends, however, apprehended Isobel Sin-
clair, and sent her to Edinburgh for trial, but, after being
condemned, she died in prison on the day appointed for bei
execution. During all the time of her iUness she ottered the
most dreadful imprecations on the eari of Caithness, for hav-
ing incited her to the horrid act The eldest son of this wo-
man, John Gordon, was the next male heir to the earldom of
Sutherland, after Alexander, the son of the murdered earl,
and happening to be in the house when his mother had pre-
pared the poison, and becoming extremely thirsty, he called
for a drink. One of his mother's servants, not aware of the
preparation, presented to the youth a portion of the pooooous
liquid, which he drank. This occasioned his deaUi within
two dajTS, a drcnmstanoe which, with the appearances of the
body after death, gave a due to the discovery of hb mother's
guilt
The earl of Gaithness now formed a design to get the yomig
earl of Sutherland into his hands, and prevailed upon Bobot
Stewart, bishop of Caithness, to write a letter to the gover-
nor of the castle of Skibo, in which the eari of SnUieriand
resided, to deliver up the castle to him ; a request with whidi
the governor complied. Having taken possession of the cas-
tle, the earl carried off the young man into Caithness, and
though only fifteen years of age, he got him married to Lady
Barbara Sinclair, his daughter, then thirty-two years old.
Mackay of Far, an ally of the eari of Caithness, was the par-
amour of this lady, and for continuing the ooimexioa with
him, she was afterwards divorced by her husband. In the
meantune the earl of Gaithness fixed his residence at Dunro-
bin castle, in Sutherlandshire, the seat of his miiKR' soo-in-
law, whom he treated with great indignity, and burnt all the
papers belonging to the house of Sutheriand, on which he
could lay his hands. He expelled many andent families from
Sutherland, put several of the inhabitants to death, and ban-
ished others, after disabling them in their persons, by new
and unheard of modes of torture, and stripping them of all
their possessions. He even entertained the intention of de-
stroying the earl of Sutheriand himself, and marrying Wil-
liam Sindair, his own second son, to Lady Margaret Gordon,
the ddest sister of the earl of Sutherland, but the latter being
apprised in time of his designs, made his escape from Dun-
robin castle. In revenge, the eari of Caithness sent his eldest
son, John Master of Caithness, snmamed from his great
strength, Garrow [from the Gaelic word ^orM, rough or
strong] with a large party of followers, to attack Hug^ Mor-^
ray of Abersoors and others of that name, residing about the
town of Dornoch, who were firmly attached to the family of
Sutheriand, and who, after various skirmishes, took refuge in
the town and castle of Dornoch, which were besieged by the
Gaithness men, and for a while manfully defended. After
burning the Cathedral and reducing the town, the master at-
tacked the castle, and the Murrays were, in the end, obliged
to capitulate, and having undertaken to depart out of Suth-
erland within three months, they defivered three hostages for
fulfilment of the conditions. The eari refused to ratify the
treaty conduded by his son, and basely beheaded the three
hostages. This took place in 1570, and in 1576 the castle at
Gimigo, which was at that period the baronial residence ci
the earl of Caithness, became the scene of one of the most
fearful atrodties on record. John Garrow, the master ol
Caithness, had incurred the suspidon and displeasure of his
father, the earl, on account of Uie treaty concluded with the
Murrays, because he did not, when he had the opportunity,
extirpate the whole inhabitants of Dornoch. While convers-
ing with his father, he was arrested by a party of armed men,
who, upon a secret signal bemg given by the earl, had rushed
in at the chamber-door. He was instantly fettered, and
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CAITHNESS,
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EARI^ OP.
tlinist into a dark dungeon below the castle, in which he
dragged oat for seven jears a wretched existence. At last
his keepers, David and Ingram Sinclair, relatives of his own,
determined to destroy him, and after having kept hun for
some time without food; they gave him a large mess of salt
beef, and then withholding all drink from him, left him to die
of raging thirst.
The inhuman earl died at Edinburgh 9th September 1582,
and his body was buried in St Giles*, where a monument
was erected to his memory. His heart was cased in lead,
and placed in the Sinclair's aisle in the church of Wick,
where his murdered son was interred. He had married Lady
Elizabeth Graham, second daughter of William second earl
of Montrofie, and had three sons and five daughters. In an
mcoision of the earl of Sutherland into Caithness in 1588,
afterwards mentioned, one of his followers having entered the
church of Wick, found the leaden box which enclosed the
heart of the cruel earl of Caithness, and disappointed in his
expectations of treasure, he broke the casket open, and flung
the corrupted heart to the winds. His eldest son, John Gar-
Tow. had married Lady Jean Hepburn, only daughter of P»-
tricK, third eari of Bothwell, sister of the husband of Queen
Maxy, widow of John prior of Coldingham, and mother of
Francis the turbulent earl of Bothwell, and had issue George
tlie fifth earl of Caithness, three other sons, and a daughter,
married to Sir John Home of Coldingknows.
George the fifth earl succeeded his grandfather in 1582.
He b^an his career by avenging his father's death on his
two murderers. David Sinclair, one of them, resided at
Keiss, and the other, Ingram Sindair, at Wester. The
daughter of the latter was to be married, and a large psrty
were invited to the wedding. Earl George met David on his
way to Winter, and ran him through the body with his
sword. The earl then rode over to Wester, and accosted In-
gram as he was playing at football on the green. " Do you
know," said he, *^ that one of my corbies,'* so he called his
pistols, *^ missed fire this morning?** and drawmg it horn the
holster as if to look at it, shot him through the head. In
1583 he had a meeting with the earl of Sutherland at Elgin,
in the presenoe of the earl of Huntly, and other friends, when
the differences between the two earls bdng adjusted, they
were reconciled for the time to each other. Another meet-
ing subsequently took place between the two earls at the hill
of Bengrime in Sutherland, when they entered into a confed-
eracy against the clan Gunn. On the 19th May of the same
year (1585) the earl of Caithness had a remission under the
great seal to himself and twenty-two other persons, for being
art and part in the slaughter of David Hume of Crewschawis
and others. In 1587 the old feud broke out agam between
the rival houses of Caithness and Sutherland, and both par-
ties assembled their forces at Helmsdale ; but by the media-
tion of mutual friends a truce was agreed upon, after the
expiry of which the earl of Sutherland invaded Caithness,
in February 1588, when great slaughter and spoil took place.
The town of Wick was also pillaged and burnt, but the church
was preserved. The earl of Caithness, shut up in the castle
of Gimigo, which was strongly fortified, desired a cessation
of hostilities, and a conference with the earl of Sutherland.
Another truce was the consequence, which, however, did not
last long, and various battles, skirmishes, and forays ensued
between the rival earls and their followers. The earl of
Huntly and others, friends of the parties, in vain endeavoured
to reconcile them effectually, till March 1591, when the
earls met at Stnthbogie and agreed to live on terms of amity
in future; but in the year 1600, the earl of Ciuthness, under
the pretence of going on a hunting expedition, again invaded
Sutherland, and encamped near the hill of Bengrime, on
which the Sutherland and Strathnaver men assembled in
great force, and marched against him. After some messages
had passed between the two earls, the army of the earl of
Caithness retired, and both in a day or two after disbanded
their forces. He made another attempt in July 1607, to dis-
turb the peace of Sutherland, but was prevented from accom-
plishing his purpose by the sudden appearance in Strathully
of the earl of Sutherhuid at the head of a considerable force.
By the mediation of the marquis of HunUy the earls again
met at Elgin with their mutual friends, and once more ad-
justed their diffisrenoes. In the following year, some servants
of the eari of Orkney, being forced by stress of weather to
land in his country, the eari of Caithness apprehended them,
and after forcing them to swallow a quantity of spirits, which
completely intoxicated them, he ordered 'one side of their
heads and beards to be shaved, and compelled them to go to
sea, although the storm had not abated. On reaching Ork-
ney they complained to their master, who immediately laid
the case before the king. His majesty referred the matter
to his council for trial, but the earls of Caithness and Orkney
having arrived in Edinburgh, they were induced by their
friends to adjust the business amicably between themselves.
The criminal conduct of this earl of Caithness procured
for him the name of " the wicked earl,'* and involved him in
constant quarrels and difficulties. To recruit his exhausted
resources he took into his employment a coiner named Arthur
Smith, who had been tried and condemned to death for coun-
terfeiting the coin of the realm, but who, on the intercession
of Lord Elphinston, the Lord Treasurer of Scodand, had ob-
tained a pardon. This person continued in the employment
of the eari of Caithness for seven or eight years. His work-
shop was under the rock of castie Sinclair, in a quiet retired
place called the Gote, to which there was a secret passage
from the earl's bedchamber. No person was admitted to
Smith's workshop but the earl, and in a short time Caithnebs,
Orkney, Sutherland, and Ross were filled with base money,
which was first detected by Sir Robert Gordon, brother of the
earl of Sutherland, when in Sootiand in 1611, and on his re-
turn to England he made the king acquainted therewith.
His majesty thereupon addressed a letter to the lords of the
privy council, authoridng them to grant a commission to Sir
Robert to apprehend Smith and bring him to Edinburgh. In
the following year Smith was apprehended in his own house
in the town of Thurso, and in an endeavour to rescue him,
John Sinclair of Stirkage, nephew of the eari of Caithness,
was slain, and James Sinclair, brother of the laird of Dun,
severely wounded: and to prevent the escape of Smith he was
at once put to death by those in whose custody he was. The
earl of Caithness, at that time in Edinbujfgb, summoned the
leaders cf the parties who had killed his nephew and wounded
his kmsman, to appear at Edinbtu'gh and answer for their con-
duct. On the other hand his son. Lord Berriedale, and seve-
ral of their followers, were prosecuted by Sir Robert Gordon
for resbting the king's commission and attacking those who
bore it Previous to this affair. Sir Robert Gordon had caused
tha earl to be denounced and proclaimed a rebel to the king.
The parties were ordered to appear before the council at Ed-
inbui^h, and on the day appointed they met accordingly, at-
tended, as the custom then was, by their respective friends.
The coundl spent three days in investigating the matter,
both parties being, in the meantime, boimd over in their re-
cognizances to keep the peace, in time coming, towards each
other. The privy coundl ultimately granted a warrant for
deserting the criminal prosecutions, on a submission being
entered into, July 17, 1612, between the earls of Caithness and
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CAITHNESS,
524
EARLS OF.
Satherlaud, of all the matters in dispute between them. In
the previous month, the earl created a disturbance on the
High street of Edinburgh, by assaulting George Lord Gordon,
and great slaughter might hare been committed but for the
extreme darkness of the night, owing to which the parties
could hardly distinguish their own friends. Soon after he
rendered his name for ever infamous by betraying his kins-
man John Lord Maxwell, then under hiding for the murder of
Sir John Johnstone, whom he lured to Castle Sinclwr, under
the pretence of affording him shelter and secrecy until he could
conveniently leave the coimtry for Sweden. His real motive,
however, was that he might obtain favour at court by deliv-
ering him up. The countess of Caithness, (Lady Jean Gor-
don, only daughtei' of George, fifth earl of Huntly,) who was
Lord Maxwell's cousin, was likewise deceived by her husband,
naving been told by him that a report was spread abroad that
it was already known at court that Lord Maxwell was in
concealment in Caithness, and that it was necessary for their
mutual safety to set off for Edinburgh, to explain the matter;
and thus time would be afforded for Lord Maxwell's escape.
That unfortunate nobleman, then in weak health, was advised
to leave Caithness, and pass through Sutherland, that he
might not be taken in the territories of his treacherous
kinsman; but so anxious were the earl's servants to exe-
cute their commission that Maxwell was actually taken
within the county of Ctuthness, conducted to Thurso, where
Captain George Sinclair, a bastard nephew of the earl, was
impatiently waiting bis arrival, and carried back a prisoner
to Castle Sinclair, where he had so lately been a favoured and
honoured guest By command of the lords of the privy coun-
cil, Lord Maxwell was shortly afterwards delivered up, and
on 21st May 1613, was beheaded at the cross of Edinburgh.
In 1614 the earl was appointed king's lieutenant for quelling
the rebellion of his old enemy, Patrick, the notorious eari of
Orkney, in which he was successful, and his despatches to the
king and secretary of state are quoted in full in the third vol-
ume of *Pitcaim's Criminal Trials,' pp. 286—292. He
seems to have intruded himself into this commission, by
eagerly volunteering his services to the privy council, so as,
if possible, to ingratiate himself with his sovereign, by sup-
pressing a rebellion which had excited the alarm even of the
court of England. For hb services he obtained a pension of
a thousand crowns, and shortly after his return from his ex-
pedition to Orkney, he was made one of the lords of the privy
council in Scotland. His restless disposition and lawless pro-
ceedings, however, soon involved him in ruin. Enraged at
the Lord Forbes having succeeded, on the death of his brother-
in-law, George Sinclair, to his lands of Dunray and Dum-
baith, he seized every opportunity of annoying him in his
possessions, by oppressing his servants and tenants, under the
pretence of discharging his duty as sheriff, to which office he
had been appointed by the earl of Huntly on his marriage with
his sister. Complaints were made from time to time against the
earl, on account of these proceedings, to the privy council of
Scotland, who in some measure afforded redress; and to protect
his tenants more effectually. Lord Forbes took up hia temporary
residence in Caithness. On this, the earl secretly instigated
two of the Clan-Gun to bum the com of William Innes, a
servant of Lord Forbes at Sanset in Caithness in November
1615; and to remove suspicion from himself he industriously
spread a report that the fire-raising had been done by the
tenants of Mackay, the nephew of Sir Robert Gordon, with
whom the Forbeses were then at feud. The matter, how-
ever, having soon been disclosed by the Guns, who were the
actual perpetrators, the earl was closely prosecuted, and he
only obtained his remission, after a long inten-al, on the fol-
lowing conditions: 1st, By engaging to satisfy his namerona
creditors; 2d, By resigning into the king's hands the sheriff-
ship and justiciary of Caithness; dd, by engaging to present
to justice the incendiaries whom he had employed to bum Uw
com ; and, lastly, to resign to the bishop of Caithness die
house of Strabister, with certain feu lands of tiiat bishopric,
amounting to the yeariy value of two thousand marks Scots,
in augmentation of the bishop's scanty revenues. His son,
Lord Berriedale, whose character was quite di£ferent fitom
that of his father, was imprisoned for his father's debts for
above five years, but the earl himself obtained a * n^Mrsedene,'
or protection from legal diligence from the privy council
The creditors, however, apprized or sequestrated all his lands.
He was denounced rebel in 1621, and his own son, Lord Ber-
riedale, on the suggestion of Sir Robert Gordon and others,
applied for and obtabed a commission to pursue his father!
After his long imprisonment he was released for that purpose,
on finding due caution to return to ward after having exe-
cuted his commission. In September 1623, Lord Berriedale
and Sir Robert Gordon, the king's o(Hnmissioners, having
taken the field against the earl, he precipitately fled to Oris-
ney, intending to go thence to Norway and Denmark.
Castle Sinclair, and his other principal castles, were imme-
diately taken possession of in the king's name; and the com-
missioners succeeded in restoring peace to the county of
Caithness. He died in comparative obscurity, at Caithness,
in February 1643, at the advanced age of 78. During his
labt years he received an aliment firom his creditors out of bis
dilapidated estates. By his countess he had three sons and
one daughter. Lady Anne Sindair, married to Geoige thir-
teenth earl of Crawford.
William Lord Berriedale, the eldest son, appears to have
predeceased his father. By his wife, Mary, daughter of
Henry, third Lord Sinclair, he had a son, John, master of
Berriedale, who died of fever at Edinbui^ in September 1639,
and was buried in the abbey church of Holyroodhouae. Ut
had married Lady Margaret Mackenzie, eldest daughter ot
Colin, first earl of Seaforth, and had a son George, who soo-
oeeded his great-grandfather as sixth earl of Caithness. He
was committed a prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh 24th
July 1668, on account of the slaughter of a soldier &ent to
quarter for deficiency of cess and excise. He married in
1657 Lady Maty Campbell, third daughter of Archibald, mar-
quis of Argyle, but had no issue. Being deeply invdved io
debt, in 1672 he executed a disposition of his titles, estates,
and heritable jurisdictions, in favour of Sir John Campbell of
Glenm'chy, his principal creditor, who, after the death of the
earl, in May 1676, took possession of the estates, in virtue of
the above-mentioned disposition, and in June 1677 was cre-
ated earl of Caithness. On 7th April following he married
the widowed countess. His right to the title and estates was
disputed by George Sinclair of Keiss, son of Francis, second
son of George, fifth earl of Caithness, the heir male of the
family, who, when the new earl was in London the same year
(1678) entered Caithness with an armed force, and took vio-
lent possession of the lands of Keis, Tister, and Northfield,
which had been included in the disposition of 1672. Eari
John, on his return to ScoUand, complained to the privy
council, and an order to the sheriff of Caithness was, in con-
sequence, issued, to call the parties before him, and ascertain
which ef them had the best right to the lands. The sheriff
decided in favour of the earl, and charged George Sinclair to
remove, but the messenger was deforced. To support his
claim to the lands in dispute, earl John obtained an order
from the privy council, 7th June 1680, to General DalzeU, to
assist with a partv of troops, and raising his own friends and
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CAITHNESS,
625
TWELFTFT EARL.
followers, he marched from the banks ot the Tay to beyond
the promontory of the Ord. Keias, on his part, collected a
force of four hundred men, and waited his coming in the
burgh of Wick. There he plentifully regaled his followers,
who had not recovered from their revel, when, on 13th July,
chey were informed that " the Campbells were coming** across
the country towards them. Inflamed with drink and hatred
of the intruders, the adherents of Keiss rushed furiously upon
their assulants, who were strongly posted on the western
bank of the bum of Altimarlach, on the northern side of the
river of Wick. A total rout of Sinclair's men immediately
ensued. Taming their backs, they fled through the gully,
towards the river, and so great were the numbers killed in
attemptmg to cross, that, according to tradition, the Camp>
bells, in pursuit of the fugitives, passed over diyshod on the
bodies of the slain. George SincUir, thus deprived of his
lands, prosecuted the more earnestly his claim to the title of
esrl of Caithness, and the privy council, under a reference
from parliament, found that he had a right to that dignity^
and he acconUngly took his place as a peer, 15th July 1681.
Sir John Campbell, on being thus obliged to relinqubh that
peerage, was created eari of Breadalbane. [See Brbadal-
BANB, earl of, ante, p. 379.]
In November 1680 Qeorge Sinclair, earl of Caithness, pre-
ferred a complaint to the privy council that Breadalbane bad
abused, to cmelty and oppression, the power which the coun-
cil had given him of fire and sword. Breadalbane recrimi-
nated Against him that, among many other things, he had
wilMly burnt the mansion house of Thurso east Both com-
plunts were remitted to the court of justiciary. In Decem-
ber of that year articles of treason were exhibited against
Breadalbane for fire-raising, murder, treasonable garrison of
houses, convocation of the lieges, and acting beyond his war-
rant from council, but these charges were not brought to trial.
In the foDowing August the earl of Caithness petitioned par-
liament to put him in repossession of his paternal estate of
Keiss, Tister and Northfield, and on the 28d September, the
privy council, to whom the petition had been referred, found
that he had been unwarrantably deprived of these lands, and
therefore ordained him to be restored to them. After the
death of the earl, however, in 1698, the earl of Breadalbane
again obtained possession of Keiss and the other two estates
mentioned, but he was hated by the Sinclairs, who burned
the com and houghed the cattle of the tenants on the estates,
till at last he divided the whole of his lands in Caithness into
sixty-two portions, great and small, and sold them to difler-
ent persons. Jane Sinclair, sister and heiress of the deceased
eari, and the wife of Sur James Sinclair of Mey, was forcibly
removed out of the house of Keiss, which she possessed afW
the death of her brother, by a writ of ejectment and a party
of armed men.
On the death of the seventh earl, the title devolved on the
heir male, John Sinclair of Mey, the grandson of Sir James
Sinclair of Murchil, second sop of John, master of Caithness,
and brother of the fifth earL John, who thus became the
eighth eari, took the oaths and his seat in parliament 25th
July 1704. He died in 1705, leaving by his wife, Janet Car-
michael of the Hjmdford family, thi'ee sons and one daughter.
Alexander, the eldest son, was the ninth earl of Caithness.
The Hon. John Sinclair of Murchil, or Murkle, the second
son, became a member pf the faculty of advocates in 1718,
was appointed a lord of session, 8d November 1783, and died
at Edinburgh, 5th June 1755. He married Lady Anne Mac-
kenzie, daughter of George, first eari of Cromarty, but had
no issue.
The ninth earl took the oaths and his se.it m pnrlinment.
17th December 1706, while the treaty of union was before
the hotile, and voted against all the articles of that treaty
discussed subsequent to that date. He possessed the title
sixty years, outliving every peer who had sat in the Scots
parliament, and died 9th December 1765, in the 8l8t year of
his age. He married 15th February 1738, Lady Margaret
Primrose, second daughter of Archibald, first earl of Rose-
beny, and had one child, Lady Dorothea Sinclau*, married to
James, second earl of Fife, without issue. The ninth earl
had devised his own estate, and that of Murkle, (to which he
had succeeded on his brother*s death,) failing his own heirs
male and the heirs male of his brother Francis, and the
younger sons, succesmvely of his daughter, the countess of
Fife, if she had any, to George Sinclair of Woodhall, one of
the lords of session, and his heirs male^ his nearest lawful
heir male of line. A competition arose for the landed pro-
perty betwixt the countess of Fife and Sir John Sinclair ot
Stevenson, nearest male heir of Une of Lord Woodhall. The
court of session preferred Sir John Sinclair, 24th June 1766,
and its decision was afiumed on appeal 6th April 1767.
The earidom of Caithness devolved on William Sinclair ot
Ratter, fifth in descent from Sir John Sinclair of Greenland,
thu^ son of John, master of Caithness, the father of the fifth
earl. This William Sinclair was bom 2d April 1727, and
on the death of Alexander the ninth earl in 1765, he sued
out a brief from the chancery for serving himself heir male
to that earL One James Sinclair likewise sued out a
brief to the same eflect, .Hud stated his pedigree to be from
Sir James Sinclair of Murchil, second son of John, master of
Caithness. At the peers' election, 2l8t August 1766, the lat-
ter claimed his place as. earl of Caithness, but was not ad-
mitted by the lord register. At subsequent elections he ten-
dered his vote, but with the same result. On the 28th No-
vember 1768, William Sinclair of Ratter was served nearest
lawfiil heir male to Alexander, ninth earl of Caithness. He
then presented a petition to the king, claiming that title and
dignity, which petition was, by his mtgesty's command, re-
mitted to the House of Lords : and it w^as resolved by the
committee of privileges, 7th May 1772, that he had made out
his right, and he accordingly became the tenth earl. He died
at Edinburgh 29th November 1779, in the 53d year of his
age. By bis countess, Barbara, daughter of Sinclair of Scots-
calder, he had issue, John, eleventh earl of Caithness, another
son, and two daughters.
John, the eleventh earl, entered the army as an ensign in
the 17th foot, in September 1772, and became major of the
76th foot, 29th December 1777. He served some years in
America, and was wounded in the groin by a musket hall
while reconnoitring with Sir Henry Clinton at the siege of
Charlestown. He succeeded his father in 1779, and had the
rank of lieutenant-colonel in the army, 19th Febraary 1783.
He died suddenly at London, 8th April 1789, in the 83d
year of his age. His lands of Ratter and Hollandmark were
brought to a judicial sale, and sold for £13,313. His brother
having died childless, the title went to a very distant branch
of the family. Sir James Sinclair of Mey, the ninth in lineal
descent from George Sinclair of Mey, third and younger son
of the fourth carL
James, the twelfth earl, was bom at Barrogill castle, 31st
October 1766. He succeeded his father, Sir John Sinclair ot
Mey, baronet, in the baronetcy in 1774, (that title having
been conferred on the family, 2d January 1631,) and became
twelfth earl in 1789, but did not immediately assume the
title. His lordship was chosen one of the ^teen representa-
tive Scots peers, at the general election in 1807. He was
lord-lieutenant of the county of Calthne<}s and Ueutenant-
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CALDER.
626
CALDEB.
colonel of the Ross-shire militia. Ue died in October 1828.
He nuuried at Thurso castle, 2d January 1784, Jane, second
daughter of General Alexander Campbell of Barcaldine, dep-
uty governor of Fort George, niece of the late Sir John Sin-
clair of Ulbeter. baronet, and had issue, John, Lord Berrie-
dale, who died 1st June 1802, in his fourteenth year; Alex-
ander, Lord Berriedale, who succeeded as thirteenth earl ;
four other sons, and three daughters.
The thirteenth earl was bom 24th July 1790. In early
life he was for some time in the army as ensign and lieuten-
ant in the 42d regiment. Died in 1855. He married, 22d
November 1818, Frances Harriet, youngest daughter and co-
heiress of the Very Rev. William Leigh of Ruahall Hall, Staf-
fordshire, dean of Hereford ; issue, James, 14th eari, bom
16th Dec 1821, married in 1847, the youngest daughter of
Sir George Richard Philips, baronet; two other sons, one of
whom died young. Issue of 14th earl, a daughter bora
1854, and a son, Lord Berriedale, bora 1858.
The earldom of Caithness, says Douglas in his Peerage, is
not in its proper place in the union roll, being postponed to
Rothes, Morton, Buchan, Glencaira, Eglinton, and Cassillis,
although these six were created subsequently to 1455.
Calder, an ancient surname assumed from the lands of
Calder, now Cawdor, in Nairashire, but derived originally
from the French name of de Cadella, from which the name of
Cadell takes its rise, Hugo de Cadella being thane of Calder
m the reign of King Malcolm Canmore, in whose restoration
he was veiy instramental, and in consequence was liberally
rewarded by that monarch. His son, Gilbertus de Cadella,
in 1104 obtained from King Edgar a grant of the lands of
Calder, &c. in the county of Naira. His son, Alexander,
who succeeded him, discovered a conspnmcy of the Macdonalds,
Murrays, and Cumings, to assassinate King Alexander the
First at Bell-Edgar in his expedition to the north, for which
good service, that monarch, on his retura, confirmed to him
the thanedom of Calder, in 1112. For three generations no-
thing more appears on record conceraing the family of Cal-
der, except that in the year 1230, Helen, a daughter of the
family, was married to Scliaw Macintosh of Madntoeh. In
1295 Donald, thane of Calder, was one of the inquest on the
extent of Rilravock and Easter Geddes, in the parish of
Naira, the property of his neighbour, Hugh Rose of Kilra-
vock. His supposed son, William, had a charter of the Tha-
nage from Robert L, 1810. He had a son, William, men-
tioned in his father's lifetime, 1350. The next ascertained
thane of Calder was Andrew. Boece relates that one Tho-
mas, a valiant knight, supposed to be thane of Calder, was
killed fighting on the side of the Cumyn &ction against the
regent, Andrew de Moravia, before 1888, Robert Cumyn and
William Cumyn being slain at the same time ; but this seems
an invention of his own, as no such event is known in his-
tory. Local tradition avers that the thane Andrew was mur-
dered by Sir Alexander Rait of that ilk, and the lands of
Rait being forfeited, were given to the thane of Calder^s
heir, in consideration of his father*s murder. His son,
Donald, succeeded him. Donald's son, William, succeeded
in 1442. In 1454 he is designated by the king, James IL,
as his loved familiar squire, dUectua famUiaris Mcuiifer.
With Thomas Carmichael, canon of Moray, he held the joint
office of Cn»wn chamberlain beyond Spey. He was the ori-
ginal builder of the castie of Cawdor. Tradition mentions
another son, Hutoheon or Hugh, who in 1452 attended Al-
exander earl of Huntly, the king's lieutenant, in his expedi-
tion against the earls of Crawford and Douglas, then in re-
iK'llion, and Huntly having routed the forces of these two earls
at the battie of Brechin, Hutcheon, being too eager in Um
pursuit, was taken prisoner by the enemy, and brought to
Finhaven, whither Crawford had retired ; but he being alarmed
while at supper with the news of Huntly's approach, fled
with such precipitation that Hutoheon and several other pris-
oners made their escape. Hutcheon carried off the mlver cup
out of which Crawford drank, and presented it to Huntly at
Brechin as a sure evidence of Crawford's flight, for which
service, says the History of the family of Gordon incorrectiy,
Huntly, upon his retura home, gave him the lands of Ass-
wanly, and George duke of Gordon gave to his successor a
massy silver cup gilded, whereon the history of the transac-
tion was engraved. From this Hutcheon was supposed to
have descended the family of Calder, baronet of Mmrtown
(see foUowing article) ; but in a note appended by the late
Admiral Sir Robert Calder, baronet, to a copy of * Nisbet's
Heraldry' in the Advocates' library, the appendix to which
contains an account of the family of Calder, it is stated that
'* the Calders of Asswanly are not descended from Hutcheon,
second son of Donald thane of Calder, nor has the grant of
the lands of Asswanly any reference to the battle of Brechin,
which was fought on the 18th May 1452, twelve years sub-
^uent to the date of the grant of the foresaid Unds of Ass-
wanly, as appears by a charter of confirmation from the king
dated at Edinburgh 8th July 14d0, of the grant of the lands
of Asswanly, by Sir Alexander Setonne to Hugh Calder, son
and hehr of Alexander Calder, and to his spouse Elizabeth
Gordonne, dated at Elgin, the last day of August 1440."
This note is dated Edmburgh, 29th September 1802, and the
original charter was stated to be in the possession of the said
Rear-admiral Sir Robert Calder.
William, thane of Calder, in his father's lifetime, nndrr
the name of William de Calder, was a witness in a charter
of confirmation granted by Alexander earl of Roes to Sir
Walter Innes, of the lands of Aberkerder, dated 22d Febru-
ary 1438. He went with William eari of Douglas, t4> the
Jubilee at Rome in 1450. [Abercromby^s Martial Achieve-
menta, vol. ii. p. 848, in which he is styled the lord Calder.]
In 1467 Thane William attended parliament as proxy of the
earl of Ross, and died in 1468. He had a brother, Alexan-
der, who, (ir another brother whose name has not been trana-
mitted to us, went, with several other Scots gentlemen, to assist
Charles VII. of France against the English, and firom him
is descended the family of De la Campagna in Tonlonae.
William's son, William, thane of Calder, is mentioned among
the barons present in parliament in 1469 and 1471, and in
the "former year he served upon the assise which convicted
Alexander Boyd of high treason. The thanedom and other
lands belonging to William were erected into a fee barony in
his favour in the year 1476, and declared to lie within the
shire of Nnim, although they are situated in different sliires.
He died about 1503. William, his eldest son, being lame
and inclining to enter the church, renounced his right to the
estate, upon 29th April 1488, which his father entailed
on his second son, John, and his heirs. Iii virtue thereof^
John was infeft in the year 1493, and the father, then
aged, gave^ up the estate to him. He married, in 1492,
Isabella, daughter of Hugh Rose of Kilravock, and died
in 1498. Two dnughters, Janet and Mnrrid, were bora
after his death. Janet died while yet a mere child, and
Murriel succeeded to the estate, in virtue of the above-men-
tioned entail.
Archibald earl of Argyle, and Hugh Rose of Kilravock,
uncle to the young heiress, were appointed tutors dative to
her by King James the Fourth in 1494, and Campbell of
Innerliver was sent to Kilravock in 1499, with sixty men, to
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CALDER,
627
SIR ROBERT.
ONivej hor to Inyerary, to be educated in the family of Argyle.
But on their way thither with the infant heiresa, they were
punned by Alexander and Hugh Calder, her uncles, at the
head of a considerable force. They overtook the party of
Campbell in Strathnaim, on which the latter sent her for-
ward with one of his sons and a few men, and the rest kept
the Calders in check, till he was sure that his young oliarge
was safe and at a considerable distance. He then, after some
loss on both sides, followed and conducted her to Inverary,
where she was educated, and in 1510, she married Sir John
Campbell, 8d son of the 2d earl of Argyle, and ancestor of
the earls of Cawdor. [See Cawdor, Earl of.] The thanes
of Calder, as constables of the king's house, resided in the
castle of Nabm, and had a countiy-scat at what is now called
Old Calder, yestiges whereof still remain. But by a royal
license, dated 6th August 1454, they built the present tower
of Calder, now Cawdor.
The founder of the Calders of Muirtoone, Robert Calder, was
infeft in the lands of Asswanly, as above mentioned, in 1440.
He had two sons; the younger, James Calder, settled at Elgin,
and had a son who appears to have been in busmess there
from 1607 to 1636. His son, Thomas Calder, purchased m
1639 the lands of Sherif!miln, near Elgin. He was provost
of El^ in 1665, and in 1669 completed the building of a
noble mansion there. His eldest son, James Calder, laird of
Muirtoune, was created a baronet of Scotland and Nova Scotia,
5th November, 1686. By his wife, Grizzel, daughter of Sir
Robert Innes, Baronet, of Innes, he had a son, Thomas, the
second baronet, and several other children. His grandson,
Sir James Calder, the third baronet, married Alice, daughter
of Admiral Robert Hughes, by whom he had two sons, and a
dan^ter, the latter married to Admhral Roddam of Roddam,
county <^ Northumberland. He was succeeded by his elder
son, Sir Henry, a major-general in the army, whose son, Sir
Henry Roddam Calder, is the fifth baronet Su* Robert Cal-
der, the second son, and unde of the latter, was the distin-
guished admiral, a notice of whom follows. '
CALDER, Sir Robert, Bart., vice-admiral of
the blae, second son of Sir Thomas Calder of
Mairtoane, was bom in the family mansion, coan-
ty of Elgin, Jaly 2, 1745. At the age of fourteen
be entered as a midshipman on board of a man-
of-war. In 1766 he accompanied the Hon. George
Faulkener, as lieutenant of the Essex, to the West
Indies. Some years after he obtained the rank,
first of master and commander, and then of post-
captain of the navy. During the American war
he was employed in the Channel fleet. In 1782
he commanded the Diana, which was engaged
as a repeating frigate to Rear-admiral Kempenfelt,
who was lost in the Royal George, in Spithead
Roads, on the 29th August of that year. At the
commencement of the war with France, he was
appointed first captain to his bi'Other-in-law, Ad-
miral Roddam, whose flag was then flying on board
j the Barfleur. He afterwards commanded the The-
seus of 74 guns, which formed part of Lord Howe's
fleet in 1794 ; but having been despatched with rear-
admiral Montague's squadron, to protect a valuable
convoy destined for the colonies, he did not parti-
cipate in the brilliant victory of the 1st of June.
In 1796 he was app9inted by Sir John Jervis,
afterwards eai-1 St Vincent, captain of the fleet
under his command, and accordingly served in
that capacity on board the Victory, off Cadiz,
with a squadi-on of fifteen sail of the line and seven
frigates. For bis conduct in the battle off Cape St.
Vincent, Captain Calder, who was sent home with
the despatches, was knighted, and on 22d August
1798, was created a baronet of Great Britain.
On the 14th February 1799, he obtained his flag
as rear-admiral by seniority, and April 23, 1804, he
was advanced to the rank of vice-admiral of the
white. While employed in this latter capacity, he
was selected, in 1805, by Admiral Coimwallis, then
commanding the Channel fleet, to blockade the
harbours of Ferrol and Corunna. The force in-
trasted to him on this occasion proved very inade-
quate to the service. He, however, retained his
station, notwithstanding the manoeuvres of the
Brest fleet ; and on being joined by rear-admiral
Stirling, with fkve sail of the line from before
Rochefort, together with a frigate and a lugger, he
proceeded to sea for the express purpose of inter-
cepting the French and Spanish squadrons from
the West Indies under Admiral Villeneuve. They
soon after, near Cape Finisterre, descried the com-
bined fleet, consisting of twenty sail of the line,
five fi'lgates, and two brigs; while the English
force amounted to no more than fifteen ships, two
fi'lgates, a cutter, and a lugger. In the action
which ensued, and which continued for four hours,
two sail of the enemy's line, the Rafael of 84, and
the Firme of 74 guns, were captured ; while Sir
Robert did not lose a single sail of his own.
Ills success on this occasion obtained the full
approbation of his commander-in-chief, who soon
affcer despatched him, with a considerable squad-
ron, to cruize off Cadiz in order to watch the
motions of the enemy ; but, in the days when Lord
Nelson's splendid exploits led those in power to
expect great things from our commanders at sea,
so incomplete a victory even over a superior fleet,
did not satisfy parties at home ; and Sir Robert
immediately demanded a court-martial for thn
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CALDERWOOD,
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purpose of explaining his conduct. The court
found that, in spite of his inferior force, he had
not done his utmost to renew the engagement,
and to take and destroy every ship of the enemy,
and accordingly adjudged him to be severely re-
primanded. This sentence was as harsh as it was
uni*easonable and unmerited, and accordingly it
waa condemned by the nation in general, and the
admiralty soon after appointed Sir Robert port-
admiral at Portsmouth. The hardship of his case
was brought under the notice of parliament by the
duke of Norfolk and the earl of Romney. Sir
Robert Calder died at Holt, in Hampshire, Au-
gust 31, 1818. He had marrietl, in May 1779,
Amelia, only daughter of John Mitchell, Esq. of
Bayfield Hall, Norfolk, by whom he had no issue,
and his baronetcy accordingly became extinct.
Galderwood, a local snmame^ derived, as well as the
nrer Calder, which flows into the Cljde at Bothwell castle in
I^narkshire, from an ancient lordship and manor of the name,
comprising also the town and village of Great and Little Cal-
derwood. This estate was anciently possessed by the ances-
tors of David Calderwood, the ecclesiastical historian, a notice
of whose life follows, but it went out of the family lonj; before
his birth, and the Calderwoods were dispei-scd some into the
south of Scotland, and many to Ireland.
The proprietor of Calderwood appears to have done homage
in 129G, to Edward the First of England.
From a genealogical table and notices by Mr. David Lainjj,
in the eighth volume of the Wodrow Society's edition of Cal-
derwood's work, it appears that a family of the name of Cal-
derwood existed in Dalkeith towards the middle of the six-
teenth century; that one of that family named James died in
October 1567, leaving a son called Alexander Calderwood, and
a nephew called William Calderwood ; that this William, as
stated in simdry instruments relative to a property in Dal-
keith possessed by him and them, had two sons, one of whom,
tli% eldest, was also called William Calderwood, the younger
was David the historian; that Alexander Calderwood, son
of James and nephew to the historian, was bailie in Dal-
keith, and commissioner to the parliaments of 1648, 1649,
and March 1661, and a justice of peace 1663; that he had
nine sons, of whom the sixth was Sir William Calderwood,
bom 1661. sheriff- depute of Edinburgh from 1696 to 1701,
knighted 1706, raised to the bench as Lord Polton 1711, and
died at the age of 73 in August 1733. An account of his
descendants by James Denniston, Esq., is contained in the
appendix to the Coltness Collections of the Maitland Club,
1842. It further appears that besides William, and David
the historian, William Calderwood tlie elder had a younger
son, Archibald, a commissioner of war in the parliament of
March 1647, and that two nephews of the historian, via.
David, an apothecary in Edinburgh, died 1657, and Jmnes
his brother, minister of Humbie, died 1679, were the sons
of nis elder brother, William. Another near relative of
the historian was Thomas Calderwood, styled merchant, but
a stationer and bookseller, &c, in, and bailie and dean of
guild of, Edinburgh from 1652 to 1673, a commissioner of
teiiids 1672. died 1675, leaving two sons, William, minister
of Dalkeith, died 1680, and Archibald, mini.«iter of Hdyroud-
house Abbey, died 1681. The Calderwoods of Polton are
now merged in the family of Calderwood- Durham of Laigo.
A numerous branch of the Calderwoods flourished at tlie
same time in Musselburgh, bat they do not seem, says Mr.
Laing, to have had any immediate connexion with those ci
Dalkeith.
CALDERWOOD, David, an eminent divine
of the Church of Scotland, and ecclesiastic^ his-
torian, was descended of an ancient family, which
at one period possessed the estate of Calderwood
in Lanarkshire. His immediate relatives, as above
shown, belonged to Dalkeith and the neighbour-
hood, lie himself was bom in that town in 1575,
and received his education at the university of
Edinburgh, where he took the degree of A. M. in
1598. Being early designed for the ministry, ho
applied with great diligence to the study of the
Scriptures in the original tongues, the works of
the Fathers, and the best ftriters on church his-
tory. About the year 1604, he was settled as
minister of Crailing, near Jedburgh, and early
began to take a prominent part in the ecclesiasti-
cal proceedings of the period. He was one of
those unyielding presbyterian ministers who sti*en
uously opposed the designs of James the Sixth
for the introduction of episcopacy into Scotland.
In 1608, when Mr. James Law, bishop of Orkney,
made a visitation of the presbyteries of Merse and
Teviotdale, Mr. Calderwood, together with George
Johnston, minister of Ancrum, declined his juris-
diction by a paper under their hand, dated May
6th of that year. These two ministers had been
elected mombere of the General Assembly, but to
exclude them from this and other ecclesiastical
courts, the episcopalian visitor ordered them to be
"put to the horn" the veiy same night. The re-
gistration of the writ in the sheriflTs books was
with great diflSculty prevented, but in consequence
of Bishop Law's information, the king directed the
privy council to punish the two refractory ministers
in the severest manner. By the intercession, how-
ever, of the earl of Lothian, with the chanwllor
and the earl of Dunbar, they were ordered to be
confined to their respective parishes, a restriction
which continued for several years.
In February 1610, King James issued a com-
mission under the great seal of Scotland, for erect-
ing a court similar to the court of high commissiou
: i
J 1
:i I
'I .
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CALDERWOOP,
629
DAVID.
in England, in each of the two arclibishoprics of
St. Andrews and Glasgow. ^* This commission,**
says Calderwood, '^and execution thereof, as it
exalted the aspyring bishops farre above anie pre-
lat that ever was in Scotland, so it putt the king
in possessionn of that which he had long tyme
hunted for ; to witt, of the royall prerogative, and
absolute power to use the bodeis and goods of the
subjects at pleasure, without forme or processe of
the common law." [CcddenDooiTs Hist. vol. vii.
p. 62.] In May 1617, the king anived in Edin-
burgh, and the Scots pailmment assembled on the
17th of June. During its sitting the ministera
held several meetings in the Little Kirk, one or
more of the bishops being always present. Their
chief consultation was about augmentation of sti-
pends and provisions to ministers. On one of
these occasions when four or five ministers were
deliberating on this subject, Calderwood entered,
and hearing Knox, bishop of the Isles, make some
allusion to the English convocation, he protested
that such a meeting should not be acknowledged
as a General Assembly, or any other meeting
equivalent to it, *' or anie wayes to be a meeting
answerable to the Convocation house of England
in time of their parliaments.'* He was assured
that no alteration was to be apprehended, preju-
dicial to the liberties of the kirk, and that the
bishops had faithfully so promised. Of their fide-
lity in keeping their promises, he said, they had
had sufficient proofs for tlie last sixteen years, and
he was proceeding to show what had been the en*
croachmcnts of the bishops, when he was inter-
rupted by Dr. Whiteford and Dr. Hamilton,
" clothed in silks and satins," who urged upon the
meeting to attend to the subject before them, of
the plantation of kirks and the augmentation of
stipends. Finding that they were not disposed
to listen to his suggestions, he left the meeting
with the indignant remark, " It is an absurd thing
to sie men sitting in silks and satins, and crying
povertie, povertie, in the meane time when puri-
tie is departing.*' \Ihid, p. 251.]
The two archbishops, being informed of what
had taken place, repaired to the meeting next day,
and solemnly declared that no such innovations
were intended, ** or els they sail be content to be
ledd out to the Mercate Crosse, and be execute
on a scaffold," and yet, the day following, an ar-
ticle was passed among the Lords of the Articles
to the effect that the king, with the advice of the
bishops and such a number of the ministry as his
majesty might deem expedient, might frame new
laws for the church ; in consequence of which a con-
siderable number of the ministers assembled in
the music-school, and i*esolved upon drawing up
a remonstrance to be presented to his majesty and
to parliament. Two of the Edinburgh clergy,
Mr. Peter Ewart and Mr. William Struthers were
appointed to prepare it, and when it was finally
revised and agreed to, Mr. Archibald Simson,
ministei' of Dalkeith, was du*ected to sign it as
clerk of the meeting in name of the rest, and the
names of the others, fifty-five in number, were
subscribed in a separate paper, and delivered to
him as his warrant. The clerk register, to whom
a copy of the remonstrance had been presented,
refused to read it in parliament, and Simson hav-
ing been summoned before the high commission,
declined to produce the list of signatures, and was
committed a prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh.
The list he had intrusted to the master of the
music-school, Patrick Henryson, who delivered it
to Calderwood. The latter was therefore cited to
appear at St. Andi-ews on the 3th of July, there
to exhibit the roll of names, and *^ to answer for
his mutinous and seditions assistance to the said
assembly.*' Ewait and Simson were summoned
at the same time, and they all made their appear-
ance, but the examination was deferred till the
12th, that the king might be present, and take
pai-t in the proceedings. Ewart and Simson were
deprived, and the former ordered to be confined
in Dundee and the latter in Aberdeen. A long
account of Calderwood's examination is given in
his Histoiy, vol. vii. commencing at page 261.
On this occasion James endeavoured, using alter-
nately threats and cajoleries, to prevail on him to
yield, and " to come in his will," but he was nei-
ther to be overawed by any earthly authority
which he conceived to be unjustly exercised, nor
induced by any amount of wheedling, to relinquish
the grounds which had brought him in question
before the high commission. From the pains
taken with him it would appear that both James
and the bishops thought him a more dangerous
2l
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CALDERWOOD,
530
DAVID.
antagonist than either Ewart or Simson, whose
cases had been so easily disposed of, as if they had
had some prophetic warnings of the service which
he was afterwards to do the church by his invalu-
able History. Finding him inflexible, sentence of
suspension from the ministry till the following Oc-
tober was pronounced against him, on which he'
denied their power to pass such a sentence, when
the king, having whispered something in the eai*
of the archbishop of St. Andrews, the latter said,
" His majesty sayeth, that if ye will not be con-
tent to be suspended spuitually, ye shall be sus-
pended corporally." Calderwood, turning to the
king, undauntedly replied, "Sir, my body is in
your majesty*s hands to do with it as it pleaseth
your majesty ; but, as long as my body is free, I
will teach, notwithstanding of their sentence."
The king demanded if he would abstain from
teaching, for a certain time, if he should command
him by his regal authority, as from himself. In
the conftision, being at the time pestered with the
importunities of the bishops and others beside
him, he answered, thinking his majesty had been
still urging obedience to the sentence of suspen-
sion, "I am not muided to obey." The question
being repeated, and the same answer given, the
king, in a rage, ordered him to close confinement
in the tolbooth of St. Andrews, till his farther
pleasure were known. On his way to prison, ac-
companied by about forty ministers and gentle-
men, in charge of Sir David Murray, Loi*d Scoon,
some one asked the latter, "Where away with
that man, my lord ?" " First to the tolbooth, and
then to the gallows," he replied, probably antici-
pating that Calderwood's declared refusal to obey
the king himself would have the latter result.
That same night, finding from the statements of
those who resorted to him in prison, that he had
mistaken the king*s meaning, he drew up a peti-
tion to his majesty, offering to obey his majesty's
own commands, if set at liberty, in desisting to
preach for a certain time, but refusing to acknow-
ledge the sentence of suspension pronounced by
the bishops. Enraged at the distinction, the bish-
ops and their favourers not only prevented the
king from granting him his request, but gave out
that he had made a recantation of his principles.
By an order of the lords of secret council he was
soon after removed to the jail of Edinburgh, and
after being there ten days, on giving security (his
cautioner was James Cranstonn the son of Lord
Cranstoun) to banish himself from the kingdom
before the ensuing Michaelmas, and not to return
without the royal license, he was released from
prison.
Hearing that the king was about to return to
England, and that'he was to be in Cariisle, he
accompanied Lord Cranstoun to that town, where
that nobleman pi*esented to his majesty a petition
in his favour. He offered himself as cautioner
that, if Calderwood were allowed to remain in his
own pai'ish, he should not resort either to presby-
tery or any other meetings of ministers, either
public or private. The king inveighed against
Calderwood, and at last repelled Lord Cranstoun
with his elbow. On bidding good night, his lord-
ship again ventured to speak in behalf of the peti-
tioner. He entreated his majesty to permit him
to remain in Scotland till the last day of April,
that the winter season might be over before he
undertook a voyage, and his stipend taken up, for
the crop of that year. His majesty, however, was
not to bo moved. He declared that it was no
matter if he begged his bread, "he would ken
himself better the next time," and "as for the
season of the year, if he drowned in the seas, he
might thank Ood that he had escaped a worse
death." Notwithstanding this ungracious reply,
his loixlship still pressed his snit; but the only
answer he received was, " I shall advise with my
bishops." The king was heard several times af-
terwai-ds to call Calderwood " a refractory fool,"
and when congratulated by any of the English
ministers on his return, his common answer to
them was, " I hope you will not use me so irrev-
erently as one Calderwood in Scotland did." Lord
Cranstonn subsequently gave in a petition to the
council for an extension of the time of his depar-
ture from the realm, but it was referred to the
bishops, to whom also his lordship applied, and a
conference was held with Calderwood himself,
who made some offers to the bishops, but they
were not accepted, and as he could not be pre-
vailed upon to conform to the new regulations in
the church, the application, like all the rest, was
meffectnal. He continued, however, to remain i:i
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CALDERWOOD,
581
DAVID.
Scotland for some time, Im'king principally in and
about Edinburgh, and daring this time he began
the publication of his anonymous works in support
of the presbyterian cause.
In 1618, he printed a Latin tract on the polity of
the Church of Scotland, and in the following year he
produced a work, in English, the object of which
was to show the nullity of the famous Perth as-
sembly of 25th August 1618, and the unlawfulness
of the five articles passed at it, relative to kneel-
ing at the sacrament, the observance of festivals,
confirmation, private baptism, and private com-
munion. Soon after the publication of this last
book, an attempt was made to apprehend him at
Edinburgh in the house of James Cathkin, a book-
seller, but the officers found neither him nor any
copies of his work. Calderwood was, in the
meantime, concealed at Cranstoun, in a secret
apartment allotted to him by Lady Cranstoun,
who rendered him many services. He afterwards
removed from one place to another, till the 27th
of August 1619, when he embarked at Newhaven,
and sailed for Holland, where, in 1628, he pub-
lished his celebrated controversial work, entitled
* Altare Damascenum,' in which he rigorously ex-
amined the origin and authority of episcopacy.
From Row's Ecclesiastical History it appears that
he was known, while abroad, by the quaint title
of " Edwardus Didoclavius," being an anagram on
his name. Latinized.
During his absence from his native country,
having suffered for a long time from illness, his
enemies supposed him to be dead, and one Pa-
trick Scott, a landed gentleman near Falkland in
Fife, having wasted his estate, and anxious to re-
commend himself at court, endeavoured to impose
upon the world, a recantation under his name,
with the title, * Calderwood*s Recantation ; or, a
tripartite discourse, directed to such of the minis-
try and others in Scotland, that refuse conformi-
tie to the ordinances of the church ; wherein the
causes and bad effects of such separation, the legall
proceedings against the refractarie, and nullitie of
their cause, are softly launced, and they lovingly
invited to the Uniformitie of the Church. Lond.
1622, 4to.' Scott alleged to some of his friends
that the king had fnraished him with the matter,
and he set it down in form as he i^eceived it.
Soon after, Calderwood's ^Altai'e Damascenum
appeared, and finding that he was alive, Scott
went over to Holland, and sought him in various
towns, and especially in Amsterdam, for the pur-
pose of assassinating him, but he found that Cal-
derwood had already returned to Scotland. ICcU-
denvood^s History^ vol. vii. page 583.]
In 1625, after the death of King James, Calder-
wood returned to Edinburgh. For some years he
was engaged collecting all the memorials relating
to the ecclesiastical affaira of Scotland, from the
beginning of the Reformation there to the death
of James the Sixth. The original MS. of his his-
tory is preserved in the British Museum, having
been presented to that national institution by the
author^s grand-nephew. Lord Polton ; and abbrevi-
ated transcripts of considerable portions of it ai*e
also to be found in the university library of Glas-
gow, and in the Advocates' Library. In 1648 the
General Assembly voted him a yearly pension of
eight hundred pounds Scots to complete the design.
An abridgment of it, entitled * The True History
of the Church of Scotland,' was printed in 1646,
under the authority of the General Assembly. In
1688 he was settled as minister of Pencaitland,
near Edinburgh. In 1648, he was appointed by
the Assembly, with Henderson and Dickson, one
of the committee for drawing up the Dh-ectory of
Public Worehip. It was he who introduced the
practice in church courts, now confirmed by long
usage, of dissenting from the decision of the As-
sembly, and requiring the protest to be entered
in the record. In 1649 an act having been intro-
duced respecting the election of ministers, he pro-
posed that the right of electing should be vested
in the presbytery, leaving to the people the power
of declaring their dissent, upon reasons of which
it should be competent for the presby tei^ to judge ;
but this suggestion was not adopted, and accord-
ing to Baillie, " Calderwood entered a very sharp
protestation against our act, which he required to
be registered. This is the first protestation we
heard of in our time ; and had it come from any
other it had not escaped censure." \jBaiUie^s
Letters^ vol. ii. page 840.]
Calderwood died at Jedburgh on 29th October,
1660. In 1841, the Wodrow Society, which was
formed in Edinburgh in that year, brought out
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CALDERWOOD.
632
CALLANDER.
the first volume of his History of the Kirk of Scot-
land from the original mannscript preserved in the
Biitish Mosenm. Seven other volumes were pub-
lished subsequently. They were edited by the
Rev. Thomas Thomson.
His works are numerous, and were almost all
published without hm name. A list of them is
given at the end of Dr. Irving's life of Calder-
wood, and may be quoted as follows :
De Regimine Ecclesiae Scoticanae brevis Relatlo. 1618,
gvo. — ^To this tract an answer was published by Archbishop
Spotswood, under the title of * Refutaiio libelU de Regimine
Ecclesiae Scoticanae.' Lond. 1620, 8to. Calderwood re-
plied in the Vindiciae subjoined to his Altare Damasoenura.
A Solvtion of Doctor Resolvtvs bis Resolutions for Kneel-
ing. 1619f 4to. This is an answer to a book written by
David Lindsay, D.D. who became bishop of Brechin, and
afterwards of Edinburgh : * The Reasons of a Pastors Resolu-
tion, touching the reuerend Recduing of the holy Oom-
mvnion.' Lond. 1619, 8vo.
Perth Assembly : containing, 1. The Proceedings thereof.
2. The Proofe of the Nullitie thereof. 8. Reasons presented
thereto against the receiving the five new Articles imposed.
4. The Oppositenesse of it to the Proceedings and Oath of the
whole state of the Land, an, 1681. 6. Proofes of the Un-
lawfnlncsse of the said five Articles, vis. 1. KneeUng in the
Act of Receiving the Lords Supper. 2. Holy Daies. 8.
Bishopping. 4. Private Baptisme. 5. Private Communion.
1619, 4to.
A Defence of our Arguments against Kneeling hi the act
of Receiving the sacramentall Elements of Bread and Wine,
impugned by Mr. Michelsone. 1620, 8vo. 1638, 8vo. An
answer to a book entitled, * The Lawfvlnes of Kneeling m the
act of Receiuing the Sacrament of the Lordes Supper. Writ-
ten by M. lohn Michaelson, Preacher of Gods Word at
Bvmt-Yland.' Samct Andrewes, 1620, 8vo.
A Dialogve betwixt Ckwmophilus and Thoophilus, anent
the urging of new Ceremonies upon the Kiike of Scotland.
1620, 8vo. Mr. Laing says that the author of this dialogue
was John Murray, minister of Lcith and Dunfermline.
The Speech of the Kirk of Scotbnd to her betoved Chil-
dren. 1620, 8vo.
Quaeres concerning the State of the Chvrch of Scotland.
1621, 8vo. 1638, 8vo.
The Altar of Damascus; or the Patem of the English
Hierarchie and Church-Polide obtruded upon the Church of
Scotland. 1621, 8vo.
The Course of Conformitie, as it hath proceeded, is con-
cluded, should be refused. 1622, 4to. According to Mr.
Laing, the author of this publication was William Scot, min-
ister of Cupar.
A Reply to Dr. Mortons generall Defence of three nooent
Ceremonies; via. the Surplice, Crosse in Baptisme, and
Kneelmg at the receiving of the sacramental Elements of
Bread and Wme. 1622, 4to.
A Reply to Dr. Morton's partievUr Defence of three nooent
Ceremonies; viz. the Surplice, &a 1623, 4to.— Dr. Morton,
who was successively bishop of Chester, Lichfield, and Dur-
ham, had published *A Defence of the Innooencie of the
three Ceremonies of the Chvrch of Enghmd ; vi*. the Sur-
plice, Crosse after Baptisme, and Kneeling at the Receiuing
of the blessed Sacrament.' Lond. 1619, 4to.
Altare Damascenum ; seu Politia Ecdesiae Angficanae ol»-
trusa Ecclesiae Scoticanae, a fbrmalista <{Uodam delineata,
illnstrata et examinata studio et opera Edwardi Didoclavii.
Cui lods suis inserts Confutatio Paraeneseos Tileni ad Sootos,
Genovensis, ut ait, Disdplinae Zelotas; et a^jecta Epistola
Hieronymi Phihidelphi de Regunme Ecclesiae Scoticanae;
ejusque Vindiciae contra Calumnias Johannis Spotanodi,
Fani Andreae Pseudoarchiepiscopi, per anonymum. 1G23,
4to. Lugd. Bat 1708, 4to.— The application of the title
may be learned from 2 Kings zvL 10.
An Eshortation of the particular IGrks of Christ in Scot-
land to their sister Kvk in Edinburgh. 1624, 8vo.
An Epistle of a Christian Brother, exhorting an other to
keepe himself undefiled from the present Corruptions brought
in to the Ministration of the Lords Supper. 1624, 8to.
A Dispvte vpon Commvnicating at ovr confused Commun-
ions. 1624, 8vo.
The Pastor and the Prelate ; or Reformation and Confor-
mitie shortly compared by the Word of God, by Antiquity
and the Proceedings of the ancient Kirk, &o. 1628, 4to.
A Re-examination of the five Articles enacted at Perth
anno 1618 ; to wit, concerning the Communicants Gesture m
the act of Reoeaving, the Observation of FestinaU Dayes,
episcopall Confirmation or Bishopping, the Administration of
Baptisme and the Supper of the Lord in privat Places.
1636, 4to.
The Re-examination of two of the Articlee abridged ; to
wit, of the Commumcants Gesture in the act of Reoeaving,
Eating, and Drinking; and the Observation of Festival!
Dayes. 1636, 8vo.
An Answere to M. L Forbes of Corse his Peaceable Warn-
ing. 1638, 4to. This is an answer to a tract written by Dr.
Forbes, professor of divinity in King's College, Aberdeen:
* A peaceable Warning to the Subjects in Scotland; given in
the yeare of God 1638.' Aberdene, 4to.
The true History of the Church of Scotland, from the be-
ginning of the Reformation, unto the end of the Rcigne of
King James VI. &a 1678, foL
To this list may be added —
* Parasynagma Perthenso,' &«., printed along with Andrea*
Mehini Musa), Anno M.DC.XX., 4to. Also Calderwooirs
edition of * The First and Second Booke of Discipline,' printed
anno 1621, 4to. And
The History of the Kirk of Scotiand. From Caldcrwood's
mannscript volumes in the British Museum. Printed for the
Wodrow Society. 8 vols, huge 8vo. EdmbuiKh, 1841-1849.
Caldwrlt^ a surname derived from lands in Renfrewshire,
possessed by an ancient family of that name for some centu-
ries. Early in the 14th century Easter Caldwell was obtain-
ed in marriage with a danghter of the family of Caldwell, by
Gilchrist Mure. (See Murb.) In 1758, Wester CaldweU
was purdiased by Baron Mure of Caldwell.
John Caldwell, bom at Prestwick, Ayrshire, died 1639, be-
came a merchant in Enniskillen. His son was created a
baronet of Ireland 23d June 1688. The great-grandson of
the latter, Sir James Csldweli, was created a count of Milan
in the Holy Roman empire in 1749, and the hitter titie re-
mains in the family. The second baronet was a distinguidi-
ed officer in the Anstrian service, and the fiflh was treasurer-
general of Lower Canada.
Callaitder, a surname derived firom the lands of Callen-
dar m Stirlingshire, (supposed to be a corruption of cAot/2e-lor,
wood-hill,) which were bestowed by Alexander the Second iu
1246, on one Malcohn the son of Duncan, who had received,
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CALLANDER,
533
JOHN.
in 1217, from Malduin eari of Lennox, the lands of Glass-
well, Kilsyth, &c, in the same coontj. It is probable, how-
ever, that it was the British name for the district extending
orer the middle portion of the Forth. A Roman station
was at Galentarra, supposed to be the camp at Ardoch,
near the village of Callander in Perthshire, and the army of
William the (Conqueror passed through CaUantrae on then*
wajr to Abemethy on the Tay, against Malcolm Canmore.
One of the portions of the Scottish army under David the First,
at the battle of the Standard (1188), were the men of Callantrae.
Malcolm was succeeded by Aluin de Galleuter his son, who
took his name, as was usual in those days, from his estate.
In the Kagman Roll, among those who swore fealty to Ed-
ward the First in 1292 and 1296, occur the names of *■ Joan-
nes de Callentar, mOea,* and * Johannes de Callentyr,* the
former being the head of the ancient family of the Callendars
of that ilk, and the latter, it is likely, a son or nephew. Pa-
trick de Gallendar of that ilk was forfeited by David the Sec-
ond, for adhering to the party of Edward BaHol, upon which
Sir WilHam Livingston, ancestor of the earls of Linlithgow
and Gallendar, [see Liyinoston, surname of,] obtained the
estate of Gallendar, by a charter, dated 10th July 1847, and
to prevent his title to the lands finom bemg afterwards called
in question, he married Christian Gallendar, the daughter and
hfdress of the said Patrick. [See Gallkndab, earl of.]
CALLANDER, John, of Craigforth, Stirling-
sliire, a distingnisbed antiquary, was bora about
the beginning of the eighteenth centurj. Being
educated for the bar, he was admitted advocate ;
but he devoted the greater part of his time in ear-
ly life to classical studies, and was the author of
various works, which display great scholarehip.
His first publication was a translation from the
French of M. de Brosses, entitled ^ Terra Australis
Cognita, or Voyages to the Southern Hemisphere,
during the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth
Centnries,' which appeared at Edinburgh in 1766,
in 3 vols. 8vo. In 1779 appeared at Glasgow his
* Essay towards a literal English Version of the
New Testament, in the Epistle to the Ephesians.'
The work by which he is best known was pub-
lished at Edinburgh in 1782, in 8vo, entitled 'Two
ancient Scottish Poems; the Gaberlunzic Man,
and Christ's Kirk on the Green, with Notes and
Observations.' In editing these ho does not ap-
pear to have consulted the most correct editions ;
but, as regards the latter especially, gave *' such
readings as appeai*ed to him most consonant to
the phraseology of the sixteenth century." In
April 1781 he was elected a fellow of the Society
of Scottish Antiquaries, founded in the preceding
November by the late earl of Buchan, and ap-
pointed secretary for foreign correspondence. In
August of the same year, he presented the society
with five folio volumes of manuscripts, entitled
' Spicelegia Antiquitatis GnecsB, sive ex Veteribus
Poetis, Deperdita Fragmenta;* and also with nine
folio volumes of manuscript annotations on Mil-
ton's Paradise Lost. Of the latter, a specimen,
containing his notes on the first book, was printed
at Glasgow, by Messrs. Foulis, in 1760. An ad-
mirable paper in Blackwood's Magazine on these
annotations, in which Mr. Callander was accused
of having taken, without acknowledgment, the
greater part of his materials from a folio work on
the same subject, published by Mr. Patrick Hume,
at London, in 1695, led, on the suggestion of Mr.
David Laing, librarian to the signet library, to
the appointment, in 1826, of a committee of the
Society of Scottish Antiquaries for the purpose of
examining the manuscripts. Their report, pub-
lished in the third volume of the Ti-ausactions of
that Society, vindicated Mr. Callander from the
charge of plagiarising the general plan, on the
largest portion of his materials, from Mr. Hume's
work, but stated that there are some passages
where the similarity is so striking, that there can
be no doubt of his having availed himself of the
labours of his predecessor, and of these he has
made no acknowledgment.
In 1778, Mr. Callander printed in folio a speci-
men of a * Bibliotheca Septentrionalis.' In 1781
appeared ' Proposals for a History of the Ancient
Music of Scotland, from the age of the Venerable
Ossian to the beginning of the Sixteenth Centuiy ;'
and the same year, a specimen of a Scoto-Gothic
Glossary is mentioned in a letter to the earl of
Buchan. But none of these projected works appear \
ever to have been completed. Mr. Callander died {
September 14, 1789. By his wife, Mary, daughter j
of Sir James Livingstone of Westquarter, Bart., he |
had seventeen ch ildren. From a little work, entitled
* Letters from Thomas Percy, D.D., aftei-wards
bishop of Dromore, John Callander of Craigforth,
Esq., David Herd, and others, to George Paton,
which appeared at Edinburgh in 1830, we leain
that Mr. Callander had a taste for music, and was
an excellent performer on the violin, and that in
his latter yeai-s he became very retired in his hab-
its, and saw little company, his mind being deeply
affected by a religious melancholy, which entirely
unfitted him for society. The estate of Craigforth
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CALLENDAR.
originally belonged to Lord Elphinstone, but in
the year 1684, it was acquired by Mr. Alexander
Higgins, advocate. That gentleman, shortly after
his pnrchase, became much embarrassed, and in
consequence of large sums of money advanced by
John Callander, the king's master smith in Scot-
land, Mr. Higgins conveyed the estate to him.
Craigforth has since remained in the possession of
his descendants, notwithstanding a strenuous effort
which was made by Mr. Higgins to regain it.
Mr. Callander, the smith, is traditionally said to
have made the greater part of his money by a
mistake of some English government officials, who
paid him a large sum in pounds sterling. Instead
of pounds Scots.
James Callander, bom in 1745, the eldest son of
the antiquary, was a person of some notoriety in his
day. He left Scotland when very young, and re-
mained upwards of twenty years on the continent.
In 1810, on the death of his cousin, Sur Alexander
Campbell of Ardklnglass, bart., he succeeded, as
lieur of entail, to that estate, on which he dropped
the name of Callander, and assumed the name and
title of Sir James Campbell, baronet. When the
succession opened to him, he was resident in
France, and being one of those who were detained
by Napoleon, he sent a French lady, whose ac-
quaintance he had formed, named Madame Lina
Talina Sassen, as his commissioner to Scotland.
In the power of attorney with which he furnished
her on the occasion, she was designed his ^^ beloved
wife;** but when he arrived in Scotland himself
he disclaimed the marriage, in consequence of
which, Madame Sassen raised an action against
him. Although the judges of the court of ses-
sion found the marriage not proven, they awarded
her a sum of three hundred pounds sterling per
annum. On appeal to the house of lords, how-
ever, the judgment was reversed. The lady after-
wards brought various actions against Sir James,
in the court of session, having been admitted to
sue \n forma pauperis^ and the superintendence of
these suits formed the occupation of her life;
they were only terminated by the death of the
parties, within a fortnight of each other. It is
said that latterly Sir James offered her a very lib-
eral compromise, which she rejected, as she would
accept nothing short of a complete recognition of
all her claims. She was a constant attendant in
the parliament house during the sittings of the
court of sesfUon. She was little in stature, and in
her youth had been a pretty woman. Sir James
died in 1832. He published Memoirs of hb own
life in 2 vols. 8vo., a work not remarkable for the
accuracy of its facts.
Gaixbndar, earl of, a title in the peerage of Seotland,
(attainted in 1716,) conferred in 1641 on the Hon. Sir James
Livingstone, third son of Alexander, first earl of Linlithgow.
[See LufLrrHQOW, earl of.] Sir James, in his yooth, dis-
tinguished himself greatly in the wars in Bohemia, Qennanj,
Holland, and Sweden, and on his retnm to Scotland he was
appointed one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber to King
Charles the First, and created Lord Unngstone of Almond,
by patent dated at Holjroodhonse 19th Jane 1683, to him
and his heirs male for ever. On 12th June 1634 he had the
lordship of Gallendar and several other lands near Falkiik
erected into a free barony. In 1640, when the Soots oore-
nanters raised an army to oppose die attempt of King Oharles
the First to coerce them into his measores, he was appointed
by the war-committee lieotenant-general or second in com-
mand nnder General Alexander Leslie, afterwards created
earl of Leven. On the 20th Augost the Soots army crossed
the Tweed, the van being led on foot by the earl of Montrose,
who had not then declared himself for the king. After de-
featmg, on the 28th, a large body of the kmg*s troops sent to
defend the fords at Newborn on the Tyne, they took posses-
sion of Newcastle and other towns, and ei^t oommissjopers
being soon after sent to treat with commissioners on the part
of the king, the treaty of Bipon, condnded the last day of
October, which pot an end to hostilities for the time, was the
consequence. On his return to ScotUnd Montrose secretlj
formed an association in favour of the king, and Lord Almond
was one of the first who subscribed the bond, at Cumber-
nauld, in July 1641. He afterwards revealed the matter to
the earl of Argyle, who reported it to the committee of par-
liament, and the bond was in consequence delirered up and
burned. When Charles visited Scotland in August of that
jear, he was pleased to create him earl of Callendar, Lord
Livingstone and Almond, by patent dated at Holyroodhoose,
6th October 1641, to him and the heirs male of his body. In
1648, when the Scots army were about to enter England,
Lord Callendar was ofiered his former post of lieotenant-
general, but he declined it. In the following year, however,
he accepted the command of five thousand covenanters raised
to oppose Montrose, who had erected the royal standard at
Dumfiies. Montrose, however, did not wait for them, but in
two days made a precipitate retreat to Carlisle. Advancing
into England, the earl of Callendar joined the Soots army
under the earl of Leven, employed in the siege of Newcastle,
which was taken by storm in October 1644. After the king
had taken refoge in the Scots camp at Newark in May 1646,
the earl of Callendar waited on his miyesty, by whom be was
graciously received. He obtained a patent, dated at Newark
22d July 1646, granting to him, in the event of fiuiore of
hein male of his body, the power of nominating the penoo
who should succeed him in his titles and estates, and in de-
fault of such nommation then to devolve on Alexander Liv-
ingstone, the son of his brother, and his heirs of entaiL His
lordship was sent back to Edinburgh, with a letter to the
committee of estates, expressive of his majesty^s reoolution to
comply with the wishes of hb Scots parliament, but all was
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CAMERON.
rondered abortive by his migesty's dediiung to afford them
fbU satiafactkm in matters of religion. In 1647 he waited
on the king at London, and obtained from his ro^esty a
grant of the office of sheriff of the coonty of Stirling. In the
following year, when the ** engagement" for the resooe of the
king, then a prisoner in the Isle of Wight, was entered into,
the earl was, 11th May 1648, appointed lieutenant-general of
the army raised for the purpose, being second in command
cnder the dnke of Hamilton. On*this occaaon, he was at-
tended by a body of his FaUdxk retainers. This army, amount-
ing to about ten thousand foot and four thousand cavalry,
marched into England, and on 12th July took Carlisle, of
which place the earl of Gallendar was appointed governor.
The Scots, however, were totally routed at Preston in Lanca-
shire, by Cromwell, on the I7th of August, when his lordship
escaped in disguise to Holland. His Falkirk troop valiantly
forced their way through the victorious army, and on their
return home they were summoned before the congregation, at
the instance of the kirk session, and were publicly " admon-
ished** for being in what was called "the late unlawful en-
gagement** The session record contains the names of seventy-
seven of the persons so dealt with, and among these the
names of Sir William Livingstone of Westquarter, and of
other gentlemen appear. [ATeto SiatisHcal Account of Scot-
land, art Falkirky p. 6.J Lord Callendar was one of the
persons excepted in Cromwell*s act of grace and pardon. At
the restoration, having no issue of his own, the earl obtained
a new patent, of date 2l8t November 1660, of his titles and
estates in favour of his nephew, Alexander Livingstone, sec-
ond son of Alexander second earl of Linlithgow, and the heirs
male of his body, which failing to the second son of George,
third eari of Linlithgow. Lord Callendar married, in 1688,
Margaret, only daughter of James seventh Lord Yester, sister
of John first earl of Tweeddale, and widow of Alexander first
eari of Dunfermline, high-chancellor of Scotland, but her
ladyship had no children to him. He died in 1672, and was
succeeded by his nephew Alexander.
The second eari of Callendar was a zealous covenanter, and
a copy of the Solemn League and Covenant is still preserved
in Falkirk, bearing his signature, with that of many others.
On two different occasions the troops of government took
possession of Callendar house, near FaUdrir, but on the last
of these in 1678, a mob from that town put the intruders to
flight He married, in 1668, Lady Maiy Hamilton, third
dau^ter of the second duke of Hamilton, but by her had no
issue. He had, however, a natural son, Sir Alexander Liv-
ingstone of Glentirran. The earl died in 1685, when the
titles and estates devolved on Alexander Livingstone, the
second son of George third earl of Linlithgow.
The third eari of Callendar died in December 1692, leaving,
by his wife, Lady Ann Graham, eldest daughter of James
second marquis of Montrose, a son, James, the fourth earl,
and two daughters.
The fourth esri of Callendar, on the death of his uncle
George fourth eari of Linlithgow, in August 1695, succeeded
to that title. [See Lucuthoow, eari of.] His titles and
estates were forfeited in consequence of his engaging in the
rebellion of 1715. The last earl of Callendar and Linlithgow
died in exile on the continent His estate of Callendar was
sold about 1720 to the York Buildings Company, whose af-
fairs having become disordered, it was brought to sale m
1788, under the authority of the court of session, and pnr-
ehnsed by William Forbes, Esq., merchant in London, llie
titles both of Callendar and Linlithgow are claimed by the
baronetted family of Livingstone of that ilk and Westquarter.
Camsron, or Chamebon , the name of a numerous family or
dan in Lochaber, the distinguishing badge (^ which is the oak.
Mr. Skene, in his histoiy of the Highlanders, appears to take it
as an undoubted and established fact that the Camerons are
an aboriginal or Celtic dan, but it is not consistent with this
theory that the Camerons themselves have a tradition that
they were descended from a younger 'Son of the royal family
of Denmark, who assisted at the restoration of Fergus the
Second in 778, and that their progenitor was called Cameron,
from his crooked nose, (" cam sAron," the t in ikron being
silent) a surname which was adopted by his descendants, and
that the name appears to have been home (as will appear in
the course of the work) at an early period of history by indi-
viduals in the south and west
Notwithstanding, therefore, of this traditionaiy <mgin of
the name, which is universally accepted by the dan, it does
not seem improbable that it was originally French, and not
disnmilar to the modem French name of Cambronne. In
the Ragman Boll occurs the name of * Robertus de Cambum,
dominus de Balegrenach, miles,' who swore fealty to Edward
the First of England, * apud Sanctum Johannem de Perth,*
22d July 1296. There are also, in the same roll, the names
(^ Johannes Cambrun, who, in other deeds, is designed * do-
minus de Balygrenoch,' and Bobertns Cambum de Bahiely;
all supposed to be the same as Cameron.
This tribe, firom its earliest histoiy, had its seat in Lochaber,
to which, contraxy to all tradition, they appear to have come
from the south, having obtained from Angus Og, of the family
of Islay, a grant of Lochaber in the reign of Bobert the
Brace. Their more modem possessions of Lochid and Loch-
arkaig, situated upon the westem side of the Lochy, still
further in the Cdtic or Highland region, were originally
granted by the Lord of the Isles to the founder of the Clan
Banald, from whose descendants they passed to the Camerons.
This dan originally consisted of three septs, — ^the MaoMartins
of Letterfinky, the MacGillonies of Strone, and the MacSor-
lies of Glennevis, and the tradition is, that it was by inter-
marriage with the MacMartins of Lctterfinlay the ddest
branch, that the Camerons of Lochid who bdonged to the
second branch, or the MacGillonies of Strone, first acquired
the property in Lochaber. Being the oldest cadets they as-
sumed the title of Captain of the Clan CameroA Drumnumd
of Hawthomden describes the Camerons as '* fiercer than
fierceness itself.**
The Camerons obtained a charter of the barony of Lodiiel,
and the lands of Garbh-dhoch^ in the 13th century, the first
of them being styled " de Knoydart'* They also possessed
extensive property around the castle of Eilean-Donnan, Boss-
shire, of which they were deprived through the hostility of
the Gordon family. The lands of Glenloy and Locharkaig
were purchased by Sir Ewen Cameron in the reign of Charles
II. These, with the barony of Lochid and a portion of the
lands of Mamore, are still in possession of the family.
The Camerons of Lochid are a family not only distinguished
as the head of the dan, but by the personal characteristics
of many of their chiefo, of whom Sir Ewen Cameron of Loch-
id, above mentioned, and his grandson, Donald, " the gen-
tle Lochiel of the '45,'* are separately noticed. The family
of Cameron of Lochiel are further distinguished by having
raised, and during many years sustained, the 79th regiment
of the line, known as the Cameronian Highlanders. This oc-
curred through the patriotic energy of Sir Alan Cameron of
Erroch, a cadet of that family, who distinguished himsdf in
the first American war. When on detached service be was
taken prisoner, and immured for nearly two years in the
common gaol of Philadelphia, under the plea that he had
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CAMERON,
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SIR EWEN.
been engaf^ in exciting the native tribes to take up arms
13 favour of Great Brit<un. In attempting to escape from
thi^ confinement, be had both his anlcles broken, and he never
perfectly recovered from the painful effects of these injuries.
He was subsequently placed upon half-pay; but, aroused by
the dangers and alarms of 1793, prindpally by his personal
influence over his countrymen, he, in little more than three
months, at his own expense, patriotically raised the 79th, or
Cameron Highlanders, of which he was appointed first major-
commandant and afterwards (January 1794) lieutenant-ooloneL
His regiment was afterwards draughted into the 42d and
other regiments. Sir Alan Cameron, on his return to Soot-
land, was commissioned by the duke of York to raise the
Cameron Highlanders anew, which was done in 1798 in little
more than ux months. Its gallant commander was twice
severely wounded in the battle of Bei^n-op-Zoom in 1799.
In 1800 at Ferrol, Cadiz, &c., in 1801 in Kgypt, in tlie de-
scent upon Zealand, in Sweden in 1808, and aflerwanb in
the Peninsula, in the same year, the Cameron Uighlanden
and their commander greatly distinguished themselves.
At the battle of Talavera Sir Alan had two horses shot
under him. He commanded a brigade in the action at Bu-
saco. Extreme ill health then compelled him to retire from
active service. On 25th July 1810 Sir Alan was appointed
a major-general ; after the peace a K.C.B., and on 12th Au-
gust 1819 a lieutenant-general. He died March 9, 1828.
John Cameron, bishop of Glasgow and chancellor of the
kingdom in the latter part of the reign of James I., was of
the family of Lochiel. In 1422 he was official of Lothian,
af^rwards confessor and secretary to the earl of Douglas.
In 1424 he was provost of Lincluden. and the same year
" Secretario Regis.** In February 1425 we find him keeper
ot the great seal, and soon after keeper of the privy seal.
In 1426 lie was elected bishop of GUsgow, and in 1428 he
was appointed lord chancellor, an office which lie held until
the end of that reign. He built the great tower at the
episcopal palace on which his coat armorial and ecclesi-
astical was placed. He established two commissary courts,
Hamilton and Campsie, the jurisdiction of which extended over
parts of the counties of Dumbarton, Renfrew, Stirling, Lan-
ark, and Ayr. He is said to have died on Christmas eve,
1436, but hit name appears in a safe conduct (inserted in
Rymer) dated 80th November 1437, and his successor in the
see of Glasgow was appointed in 1446.
Charles Cameron, son of the Lochiel of the '45, was allow-
ed to return to Britain, and lent his influence to the raising
of the Lochiel men for the service of government His son,
Donald, was restored to his estates under the genera] act of
amnesty of 1784. The eldest son of the latter, also named
Donald, bom 25th September 1796, obtained a commission
in the Guards in 1814, and fought at Waterloo. He retuosd
from the army in 1832, and died 14th December 1858, leav-
ing two sons and four daughters. Hb eldest son, Donald,
succeeded as chief of the clan Cameron.
The family of Cameron of Fassifem, in Argyleshire, pos-
sesses a baronetcy of the United Kingdom, conferred in 1817
on Ewen Cameron of Fassifem, the father of Colonel John
Cameron, of the 92d Highlanders, slain at the battle of Qua-
tre Bras, 16th June 1815, while bravely leading on his men,
for that officer's distinguished military services, with two
Highlanders as supporters to his armorial bearings, and sev-
eral heraldic distinctions indicating the particular services of
Colonel Cameron. On the death of Sir Ewen in 1828, his
teoond son. Sir Duncan, succeeded to the baronetcy.
General Sur Alexander Cameron, K.C.B., who died in 1850
at his seat of Inverralort house, InveraeM-shire, was also an
eminent officer, having first entered the army in 1799, when
he served under the duke of York in Holland. He was the
eighth son of Donald Cameron, Esq. of Muriugan, by the
daughter of ^exander McDonald, Esq. ot Aditrichtan, and
was bom in 1778. In 1800 he was with his Foment at
Ferrol ; in 1801, in Egypt, where he was severely wounded
in the arm and side ; in 1807 at Copenhagen ; in 1808 at
Vimiera; in that and the following year in Spain; in 1818
at Vittoria, till wounded ; and in 1814 in Holland. At Wa-
terloo he was severely wounded in the throat In 1828 he
was appointed deputy-governor of St Mawes, and in 1888
major-general in the army, in which latter year he was cre-
ated a knight commander of the bath. In 1846 he became
colonel of the 74th foot He received a medal and two clasps
for his services in command of the rifle brigade at Ciudad
Rodrigo, Badigoz and Salamanca, and had a pension of five
hundred pounds a-year in consideration of his long services
and wounds. He married in 1818 the only daughter of C
McDonnell, Esq. of Barisdale.
CAMERON, Sir Ewkn, or Evan, of Lochiel,
a chief of the clan Cameron, distlngaished for his
cliivah-oiis character, was bom in February 1629.
He was called by his followers Mac'onnaili Dhn,
or the son of Black Donald, according to the cus-
tom of their race, after his father Donald, the
chief who preceded him ; also Ewen Dim, or Black
Evan, from his own dark complexion. He was
brought lip at Inverary castle, under the guardian-
ship of his kinsman the marquis of Argyle, under
whose charge he was placed in his tenth year, be-
ing regarded as a hostage for the peaceable beha-
viour of his clan. Argyle endeavoured to instil
into his mind the political principles of the cove-
nanters, but it is said that he was converted to
the side of the king by the exhortations of Sii
Robert Spottiswood, formerly president of the
Court of Session, who had been taken at the bat-
tle of Pbiliphaugh in September 1645, and was
afterwards executed. At the age of eighteen he
quitted Inverary castle, with the declared inten-
tion of joining the marquis of Montrose, who,
however, liad previously disbanded his forces, and
retired to the Continent. Although the royal
cause seemed lost, Lochiel kept his clan in arms,
and was able to protect his estate from the incur-
sions of Cromwell's troops.
In 1652 he was one of the first to join the in-
surrection under the earl of Glencaim when that
nobleman raised the royal standard in the High-
lands, and for nearly two years greatly distin-
guished himself at the head of his dan, in a series
of encounters with General Lilbume, Colonel
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SIR EWEN.
Morgan, and others of Cromwell^s officers. In a
sharp skirmish which took place between Lord
Glencaim and Colonel Lilbume at Braemar, Lo-
ehiel gallantly maintained a pass with the defence
of which he had been intmsted, and thereby saved
Gleucaim's army. His services were rewarded
by a letter of thanks from Charles the Second,
dated at Chantilly, the 3d of November, 1653.
In 1654 Lochiel continued to aid Glencaim in a
fresh insurrection headed by him. Being himself
opposed to Morgan, a brave and enterprising offi-
cer, Lochiel was often hard pressed, and some-
times nearly overpowered, but by his courage and
presence of mind, he was always able to extricate
himself from positions of the utmost difficulty and
danger.
Monk was now commander-in-chief of the par-
liamentary forces in Scotland, and he resolved to
establish a garrison at Inverlochy, now Fort Wil-
liam, with the view of reducing the royalist clans
in the neighbourhood. Lochiel lay in wait on a
hill to the north of the foi*t, with thirty-eight of
his clan, and observing a body of men about to
land at a place called Achdalew, to cut down his
woods, and to carry off his cattle, he proceeded
along in a line with the vessels, under cover of
the woods, until he saw the English soldiers dis-
embark, one hundred and forty of them having
axes, hatchets, and other working implements,
while the rest remained under arms, to protect
their operations. Notwithstanding the disparity
of their forces, Lochiel at once gave orders to ad-
vance. He ordered his brother Allan to be bound
to a tree, to prevent his taking any part in the
conflict, and so not deprive his clan of a chief,
should he himself be cut off. But Allan prevailed
on a little boy, who was left to attend him, to un-
loose his cords, and soon plunged into the thickest
of the fight. The Camerons rushed on the ene-
my, discharged against them a destructive shower
of shot and arrows, and befora they could recover
from their surprise attacked them with their broad-
swords. The combat was long and obstinate.
At last the English, retreating slowly, yet con-
testing every step of ground, and with their faces
towards their assailants, were giving way when
Lochiel sent two men and a piper round the flank,
to sound the pibroch, raise the war-cry of the
clan, and fire their muskets, as if a fresh party of
Camerons had arrived, hoping thereby to create
a panic among the English soldiers. But this
only rendered the latter more desperate, and in-
stead of throwuig down their arms they fought
more resolutely than before, as they expected no
quarter. They were, at length, completely borne
down, and fled, pursued to the sea, when those
who had been left in the boats received the fugi-
tives, and firing at the Camerons drove them
back, the chief himself advancing till he was chin-
deep in the water. In the course of the struggle an
English officer of great size and strength singled
out Lochiel, and as they were pretty equally
matched, they fought for some time apart from
the general battle. Lochiel succeeded in knock-
ing the sword out of his adversary's hand, but the
Englishman closing on him, bore him to the
ground, and fell upon him, the officer being upper-
most. The latter was in the act of reaching for
his sword, which lay near, but when extending
his neck in the same direction, Lochiel, collecting
his energies, grasped his enemy by the collar, and
springing at his throat, seized it with his teeth,
and gave so sure and effectual a bite that the
officer died aUnost instantly. Of the English the
number killed in this encounter exceeded that of
Lochiers men engaged in it, in the proportion of
three to one, whilst only seven of the Camerons
feU.
By this and similar attacks, now on the garri-
son at Inverlochy, now in conjunction with Gen-
ei*al Middleton, he harassed the forces of the Pro-
tector with general success. After the defeat, of
Middleton in July 1654, and his retreat to the
continent, Lochiel was the only chief who remain-
ed opposed to Cromwell. The English, desirous
to have peace with this formidable chief, made
various overtures to him to that effect, but with-
out success, until he was informed that no express
renunciation of the king's authority or oath to the
existing government would be required of him,
but only his word of honour to live in peace. An
agreement on this basis took place about tlie end
of that year. Reparation was made to Ix)chiel
for the wood cut down by the garrison of Inver-
lochy, and to his tenants for all the losses they
had sustained from the troops; while a full in-
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CAMERON,
538
DONALD.
demnity was granted for all aces of depredation
and for all crimes committed by his men. All
tithes, cess, and public burdens which had not
been paid, were remitted to his clan.
In 1680 the last wolf known to have existed
wild in Great Britain was slain by the hand of
this brave and hardy chief in the district of
Lochaber. In 1681, when the duke of York,
afterwards James the Second, was residing at
Holyrood, as commissioner to the parliament of
Scotland, Lochiel took a journey to Edinburgh to
solicit the pardon of one of his clan, who, while in
command of a party of Camerons, had fired by
mistake on a party of Athole men, and killed sev-
eral. The duke received him with great distinc-
tion, and granted his request. On this occasion
he was knighted by the duke. After knighting
him, the duke presented his sword to Sir Ewen,
to keep as a remembrance.
In 1689 Sir Ewen joined the viscount of
Dundee when he raised the standard of King
James. General Mackay had, by the orders of
King William, offered him a title and a consider-
able sum of money, apparently on the condition of
his remaining neutral, but this offer he rejected
with disdain. Though then far advanced in years,
he distinguiBhed himself with his usual heroism,
and had a conspicuous share in the victory at
Rilliecrankie. Before the battle commenced he
spoke to each of his men individually, and took
their promise that they would conquer or die. On
first seeing Dnndee^s force. General Mackay^s army
had raised a kind of shout, on which Lochiel ex-
claimed, ^* Gentlemen, the day is our own; I am
the oldest commander in the army, and I have
always observed something ominous or fatal in
such a dull, heavy, feeble noise as that which the
enemy has just made in their shout." Encouraged
by this prognostication of victory, the Highlanders,
with their usual impetuosity, rushed on the troops
of Mackay, and in half an hour gained the victory.
In this battle Lochiel was attended by the son
of his foster brother, who followed him every-
where like his shadow. Shortly after the com-
mencement of the action the chief missed this
faithful adherent from his side, and turning round
to look for him, he saw him lying on his back in a
dying state, with bis breast pierced by an arrow.
With his last breath he informed Sir Ewen that
observing an enemy, a Highlander, in General
Mackay's army, aiming at him with a bow and
arrow from the rear, he sprang behind him to
cover him, and thus, like his father, received io
his own body the death- wound intended for his
chief.
After the battle of Killiecrankie, Sir Ewen
Cameron retired to Lochaber, leaving the com-
mand of his men to his eldest son. lie survived
till the year 1719, when he died at the age of
ninety. Notwithstanding all the battles and per-
sonal encounters in which he had been engaged,
he never lost a drop of blood, or received a wound.
He was thrice married, and had four sons and
eleven daughters.— Stewards Skeicltes of the High-
landers and Highland Regiments. — Browned His-
tory of the Highlands and Highland Clans.
CAMERON, Donald, of Lochiel, grandson of
the preceding, is celebrated in history for the im-
portant part he took in the rebellion of 1745
Though called young Lochiel by the Highlanders,
from his father being still alive, he was at that
period rather advanced in life. His father, John
Cameron of Lochiel, eldest son of Sir Ewen, had
joined the eari of Mar, when that nobleman raised
the standard of the Chevalier in 1715, for which
he was attainted. He died in Flanders in 1748.
Donald, his eldest son, succeeded, in conse-
quence of the attainder of his father, to the estate,
on the death of his grandfather, in 1719. He was
styled captain of the clan Cameron, a title given
to the leader or next in succession who commands
a clan in absence, or during the minority, of tlie
hereditary chief. Previous to the landing of Prince
Charles in the Highlands, the Chevalier de St
Greorge, sensible of the great influence which young
Lochiel possessed among the dans, had opened a
correspondence with him, and invested him with
full powers to negotiate with his friends in Scotland,
on the subject of his restoration. He was one of the
seven chiefs and noblemen who, in 1740, signed a
bond of association to restore the Chevalier. Upon
the failure of the expedition of 1740 he had urged
the prince to get another fitted out, but was against
any attempt being made without foreign assistance.
On the prince's landing, Lochiel was summoned
with other chiefs to meet Charles at Borodale
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CAMERON,
589
JOHN.
As the priuce had brought neither troops nor arms
with hira, Lochiel went to the interview deter-
mined to dissaade him from making any rash at-
tempt. On his way he called at the honse of his
brother, John Cameron of Fassifem, who, on being
told the object of his jonmey, advised him not
to proceed to Boix>dale, but to impart his mind to
the prince by letter. "No," said Lochiel, "I
onght at least to wait upon him, and give my rea-
sons for declining to join him, which admit of no
reply." " Brother," said Fassifem, " I know you
better than you know yourself. If this prince
once sets eyes upon yon he will make you do
whatever he pleases." Finding all his arguments
ineffectual to prevail on Lochiel to take up arms
in his cause, Charles declared his firm determina-
tion to take the field, how small soever might be
the number of his adherents. " Lochiel," said he,
"whoy my father has often told me, was our
firmest friend, may stay at home, and from the
newspapers learn the fate of his prince." This
appeal was irresistible. " No I" exclaimed Lochiel,
"I'll share the fate of my prince, and so shall
every man over whom nature or fortune has given
me any power." Had Lochiel remained steadfast
in his determination not to join the Pretender
without foreign aid, the other chiefs would have
also refused, but his yielding led to their collect-
ing with their followers round the prince's stand-
ard, and thus he may be said to have been the
chief cause of the insurrection that followed.
Although possessed of an estate which at that
time yielded scarcely seven hundred pounds a-
year, Lochiel brought fourteen hundred of his clan
into the rebellion, and during his brief campaign
he displayed much of the heroism and bravery of
his grandfather. Sir Ewen Cameron. He acquired
the respect of both parties, and obtained the name
of the " gentle Lochiel." On all occasions he was
honourably distinguished by his endeavours to
mitigate the severities of war, and deter the in-
surgents from acts of vindictive violence, or insub-
ordination. As an example to the rest he even
ordered one of his own men, caught in the act of
theft, to be shot. He led on his clan with great
gallantry at the battie of Preston, as he subse-
quently did at the battle of Falkirk. He accom-
panied Prince Charles in his march into England
and during the reti*eat from Derby, and was se-
verely wounded in both ankles at the battle of
Culloden, when he was borne from the field by his
two henchmen. After that disastrous defeat, he
skulked in his own country for about two months,
and then sought an asylum among the Braes of
Rannoch, where he was attended by Sir Stewart
Thriepland, an Edinburgh physician, for the cure
of his wounds. He afterwards lurked for some
time in Badenoch with Cluny MacPherson, and
some other fugitives. Here in the course of his
wanderings he was joined by the prince, though
not without great risk and danger on both sides.
They took up, for a tune, then- residence in a hut
called the Cage, curiously constructed in a deep
thicket on the side of a mountain called Benalder,
under which name is included a great forest or
chase, the property of Cluny. In this Cage they
lived in tolerable security and enjoyed a rude
plenty, which the prince had not hitherto known
during his five months' wanderings. On the 20th
September 1746 two French Mgates having ap
peared off the coast, Lochiel embarked along with
the prince, as did nearly a hundred others of the
relics of his party, and safely arrived in France,
where the king gave him the command of the
regiment of Albany, formed of his expatriated
countrymen, with the power of naming his own
officers. He was thus enabled, though his estate
was forfeited, to live according to his rank. He
died in 1748, and a tribute to his memory ap-
peared in the Scots Magazine for December of
that year. He married Anne, daughter of Sir
James Campbell, fifth baronet of Auchinbreck,
by whom he had three sons and four daughters.
His eldest son Charles, who returned to Scotland in
1759, obtained the restoration of the family estate,
which is now in the possession of his descendant.
CAMERON, John, one of the most famous
theologians of the seventeenth century, was bom,
of respectable parents, at Glasgow, about 1579.
He received his education in his native city, and
after completing the ordinary course of study, he
read lectures on the Greek language, that is, he
taught Greek,* in Glasgow university, for a year
In 1600 he went to Bordeaux in France, and hav-
ing made the acquaintance of two protestant cler-
gymen of that city, one of whom was his coun*
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CAMERON,
540
JOHN.
tiyman, Gilbert Primrose, he was, through their
recommendation, appointed a regent or professor
iu the then newly founded college of Bergerac, as
teacher of the learned languages. He was so
deeply skilled in the Greek especially, that one of
his pupils, the learned Cappel, affirms that he
spoke it with as much fluency and elegance as any
other person could speak Latin. Soon after his
settlement at Bergerac, he was, by the duke de
Bouillon, appointed a professor of philosophy in
the university of Sedan, where he remained for
two years. He then resigned his professorship,
and visited Paris; after which he returned to
Bordeaux, with the intention of studying for the
ministry.
In the beginning of 1604, Mr. Cameron was
nominated one of the students of divinity who
were maintained at the expense of the protestant
church at Bordeaux, and who for the period of
four years were at liberty to prosecute their studies
in any protestant seminary. During this time he
acted as tutor to the two sons of Calignon, chan-
cellor of Navarre. After spending one year with
them at Paris, they went to Geneva, where they
remained the next two years, and thence removed
to Heidelberg, in which city they resided for
nearly twelve months. A series of theses, ^ De
triplici Dei cum Homine Fcedere,' which he pub-
licly maintained in this university, on 4th April
1608, have been printed among his works. In
the same year a vacancy having occun*ed in the
protestant church at Bordeaux, by the death of
one of the ministers, he was recalled to that town,
and appointed colleague to his friend and country-
man Primrose.
In 1617 two sea captains were at Bordeaux
condemned to death for piracy; as they professed
the reformed faith, Cameron attended them in
their last moments, and afterwards published a
letter entitled ^Constance, Foy, et R^olntion k
la mort des Capitaines Blanquet et Gaillard,*
which by the parliament of Bordeaux, in its pop-
ish animosity to protestantism, was ordered to be
burnt by the hands of the common executioner.
In the following year he was appointed professor
of divinity in the university of Saumur, the prin-
cipal seminary of the French protestants, where
he had for a colleague Dr. Duncan, another of his
learned countrymen, who were then very numerooa
in France. The high reputation which he had
acquired by such of his works as had already been
published, was now increased by his academical
lectures. In 1620 he engaged in a formal dispu-
tation which lasted for four days, on the doctrines
of grace and free wUl, with Daniel menus, a na-
tive of Silesia, who had adopted the theological
opinions of Arminius. An account of this Arnica
Collatio was printed at Leyden in the subsequent
year. The theological faculty of that university
were not satisfied with some of Cameron^s expla-
nations; and when Rivet, as dean of the faculty,
communicated to him their dissent, he defended
his opinions in a brief answer. The civil wars in
Fi*ance in 1620 had the efiect of dispersing nearly
all the students of the university of Saumur, on
which Cameron, with his family, removed to
Fngland. For a short time he read private lectures
on divinity in Liondon, and in 1622 he was ap-
pointed by King James principal of the university
of Glasgow, in the room of Robert Boyd of Troch-
rig, removed in consequence of his firm adherence
to presbyterianism. Cameron, on the other hand,
was more inclined to favour episcopacy, and it
seems that among other doctrines taught by him
was the dangerous one of passive obedience, which
was n9t calculated to render him popular with the
presbyterian students of those days. After teach-
ing divinity for about a year, he resigned his situ-
ation. According to Calderwood, he '^was so
misliked by the people, that he was forced, not
long after, to remove out of Glasco." IHtst. vol
vii. p. 567.] He returned to Saumur, where he
was only permitted to read private lectures.
The province of Anjou, in 1623, made an ap-
plication to the national Synod of Charenton, that
he might be reinstated in his professorship, but
the king, in a letter to the commissioner to this
synod, declared against his appointment to any
ministerial or academical office in France, and
the request was, in consequence, not granted;
but on a representation by Cameron to the same
synod, that he was then without employment, and
destitute of any adequate means for the suj^rt of
his family, the synod voted him a donation of a
thousand livres. In the following year (1624) he
was permitted to accept of the professorship of
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CAMERON,
541
RICHARD.
diviuity in the nnivei'sity of Moutaubaii, whither
oe removed before the close of the year. The
disputes between the protestants and romanista
were at this period can-ied very tilgh, and having
opposed the dake de Rohan, who endeavoored to
indace the people of Montaaban to take up arms,
Cameron was attacked in the streets by an un-
known miscreant, supposed to have been a Ca-
tholic zealot, and severely assaulted; after lan-
guishing for some time he died at Montauban in
1626.
He was twice married. By his first wife, Susan
Bernard of Tonneins on the Garonne, whom he
had married in 1611, he had a son, bom at Lon-
don 10th May 1622, and four daughters ; but the
son and the eldest daughter died before their fa-
ther. Their mother having died of consumption, he
married, secondly, at Montauban, Susan Thomas,
with whom he only lived a few months, and who
had no child. The maintenance of his surviving
family was undertaken by the protestant churches
of France.
" With respect to his person," says Dr. Irving,
in his Life of Cameron, ** he was of the middle
size, somewhat inclining to a spare habit, sound
but not robust in his constitution. His hair was
yellow, his eyes were brilliant, and the expression
of his countenance was lively and pleasant. He
appeared to be always immersed in deep medita-
tion, and was somewhat negligent in his apparel,
and careless in his gait ; but in his manners he
was very agreeable, and although he was not
without a considerable share of irritability his
anger was easily appeased, and he was very ready
to acknowledge his own faults." llrmng^s Lives
ofScotish Writers, vol. i. page 341.] **From this
distinguished person," he adds, " a very consider-
able party among the French protestants derived
the name of Cameronites. They endeavoured to
explain the doctrine of grace and free will so as
to establish the conclusion, that no one is abso-
lutely excluded from a participation in the bene-
fits of Christ's sufferings, though all are not en-
abled to embrace the offered salvation. Tlieir
opinions on this subject they attempted to recon-
cile with those of Calvin. Those who held such
opinions were likewise denominated Universalists.
They were sometimes described as Amyraldists,
from the name of Amyraut, who had been Came-
ron^s pupil at Saumur, and was afterwards a pro-
fessor of divinity in that university." [Ibid, pag« |
345.] In fact Amyraut received fix)m Camei-on
those peculiar theories which he developed in his
* System of Universal Grace.' Sir Thomas Ur-
quhart says that because of his universal reading,
Cameron was called " The Walking Library."
He wrote many Latin poems, which have not
been preserved. His most considerable works
were published by others, fix)m copies taken by
his pupils.
His works may be thus given : —
Santangelus, sive Stelitenticns in Eliam Santangelom Cau-
ridicnm. Rnpel, 16l6,'12ino.
Traits aaqael sont examines lee prejngez de oenx de Teglise
Romaine centre la Religion Reforra^e. Rochelle, 1617, 12ino.
Theses de Gratia et Libero Artntrio. Salmor, 1618, 12mo.
Theses xUL TheoL de Necessitate Satisfactionis Christi per
Peccatis. Salmnr, 1620, fol.
Sept Sermons sor le cap. vL de TEvangile de S. Jean.
Saam., 1624« 8vo.
Defensio Sententiie snse da Gratia et Libero Arbltrio.
Salmur, 1624, 8ro.
An Examination of those plausible appearances which seem
most to commend the Romish church, and to prejudice the
Reformed. Englished out of French. Oxf. 1626, 4to. The
same in French. Roch. 1617, 12rao.
Prselectiones in selectiora quaedam loca Novi Testament!
una cum Tractatu de Ecclesia, et nonnulhs misoellanlis opus-
culis. Salmur, 1626-1628, 8 vols. 4to.
Mjrothecium Evangelicum, in quo aliquot loca Not. Tes-
tament! explicantur, una cum Spicilecrio Lud Cappelli de
eodem Argumento, cumque 2 Diatribia m Mattb. xr. 6. De
ViU Jephtse. Gener. 1632, 4to. et in Crit. Sac. 1660.
Loud. 1660. Salmur, 1677, 4to.
Of the Sovereign Judge of Controversies in Matters of Re-
ligion. Oxf. 1628, 4to.
Opera. Being his collected theological works, with a
sketch of the author*s life and character, written by Gappel.
Genev. 1642, 1658, foL
CAMERON, Richard, a zealous preacher and
mai't}T of the Church of Scotland of the seven-
teenth century, was the son of a small shopkeeper
at Falkland in Fife ; and at first was schoolmaster
and precentor of his native parish under the epis-
copalian clergyman. He was afterwards con-
verted by the field preachers, and persuaded by
the celebrated John Welch to accept a licence to
preach the gospel, which was conferred upon him
in the House of Haughhead, Roxburghshire, hav-
ing for some time resided in that part of the coun-
try as preceptor in the family of Sir Walter Scott
of Harden. From the freedom with which he
asserted the spuitual independence of the Church
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n !
CAMERON,
542
HUGH.
of Scotland, he excited the hostility of that por-
tion of the presby terian clergy who had taken ad-
vantage of the act of indalgence of 1672, and in
1677 he was reproved for his boldness at a meet-
ing of them held at Edinburgh. He afterwards
went to Holland, where his great zeal and ener-
getic character made a sti-ong impression upon
the ministers who were then living in exile in that
country. At his ordination, Mr. Ward retained
his hand for some time on the young preacher's
head, and exclaimed, ^^ Behold, all ye beholders,
here is the head of a faithful minister and servant
of Jesus Christ, who shall lose the same for his
Master's interest, and it shall be set up before the
sun and the moon in the view of the world." In
1680 he returaed to Scotland, and in spite of the
severe measui*es of the government, immediately
began the practice of field preaching. The cruel
and tyrannical proceedings of the executive against
him and the small party with which he was con-
nected, and who considered him their head, led
him to take a bold and desperate step. On the
20th of June 1680, in company with about twenty
other persons, well armed, he entered the little
remote burgh of Sanquhar, and made public pro-
clamation at the Cross, that he and those who
adhered to him renounced their allegiance to the
king, Charles the Second, on account of his hav-
ing abused the government ; at the same time de-
claring war against him and his brother, the duke
of York, whose succession to the tlirone they
avowed their resolution to resist. A reward of
five thousand merks was immediately offered by
the privy council for Cameron's head, and three
thousand merks for the heads of the rest ; and
parties of soldiers wei*e immediately sent out to
arrest them. The little band kept togctlier in
arms for a month in the mountainous country be-
tween Nithsdale and Ayrshire. On the 20th of
July they were surprised on Airdsmoss by Bruce
of Earlshall, with a party-of horse and foot much
superior to them in numbers. Cameron, who was
believed by his followers to have a gift of pro-
phecy, is said to have that morning washed his
hands with particular care, in the expectation that
they were immediately to become a public specta-
cle. His party at the sight of the enemy gathered
closely around him, and he uttered a short prayer.
in which he thrice repeated the expression, ** Lord\
spare the green, and take tl^e ripe!" He then
said to his brother, *^ Come ! let us fight it out to
the last 1" After a brief skirmish, in which tbey
were allowed even by theur enemies to have fought
with great bravery, Bruce's party, from their
superiority of numbers, gained the victory.
Cameron was among the slam, and his head
and hands, after being cut off, were carried to
Edinburgh, along with the prisoners, among whom
was the celebrated Hackstoun of Rathillet. The
father of Cameron was at this time in prison for
nonconformity, and the head and hands of his son
were shown to him with the question, ** Did he
know to whom they belonged?" The old man
seized the bloody relics with all the eagerness of
parental affection, and, kissing them fervently,
exclaimed, ** I know, I know them ; they wre my
son's, my own dear son's ; it is the Lord ; good is
the will of the Liord, who cannot wrong me or
mine, but has made goodness and mercy to follow
us all our days." The head and hands were then
fixed upon the Netherbow Port, the fingers point-
ing upward, in mocker/ of the attitude of prayer.
The body was buried with the rest of the slain on
the spot where they fell at Airdsmoss, where a
plain monument was in better times erected over
them. The small but zealous body of presby te-
rlans who adhered to Cameron in his life, were
from him designated Cameronians; a name which
is sometimes given to the members of the Re-
formed Presbyterian Church.
CAMERON, Hugh, a pei-son of humble origin,
yet deserving a place in this work as one of the
gieatest local benefactors to the Breadalbane
district of Perthshire, was born in 1705, and
was no more than a country millwright. After
acquiiing a knowledge of his business, he settled
at Shiain of Lawers, where he built the first lint-
mill that ever was erected in the Highlands of
Scotland. Before his time only the distaff and
spindle wei*e used for spinning lint and wool in
that part of the countiy ; and he was not only tbe
first who constructed spinning-wheels and jack-
reels in Bi-eadalbane, but he was likewise the first
who taught the people there how to use them.
The number of lint-mills afteiif^'ards erected by
him throughout the Highlands cannot be reckoned
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Indmi %uximK^tii id J^cMkBitr.
I.
Campyi, fatb d fat^ak — ^JfHmilj trf ^rg^Ie.
OBBAT AVCmOB OH FKMALK UDB.
DfavBid O'DwiB, Locd of Loobow.— Clan CamplMU itylMl ftom hhn Otol DkarmkL
2&8 4 5
Sir CoHn, his wn,
knighted 1280,
styled
Mm Chaillan
More, slain la a
fradwUh
LordLorn,
13M.
8. Dnncan,hia
son. Reign of
Malcolm IV.
8. Colin,
Duncan's son.
Reign of
William the Lion.
8
Sit Nlel, Sir
CoUn's son,
died 1316, murried
Lady Mary, sister
of Roliert Bruce.
His brother Don-
ald progenitor of
Campbells' of
Gillespie or
Archibald, Colin*8
son, mentioned
In statutes of
Dnnean,
Gniespic'a son.
married a daugh-
ter of house of
Comyn.
Reign of
Alexander U
9
Sir Colin, Sir
Kiel's eldest son,
died circa 1340.
His broUier John,
ancestor of Camp-
bells of Uarbreck,
Succoth, and
other families of
the
lO&ll
10.su- Gillespie or
Archibald, Sir
Colin's eldest son.
11. Sir Colin,
Sir Gillespie's son.
Sir CoUn's sticoud
son, Colin Camp-
bell of
Ardkinglaai.
Sir GUleq>ia.
DvDcan'saoo.
Reign of
Alexander m.
12
ffir DoBCSJi of
Argyle,8irColin*s
eldest son. Lord
Campbell, 1445,
died 1453. His 3d
ion. Sir Colin of
Glennrchy, anoea.
tor of earls of
BreadallwnA.
CoUn, Sir Don-
can's grandson,
created earl
ofArgyIel467,
lord high chancel-
lor of Scotland
1483, m. Lady
IsabeUa Stewart,
Loo-belressofl
6&7
«. CoUn,6th
earl's half brother,
lord high chan-
cellor, died 1581
7. Archibald,
eth earl's elder
son, died at
Londmi, 1638,
aged 61
2&d
3. Archibald,
his eldest son,
slain at Flodden
1618.
8. Colm, 2d taiYt
^est son. Justice
general of Scot-
taad,diodl53a
Cndi of ^xgjtk.
Sir John Camp-
bell, 8d son of
Sd earl, ancestor
of earls of
Cawdor.
TflixBC(pa$ of ^xgjj^»
Archn)ald,8d
carl's eldest son,
the flrst Scots
noble who em-
braced the Re-
formation, •
died 1558.
A2tMbald,hla
■oconeoftba
lorda of the Con-
gregation, and
lord high chan-
cellor, died,
without laaoib
157&
9UiBiiri.
Archibald, 7th
earl's eldest son,
bom 1598,
8th earl, created
marquis of Argyle
1641, behead
166L
Arehibald,
the marquia*
eldest son,
beheadoll68&
]§vlku of ^sgU,
Archibald, 10th
eari, eldest son
of 9th, created
duke 1701,
diadnoa
John. Itt dnke'
•on, bom 1678,
commander-in-
n
2DE
Archibald,
second duke*!
brother, bom
1682, eari of Islay
1706. died, with-
out iaane, 176L
John, Sd doket
oonahi, aon of
Hon. J<^n Camp-
bell of Mamore,
2d son of 9th carl,
bom 169S,
died 1770
John, 4th dnke's
eldest son, bom
1723, baron
Sundridge (Br.
Prge) 1766, field
marshal 1796,
di«11806.
7
8
JohnDooglaB
George John
Edward Henry,
Dooglaa. seTcntli
6th dnke's bro-
dnke's son,
bora 1831,
Lord John
P. C. 1868,
Campbell of
K.T. 185C
Ardincaple, bora
married, wilh
Vl"7,diedl847JV
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ARMS or CAUFBBLI., DUKE Or AROTLE.
-LandAtethananMofCampbeU. 1 and 8 for lordship of Lorn. BeMnd tba ihlild tba two giiai4i|rigM of
frsataMMr^rthahoairtiold and high )atUciai7«#8ooilaad. . (
>giiai49dgMor ^
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CAMPBELL.
543
CAMPBELL.
at less than a hundred. In short, almost all the
llnt-mllls in the Highlands of Perthshire, and
many in the counties of Inverness, Caithness, and
Sutherland, were of his erecting. He also con-
structed the first barley-mill that was built upon
the north side of the Forth, for which he was
highly complimented by Maca Ghlasarich, — Camp-
bell the bard, — ^in a veiy popular song, called
^Moladh di Eobhan Camashran Muilleir lin,* that
is, ^ A song in praise of Hugh Cameron, the lint
miller.' This singular character died in 1817, at
the extraordinary age of 112 years. Though he
could only be called a country-wright, he was a
man of uncommon genius, of great integrity, and
of a very shrewd and independent mind.
CAMERON, William, the Rev., author of the
excellent congratulatory song on the restoration
of the forfeited estates, 1784, inserted in John-
son's Musical Museum, was bora in 1751, and
having studied for the Church of Scotland, was in
the usual time licensed to preach the gospel. In
1785 he became minister of the parish of Kirk-
ncwton. His first work, a * Collection of Poems,'
printed at Edinburgh in 1780, 12mo, was anony-
mous. In 1781, along with the Rev. John Logan,
of Leith, and the Rev. Dr. John Morison, minis-
ter of Canisbay, in the county of Caithness, (who
died in 1798,) Mr. Cameron rendered material
assistance in preparing the collection of Para-
phrases now in use in the Church of Scotland. He
died at the manse of Kirknewton on the 17th of
November 1811, in the 60th yeai* of his age, and
the 26th of his ministry. A posthumous volume
of poems was published by subscription at Edin-
burgh in 1813, 8vo. His song, on the restora-
tion of the forfeited estates, beginning " As o'er
the Highland hills I hied," was adapted to the
fine old air, called " The Haughs o' Cromdale." —
Notes to JolmaofCs Musical Museum edited by W,
Stenhouse,
Camfbei«l, a Bomame of great antiqoitj in Scotland, and
o( frequent oocarrenoe in Scottish history. It is stated bj
Pinkerton to have been derived from a Norman knight, named
de Campo Bello, who came to England with William the Con-
qoeror. As respects the latter part of the statement, it is to
be observed that in the list of all the knights wbo composed
the army of the Conqneror on the occasion of his invasion of
England, and which is known by the name of the Roll of
Battle-Abbey, the name of Campo Bello is not to be found.
But it does not follow, as recent writers have assumed, that
a knight of that name may not have come over to England at
a later period, either of his reign or of that his suoeesson.
Mr. Pinkerton has associated with this account of the origic
of the name a theory that the Campbells were not only not
Celts but Goths, in which, however, he is assuredly mistaken.
It has been aHeged in opposition to this account that in the
oldest form of writing the name, it is spelled Cambel or Kam-
bel, and it is so found in many ancient documents ; but these
were written by parties not acquainted with the individuals
whose name they record, as in the manuscript account of the
battle of Halidon Hill, by an unknown English writer, pre-
served in the British Museum ; in the Bagman Roll, which
was compiled by an English clerk, and in Wyntoun's Chronicle.
There is no evidence, however, that at any period it was
written by any of the family otherwise than as Cttmpbeii,
notwithstanding the extraordinary diversity that occurs in the
spelling of other names by thdr holders, as shown by Lord
Lindsay in the account of his dan, and the invariable em-
pk>yment of the letter p by the Campbells themselves would
be of itself a strong argument for the southern origin of the
name, did there not exist, in the record of the parliament of
Robert Bruce held hi 1820, the name of the then head of the
family, entered as Sir Nigel de Campo Bello.
The writers, however, wbo attempt to sustain the fabulous
tales of the sennachies, assign a very different origin to the
name. It is personal, say they, "like that of some others of
the Highland dans, being composed of the words canj bent
or arched, and beul, month ; this having bc^i the most pro-
minent feature of the great ancestor of the dan, Diarmid
O'Dwbin, or O'Dwin, a brave warrior celebrated in traditional
story, who was contemporary with the heroes of Ossian. In
the Gaelic language his descendants are called Siol Diarmid,
the offspring or race of Diarmid."
Besides the manifest improbability of this origin on othei
grounds, two considerations may be adverted to, each of tbem
condusive.
First, It is known to all wbo have examined andent gen-
ealogies, that. among the Cdtic races personal distinctives
never have become hereditary. Malcobn Cantnarej Donald
Bcme^ Bob iSoy, or Evan DAtf, were, with many other names,
distinctive of personal qualities, but none of them descended,
or could do so, to the children of those who acquired them.
Secondly, It is no less clear that, until after what is called
the Saxon Conquest had been completdy effected, no heredi-
tary surnames were in use among the Cdts of Scotland, nor
by the chiefs of Norwegian descent who governed in Argyle
and the Isles. This drcurostance is pointed out by Tytler in
his remarks upon the eariy population of Scotland, in the
chapter in his second volume of tiie History of Scotland. The
domestic slaves attached to the possessions of the church and
of the barons have their genealogies engrossed in andent
charters of conveyances and confirmation copied by him.
The names are all Cdtic, but in no one instance does the son,
even when bearing a second or distinctive name, follow that
of his father.
According to the genealo^sts of the family of Argyle, their
predecessors, on the female side, were possessors of Lochow,
in Argyleshire, as early as 404. In the eleventh century,
Gillespie (or Archibald) Campbell, a gentleman of Anglo-
Norman lineage, acquired the lordship of Lochow, by mar-
riage with Eva, daughter and bdrcss of Paul 0*Dwin, lord of
Lochow, denominated Paul Insporran. from his being the
king's treasurer.
Sir Colin Campbell of Lochow, sixth m descent firom this
personage, distinguished himself by his wariike actions, and
was knighted by King Alexander the Third in 1280. In
1291 he was one of the nominees on the part of Robert
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CAMPBELL.
544
CAMPBELL.
Brace in the oonteet for the Scottish crown. He added
largely to his estates, and on account of his great prowess he
obtained the surname of More or great ; from him the chief
of the Argyle family is in Gaelic styled Mac Chaillan More.
According to the universally received opinion for several cen-
turies, the distinctive Mao is understood to imply son, or the
son of, and Mac Chaillan would accordingly imply the son of
Chaillan. But it is not anywhere said or supposed that Sir
Colin*s father or any of his immediate ancestors bore the
name of Chaillan. He is described as Dammut CoUntu
Camp-beU Miles JUkts DominuM GiUaspee Camp-heL, in an
acquisition referred to in a charter of the monks of Newbattle
abbey of the lands of Symontoun in Ayrshire, the reddendo of
whidi Sir Colin made over to that abbey in 1293. The father
of this Gillespie is said to have been Duncan Campbell, mar-
ried to a lady of the name of Sommerville, of the house of
CarawMth, and the father of Duncan, an Archibald Camp-
bell, but there is no authentic instance of their being styled of
Lochow. Other instances occur where the prefix Mac is used
without signifying son, as, for example, in Macbeth, who b
not known to have been the son of Beth, and whose son Ma-
doch did not bear that name; and also in the genealogies of
the Celtic slaves already referred to quoted by Tytler in his
history, where the word Mac occurs in the name of a son
which is not the same as that of his father. It is also found
in compound words, as Macpherson, Macfarquharson, &c.,
where the English word son is also incorporated. We are
therefore led to look for another explanation of this frequent
prefix. It is not found in Welsh names. In the few Irish
names in which it appears, a Scotch origin can frequently be
traced, and it is often used in the form of Mag, as Magnire,
Maginnes, as it is also along with the C in the Scotch names
MacGUshan, MaoGillivray, &c. In the oldest Irish records
the word Mio occurs, and is translated son, and this mic is
frequently found combined with Mac, as Mic Ma& There is
a curious instance in Irish history oS the prefix Mac being
employed to signify great or big, as in a chief in the r«gn of
Klizabeth, who is said to have been called Mao Manus, grttU
handy from the length of his arms. It is not therefore im-
probable that the word mac or mag may have originally been
a contraction of Magnus, great or big, employed in the first
instance by the priests, the only chroniclers and namegivers
m the corrapted Latin of those ages, either as an independent
personal distinctive, or to designate, among several of the
same name, the individual of greatest size and strength, and
which in later ages, when surnames came into use, might be
continued by their descendants to distinguish them from the
children of others of the same name, on whom such a personal
distinctive had not been bestowed. It may be remarked,
that in this sense it sometimes occurs in British or Welsh, as
well as in Celtic or Irish, topography, as Mackinleith, the great
place on the Leath^ a hundred and town of great antiquity
in Montgomeryshire; Maginnis, the great iiUmd, the ancient
name of the peninsula between Lough Strangford and Dun-
drum ; also, corrapted into Muck or Mug, as Mucross, the
great cross; and in composition as Carrickmacross, the rock
of the great cross. It is probable that it has been used in
other countries in composition of names, as Magellan, or
Magalhaen, the great stranger^ the name of the discovei-er of
Cape Hora.
On this supposition also the word Mac Chaillan appears to
be the Celtic orthography, according to their pronunciation of
Mag Allan or Alaine, the latter a word whidi is not only a
frequent name in the Romance language (with which the
Norman-French, as spoken in Scotland in the twelfth cen-
tury is nearly identified), but was also used m that language
to signify what that word actually meant, via., ale(m^u^
stranger, or alien, and Mao Caillane would thus imply the tall
or large-bodied stranger. The appellative mor or more,
although frequently used in modem Celtic, in a physical
sense, as great, was in earlier times more properiy a distinc
tive of superior rank, as maormor, the ancient name for tht
Pictish chiefs, viz., chief of the heads (maora, or nu^fors, a
corrapted Gotho-Latin term,) of the tribes. This term mor
is still preserved in the Spanish and Portuguese languages,
which are descended from the Romance, to express such a dis-
tinction of rank or order, as alcayde mor, the head alcade;
capitain mor, head captain, an officer equivalent to com-
mander-in-chief of the military force in Portuguese colonies;
thesaureiro mor, head treasurer, &c, &c. The identity ot
many of the Romanfeiro terms preserved in peninsular lan-
guages, with those occurring in the earliest forms of Celtio
words, presents matter of speculation to the philologist and
antiquary, but may perhaps be accounted for by the earlier
prevalence of that tongue and its larger use also in the north
of Scotland than even the Saxon itself, as the conqueron
under Canmore and his descendants were chiefly of that race,
and in mixing with the natives, they may have retained a
number of these Gotho-Latin terms whilst adopting along
with them in the course of that amalgamation, the genentl
idiom of the conquered people.
It is therefore suggested that the Celtic name Mao Chaillan
Mor, is in reality a compound of corrapted Latin and Romance
words implying the great or tail stranger chief, a suggestion
which singularly aids the opinion which, after considerable
attention to the matter, we have formed, viz. that the first
of the Campbells or Campobellos was a military knight, one
of whose ancestors may have assisted Alexander the Second
m his conquest of Argyle, and received, along with the
Steward of Scothwd, who obtained all Bute and Cowal oo
the same occasion, the adjacent lands of Lochow as his fee or
reward, when these were forfeited by the rebellion or death of
the original possessor, probably receiving the band of tht
daughter of the latter as « further security for his acquisition.
Whether this latter circumstance occurred or not, it was not
until a later age, when the fourth earl of Argyle had acquired the
jurisdiction over that region, that the Norman bearing gyronny
of eight for Campbell, came to be quartered in the armorial
bearings of the family, with the galley having furied sails
oars in action, and flag and pendants flying for the lordshq> ol
the Isles. The surrounding people, compelled to acquiesce ia
this arrangement, would naturally describe a knight, or the
son of a knight, so injected into their midst, by the appella-
tion of the great stnmger diuf. In the account given of the
origin of the name Campbell, by Jacob in his English peer-
age, under their English title of Sundridge, vol ii. p. C98,
London, 1767, there is a statement apparently contradictory
of the forcing theory, viz., that the name Mac Chilian, or
as rendered by him Mac Callan, is that of Sir Colin himself,
'*80 called by the Irish.** Admitting this to be the case,
although its similarity is not apparent, its only effect would
be that instead of the great stranger chirf, the distinctive
Mac Caillan More would mean Co^ the great or tail ch^f.
Sir Colin Campbell had a quarrel with a powerful neigh-
bour of his, the Lord of Lorn, and after he had defeated him,
pursuing the victory too eagerly, he was shun Qn 1294, ac-
cording to Jacob in the account referred to) at a place called
the String of Cowal, where a great obelisk was erected over
his grave. This is said to have occasioned bitter feuds be-
twixt the houses of Lochow and Lora for a long period of
years, which were put an end to by the marriage of the
daughter of Ergadia, the Celtic proprietor of Lorn, with Juba
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CA.MPBELL.
545
CAMPBELL.
Stewart of Innermeath about 1386. Sir Colin married a lady
of the name of Sinclair, by whom he had five sons.
Sir Kiel Campbell of Lochow, his eldest son, swore fealty
to Edward the First, but afterwards joined Robert the Bruce,
and fought by his side in almost every encounter, from the
defeat at Mcthven to the victory at Bannockbum. King
Robert rewarded his services by giving him his sister, the
Ijidy Mary Bruce, in marriage, and conferring on him ^he
lands forfeited by the earl of Athol. Sir Kiel, who was also
styled Mac Chaillan More, was one of the commissioners sent
to York in 1314, to negotiate a peace with the English. His
next brother Donald was the progenitor of the Campbells of
lioudon. [See Loudon, earl of.] His three younger brothers,
Dugal, Arthur, and Duncan, all swore fealty to King Ed-
ward in 1296, but also became devoted adherents of Robert
the Bruce, and shared his favours. By his wife, the Lady
Mary Bruce, Sir Kiel had three sons, Sir Colin ; John, created
earl of Athol, upon the forfeiture of David de Strathbogie, the
eleventh earl, [see Athol, earl of,] and Dngal.
Sir Colin, the eldest son, obtained a charter from his uncle.
King Robert Bruce, of the lands of Lochow and Ardscod-
niche, dated at Arbroath, 10th February, 1816, in which he
b designated CoUnusJUku NigeUi CamM, mUUis, In 1816,
he accompanied King Robert to Ireland to assist in placing
his brother, Edward Bruce, on the throne of that kingdom.
Sir Colin assisted the steward of Scotland in 1334, in the
surprise and recovery of the castle of Dunoon, in Cowal, be-
longing to the Steward, but held by the English and the
adherents of Edward Baliol, and put all within it to the
sword, a feat which gave the first turn of fortune in favour
of King David Bruce. As a reward Sir Colin was made
* hereditary governor of the castle of Dunoon, and had the
grant of certain lands for the support of his dignity. Wyn-
toun states that it was his brother Dugal who did this ser-
vice, but Crawford has shown that this is wrong. Sir Colin
died alK>ut 1340. By his wife, a daughter of the house of
Lennox, he had three sons and a daughter; namely. Sir
Gillespie or Archibald; John, from whom the Campbells of
Barbreck and Succoth, and other families of the name, are
said to be descended ; Dugnl, who joined Edward Baliol, and
in consequence his estates in Cowal were forfeited by King
David the Second, and given to his eldest brother; and Alicia,
married to Alan Lauder of Hatton.
The eldest son, Sir Gillespie or Archibald, who added
largely to the family possessions, was twice married, first to
a lady of the family of Menteith, and, secondly, to Mary,
daughter of Sir John Lamont, and had a son. Sir Colin
Campbell of liOchow, who married Margaret second daughter
of Sir John Drummond of Stobhall, sister of Annabella, queen
of Robert the Third. He had three sons, Duncan, Colin,
and David, and a daughter, married to Duncan Macfarlane
of Arrochar. Colin, the second son, was designed of Ard-
kinglass, and of his family the Campbells of Ardentinny,
Dunoon, Carrick, Skipnish, Blythswood, Shawfield, Rachan,
AuchwUlan, and Dergachie, are brandies.
Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochow, the eldest son, was one
of the hostages in 1424, under the name of Duncan lord of
Argyle, for the payment of the sum of forty thousand pounds
(equivalent to four hundred thousand pounds of our money)
for the expense of King James the First s maintenance dur-
ing his long imprisonment in England, when Sir Dflncan was
foimd to be worth fifteen hundred merks a-year. He was
the first of the family to assume the designation of Ai^le.
By King James he was appointed one of his privy council,
and constituted his justiciary and lieutenant within the shire
of Argyle. He became a lord of parliament in 1445, under
the title of Lord Campbell. He died in 1458, and was buri-
ed at Kilmun. He married, first, Marjory or Mariots Stew-
art, daughter of Robert duke of Albany, governor of Scotland
In Pinkerton's Scottish Gallery, there are portraits of both
the first Ijord Campbell and his wife, of which the following
are woodcuts : 2 if
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CAMPBELL,
546
FIRST EARL OF ARGYLE.
by his first wife be had three sons, Celestifie, who died be-
fore him ; Archibald, who also predeceased hinrif but left a son ;
and Colin, who was the first of Glenorchy, and ancestor of
the Breadalbane family, [see Bbeadalbanb, earl and mar-
Quis of, ante^ p. 876]. Sir Duncan married, secondly, Mar-
garet, daughter of Sir John Stewart of Blackball and Auch-
ingown, natural son of Robert the Tliird, by whom, also, he
had three sons, namely, Duncan, who, according to Crawford,
was the ancestor of the house of Auchinbreck, of whom are
the Campbells of Glencardel, Glensaddel, Kildurkland, Kil-
morie. Wester Keams, Kilberry, and Dana; N)el, progenitor,
according to Crawford, of the Campbells of EUengreig and
Ormadale ; and Arthur or Archibald, ancestor of the Camp-'
bells of Ottar, now extinct. It is 3aid that the Campbells of
Auchinbreck and their cadets, also EUengreig and Ormadale,
descend from tliis the youngest son, and not from his brothers.
The first Lord Campbell was succeeded by his grandson
Colin, the son of his second son Archibald. He acquired
pnrt of the lordship of Campbell in the parish of Dollar, by
marrying the eldest of the three daughters of John Stewart,
third lord of Lorn and Innermeath. He did not, as is gen-
erally stated, acquire by this marriage any part of the lord-
ship of Lorn (which passed to Walter, brother of John, the
fourth Lord Innermeatii, and heir of entail), but obtained that
lordship ^ exchange of the lands of Baldoning and Inner-
doning, &a in Perthshire, with the said Walter. In 1457 he
was created earl of Argyle. He was one of the commis-
sioners for negotiating a truce with King Edward the Fourth
of England, in 1463, and in 1465 was appointed, with Lord
Boyd, justiciary of Scotland, which office he filled for many
years by himself after the fall of his colleague. In 1470 he
was created baron of Lorn, and in the following year he was
appointed one of the commissioners for settling the treaty of
alliance with King Edward the Fourth of England, by which
James, prince of Scotland, was affianced to Cecilia, Edward's
youngest daughter. He was also one of the commissioners
sent to France to renew the treaty with that crown in 1484,
and he eventuallv became lord-high-chancellor of Scotland.
In 1475 tliis nobleman was appointed to prosecute a decree
of forfeiture against John, earl of Ross and lord of the Isles,
and in 1481 he received a grant of many lands in Knapdale,
along with the keeping of Castle Sweyn, which had previ-
ously been held by the lord of the Isles. He died in 1493.
The manner in which the lordship of Campbell and Cas-
tJe Campbell in the parish of Dollar came into the posses-
ion of Uie family of Argyle, is detailed in the New Sta-
tistical Account of Scotland with considerable research,
Isabella Stewart, supposed to be the eldest daughter of
John third Lord Innermeath, and first countess of Aigyie,
inherited about 1460 one-third of the lands of Dollar and
Gloom, supposed to be the unentailed portion of the estate of
Innermeath, as heir-portioner with her two idsters, — Maigar
ret, married to Sir Colin Campbell of Glcnorchie, ancestor (A
the marquis of Breadalbane; and Marion, married to Ar-
thur Campbell of Ottar. The third belonging to Lady Camp-
bell of Glenorchie, was ceded to the Argyle family by her son
Duncan in a deed of renunciation still extant. How the
third portion passed into the Argyle house does not appear ;
bnt it is all included in a charter of confirmation by James
the Fourth of a charter by the bishop of Dunkeld, dated 11th
May 1497. Muckartshill, a barony to the east of Dollar,
appears about the same period (1491) to have been ieoed by
Shivaz bishop of St Andrews to the earl of Argyle. In 1489,
by an act of the Scottish pariiament the name of Castle
Gloom, its former designation, was changed to Castle Camp-
bell. It continued to be the frequent and favourite residence
of the family till 1644, when it was burnt down by the Mao-
leans in the army of the marquis of Montrose, along with
every house in Dollar and Muckart, — two houses only, and
these by mistake, escaping their savage farj. It was at
Castle Campbell that Knox tells us in his history he viated
Archibald the fourth earl of Argyle, and preached during
successive days, to him and his noble relatives and friends
Although never repaireil, the castle and lordship of Castle
Campbell remained in the possession of the Argyle family
till 1808, when it was mh\.
CAm'LK GA>1PBI£LL.
By iHabel Stewart, his wife, eldest daughter of John, lord
(ff Lum, the first earl of Argyle had two sons and seven
lUughters. Archibald, his elder son, became second earl, and
Thomas, the younger, was the ancestor of the Campbells of
Lundie in Forfarshire. One of his daughters was mameil to
Angus the young loixi of the Isles, and was belie\'ed by the
ittlanders to have been the mother of Angus* son, Donald
Dubh, who was imprisoned in the castle uf Inchoonnell from
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CAMPBELL,
647
THIRD EARL OF ARGYLE.
his infancy. Another daughter was married to Torquil Mac-
leod of the Lewis. Having acquired the principal part of the
landed property of the two sisters of his wife, the first earl of
Argyle entered into a transaction with Walter Stewart, Lord
Lorn, their unde, on whom the lordship of Lorn and barony
of Innermeath, which stood limited to heirs-male, had de-
volved, in consequence of which Walter resigned the lordship
of Lorn in favour of the earl of Argyle, who thereupon added
the style and designation of Lord Lorn to his other titles,
Walter retaining the barony of Innermeath, had the title of
Lord Innermeath. [See Athol, earl of, tmU, p. 163.]
Archibald, second eari of Argyle, succeeded his father in
1493, and is designed lord- high-chancellor of Scotland, in a
charter to him by Elizabeth Menteith, Lady Rusky, and
Archibald Napier of Merchiston, her son, of half of the
Unds of Inchima, Rusky, &c, in the county of Argyle, 28th
June, 1494. The same year he had the ofiioe of master of
the household. Crawford, in his Peerage, page 17, says he
was lord-chamberhun in 1495, but his name does not occur
as such in Crawford's Officers of State, and he is not designed
lord-chamberlain in any of the charters granted to him, which
were numerous, under the great seal, from 1494 to 1612. In
1499 he and others received a commission from the king to
let on lease, for the term of three years, the entire lordship of
the Isles as possessed by the last lord, both in the Isles and
on the mtunland, excepting only the island of Isla, and the
lands of North and South Kintyre. He also received a com-
mission of lieutenandry, with the fullest powers, over the lord-
ship of the Isles ; and, some months later, was appointed
keeper of the ca.stle of Tarbert, and bailie and governor of the
king's lands in Knapdale. In 1504, when the insurrection of
* the islanders under Donald Dubh, who had escaped from pri-
son, broke out, Argyle, with Huntly, Crawford and Maris-
chal, the Lord Lovat, and other powerful barons, were charged
to lead the royal forces against the rebels ; but the insurrec-
tion was not finally suppressed till 1506. From this period
the great power formerly enjoyed by the earls of Ross, lords
of the Isles, was transferred to the earls of Argyle and Huntly ;
the formei having the chief rule in the south isles and adja-
cent coasts. [Gregory'i HigkUmda and hies of Scotland,'\
At the fatal battle of Hodden, 9th September 1513, his lord-
ship and his brother-in-law, the earl of Lennox, commanded
the right wing of the royal army, and with King James the
Fourth, were both killed in that sanguinary engagement, so
disastrous to Scotland. By his wife, Lady Elizabeth Stewart,
eldest daughter of John, first earl of Lennox, he had four
sons and five daughters. His eldest, Colin, was the third
earl of Argyle. Archibald, his second son, had a charter of
the lands of Skipnish, and the keeping of the castle thereof,
&C., 13th August 1611. His family ended in an hdr-feroale
in the reign of Mary. Sir John Campbell, the third son, at
first styled of Lorn, and afterwards (^ Calder, married Muri-
ella, daughter and heiress of Sir John Calder of Calder, now
Cawdor, near Nairn, as previously mentioned. [See Caldkr,
gumame of, anU^ page 627.J
According to tradition, she was captured in childhood by
Sir John Campbell and a party of the Campbells, while out
with her nurse near Calder castle. Her uncles pursued and
overtook the division of the Campbells to whose care she had
been intrusted, and would have rescued her but for the pre-
sence of mind of Campbell of Inverliver who, seeing their
approach, inverted a large camp kettle as if to conceal her,
and commanding his seven sons to defend it to the death,
hurried on with his prize. The young men were all slain,
and when the Calders lifted up the kettle, no Muriella was
there. Meanwhile so much time had been gained that farther
pursuit was useless. The nurse, at the moment the child
was seized, bit ofi* a joint of her little finger, in order to mark
her identity— a precaution which seems to have been neces-
sary, from Campbell of Aucfainbreck*s reply to one who, in
the midst of their congratulations on arriving safely in Ar-
gyle with their charge, asked what was to be done should
the child die before she was marriageable ? ** She can never
die," said he, ** as long as a red-haired lassie can be found on
either side of Ix)chawe !** From this it would appear that
the heiress of the Calders had red hair. The earl of Cawdor
is the representative of Sir John Campbell and his wife Mu-
riella, (see Cawdor, earl of,) and the Campbells of Aid-
chattan, Airds, and Cluny are their collateral descendants.
Donald, the fourth son of the second earl of Argyle, was ab-
bot of Cupar, and ancestor of the Campbells of Kdthock m
Forfarshire.
Colin Campbell, the third earl of Argyle, was, immediately
after his accession to the earldom, appointed by the council to
assemble an army and proceed against LaudUan Maclean of
Dowart, and other Highland chieftains, who had broken out
into insurrection and proclaimed Sir Donald of Lochalsh lord
of the Isles. This he was enabled to do the more eflectualiy,
as in anticipation of disturbances among the islanders, he had
taken bonds of fidelity from his vassals and others who had
attached themselves to the late earl his father. Owing tc
the powerful influence of Argyle, the insurgents submitted to
the regent, after strong measures had been adopted against
them ; and, upon assurance of protection, he prevailed upon
them to appear at court, and arrange in person the terms of
pardon and restoration to favour ; in consequence of which
considerable progress seems to have been made in the pacifica-
tion of the Isles. Argyle and his followers took out a remis-
sion for ravages committed by them in the isle of Bute in the
course of the insurrection, and rendered necessary, it may be
supposed, from some of the rebels having thero found sheltel
and protection. In 1517 Sir Donald of" Lochalsh again ap-
peared in arms, but being deserted by his principal leaders, he
effected his escape. His two brothers, however, were made pri-
soners by Maclean of Dowart and Macleod of Dunvegan, who
had submitted to the government. The services of the earl
of Argyle had mainly contributed to this state of matters in
the Isles. He had, eariy in that year, presented to the regent
and council a petition, requesting ^'for the honour of the
realm and the commonweal in time coming," that' he should
receive a commission of lieutenandry over all the Isles and
adjacent mainland, on the grounds of the vast expense he had
previously incurred, of his ability to do good service in future,
and of his having broken up the confederacy of the islanders ;
which commission he obtained with certain exceptions. He
also cliumed and obtained authority to receive into the king's
favoiur, all the men of the Isles who should make their sub-
mission to him and become bound for future good behaviour,
by the delivery of hostages and otherwise ; the last condition
being made imperatdve, " because the men of the Isles are
fickle of mind, and set but little value upon their oaths and
written obligations." Sir Donald of the Isles, his brothers,
and the Clandonald were, however, specially excepted from
the benefit of this article. The earl likewise demanded and
received express power to pursue and follow the rebels with
fire and sword, to expel them from the Isles, and to use his
best endeavours to possess himself of Sir Donald*s castle of
Strone in Lochcarron. [Gregonfi Bighhndt and Isles oj
Scotkmdy pages 119, 120.] It would appear, however, that
Argyle*s sen-ices were not treated with that consideration at
the capital which he thought they were entitled to receive, as
in 1519, on his advice to the council that Sir Donald should
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FOURTH EARL OF ARGYLE.
be forfeited for high treason, meeting with some opposition,
he took a solemn protest before parliament that neither he
nor his heirs should be liable for any mischiefs that might in
future arise from rebellions in the Isles ; as, although he held
the office of lieutenant, his advice was not taken as to the
management of the districts committed to his charge, neither
had he received certain supplies of men and money, formerly
promised him by the regent for carrying on the king's senice
in the Isles. [^Jbtd. page 125.]
In the parliament which met at Edinburgh 26th Febmary
1525, Argyle was appointed one of the four governors of the
kingdom, the duke of Albany's regency, from his continued
absence in France, having been declared at an end. In Jan-
uary 1526, he accompanied the young king, James the Fifth,
against the queen-mother and the rebel lords, and was a
member of the new secret council appointed in that year.
For some years the Isles had continued at peace, and Argyle
employed this interx'al in extending his influence among the
chiefs, and in promoting the aggrandisement of his family
and clan, being assisted thereto by his brothers. Sir John
Campbell of Galder, so designed after his marriage with the
heiress, and Archibald Campbell of Skipnish. ITie former
was particularly active. In 1527 an event occurred, which
forms the groundwork of Joanna Baillio's celebrated tragedy
of ' The Family Legend,' acted at the Theatre Royal, Edin-
burgh, with great success in 1810 [see an/e, p. 185]. It is
thus related by Gregory : " Lauchlan Cattinach Maclean of
Do wart had married I^dy Elizabeth Campbell, daughter of
Archibald, second earl of Argyle, and, either from the dr-
cumst«nce of their union being unfruitful, or more probably
owing to some domestic quarrels, he determined to get rid of
his Hife. Some accounts say that she had twice attempted
her husband's life ; but, whatever the cause may have been,
Maclean, following the advice of two of his vassals, who ex-
ercised a considerable influence over him from the tie of fos-
terage, caused his lady to be exposed on a rock, which was
only visible at low water, intending that she should be swept
away by the return of the tide. This rock lies between the
island of Lismore and the coast of Mull, and is still known
by the name of the * Lady's Rock.^ From this perilous situ-
ation, the intended victim was rescued by a boat accidentally
passing, and conveyed to her brother's house. Her relations,
although much exasperated against Maclean, smothered their
resentment for a time, but only to break out afterwards with
greater violence ; for the laird of Dowart being in Edinhui^h,
was surprised when in bed, and assassinated by Sir John
. Campbell of Calder, the lady's brother. The Macleans in-
stantly took arms to revenge the death of their chief, and the
Campbells were not slow in preparing to' follow up the feud ;
but the government interfered, and, for the present, an ap-
peal to arms was avoided." [Higklandt and Isles qf Scot-
land, p. 128.]
On the escape of the king, then in his seventeenth year,
from the power of the Douglases, in May 1528, Argyle was
one of the first to join his majesty at Stirling. He accom-
panied the king to Edinburgh on the 6th of the following
July, and on the confiscation of the vast estates of the Dou-
glas family, he obtmned, 6th December 1528, a charter of the
barony of Abemethy, in Perthshire, forfeited by Archibald,
earl of Angus. The some year he was appointed lieutenant
of the borders and warden of the marches. On the refusal of
the earl of Bothwell to lead the royal army against the earl
of Angus, who had appeared in arms, and repeatedly defeat-
ed the king's forces, the task of the expulsion of this formi-
dable rebel from Coldingham, where he had talcen up his
q'iin*^cr8, was committed to the earl of Argyle, who, with the
usbifttanoe of the Homes, oompelled him to fly into EngUuid,
whence he did not return till after the death of James. Ar-
gyle afterwards received an ample confirmation of the hered-
itary sherifl&hip of Argylesliire and of the offices of justiciary
of Scotland and master of the household, by which these
offices became hereditary in his family. He hod the oommi»-
sion of justice-general of Scotland renewed 2dth October
1529. He died in 1530. In hb last years he was engaged
in endeavouring to suppress a formidable insurrection in the
South Isles, headed by Alexander of Isla and the Madeona,
who i^adily seized the opportunity to revenge the death of
their late chief. The combhied clans made descents upon
Roseneath, Craignish, and other lands belonging to the
Campbells, which they ravaged with fire and sword, killing
at the same time many of the inhabitants. The dan Camp-
bell retaliated, by laying waste great part of the Isles of
Mull and Tiree and the lands of Morvem. Argyle demand-
ed extraordinary powers from the king to enable him to re-
duce the Isles once more under the dominion of the law, but
James suspecting his motives, resolved upon trying concilia-
tory measures, and offered pardon to any of the island chiefs
who would submit to the government, in which he was sue-
oessful.
By his countess, Lady Jane Gordon, eldest daughter of
Alexander, third earl of Huntly, the third eori of Argyle had
three sons and a daughter, the latter married, first, to James
earl of Moray, natural son of King James the fourth, and had
a daughter; and, secondly, to John, tenth earl of Sutherland,
without issue. His sons were, Archibald, fourth earl of Ar-
gyle ; John, ancestor of the Campbells of LochneU, of which
house the Campbdls of Balemo and Stoncfidd are cadets;
and Alexander, dean of Moray.
Archibald, the fourth earl of Argyle, was, on his aooesHion
to the title in 1580 (not 1533, as stated by Douglas in his
Peerage as the dote of his fiither*s death) appointed to all the
offices held by the two preceding earls. In 1531 be com-
manded on expedition against the South Isles, while the eori
of Moray, nitural brother of the king, proceeded against the
North Isles ; but in both districts order was soon restored by
the voluntary submission of the insurgent chiefs. A snsfn-
don had begun to be entertained by some of the memben of
the privy council, which is said to have been shared in by the
king himself, that many of the disturbances in the Isles were
secretly fomented by the Argyle family, that they might ob-
tain possession of the estates forfeited by the chiefs thus
driven into rebellion, and an opportunity soon presented itself
which the king eagerly availed himself of, to curb the increts-
ing power of the earl of Ai^le in that remote portion of the
kingdom. Finding that the timdy submission of Alexander
of Isla, Madean of Dowart, and the lesser chiefs, placed them
beyond his interference, the earl presented a complaint to the
coundl against the first of those named, chaiiging him with
various Crimea. Alexander bdng sunmioned to answer the
charges made his appearance at once ; but Axgyle absenting him-
self, the island chief gave in to the council a written statemeot,
denying the crimes laid to his chox^ and offering, if oom-
mistfion were given to himself or any other chief, for colling
out the array of the Isles, in the event of war with England,
or any part of the realm of Scotland, to bring more fighting
men into the field than Ai^le, with all his influence, eouki
levy in tiie Isles ; also, in cose Aigyle should be disposed at
any time to resist the royal authority, to cause the esri to
quit his own country of Argyle, if he had the king's com-
mands to that effect, and compel him to dwell in another part
of Scotland where " the king's grace might get reason of him,"
and concluding by statmg that the disturbed state of the Isles
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FIFTH EARL OF ARCJYLE.
was mainly caused by the late earl of Argyle and his brothers,
Sir John Campbell of CaldeTf and Archibald Campbell of
Skipnish. In oonsequence of this appeal of Alexander of Isla
the kmg made such an examination into the coniphiiuts of
the islanders as satisfied him that the family of Ai*gyle had
been acting more for their own benefit than for the welfare of
the country, and the earl was summoned before his sovtreign
to gire an account of the duties and rental of the Isles received
by him, the result of which was that James committed him
to prison soon after his arrival at court He was soon liber-
ated, but James was so much displeased with his conduct that
he deprived hhn of the offices he still held in the Isles, some
of which were bestowed on Alexander of Isla, whom he had
accused. [Gregorifi Uighlandi and IsUs^ page 141.] On
March 17, 1532, a remission was grunted to the eari and
^^hty-tvro others for their treasonable fire-raising, with his
standard unfurled, in the islands of Mull, Tiree, and Mor-
vem, as ahready stated in the end of the notice of his father.
In August 1541, five thousand pounds were given to him
out of the king's treasury, on his resignation of Makane's
lands in the isles to the crown. In a charter to him of the
king's lands of Cardross in Dumbartonshire, dated 28th April
1542, he is designed master of the king's wine-cellar, ^^cellse
re;;is vinarisB magister." After the death of James the Fifth
he appears to have regained his authority over the Isles, and
Donald Dubh, who claimed to be lord of the Isles, having
appeared in arms there, at the head of several of the dans,
the earl prepared to defend his insular acquisitions; but
in 1543 Donald, with a force of fifteen hundred men, invaded
Argyle's territories, slew many of bis vassals, and carried off
a great quantity of plunder. Argyle was one of the peers
who, in July of that year, entered into an association to op-
Dose the marriage of the young queen Mary and the youth-
ful prince Edward, afterwards King Edward the Sixth of
England, and the consequent union of the two crowns, *'• as
tending to the high dishonour, perpetual skaith, damage and
ruin of the liberty and nobleness of the realm.'' In 1544 an
r.xpedition was sent by Henry the Eighth to aid the eari of
Lennox in his claim to the regency, to harass the coasts of
Scotland, and thus put down the opposition to the proposed
royal marriage. An attempt on the part of the earl of Len-
nox, who was in the command of the English forces, with
eighteen vessels of war and eight hundred men, to seize the
castle of Dumbarton failed, and on his ships passing down
tlie Clyde they were fired at by the earl of Argyle, who, with
a large body of his vassals, and some pieces of artillery, had
taken poet at the castle of Dunoon. On his arrival at Bute,
Lennox determined to attack Argyle in turn. The hitter,
with seven hundred men, attempted to oppose the landing of
Lenrox's troops at Dunoon, but was unable to withstand the
superior artilleiy of the English vessels. After a skirmish in
which Argyle lost eighty men, many of them gentlemen, the
village of Dunoon was burnt and plundered by the invaders,
Argyle sust^iining further loss in attempting to harass their
retreat Four or five days thereafter Lennox, with five hun-
dred men, landed in another part of Arg>'le, and laid waste
the surrounding country. At the disastrous battle of Pinkie,
10th Sept 1547, the earl of Argyle had the command of a
large body of Highlanders and Islanders, and he also distin-
guished himself at the siege of Haddington m the following
year. In June 1555 a commission was given to the earls of
Argyle and Athole over the Isles, and on the queen regent
(Mary of Guise) proceeding to the north, in July 1556, to hold
justice- courts for the punishment of great offenders, the eari
of Argyle was one of those who accompanied her. He was
the first of the Scots nobles who embraced the principles of
the Reformation, and employed as his domestic chaphun, Mr.
John Douglas, a converted Carmelite fnar, who preached
publicly in his house. I1ie archbishop of St. Andrews, in a
letter to the earl, endeavoured to induce him to dismiss
DougUs, and return to the Romish church, but in vain, and
on his death-bed he recommended the support of the new
doctrines and the suppression of Popish superstitions to his
son. He died in August 1558. He was twice married. By his
first wife, I.ady Helen Hamilton, eldest daughter of James
first earl of Arran, he had a son, Archibald, fifth earl of Ar-
gyle His second wife was Lady Mary Graham, only daugh-
ter of William, third earl of Menteith, by whom he had Colin,
sixth earl, and two diaughters. Lady Margaret Campbell,
the elder daughter, married James Lord Down, ancestor of
the earls of Moray. Lady Janet, the younger, became the wife
of Hector Maclean of Dowart; Gregory says of James Mac-
donald of Isla, the great rival of the Argyle family in the Isles.
Archibald, fifth earl of Ajgyle, was educated under the
direction of Mr. John Douglas, his father's domestic chaplain
and the fii-st protestant archbishop of St Andrews, and dis-
tinguished himself as one of the most able among the Lords of
the Congregation. In December 1557, when styled lord ot
Lorn, with his father and the earls of Glencaim and Morton,
Erskine of Dun, and other leading reformers, he had sub-
scribed at Edinburgh the first bond entered into in Scotland
for the support of the gospel and the maintenance of faithful
ministers, but for some time he adhered to the party of tbe
queen -mother. In November 1558, soon after his accession
to the title, he and Lord James Stuart, prior of St Andrews,
afterwards the regent Moray, — the one, as Douglas remarks,
the most powerful, and the other the most popular leader of
the protestant party, — were appointed to go to Paris, with the
crown and other ensigns of royalty, to crown Francis, dau-
phin of France, as king of Scotland, on his marriage with the
young Queen Mary; "that they, being employed abroad,
matters of greater importance, namely anent religion, might
be overturned at home in their absence. The consideratiou
of the death of Mary, queen of England, who ended her life
the seventeenth day of this same month of November, stayed
them altogether ; for it was thought that the queen and her
husband the king, would assume to themselves greater titles."
[ CaldervDOod^ vol. L page 422.] And indeed Francis and Mary
did soon after assume the title of king and queen of England,
as well as of Scotland and France.
On the occurrence of the memorable riot at Perth, in May
1559, when the '* rascal multitude," as Knox called them,
after destroying the popish altars and images, proceeded to
level with the ground several of the monasteries and other
religious houses, the queen regent, then at Stirling, enraged
at the tumult, hastened to Perth, at the head of seven thou-
sand men, chiefly French auxiliaries commanded by D^Oysei,
with the purpose of inflicting signal vengeance on the inhabi-
tants. By deceitful promises she had induced the protestant
leaders to dismiss their aniied followers, and she hoped to
surprise the to^wn before any new or effective force could be
oellected to oppose her ; but, on reaching the neighbourhood
of Perth, she found that the Reformers had assembled from
aU parts to the assistance of theur friends. The gentlemen of
Fife, Angus, and Meams, with their followers, had formed a
camp near Peith, where they were speedily jomed by the
earl of Glencaim, with two thousand five hundred men from
the west country. Instead, therefore, of attacking the town^
the regent sent the earl of Argyle and the Lord James Stuart,
to enter into a negotiation with the protestant leaders, hav-
ing, with her usual duplicity, pei-suaded these two noblemen,
reformers themselves, that the I'eformation of religion was a
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FIKni EARL OF ARGYLE.
mere pretence with those who opposed her authority, and
tliat they meant nothing bat rebellion. Ultimatelj, on the
28th of May, a treaty was concluded, prindpaMy through the
means of the earl and the Lord James Stuart, whereby it was
agreed that the two armies should return peaceably to their
homes, that the town of Perth should be evacuated by the
protestant party and the queen regent allowed to enter it ;
that no molestation should be given to those in arms, nor to
the protestants generally, that no French garrison should be
stationed in Perth, that no Frenchman should come nearer
that city than three miles, and that in the approaching as-
sembly of the three estates, the work of the reformation
should be finally established. The leaders of the Oongrega-
tion subscribed this agreement, but under strong apprehen-
sions that it would not be adhered to, and before they separ-
ated, 4 new bond was entered into for the defence of each
other and the maintenance of the true religion, which was
signed by Argyle, the Lord James Stuart, the earl of Glen-
cuim, Lords Boyd and Ochiltree, and Mathew Campbell of
Taringhame. As they feared, the regent very soon violated
the treaty. She entered Perth on the 29th, attended by
French soldiers, some of whom, firing their hackbuts on the
stair of Patrick Murray, who was known to be a reformer,
killed his son, a boy about twelve years of age. This being
told to the regent, she said in mockery, ** It is pit^ it chanced
on the son, and not on the father; but seeing it hath so
chanced, rao cannot be against fortune." The inhabitant^
generally were harassed with every kind of outrage, and not
only were the magistrates dismissed and creatures of her own
put in their place, but the popish service was restored, with
all its rites and ceremonies. On being remonstratod with on
this infraction of the treaty, she answered that she was not
bound to keep faith with heretics, and that ** princes were
not to be strictly held to their promises;** adding, **I myself
would make little consdenoe to take firom all that sort their
lives and inheritances, if I might do it with as honest an ex-
cuse.** Disgusted at her perfidy, and having no further con-
fidence m her word, the earl of Aigyle and the Lord James
Stuart deserted the queen regent, and at once went over to
the Congregation, as the great body of the reformers were
called, with whom theur sympathies had been all along. The
queen sent a charge to them, under the pain of her highest
displeasure to return, but they answered that with safe oon-
sdences they could not When she departed from Perth she
leil in it a garrison of four hundred soldiers.
In the meantime the ^arl of Argyle and the lord James
Stuart proceeded to St Andrews, and on the way sent mis-
sives to Erskine of Dun, the laird of Pittarrow, Halyburton,
provost of Dundee, and other leading reformers, to meet
tliem in that dty, on the 4th of June, to take measures for
the promotion of the Reformation. John Knox, after preach-
ing at Cupar in Fife, at Crail, and at Anstruther, in all
which places, as at Perth, the people had demolished the al-
tars, the images, and all other monuments of idolatry, pro-
ceeded to St Andrews, where he had agreed to meet the earl
of Argyle and Lord James Stuart The popish archbishop
came to the town, accompanied with a hundred soldiers, and
sent a message that if Knox ofiered to preach in his cathedral
church, he would have him shot with a dozen hackbuts ; his
friends, anxious for his safiBty, endeavoured to dissuade him
from preaching, but he would not be prevented. The subject
of his discourse was the ejection of the buyers and sellers
from the temple, which **the provost and bailies with the
commonality ** of the town applied to the circumstances of
the times, and straightway proceeded to puli down and de-
stroy their splendid cathedral, with the other churches, razing
the monasteries of the Black and Grey fnars to the ground,
and destroying all the monuments of antiquity within the
dty. The archbishop hastened to Falkland, where the r^ent
was, with her French troops, and gave her the first intimasioo
of the outrages that had been committed. The regent im-
mediately issued a proclamation summoning her tatwps and
adherents to assemble at Cupar next day. The lords of the
Congregation, on their part, despatched earnest representations
to their friends for assistance, and tliough only attended bj
a hundred cavalry and the same number of infantry, instantly
marched for Cupar. Their adherents hastened to their aid,
and by the following morning they were joined by an army of
three thousand men. Lord Ruthven brought some borsemec
to them firom Perth; the earl of Rothes, hereditary sheriff u(
Fife, also came with a goodly company; the towns of St
Andrews and Dundee sent their most effective men, and
Cupar poured forth its population, to defend itself and aid
the general cause. The army of the regent, on the nKnming
of the 13th June, encamped upon an eminence in the
neighbourhood of Cupar, called the Garliebank. It con-
dstedof two thousand Frenchmen under General D*Oysel, and
about one thousand Scots under the duke of Chatdhemult,
(Lord Hamilton, second earl of Arran.) The troops of the
Congregation, the command of which had been assigned to
Halyburton, provost of Dundee, were stationed on the high
ground called Cupar muir, to the west of the town, and their
ordnance was so posted as to command the surrounding
country. Astonished both at the strength of their opponents
and the skilfully-selected position which they occupied, an4
from which, by twice feigning a retreat, they endeavoured ii
vain to draw them, and knowing that they could not depend
on the Scots in thdr own ranks, should a battle take pboe,
the commanders of the royal forces recommended to the
regent, who had remained at Falkland, to enter into a nego-
tiation with the lords of the Congregation. Yielding to ne*
cessity, she consented, and a truce for eight days was, aftei
considerable discussion, agreed upon between the duke of Cha-
telherault and D*Oysel, for the regent and the earl of Argyle
and the Lord James Stuart for the Congregation, on condi-
tion that the French troops should immediately be transported
to Lothian, and that the r^ent should send certain noblemen
to St Andrews, to adjust finally the artides of an effectual
peace. The lords of the Congregation then dismissed their
troops, and retired to St Andrews : but though the regent so
far kept her word as to send her French troops and artillery
across the Forth, the reformers waited in vain for the appear
anoe of her commissioners. At this time, in a letter from
the eari of Argyle and the Lord James Stuart, the regent •
was respectfully but earnestly entreated to withdraw the
garrison which she had left at Perth, but no attention was
paid to their request It was, therefore, resolved to expd the
garrison by force. The lords of the Congregation again ap-
peared in arms at the head of their followers, and on the 24th
of June marched upon Perth. The eari of Huntly, chanceUor
of the kingdom, with the Lord Erskine, and Mr. John Ban-
natyne, justice-clerk, hastened to entreat the lords to de'ay
bedeging the town for a few days, lliey were told that it
would not be ddayed even for an hour, and that if one dnglc
protestant should be killed in the assault, the garrison should
be put indiscriminately to the sword. The garrison were
twice simimoned to surrender, but as they refused to do so,
the batteries of the Congregation were opened upon the town;
and on the 26th of June, the garrison capitulated. The
burning of the royal palace and abbey of Scoon followed.
The earl of Argyle and I^rd James Stuart, with Knox and
the provost of Dimdee, exerted themsdves to save them, hot
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FIFTH EARL OF ARGYLE.
in Tun. Being apprized that the regent intended to seise
and garrison Stirling castle, and to fortify the bridge over the
Forth, 80 as to prevent their passage, the earl and the lord
Jiunee Staart left Perth at midnight, and appeared at Stir-
ling, with their forces, in the morning. On this occasion
they were accompanied hj three hundred inhabitants of
Perth, who had joined the standard of the Congregation, and
to indicate their aeal and resolution they wore ropes about
their necks, that they might be ignominiously hung with
them if they deserted their odours. A picture of the march
of this resolute body is still preserved in Perth, and the dr-
! cumstance of their substituting ropes for neckerchiefB or rib-
bons is the subject of the popular allusion to *' St Johnstone
tippets.**
The two convents of the Black and Grey fHars of Stirling
and the venerable abbey at Cambuskenneth in its neighbour-
hood, were laid in ruins, and after remaining three days at
Starling, the army of the Congregation on the fourth pro-
ceeded to Linlithgow, where they destroyed the churches and
monastic houses. The earl of Argyle and the lord James
Stuart then directed their march upon Edinburgh, which
they entered on the 29th of June, on which the regent re-
treated to Dunbar. The force which the confederates had
with them was not very great, but wherever they went they
were joined by the populace, and the popish party were so
effectually daunted that they could make no head against
them. The efforts of the magistrates to preserve the church-
es and religions houses of the capital were energetic, but
they were in vain. Upon the first rumour of the approach
of Uie earl of Argyle, the mob attacked both the monastei^es
of the Black and Grey friars, and left nothing but the bare
walls standing. When the earl entered the capital they pro-
ceeded to still further ** purification.*^ Trinity college church
and its prebendul buildings were assiuled and some parts of
them pulled down. The altars in St. Giles' church and St.
Mary's or the Kirk of Field, were removed, and the images
liestroyed or burnt. At Holyrood Abbey also Ihe altars were
overthrown, and the church otherwise defaced. Preachers
were, at the same time, appointed to expound to the people
tlM pure gospel The mint, with the instruments for coining,
was s^zed, as the stamping of base money had raised the pricf
of the necessaries of life ; but though it was alleged against
the reformers that they had possessed themselves of large
sums of money, this does not appear to have been the case.
During these proceedings, the regent issued a proclamation
against the Congregation, declaring that under the pretence
of religion they sought to overturn the government, com-
manding them to leave Edinburgh in six hours, and enjoin-
ing all good subjects to avoid their society under the pain of
treason. This proclamation had its efiect to a certain extent,
as many of the Congregation retired to theur homes. The
lords, in a letter to the queen regent, dated 2d July (1559)
were careful to exculpate themselves from the charges brought
against them, and offered to explain all their views and
wishes in presence of the regent, if they were permitted free
access to her. Afler several communings, the regent re-
quested that the earl of Aigyle and the Lord James Stuart
might be sent to her; but as some treachery was suspected,
it was deemed expedient that they should not go near her.
The duke of Chatelherault had been persuaded that the ob-
ject of the Congregation was to deprive Mary of her crown,
and also the duke and his heirs of their right of succession ;
but in a proclamation they showed, as the preachers did in
their sermons, that then* real motive was the refonnation of
religion and complete liberty of conscience. Recourse was
then jiad to negotiations, and after a conference at Preston,
which led to no result, the queen dowager left Dunbar, and
with her troops took possession of Leith, and approached
within two miles of Edinburgh. On being informed by the
governor of the castle (Lord Erskine) that he would fire if
her entrance was opposed, a treaty was entered into, on the
25th July, by which the Congregation agreed that the town
of Edinburgh should be open to the regent ; that Uolyrood-
house, the mint, and the instruments of coinage should be
delivered up to her ; and that they should be obedient to her
authority and the laws, and should abstain from injuring the
papists, or employing violence ag«nst the churches or religi-
ous houses, till the 10th of the ensuuig January, when a
parliament was to meet The regent, on her part, agreed
that the inhabitants of Edinburgh might adopt what religion
they thought proper; that their preachers should not be mo-
lested, nor themselves troubled in their persons or their goods;
that no French garrison or Scottish mercenaries should be
stationed within the dty; and that, in other places of the
kingdom, similar toleration should be given to the protestants
and theur preachers. These conditions Chatelherault and
Huntly, at a subsequent private interview with the lords of
the Congregation, held at the Quarry Holes near Calton HilL
declared their resolution to see observed, or else to leave the
queen dowager's party. On the following day the lords of
the Congregation left Edinburgh and proceeded to Stirling,
where they held a council, and on the first of August entered
into a third league or bond for mutual defence.
When at GUsgow, on his return to his own district, Argyle
and Stuart received an invitation firom the duke of Chatel-
herault, to visit him at Hamilton, where they remained a
night, and met the duke's eldest son, the earl of Arran, newly
arrived Grom Paris, having escaped death or imprisonment
fix>m the Guises on account of his piotestant principles. [See
Hamilton, duke of.] The duke had become dissatisfied
with the violent and arbitrary measures of the queen regent,
and convinced of her perfidy, he and An-an, his son, had now
resolved upon joining the lords of the Congregation. Arran
accordingly, on the 10th of September, accompanied Argyle
and Lord James Stuart to a convention of the lords of the
Congregation held at Stirling, which resulted in the principal
chiefs accompanying these two lords in a second visit to the
residence of the duke, there to mature their further proceed-
ings, of which the convention entered into shortly thereafter,
for the entrance of English troops into Scotland, was the most
important
In the subsequent transactions the earl of Argyle acted a
principal part When, at the commencement of the siege of
Leith, on the last day of October 1559, the French soldiers,
in a sally from the fort drove the troops of the Congregation
back to Edinburgh, after capturing their ordnance, and pur-
sued them to the middle of the Oanongate and up Leith
Wynd, Argyle, with his Highlanders, was the first to stop
the flight, and give a check to the pursuers. His name ap-
pears the fifth of the noblemen wlio signed the Contract of
Berwick, which led to the introduction of the English army,
under the Lord Grey, to the assistance of the Congregation,
and the expulsion of the French from ScotUnd. Ir this
Contract occurs the following clause personal to the earl:
'* And also, the erle of Argtle, lord justice of Scotland, bemg
presentlie joyned with the said duke (of Chatelherault) sail
imploy his force and good will where he sail be required by
the queen's mtgestie (Elizabeth) to reduce the north parts of
Ireland to the perfyte obedience of England, conforme to a
mutuall and reciprock contract to be made betwixt her ma-
jestie'B lieutenant or deputie of Ireland, being for the time,
and the said erle, wherin satll be conteaned what he sail doe
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FIFIH EARL OF ARGYLE.
fur hiB part, and what the said lieutenant and deputie sail
doe for his support, in case he sail have to doe with James
Makoonnejll, or anie other of the ilea of Scotland, or realms of
Ireland.** The Makconnel here referred to is supposed to be
a miswriting for James Macdonald of Isla, who had been
stirred up by the queen regent to attack the lands of Argyle.
For performance of his part of this contract Argyle gare as a
iiustago his cousin Colin Campbell. On the 27th of Apiil,
tlie lords of tlie Congr^ation entered into a fourth bond, for
their mutual protection and assistance, and in this they were
joined by the earl of Huntly, who had hitherto opposed their
proceedings.
On the 10th of June 1560, the queen regent died in the
castle of Edinburgh, which put an end to hostilities for the
time. Before her death she expressed to Argyle and other
lords, in an interview she asked with them, her deep regret
for her conduct, which she attributed to the counsels of her
relatives on the continent The earl of Argyle's name ap-
pears the thurd of the nobility who subscribed the Fii-st Book
of Discipline ; and soon afler, when the lords passed an act
that all remaining monuments of idolatry should be destroy-
ed, he was ordered with the earl of Glencaim to assist the
earl of Arran in the west in seeing this done in that district.
The earl of Argyle was of the cortege that received Queen
Mary on her landing at Leith 19th Augu^tt 1561. He was
immediately thereufler sworn a privy councillor. Early in
1562 he was one of the lords engaged in making provision
for the ministers, against the inadequacy of wluch Knox ap-
pealed. On the Idth of September, the queen went to Stir-
ling, and on the Sabbath a riot took place in that town, in
consequence of an attempt being made to perform mass.
**The earl of Argyle," says Randolph, the English ambas-
sador, in a letter to Cecil, '' and the lord James Stuart so
disturbed the quire that some, both priests and clerks, left
their places with broken heads and bloody ears.*' On the
36th May 156*^, the queen opened parliament with extraor-
dinary splendour. On this occasion the duke of Chatelhe-
rault carried the crown, Argyle the sceptre, and Moray the
sword.
The earl had married Jean, natural daughter of King
James the Filth by Elizabeth daughter of John Lord Car-
michael, but he does not seem to have lived on very happy
terms with her, as we find that John Knox had been em-
ployed, on more occasions than one, to reconcile them after
some domestic quarrels. In 1563, at the third conference
between Queen Mary and Knox, her majesty requested him
again to use his good offices on behalf of her sister, the Lady
Argyle, who, she confessed, was not so circumspect in every-
thing as she could wish ; ** yet,** she added, *' her husband
faileth in many things.** ** I brought them to oonoord,** said
Knox, **that her friends were fully content ; and she promised
before them she should never complain to any creature, till I
should first be made acquainted with the quarrel, either out
of her own mouth, or by an assured messenger.*' " Well,**
said the queen, ^* it is worse than yon beHeve. Do this much
for my sake, as once again to reconcile them, and if she be-
have not herself as beoometh, she shall find no favour of me ;
but in no case let my lord know that I employed you.**
Knox, in consequence, wrote to the earl on the countess's
behalf, exhorting him '* to bear with the imperfections of his
wife, seemg that he was not able to convince her of any crime
since the last reconciliation, but his letter was not well re-
ceived.** [^Caiderwood, vol. ii. p. 215.] Her mjyesty passed
the summer of the same year at the carl's house in Argyle-
shirc, in the amusement of deer-hunting
His lordship was against the marriage of the queen with
Lord Damley, and in the midst of the preparations for tliat
ill-fated union, he and the eari of Moray appeared at Edin-
burgh with a body of five thousand horsemen, ostensibly for
the purpose of attending a court to which the earl of Both-
well had been cited, but really, as the queen conudered, more
to overawe herseif than to frighten that nobleman. She,
therefore, ordered the justice-derk to adjourn the coort
Two months previous to the marriage, she created Damley
eari of Ross, when the duke of Chatelherault, and the earb ol
Aq^le, Moray, and Glencaim, immediately retired from the
court, and began to concert measures for opposing the match
by foix» of arms. After the marriage, when the disooniented
lords took refuge in EngUnd, the earl retired to Argyle, but
after the murder of Rizzio, on the 9th of March, 1566 (the
countess of Argyle being then with the queen at supper), the
banished lords were received into favour, and the processes of
treason against them discharged. In the ensmng April the
queen sent for the earls of Argyle and Moray, and reconciled
them to the earls of Huntly, Both well, and Athole; and in
June, when her majesty went to the castle of Edinburgh to
be confined of James the Sixth, she ordered lodgings to be
provided for the earl next her own, probably that her sister
the countess might be near her. His lordship, however, was
not present at the baptism of the young prince in Stirling
castle, on account of the pofosh ceremonies, but his countess
stood sponsor for Queen Elizabeth, and held the chikl at the
font.
The earl of Argyle's name appears second on the famou*
bond subscribed by some of the nobility in favour of tb<
queen's marriage with Bothwell, and the ratification of it af-
terwards signed by the queen was committed to his care, in
case her migesty should repent of the match. At this time
he seems to have played a double part. On the marriag*
taking place, he was oiie of the noblemen who entered int«
the bond of association for the defence of the young prince
but the day ^fter he revealed all their designs to the queen.
He carried the sword of state at the coronation of James the
Sixth, 29th July 1567, and attended the convention at Edin-
burgh the 15th Augnst, at which the regency of the eari ot
Moray was oonfinned. In the General Assembly which met
in the following December the eari and his countess were
censured, he for separation firom his wife, although he alleged
that the blame was not in him, and she for assisting at tha
baptism of the king "in papistical manner." Afterwards,
deeming the queen very ill used in being kept a prisoner, he
entered into the association for procuring her liberty on rea-
sonable conditions, and dgned the bond to that efiect 8th
May 1568. He was created her lieutenant, and was chief
commander of her forces at Langside on the 13Ui of the same
month; but just as the hostile armies were about to take
then* ground, he was seized with an apoplectic fit, which de-
layed the advance of Mary*s troops and contributed not a
little to her defeat After this he retired to Dunoon, and
refused to submit to the regency of his old friend -md con-
federate the earl of Moray, but twice appeared in arms at
Glasgow, to concert measures with the Uamiltons for the
restoration of Mary. He was in consequence summoned to
St. Andrews in the following April, when he took an ontb to
remain quiet, and made his peace on easy terms.
On the assassmation of the regent Moray, Argyle kud
other noblemen of the queen's party assembled at Linlithgow,
10th April 1570, and with the duke of Chatelherault and the
earl of Huntly, was constituted her majesty's li«itenant in
Scotland. In 1571 he was prevailed on by the regent Lennox
to submit to the king's authority, and to appear in the pariia-
ment at Stiriing in September of that year. Lennox being
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SEVENTH EARL OF ARGYLE.
murdered on the 4th of that month, Argyle wns a candidate
for the regency, but the choice fell on the earl of Mar, and
Arj^le was sworn a privj councillor. On Morton becoming
regent in November 1572, Argyle was appointed lord-high-
cfaanoellor, and on the 17th January 1573 he obtained a
charter under the great seal of that office for life. That
same day he carried the sceptre, on the regent going in state
to the low council house of Edinburgh, to choose the Lords of
the Articles. He died of the stone, 12th September 1575,
aged about 43, and is celebrated by Johnston in his Heroes
His countess, Queen Mary's half sister, having died without
issue, was buried in the royal vault m the abbey of Holyrood-
hoose ; and he married, a second time. Lady Johanna or Jo-
iieta Cunningham, second daughter of Alexander fiflh earl of
Glencaim, but as she also had no children, he was succeeded
in his estates and titles by his brother.
Colin, sixth earl of Argyle, previous to succeeding to the
earldom was styled Sir Colin Campbell of Boquhan. He early
engaged in the quarrel against the regent Morton, arising out
of the following drcumst^mces : In 1576, as hereditary jus-
tice-general of Scotland he claimed that a commission of
justiciary, formerly given by Queen Mary to the earl of
Athole over the territory of the hitter, should be annulled.
This Athole resisted, and not only refused to surrender for
trial two of the Athole Stewarts agamst whom Argyle alleged
various crimes, but seized two of the Camerons charged with
the murder of the late chief of that clan, whom he detained
in prison, although claimed by Argyle as his vassals. The
two earls collected their retainers in anns, to settle the dis-
pute between them in the field, when the regent interposed,
and obliged them to disband their forces. Having obtained
secret information that Morton intended to prosecute them
for treason, they agreed to forget their private quarrels, and
unite for mutual defence. They disregarded the citation of
the regent to appear before a court of justice, and as he
dreaded theur joint power, he was forced unwillingly to aban-
don his project In the end of the following year the earl of
Argyle was still farther incensed against Morton, by his
sending for the jewel called the H, because the pi-ecious stones
were set in the form of that letter, signifying Henrie, and
which it was supposed had been given by Queen Maxy to her
sister the late countess of Ai^le. He was not inclined to
comply with the request, but on being charged by an officer
to deliver it up, as it belonged to the king, he at once re-
signed it About this time the laird of Glengarry presented
a petition to the privy council, complaining that the earl of
Argyle, who, since his rupture with Morton, had been living
in his own country, was collecting a large force, ostensibly
with the view of punisliing some disturbers of the public
peace, but really, as he alleged, to attack and harass him,
the said laird, on which proclamation was made, prohibiting
the earl from assembling any of the lieges in arms, and from
troubling Glengarry, under the pain of treason. Vaiious
other complaints were made against Argyle for oppressive
and illegal conduct ; particularly by John, the son and heir
of James Macdonald of Castle Camus in Skye, and John
Maclean, the uncle of Lauchlan Maclean of Dowart, who
were both kept prisoners in Argyle^s castle of Inchoonnell in
Lochow, without warrant; and by Lauchlan Maclean, the
young chief of Dowart, whose isle of Loyng was invaded and
plundered by a party of Campbells sent by Argjle. ^Oreffih-
ryU nighkmds and fsles of Scotland, p. 216.]
On 4th March 1578, the earis of Argyle and Athole, with
other noblemen, assembled at Stirlmg, and advised tne king
to deprive Morton of the regency, and to take the government
into his own hands, which was accordingly done. On thib
occasion Argyle was made a member of the new council cho-
sen to direct the king, who was then only twelve years of
age. A few weeks thereafter, however, Morton again got
possession of the king's person, when Argjrle and Athole took
up arms to rescue hb migesty, and issued a proclamation
against the late regent The forces on both ndes gathered
at Stirling, the earl of Argyle alone bringing two thousand
five hundred Highlanders to the assistance of those who oppos
ed Morton's return to power. By the mediation, chiefly, ot
Bowes, the English ambassador, an accommodation was brought
about between the hostile factions, and on the 10th August
1579, Argyle was appointed lord-high-ohancelbr of the king-
dom. After this he was apparentiy reconciled to Morton's
administration. On the 28th of January 1581, with the king
and many of the nobility, he subscribed Uie second Confession
of Faith. He was one of the jury on the trial of Morton, 1st
June of that year. At the opening of the parliament held
the following October, he bore the sword, and on the last day
of November, when the king went again in state to the Tol-
booth, he carried the sceptre. He died in October 1584, after
a long illness. He married, first, Janet, eldest daughter of
Henry, first Lord Methven, without issue; secondly, Lady
Agnes Keith, eldest daughter of William, fourth eari Maris-
chal, widow of the regent Moray, by whom he had two sous,
Archibald, seventh earl of Argyle, and the Hun. Sir Colin
Campbell of Lundie, created a baronet m 1627.
Archibald, seventh earl of Argyle, was under age when he
succeeded his father. The dissensions among bis guardians,
and the assassination of Campbell of Calder, one of theiii,
have been already related at page 874 [atUe^ Art. BuKAi>AL-
BANK, earl and marquis of.] The conspiracy among the
chiefs of the western Highlands, having for its object the
death of the young earl of Ai-gyle, as well as that of the
** bonnie earl of Murray," is likewise there alluded to The
principal person intei-csted in his death was his kinsman
Archibald Campbell of Lochnell, one of his guardians, and
the next heir to the earidom ; a dark and ambitious spirit,
who never relinquished his designs against the lives of the
earl and his brother, that he might succeed to the title and
estates. In 1592, when little more than sixteen years of age,
the earl maiiied Lady Anne Douglas, fifth daughter of Wil-
liam first eari of Morton of the house of Ix>chleven. ^* There
is reason to believe," says Gregory, " that the conspirators,
notwithstanding the refusal of Ardkmglass (Sir James Camp-
bell, another of the young earl's guardians) to join them,
continued for some time their machinations fur the murder ot
the earl; and that, during k severe illness with which be was
attacked at Stirling, soon after his marriage, in the year 1594,
some of his household were bribed to poison him ; if, indeed,
the disease itself was not caused in the first instance by poi-
son. Argyle, however, escaped all the attempts of his ene-
mies, and lived to exercise, for many years, an overpowering
inHuence in the affiursof the Highlands and Isles." \^Gregory*g
Highlands and Isles of Scotland, p. 251.] At the * riding of
the parliament,' 29th May 1592, he bore the sword. In the
same year he and the earl of Athole, and the laird of Grant,
plundered and laid waste the earl of Huntly's lands, for the
slaughter of the earl of Murray, till the earl of Angus was
sent by the king, as lieutenant to the north, for the purp«)se
uf preventing farther spoliation. At the * riding of the par-
liament,' I6th July 1593, he carried the sceptre.
In 159-i, although then only eighteen, Argyle was appoint-
ed king's lieutenant against the popish eorb of Hunlly and
Errol, who had raised a rebellion. With Ai^le were asso-
ciated the earl of Athole and Lord Forbes. Having raided
on army of six thousand men — some accounts say twelve
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SEVENTH EARL OF ARGYLE.
thousand — partly among his own vawals, and partly among
other clans, particolarlj the Macleans, Maoneills, Macgregora,
Madntoshes, and Grants, Argyle marched into Badenoch,
and thence towards Strathbogie, after having in vain at-
tempted, in bb way, to reduce the castle of Ruthven, which
was gallantly held out for ilontly by the Maophersons. On
his arrival near Glenlivet, he found that Huntly and Errol
were in the vidnity, with about fifteen hundred men, prind-
pally cavalry ; and, in consequence, he took up a strong po>
sition on the declivity of a hill, betwixt Glenlivet and Glen-
rinnes, in two parallel divisions, until he could be joined by
I>ord Forbes, who was at no great distance with eleven hun-
dred men. His opponents, however, had in their ranks a
number of brave gentlemen, well mounted and armed, who
were anxious to be led to the attack, and a communication
from a traitor in Argyle's camp, Archibald Campbell of
I^ochndl, already mentioned, commander of one of the divi-
dons of his army, encouraged them to attempt it By a pri-
vate message which he sent to Huntly he promised to go
over to him, with his dividon, as soon as the battle com-
menced, and suggested that some pieces of artillery possessed
by Huntly, should be fired at Argyle's banner, hoping thus
both to get rid of that nobleman by an apparent chance shot,
and to discourage the Highlanders, who were unacquainted
with the use of artillery. The advice of Lochnell was fol-
lowed. The assault was made on Argyle's forces while they
were at prayers, but,— just reward of treachery, — with fatal
effect on Lochndl himself. As Huntly approached, the guns
were fired at the yellow standard of Argyle, who escaped un-
hurt, whilst his treacherous Jpnsman Lochnell, a brother of
the latter, and the son of Macndll of Barra, were slain on
the spot After a severe conflict, both parties fighting with
great bravery, the one, says Sir Robert Gordon, " for glorie,
the other for necesdtie," Huntly succeeded in routing Ar-
gyle*s forces, who, firom the mountainous nature of the coun-
try, which impeded pursuit, escaped with a loss oomparativdy
trifling. The success of Huntly was mainly owing to the
treachery of Lochnell, and of John Grant of Gartinbeg, one of
Huntly *s vassals, who retreated with his men as soon as the
action began, by which act the centre and the left wing of
Argyle*s anny were completely broken. Among the trophies
found on the field was the endgn belonging to Argyle, which
was carried with other spoils to Strathbogie, and pUced on
the top of the great tower. The conduct of Lachlan Mao-
lean of Dowart, one of Argyle's officers, was worthy of all
praitte. It was his dividon whidi inflicted the prindpal loss
on the rebels, and, at the dose of the battle, he retired in
good order with them. It is said that after the battle, be
offered, if Argyle would give him five hundred men in addi-
tion to his own followers, to bring the earl of Huntly prisoner
into Argyle^s camp. The proposal was rejected, but having
come to the ears of Huntly, incensed him greatly against
Madean, whose son afterwards, according to tradition, lost a
large estate in Locliaber, through the animodty of that pow-
erful nobleman. IGregorys UighUmda and hies, p. 259.]
This battle was fought, 8d October 1591. Weeping with
indignation at his defeat, the young but high spirited earl of
Argyle was carried out of the field by his fiiends, and hastened
to inform the king at Dundee of his discomfiture. His ma-
jesty inmiediately marched against the rebels, who dispersed
at his approach. In the Scottish poems of the dxteenth cen-
tury, edited by Dalzel, Edinburgh 1801, there is, at page 136
of vol L * A faithful narrative of the great and mu^culous
victory obtained by George Gordon, earl of Huntly, and Frau-
ds Hay, eari of Errol, catholic noblemen, over Archibald
Campbell, earl of Argyll, lieutenant, at Strathaven, 3d Oct
1594,'— the battle bdng sometimes called the battle of Gleo-
rinnes, Strathaven, or Altoonlachan, as well as of Glenliv«L
Eariy in the following year, for oppreesioo alleged to be com-
mitted by his clan, the earl was put in ward in the castle of
Edinburgh. ** This,** says Calderwood, ** was the rewaird be
gott for his good service in the North.** [CAarro& Hiitory^
voL V. page 361.] He was soon, however, liberated, and in
the summer of the same year he and the duke of Lennox were
employed to reduce Huntly*s vassals to obedience. After
** killing and burning m the north,** as Cakierwood phrases it,
Aigyle sent deputies to Huntly*s lands to obtain their sob-
misdon. On November 14, 1598, Aigyle with some others
was charged to pi-oduce certain persons of the name of Camp-
bell and Macgregor, for whom he was respondble, as the
king s lieutenant of the bounds or district within which these
Campbells and Macgregors redded ; in which capad^ be had
found security for the lawless tribes over whom he had com-
mand ; they in thdr turn becoming liable to him in relief,
under separate bonds. In 1599, when measures were in pro-
gress for bringing the chiefit of the Ides under subjection to
tlie king, the eari of Aigyle and his kinsman, John Campbell
of Calder, were accused of having secretly used their influence
to (Hievent Sur James Macdonald of Dunyv^ and his dan
from bdng reconciled to the government llie frequent in-
surrections which occurred in the South Ides in the first fif-
teen years of the seventeenth century have also been imputed
by Mr. Gregory, with what degree of truth caimot now be
ascertained, to Argyle and the Campbdls, for their own pur-
poses. It seems difficult, however, to nndentand what
means could be employed by them to influence their inveter-
ate and hereditary enemies to adopt such a course of conduct
The proceedings of these clans were, however, so violent
and illegal, that the king became highly incensed against the
Clandonald, and finding he had a right to dispose of thdr
possesdons both in Kintyre and Islay, he made a grant of
them to the earl of Argyle and the Campbells. Tins gave
rise to a number of bloody conflicts between tlie Campbdb
and the Clandonald, in the years 1614, 1615 and 1616, which
ended in the ruin of the latter, and for the details of whkh,
and the mtrigues and proceedings of the eari of Aigyle to
possess himself of the lands of that dan, reference may be
made to Gregory's * History of the Highhmds and Isles of
Scotland,* chapters seven and eight.
In the meantime, on the 23d February, 1603, the kin^
previous to his departure for En^and, succeeded in recondl-
ing the earls of Argyle and Moray to the eari of Huntly, as
object which he had long laboured to effect In that same
month the Macgregors, who were already under the ban of
the law, made an irruption into the Lennox, and after defeat-
ing the Colquhouns and their adherents at Glenfruin, with
great slaughter, plundered and ravaged the whole district, and
threatened to bum the town of Dumbarton. For some yean
previoudy, the charge of keeping this powerful and warlike
tribe in order had been committed to the earl of Argyle, as
the king's lieutenant in the ** bounds of the dan Gregor,*'
and he was answerable for all thdr excesses. Instead of
keeping them under due restraint, Argyle has been ac-
cused by various writers of having from the very first
made use of his influence to stir them up to acts of viofeoce
and aggression against his own personal enemies, of whom
the chief of the Colquhouns was one; and it is further
sdd that he had all along meditated the destruction d
both the Macgregors and the Colquhouns, by his crafty
and perfidious policy. The only evidence on which these
heavy charges rests is the dying dedaration of AUester Mac-
gregor of Glenstrue, the chief of the dan, to the effect that be
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SEVENTH EARL OF ARGYLR.
was deonved by the earl of Argyle^s ^'falsete and inventiouns,'*
vid that he had been often incited hj that nobleman to ^* weir
and trnble the laird of Lois,** and others ; but as these charges
vere not believed at the time, they ought to be received with
some hesitation by the impartial historian now. Indeed, it is
difficult to believe that the earl of Argyle would, for his own
shIcc, have counselled the perpetration of such outrages as the
Mdcgregors committed, and still less that the Macgregors,
who detested his authority, would have carried them into
effect to please him. The enmity alleged to have ejusted
oetween the Colqnhouns and Argyle is assumed without proof
of any sort, and is not supported by any probability, whereas
the hatred between the Macgregors and Colqnhouns was an
hereditary feud, and a war of races. However this may be,
the execution of the severe statutes which were passed against
the Macgregors after the conflict at Glenfruin, was intrusted
to the earls of Argyle and Athole, and their chief, with some
of his prindpal followers, was enticed by Argyle to surrender
to him, on condition that they would be allowed to leave the
country. Argyle received Ihem kindly, and assured them
that though he was commanded by the king to apprehend
-them, he had little doubt he would be able to procure a par-
don, and, in the meantime, he would send them to England
under an escort, which would convey them off Scottish
ground. It was Maq;regor*s intention, if taken to London,
to procure if possible an interview with the king ; but Argyle
prevented this; yet, that he might fulfil his promise, he sent
them under a strong guard beyond the Tweed at Berwick,
and instantly compelled them to retrace their steps to Edin-
burgh, where they were executed 18th January 1604. How
far there may have been deceit used in this matter, whether,
according to Birrel, Ai^le *' keipit ane Hielandman^s pro-
mise; in respect he sent the gaird to convey him out of
Scottis grund, but thai were not directit to pairt with him,
but to fetch him bak agane ;" or whether their return was by
orders from the king, cannot at the present time be ascer-
tained. This at least is certain, that so many families were
bereaved of their sons by the atrodties of the Macgregors that
there was no probability of a pardon having been obtained
from James.
In the decreet of ranking of the Scots nobility, 5th
March 1606, the earl of Argyle was placed second in the
list of earls. In 1608 he and the Marquis of Huntly were
sent against the proscribed Macgregors, and almost totelly
extirpated that persecuted and unfortunate clan. In 1617,
after the suppression by him of the Glandonald, Argyle
obtained from the king a gi-ant of the whole county of
Kintyre, which grant was ratified by a special act of par-
liament the same year. At this time he seems to have been
in high favour at court, and on the visit of King James to
Scotland in that year, he was one of those who, at the com-
mand of the king, repaired to Holyroodhouse on Whitounday
the 8th of June, and partook of the communion, then and
there celebrated af>«r the English form; he and those with
him, says Calderwood, ** communicated kneeling, not regard-
ing either Christ's institution, or the ordour of our kirk.**
But this need not have surprised the worthy chronicler had
he known that for some years Argyle had been a concealed
papist. His first countess, to whom Sir William Alexander,
afterwards earl of Stirling, inscribed his * Aurora* in 1604,
having died, his lordship had in Novembejr 1610, married, a
second time, Anne, daughter of Sir William Cornwall of
Brome, ancestor of the Marquis Comwallis. This lady was
a Catholic, and although the earl was a warm and zealous
protestant when he married her, she gradually drew him over
to profess the same faith with herself. After the year 1615,
as Gregory remarks, his personal history presents a striking
instance of the mutebility of human affairs. In that year,
being deep in debt, he went to England, but as he was the
only chief that could keep the Macdonalds in order, the Privy
Council wrote to the king urging him to send him home; and
in his expedition against the clan Donald, he was accompa-
nied by his son, Lord Lorn. On the 17th of June 1617, he
carried the crown, at the opening of the parliament, and this
seems to have been his last public appearance in his native
country. In 1618, on pretence of going to the Spa for the
benefit of his health, he received from the king permission
to go abroad; and the news soon arrived that the earl, in-
stead of going to the Spa, had gone to Spain ; that he had
there made open defection from the protestont religion, and
that he had entered into very suspicious dealings with
the banished rebels. Sir James Macdonald and Allaster
MacRanald of Keppoch, who had taken refiige in that
country. The king, upon this, wrote to the privy council at
EUiinburgh, recalling the license given to Argyle to go abroad,
and directing that nobleman to be summoned to appear before
the council in the following February under the pain of trea-
son. In the meantime, various efforte were made to make
the barons and gentlemen of Argyle answerable for the good
rule of that extennve earldom. The result was that in De-
cember 1618, twenty of these barons and gentlemen, appeared
in presence of the council and made an arrangement for
effecting the desired object, Campbell of Lundy undertaking
the principal charge. On the 16th of February, the earl of
Argyle having failed to make his appearance, he was, with
sound of trumpets, and two or three heralds at arras, openly
decUred rebel and traitor, at the market cross of Edinburgh,
and he remained under this ban until the 22d of November
1621, when, by open prockination at the same place, with
sound of trumpet and Lyon heralds, he was declared the
king's free liege. Nevertheless, he did not venture to return
to Britain during the reign of James the Sixth, nor, indeed,
till 16d8 ; and he died in London soon after his return, in
that year, aged 62. While on the continent he distinguished
himself in the military service of PhiUp the Second of Spmn,
against the states of Holland. From the time of his leaving
Scotland, he never ocercised any influence over his great
estates; the fee of which had, indeed, been previously con-
veyed by him to his eldest son, Archibald, Lord Lorn, after-
wards eighth earl of Argyle. By his first wife he had a son,
Archibald, eighth earl, and four daughters, namely, 1st, Lady
Anne, nuurried in 1607, to George, second marquis of Huntly;
2d, Lady Annabella, married to Robert, second earl of Lo-
thian, of the house of Cessford; her eldest daughter, Lady
Anne, inherited the title of Lothian, and carried it into the
house of Femyhirst; 3d, Lady Jane, married first to the first
Viscount Kenmure, and, secondly, to the Hon. Sir Henry
Montgomery, of Giffen, second son of the sixth earl of Eglin-
ton, and 4th, Lady Mary, who became the wife of Sir
Robert Montgomery of Skelmorly. By his second wife, the
earl had a son Hnd a daughter, viz., James, earl of Irvine,
and I^ady Mary, married to Jameit, second Loi'd Rullo. [See
RoLLO, lord.]
His first countess was introduced by Lord Walpole into his
Appendix, for having collected and published m Spanish, a
set of sentences from tlie works of St. Augustine, Hor por-
trait will be found in Walpole's * Royal and Noble Authors,'
Park's edition, 1806, voL v. p. 71. Douglas says, and it
seems likely, that the portrait may be that of Lady Anne
Douglas, but the authoress must have been Anne Comwallis,
his second wife, as the latter was in Spain with him, but the
former died many years before he went to that country. The
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MARQUIS OF ARGYLE.
folio wing cut is taken from tliat portrait of the countess of
Argyle.
Of the more illustHous personages of the family of Argyle,
memoirs are subsequently given in larger type. Tlie conspi-
cuous figure which they made in the history of their country,
and the prominent part which the family has always acted
in Scottish affairs, entitle its more celebrated members to
separate biographies.
CAMPBELL, Archibald, eighth earl and fii*st
marquis of Argyle, an eminent patriot and states-
man, was the son of Archibald, seventh eari, by
his first wife Lady Anne Douglas, daughter of the
carl of Morton. He was born in 1598, and edu-
cated in the protestant religion, according to the
strict niles of the Church of Scotland, as it was
established at the Reformation. After his father
went to Spain, as already narmted, (at page 555,)
lie managed the affairs of liis family and clan in
his absence. In 1626 he was sworn a privy coun-
cillor, and in 163-i appointed one of the extraordi-
nary lords of session. On the death of his father in
1638, be succeeded to his titles. The estates he had
held previously. lie attended the General Assem-
bly at Glasgow, that year, at which presby terianlsm
was declared to be the established religion of Scot-
land. In 1639, when Charles prepared for the in-
vasion of Scotland, Argyle raised nine hundred
men to oppose the Macdonalds of the Isles and
the carl of Antrim, who were to attack the king-
dom on the west. In June 16^10 he marched to
the north against the earl of Atliol and the Ogil-
vys, who had taken up arms for the king, and
foix^ed them to submit.
Of Argyle's ascendancy in the senate the mar-
quis of Montrose at this time became pai'tlculaiiy
jealous, and he transmitted an accusation against
him to court, of having declared in the presence of
Athol and others that the states intended to de-
pose the king. The fact was denied by all the
witnesses, said to have been present, and Stewai't,
commissary of Duukeld, the informer, who re-
tracted his statement, wiis convicted and execut-
ed; while Montiose was committed prisoner to
the castle of Edinburgh. In 1641, when Charles
the First came to Scotland, his m«ijesty created
him marquis of Argyle.
In 1644, after the marquis of Iluntly, whom the
king had appointed his lieutenant-general in the
north of Scotland, had taken Aberdeen, Arg}'le
was, by the convention at 'Edinburgh, commis-
sioned to raise an army to oppose him. He, ac-
cordingly, assembled at Perth, a force of five thou-
sand foot and eight hundred horse, with which he
advanced on Aberdeen. Iluntly fled to Baufi*, where
he disbanded his army, and retired to Strathnaver.
Argyle, after taking possession of Aberdeen, pro-
ceeded noi*thward and took the castles of Gight
and Kellie. The lairds of Gight and Iladdo he
made prisoners and sent to Edinburgh, where the
latter was afterwards beheaded. In July 1644,
Alexander Macdonald, who had been despoiled
of his patrimony by Argyle*s father, landed
in the west from Ireland, with fifteen hundi-cd
men, with the pui-pose of joining the mai-quis of
Montrose, on the side of the king. Argyle col-
lect<^d an army to oppose his progress, and to cut
off his retreat to L'elaud he sent some ships of
war to Loch Eishord, where Macdouald^s fleet
lay, which captured or destroyed them.
After the battle of Tippermuu', Montrose's vic-
torious army pix>ceeded through Angus and the
Mearus to Aberdeen, where he again defeated the
army of the Coveuiintei-s. On the 4th of Septem-
ber, four days after the battle of Tippcnnuir,
Argyle, who had l>een pui*suing the Irish forces
under Macdonald, had arrived with his Highland-
ers at Stirling, where, on the following day, he
r=Ji
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MARQdiS OF ARCYLE.
w«s Joined by the earl of Lothian and bis regiment.
With an increased force, amounting to three thou-
sand foot and two regular cavalry regiments, besides
ten troops of horse, Argylo arrived at Aberdeen on
the 19th, and issued a proclamation, declaring the
marquis of Montrose and his followers ti-aitors to
religion, and to their king and country, and offer-
ing a reward of twenty thousand pounds Scots, to
any person who should bring in Montrose dead or
alive. Spalding, vol. ii. page 271, laments with
great pathos and feeling the severe hardships to
which the citizens of Aberdeen had been subjected
by the fi*equcnt visitations of hostile armies at
tills period, but forgets to add how much the citi-
zens of Aberdeen had done to bring it on them-
selves by their sympathy with Montrose. Three
days after his arrival in Aberdeen, Argyle pnt his
army in motion in the direction of Kintore. On
hearing of his approach, Montrose concealed his
cannon in a bog, and marched his anny into the
forest of Abemethy. Argyle proceeded as far as
Strathbogie, and allowed his troops to lose their
time in plundering and laying waste the lands of
the Gordons in that district, and in the Enzie.
On the 27th of September Argyle mustered his
forces at the Bog of Gight, and found them to
amount to about four thousand men. The army
of Montrose did not amount to much more than a
third of that number. At this time the two ar-
mies wei-e within twenty miles of each other ; but
Montrose passed unscathed through the forest of
Rotbiemurchus, and following the course of the
Spey, marched through Badenoch. Argyle, on
this, set his army in motion along Spey-side, and
marched through Badenoch in pursuit. On en-
tering Badenoch, having been delayed by illness,
Argyle found Montrose several days* march in
advance of him, and had crossed the Grampians
to Strathbogie, where he arrhred on the 19th of
October and remained till the 27th. Contraiy to
his expectations, Montrose was joined by but a
small party of the Gordons, the marquis of Huntly
keeping aloof altogether, while his sons were on
the side of the parliament.
After spoiling the lands of those in Badenoch
and Athole who had joined Montrose, Argyle fol-
lowed him across the Dee, and passing thix)ngh
Aberdeen and Kintore, he reached luveriiry on
25th October, with a force of about two thousand
five hnndred foot, and twelve hundred horse, and
suddenly appeared within a very few miles of the
camp of Montrose on the 28tli of the same month.
Montix>se*s foot amounted only to fifteen hundred
men, and about fifty horse; yet with this infe-
rior force he resolved to await Arg)ie's attack.
He accordingly drew up his little army on a
rugged eminence behind the castle of Fyvie, on
the uneven sides of which several ditches had
been cut and dikes built to serve as faim fences.
Here he was attacked by Argyle, whose men,
charging with great impetuosity, di'ove the forces
of Montrose up the eminence, of a considerable
part of which they got possession. The assailed,
however, were soon rallied by Montrose, who
directed an attack in turn with complete success.
A subsequent attack of cavaliy was resisted by
interlining with his few horse a body of muskct-
eere. In the evening Argj'le di-ew off his forces,
and although he returned to the position on the
following and subsequent days, the attack was
not renewed.
After nightfall of the second day, Montrose re-
treated towards Strathbogie, followed by Argyle,
all whose attempts, however, to bring him to ac-
tion in the open country proved unavailing against
an antagonist of militaiy genius so much superior
to his own. Recourse was then had by Argyle to
negotiation, but to a request for a personal meet-
ing with the view of arranging a cessation of
aims, Montrose, lest Argyle should avail himself
of the occasion to tamper with his men, proposed
in a council of war to retire to tlie Grampians.
The council at once approved of this suggestion,
on which Montrose resolved to march into Bade-
noch, and afterwards descended by rapid marches
into Athole.
In the meantime, Argyle disbanded his High-
landers, and went to Edinburgh, where, according
to Spalding, vol. ii. page 287, he ** got but small
thanks for his service against Montrose." So far
from this being the case, the Committee of Estates
passed an act of approbation of his services, ** prin-
cipally because he had shed no blood." IGui^ify,
page 124.] To i*etaliate upon Argyle and his
clan the miseries which he had occasioned in
Lochaber, Montrose proceeded to ravage the
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MARQUIS OF ARGYLE.
conntry possessed by the Campbells, beginning
with Glenorchy, on which Argyle hastened to his
castle at Invei-ary, and gave orders for the assem-
bling of his followers. He took no precautions,
however, to guard the passes leading into Argyle,
although so important did he consider them that
he had frequently declared he would i-ather forfeit
a hundred thousand crowns than that an enemy
should know them. While reposing in fancied
security, some shepherds from the hills brought
him the alarming intelligence that Montrose's
forces were within two miles of his castle. He
immediately took refuge on board a fishing-boat
in Ix>ch Fyne, in which he sought his way to the
Lowlands. For upwai*ds of six weeks, the dis-
trict of Argyle, as well as that of Lorn, was laid
waste, so that, before the end of Januaiy, 1645,
a single male inhabitant was not to be seen
throughout their whole extent. Montrose then
proceeded northwards, with the view of seizing
Inverness ; but, on his route, liearning that Argyle
had entered Lochaber with an army of three thou-
sand men, and had advanced as far as Inverlochy,
burning and laying waste the country wherever
oe appeared, he crossed the mountains, and
reached Glennevis before Argyle had the slight-
est notice of his approach. Committing his army
to the charge of his cousin, Campbell of Auchin-
breck, who had considerable reputation as a mili-
tary commander, Argyle went on board a boat on
the loch, accompanied by Sir John Wauchope of
Niddry, Sir James Rollock of Duncrub, Archibald
Sydserf, one of the bailies of Edinburgh, and
Mango Law, a minister of the same city. His
excuse for doing so, was some contusions he had
received by a fall two or three weeks before. At
sunrise on Sunday, 2d February 1645, Montrose
gave orders to his men to advance, when Argyle*s
forces were totally defeated, no less than fifteen
hundred of his family and name being killed, and
amongst the slain was Campbell of Auchinbreck,
their commander. After this action, which was
called the battle of Inverlochy, Argyle amved in
Edinburgh, ** having," says Guthrie, "his left
arm tied up in a scarf, as if he had been at bones-
breaking." He was present at the battle of Kil-
syth, 15th August 1645, as the head of a commit-
tee of noblemen appointed by the estates to attend
General Baillie, the general of the Covenanters,
who sustained a signal defeat from Montrose. By
way of retaliation for the destruction of Castle
Campbell, and the properties of his vassals, by
the Macleans, who had joined Montrose^s army,
he had previously caused the house of Menstrie.
the seat of the earl of Stirling, the king^s secre-
tary, and that of Airthrie, belonging to Sir John
Graham of Braco, to be burnt. Just before the
battle he had, with a small body of troops, taken
his ix)ute over the hills from Stirling, and crossing
the CaiTon, at a ford still bearing his name, joined
the main body under Baillie. Tlie loss of the battle
of Kilsyth, the most disastrous defeat which the
Covenanters ever sustained, is mainly to be attri-
buted to the interference of Argjie and the ** field
committee," with that generars dispositions and
arrangements. All Baillie*s officers fled in various
directions; while Argyle hastened to the south
shore of the Frith of Forth. According to Bishop
Gutliry, he ** never looked over his shoulder until,
after twenty miles riding, he reached the South
Queensferry, where he possessed himself of a boat
again." [AfcmotV*, page 154.] Wishart sarcas-
tically observes that this was the third time that
Argyle nad *' saved himself by means of a boat,
and, even then, he did not reckon himself secure
till they had weighed anchor and earned the vessel
out to sea." IMemoirs^ page 171.] He after-
wards took refuge in Ireland, until Montrose*8
subsequent defeat at Philiphaugh. Among the
piisoners executed by the Covenanters after that
event was Sir William Rollock, one of Montrose^s
principal officers, the chief cause of whose condem-
nation, Wishart says, (Memoirs, page 223,) was
that he would not consent to assassinate Montrose,
at the instigation of Argyle ; a cnme which, not-
withstanding all the ferocity of the times, and all
the enmity which subsisted between these two
rival chiefs, it is impossible to believe Argyle to
have been guilty of.
In July 1646, when the king had surrendered
to the Scottish army, the marquis went to New-
castle to pay him his respects. He was after-
wards employed at London in the conference with
the parliament of England on the Articles pre-
sented by them to his majesty. He was, besides,
charged with a secret commission from the king.
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CAMPBELL,
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MARQUIS OF ARGYLE.
to consult with the dnke of Richmond and the
marquis of Hertford, as to the expediencf of get-
ting the Scottish parliament and army to declare
for him ; but was told that if the Scots should de
clare for the king, it might prove his majesty^s
ruin, by turning the affair into a national dispute,
in which all parties in England would unite, to
pi-ovent the kingdom from being conquered. Ar-
gyle returned to Scotland to attend parliament,
which met 3d November, 1646, and on the 7th of
that month, the convention of estates passed an
" act of approbation to the marquis of Argyle and
remanent commissioners at London.'* In the
same parliament a sum of money was voted to
him for his various services, all his estates having
been plundered by the Irish and other followers
of Montrose. In 1647, also, the parliament voted
him an additional sum for his family's subsistence,
and for paying anntial rents to some necessitous
creditors on his estate, and a collection was or-
dered throughout all the churches in Scotland, for
the relief of the people of Argyle plundered by
Montrose.
The marquis of Huntly, who had appeared in
arms for the king, having been taken prisoner, in
December 1647, by Lieutenant- colonel Meuzies, in
Strathdon, and carried to Edinburgh, a reward of
a thousand pounds sterling was bestowed on his
captor, who, for payment of this sum, obtained an
order, 6th January 1648, from the committee of
estates. It has been made the ground of a charge,
by the author of the history of the family of Gor-
don, against Hamilton and Argyle, that they were
the first signers of this order; but they merely
signed the document in the order of precedence of
rank before the rest of the committee. It is
related by Spalding that, taking advantage of
Hnntly's situation, Argyle bought up all the com-
prisings on Huntly's lands, and that he caused
summon at the market cross of Aberdeen, by
sound of trumpet, all Huntly's wadsetters and
creditors, to appear at Edinburgh in the month of
March following, to produce their securities before
the lords of session, othei-wise they would be de-
clared null and void. Some of Huntly's creditors
sold their claims to him, and having thus bought
up all the rights he could obtain upon Huntly's
estate, he grants bonds for the amount, which.
according to Spalding, he never paid. In this
way did Argyle possess himself of Huntly's estates,
which he continued to enjoy upwai*ds of twelve
years, namely, fi*om 1648 till the restoration in
1660. There can be no doubt, however, that in
thus acting it was for the benefit of his nephew.
Lord Gordon, and not for his own aggrandize-
ment, Huntly's estates being forfeited by the par*
liament.
In 1648, when the duke of Hamilton formed an
association to attempt the rescue of the king,
which went under the name of "the Engage-
ment," Argyle and his party opposed it. After
the defeat of the army led by Hamilton into Eng-
land, a new commotion was raised in Scotland by
those who had disapproved of the " Engagement."
The principal authors were the marquis of Argyle,
the earls of Cassillis and Eglinton and the earl of
Loudon, chancellor. To oppose them the com-
mittee of estates raised an army and conferred
tiie command on the earl of Lanai-k, who was
soon joined by Sir George Monro, with a small
body of troops which he had conducted home
from England. Argyle, having collected a small
body of Highlanders in his own country, marched
eastward to form a junction with Loudon and
Eglinton. Halting at Stirling, after assigning to
his troops their different posts, he went to dine
with the earl of Mar at his residence in that town.
But while the dinner was serving up, the advanced
guard of Lanark's forces, under Sir George Mon-
1*0, entei-ed the town, on which, mounting his
horse, he gallopped across Stirling bridge, and
never looked behind him till he reached the North
QneensfeiTy, where he instantly crossed the Frith
in a small boat. He then proceeded to Edin-
burgh, and, with I^udon, the chancellor, and the
eai'ls of Cassillis and Eglinton, as committee of
estates, summoned a parliament to meet on the
4th of January. In the meantime, Cromwell had
laid siege to Berwick, and was waited upon at
Mordington, by Argyle, Lord Elcho, and Sir
Chai'les Ei-skine, and after the surrender of that
town they conducted him and General Lambert
to Edinburgh. Cromwell took up his residence in
the house of Lady Home in the Canongate, where
he received frequent visita from Argyle, Loudon,
the earl of Ix)tiiian, and othei*s, both peers and
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MARQUIS OF ARGYLE
Diinisters. It is said that during tliese conferen-
ces, Cromwell commnnicated to his visitors his
intentions with respect to the king, and obtained
their consent. It was with reference to this that
Argyle made his celebrated declaration on the
scaffohl.
Although Argyle and his friends had now the
principal power in Scotland, he exerted himself in
vain to prevent the execution of that eminent roy-
alist, the marquis of Hnutly, his brother-in-law,
and when it was carried against him, ICth March
1649, he withdrew in disgust from the parliament.
But when his great rival, Montrose, was con-
ducted with every mark of Ignominy, in May
1650, up the Canongate to the tolbooth of Edin-
bin-gh, Argyle, surrounded by his family and
friends, appeared publicly on a balcony in front of
the earl of Moray's house in the Canongate, to
gaze at him. lie refused, however, to assist at
or concur in the barbarous sentence pronounced
against him, declaring that he was too much a
party to be a judge. He was not present at Mon-
trose^s execution, and is said to have shed tears
on hearing of the particulars of his death.
Argyle had the principal hand in bringing over
Charles the Second to Scotland, where he arrived
in June 1650. It is mentioned by I^rd Dai*t-
montli, in his MS. notes on Burnet, quoted in
Rose's Observations on Fox (p. 176), that on his
arrival, Argyle informed his majesty that he could
not serve him as he desired, unless he gave some
nndeniablo proof of a fixed resolution to support
the presbyterian party, which he thought would
be best done by marrying into some family of
quality and influence attached to that interest,
and thought his own daughter would be the pro-
perest match for him. What truth there may be
in this, it is impossible to say, but certain it is
that the presbyterian party, at the head of which
was Argyle, was then the strongest, and it is
likely that with a sincere desire to serve his ma-
jesty, the ambition of that nobleman might have
led him to entertain such a design, with a view of
advancing both his majesty's interests and his
own, as well as the cause of the presbyterian reli-
gion, while the report that the king was to nuiriy
his daughter was prevalent at the time.
After the fiital defeat of the Scots ai-my at Dun- |
bar, 3d September, 1650, Argyle continued to
exert himself for the defence of the country and
the promotion of the cause of the king, who was
so sensible of his zeal, and diligence in bis ser-
vice, that he drew up a paper which he presented
to him with bis sign manual, promising, on ^' the
word of a king," to create him duke of Argyle,
knight of the garter, and one of the gentlemen of
his bedchamber, when he (Argyle) should think
fit; and whenever it should please God to restore
him to his just rights in England, to see him paid
forty thousand pounds sterling, which was due to
him. On the king's coronation at Scone, 1st
January 1651, Argyle placed the crown on his
Majesty's head, and was the first to swear alle-
giance to him. When Charles, in June of that
year, resolved to march into England, Argyle en-
deavoured to dissuade him from it; but, neverthe-
less he would have accompanied his majesty, had
not his coontess been then lying at the point of death,
and he took leave of the king at Stirling. After
Charles's defeat at Worcester, Argyle retired to
Inverary, where he continued for a year to act on
the defensive; but, falling sick, he was surprised
by General Dean, who conducted him a prisoner
to Edinbnrgh. Having received orders from
General Monk to attend a privy council, he was
thus entrapped to be present at the ceremony of
proclaiming Oliver Cromwell lord protector. A
paper was tendered to him to sign, containing his
submission to the government as settled, which he
refused, but afterwards, when he was in no con-
dition to struggle, he did sign a promise to live
peaceably under the protectorate; and under
Richard Cromwell he sat in the parliament for
the county of Aberdeen.
At the restoration he went to London to con-
gi*atulate the king, arriving there 8th July 1660;
but, without being allowed to see his majesty, he
was committed to the Tower, and after lying there
for five mouths, he was sent down to Scotland to
be tried for his compliance with the usurpation.
On the voyage down he narrowly escaped ship-
wreck by a storm. When he arrived in Edin-
burgh he was confined in the castle. At his trial,
his invetei-ate enemy, tlie carl of Middleton, pre-
sided as lord high commissioner; and, after the
evidence had bcui dosed on both sides, an express
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CAMPBELL,
561
MARQUIS OF ARGYLE.
aiTived from Monk with some private letters from
Argyle to him and others, proving his full com-
pliance with the Qsnrpation. Being condemned
for high treason, he was beheaded with the Maiden
at the Cross of Eciinburgh, May 27, 1661. On
sentence being pronounced, the marquis, lifting up
his eyes, said, " 1 had the honour to set the crown
upon the king's head, and now he hastens me to
a better crown than his own." He prepared for
death with a fortitude not expected from the natu-
ral timidity of his character; wrote a long letter
to the king, vindicating his memory, and im-
ploring protection for his poor wife and family;
and on the day of his execution, dined at noon
with his friends, with great cheerfulness, and
was accompanied by several of the nobility to
ihe scaffold, where he behaved with singular con-
stancy and courage. His last words were, **I
desire all that hear me to take notice and remem-
ber, that now, when I am entering on eternity,
and am to appear before my Judge, and as I de^
sii*e salvation, I am free from any accession by
knowledge, contriving, counsel, or any ol^er way,
to his late majesty^s death." His head was ex-
posed on the west end of the tolbooth, on the
same spike from which that of Monti*ose had re-
CiCntly been removed ; while his body was carried
to St. Magdalene*s chapel in the Cowgate, and
lay there for some days, until it was removed by
his friends to the family burial-place at Kllmun.
The head remained on the top of the tolbooth till
8th June 1664, when a warrant was obtained fVom
Charles the Second for taking it down, and bury-
ing it with his body.
Mr. Granger, in his Biographical History of
England, observes that ^Hhe marquis of Argyle
was in the cabinet what his enemy the marquis of
Montrose was in the field, the first character of
his age and country for political courage and con-
duct."— ^The woodcut on the preceding column is
from an engraving after the original at Inverary.
The marquis of Argj'le is inserted in Walpole*s
Catalognt of Royal and Noble Authors, having
published his ^Instructions to his Son,' 12mo,
Edinburgh, 1661, written during his confinement;
on which Walpole remarks, it is observable that
he quarrelled with both his father and his son;
and ^Defences against the grand indictment of
high ti*eason,' 1661. Park, in his edition of Wal-
pole, (vol. V. p. 115, edition 1806,) says, in 1642
waa printed "the marquis of Argyll's speech on
peace, to be sent to his Majestic." By his wife,
Lady Margaret Douglas, second daughter of Wil-
liam, second earl of Morton, he had with three
daughters, two sons; namely, Archibald, ninth earl
of Argyle, and Lord Niel Campbell of Ardmaddie,
who was governor of Dumbarton castle, and died
in 1693. Lord Niel waa twice married ; and Dr.
Archibald Campbell, his second son by his fii-st
wife, Lady Vere Ker, third daughter of the third
earl of Lothian, was bishop of Aberdeen. [See
a subsequent notice (Campbell, Archibald,)
bishop of Aberdeen.] His second wife was Susan,
eldest daughter of Sir Alexander Menzies of
Weem, baronet, sister of Captain James Men-
zies, who had married his lordship^s daughter,
Anna. Lord NiePs widow afterwards married
Colonel Alexander Campbell of Finnab, and had
two sons, Niel Campbell, advocate, and Alexan-
der. Her only surviving child, Jeaii, mamed
Campbell of Inverawe. Lord Niel Camp{)eirs
descendants have long been extinct in the male
line. Menzies of Castlemenzies, baronet, and the
Fergusons of Pitcullo in Fife descend from him in
the fenuile line.
2n
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CAMPBELL,
562
NINTH EARL OF ARGYLE.
The marquis* eldest daughter, Lady Anne, died
unmarried His second, Lady Jean, became the
wife of the first marqois of Lothian ; and Lady
Mary, the third, married first the sixth earl of
Caithness, and after his death the first earl of
Breadalbane, and had one son to him.
CAMPBELL, Archibald, ninth earl of Argyle,
eldest son of the preceding, was educated by his
father in the true principles of loyalty and the
protestant religion, and had from his youth dis-
tinguished himself by his steady attachment to the
i*oyal cause. After receiving his education he
went to travel in France and Italy in 1647, and
remained on the continent till the end of 1649.
In 1650, when Charles the Second was invited to
Scotland, the commission of colonel of foot guards
was given to him by the convention of estates,
which he declined to accept until it should be rat-
ified by the king. He served with great bravery
against Cromwell at the battle of Dunbar, in Sep-
tember of that year. After the king's defeat at
Worcester, he kept a party in arms in the High-
lands, ready to act on any favourable opportunity.
In 1654 he joined the earl of Glencaim with near-
ly a thousand men, and received the commission
of lieutenant-general from Charles the Second.
He was, in consequence, exempted from the gen-
eral amnesty published by Cromwell in April of
that year. Towards the end of the same year he
was so reduced that he retired to an island with
only four or five persons about him. It was not
till 1655, when he received orders from General
Middleton, sanctioned by the king's authority,
that he would consent to submit to Cromwell.
In November of that year he was compelled by
Greneral Monk to find secmnty for his peaceable
behaviour, to the amount of fiyQ thousand pounds
sterling. In spring 1657 Monk committed him
to prison, where he remained till the Restoration.
In March 1658, while confined in Edinburgh
castle, the lieutenant of that garrison, an English-
man, was one day amusing himself in throwing a
bullet, when it glanced from a stone with so mnch
force on Lord Lom's head, that it fractured his
skull. He was obliged to undergo the operation
of trepanning, and recovered with diflaculty. IBur-
nefs Hist vol. i. p. 106.]
On the restoration, his lordship hastened to
I^ndon to congi'atulate his majesty, being charged
with a letter irom his father, the marquis of Ar-
gyle, to the king, containing assurances of his
duty. His majesty received him in so gracious a
manner as to induce the marquis himself to un-
dertake a journey to London, when, without being
admitted to the king's presence, he was commit-
ted to the Tower, and subsequently sent down to
be tried in Scotland for treason. During all the
time of his trial, Lord Lorn remained at court
and laboured assiduously, but in vain, to save his
father's life. A letter to Lord Dufins, written
after the marquis' execution, in which he said
that he had convinced the earl of Clarendon of
the injustice done to his father, being intercepted,
was carried to the earl of Middleton, who exhibit-
ed it to the parliament, as a libel on their pro-
ceedings. That body, on 24th June 1662, trans-
mitted a representation to the king that the eldest
son of the late marquis of Argyle had both writ-
ten and spoken against their authority, and re-
questing that he might be sent down to Scotland
to stand his trial. By the express command of
the king, Lord Lorn proceeded to Edinburgh, and
on the day of his arrival he appeared in his place
in parliament, and made a long speech in his own
justification. He was, nevertheless, committed
close prisoner to the castle, and a process raised
against him for the crime of leasing-makmg, or
creating dissension between the king and his sub-
jects, on which he was found guilty, and con-
demned to lose his head, but the day of his exe-
cution was left to his majesty's pleasure, in con-
sequence of a positive order of the king to the
earl of Middleton. When the news of his condem-
nation reached the coui-t at London it struck all
there with astonishment, and the earl of Clarendon
declared that if the king sufi'ered such a precedent
to take place, he would get out of his dominions
as fast as his gout would let him. Lord Lorn
suffered a long and severe imprisonment in the
castle of Edinburgh, and was only released on
4th June, 1663, when Middleton had lost his
power.
Sensible of his services and of the injustice with
which he had been treated, Charles, the same
year, restored to him the estates and title of eari
of Ajgyle, which had been forfeited by his father.
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CAMPBELL,
563
FIRST DUKE OF ARGYLE.
His residence while in Edinburgh, during his at-
tendance on the Scots parliament, was in the
Mint court. High street, as appears from a curious
case reported in Fountainhall's Decisions, vol. i.
page 163.
In 1681, when the duke of York went to Scot-
laud, a parliament was summoned at Edinburgh,
which, besides granting money to the king, and
voting the indefeasible right of succession, passed
an act for establishing a test, obliging all, who
possessed offices, civil, military, or ecclesiastical,
to take an oath not to attempt any change in the
constitution of church and state as then settled.
When Argyle took the test as a privy councillor,
he added, in presence of the duke of York, an
explanation which he had before communicated to
that prince, and which he believed to have been
approved of by him, to the effect that he took it
as far as it was consistent with itself and with the
Protestant religion. The explanation was allowed,
and he was admitted to sit that day in council.
To his great surprise, however, he was a few days
thereafter committed to prison, and tried for high
treason, leasing-making, and peijury. Of five
judges three did not scruple to find him guilty of
the two first charges, and a jury of fifteen noble-
men gave a verdict against him. The king^s per-
mission, was obtained for pronouncing sentence,
but the execution of it was ordered to be delayed.
Having no reason to expect either justice or mercy
from such enemies, the earl made his escape from
prison in the train of his step-daughter. Lady
Sophia Lindsay, disguised as her page. He made
his way to London, and though the place of his
concealment was known at Court, it is said that
the king would not consent to his being arrested.
In the meantime, the privy council of Scotland
publicly proclaimed his sentence at the cross of
Edinburgh, and caused his coat of arms to be re-
versed and torn.
The earl soon after went over to Holland, where
he resided during the remainder of Charles' reign.
On his death in 1685, deeming it his duty, before
the coronation of James the Second, to do his best
to restore the constitution, and preserve the civil
and religious liberties of his native country, he
concerted measures with the duke of Monmouth,
and, at the head of a considerable force, made a
descent upon Argyle; but, disappointed in liis
expectations of support, he was taken prisoner,
and being canied to Edinburgh, was beheaded
upon his former unjust sentence, June 30, 1685.
Previous to his execution he was brought directly
fi*om the castle to the Laigh council room in the
Tolbooth, and thence his farewell letter to his wife
is dated. Fountainhall tells us, ^^ Argile came in
coach to the Toune Counsell, and from that on
foot to the scaffold, with his hat on, betwixt Mr.
Annand, dean of Edinburgh, on his right hand —
to whom he gave his paper on the scaffold — and
Mr. Lawrence Charteris, late professor of divinity
in the college of Edinburgh. Jle was somewhat
appaled at the sight of the Maiden — ^present death
will danton the most resolute courage — therefor
he caused bind the napkin upon his face ere he
approached, and then was led to it." Under his
misfortunes he evinced great firmness and self-
possession. He ate his dinner cheerfully on the
day of his death, and, according to his usual cus-
tom, slept after it for a quarter of an hour or more
very soundly. At the place of execution he made
a short, grave, and religious speech; and such
was the calmness of his spirit that he took out of
his pocket a little ruler, and measured the block.
Perceiving that it did not lie even, he pointed out
the defect to a carpenter, and had it rectified.
After a solemn declaration that he forgave all his
enemies, he submitted to death with extraordinary
resolution and composure. His body was interred
in the Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh, under a
monument, with a poetical inscription composed
by himself in prison the day before his execution ;
on account of which he has been admitted into
Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, vol. v. edi-
tion 1806. He was twice married; first, to Lady
Mary Stuart, eldest daughter of James, fifth earl
of Moray; and, secondly, to Lady Anne Mac-
kenzie, second daughter of Colin, first earl of Sea-
forth (dowager of Alexander, first earl of Bal-
carres). By the latter he had no issue; but by
the former he had four sons and three daughtera.
CAMPBELL, Archibald, tenth earl, and first
duke of Argyle, son of the preceding, was an ac-
tive promoter of the Revolution, and accompanied
the prince of Orange to England. In 1689 he
was admitted into the Convention as earl of Ar-
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CAMPBELL,
664
SECOND DUKE OF ARGYLE.
g}'le, though his father's attainder was not re-
versed. He was one of the commissioners deputed
from the Scots parliament to offer the crown of
Scotland to the prince of Orange, and to tender
him the coronation oath. For this and other
eminent services the family estates which had been
forfeited were restored to him ; he was admitted a
member of the privy councQ, and in 1690 made
one of the lords of the treasury. In 1694 he was
appointed one of the extraordinary lords of ses-
sion, and, in 1696, colonel of the Scots horse
guards. He afterwards raised a regiment of his
own clan, which greatly distinguished itself in
Flanders. On the 23d June 1701 he was creat-
ed, by letters patent, duke of Argyle, marquis of
I^rn and Kintyre, earl of Campbell and Cowal,
viscount of Lochow and Glenila, baron Inverary,
Mull, Morvem, and Tiry. He died 28th September
1708. Though undoubtedly a man of ability, he
was too dissipated to be a great statesman. Tlie
scandal of the time alleged that his death was
caused by a wound received in a brothel. He
married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Lionel Tal-
mash, by whom he had two sons, the elder being
John, the celebrated duke of Argyle and Green-
wich.
Loi-d Teignmouth, in his 'Sketches of the Coasts
and Islands of Scotland,' [vol. ii. pp. 380—382,]
gives the following interesting anecdote of the
second duchess of Argyle : " The trees which adorn
the shore of the bay were planted about a hundred
and fifty years ago by a duchess of Argyle, who was
extremely partial to Kintyre, fixed her residence
chiefly at Campbellton, and inhabited a house on
a site now occupied by a small farm-house, to
which, however, it was much inferior. This lady
was the mother of the great duke John ; and she
is said to have adopted the following singular me-
thod of acquiring, for the duke, possession of the
estates of the different proprietors, Campbells, to
whom Argyle, after his conquest of Kint3rre, had
granted them. On pretence of revising, as the tra-
dition goes, she got into her hands and destroyed
the charters of these unsuspecting people. Thus
the Argyle family revoked their original grants.
Campbell of Kildalloig, ancestor of the present
proprietor of this estate, pleasantly situated on the
outside of the bay, owed the preservation of it to
the shrewdness of a servant, who suspecting the
intentions of the duchess, ran off, carrying away
his master's charter, and restored it not to him,
till the fraud became apparent. The family of
this man were, till within few years, employed, in
grateful recollection of his services, by the fai^ily
at Kildalloig. The duchess is said to have asso-
ciated with herself, in her retreat, several young
ladies of rank, whom she watched with Argus-
eyed vigilance, lest they should stoop to alliance
with the lairds of Kintyre. Impatient of restraint,
they eluded her observation, and are said to have
preferred humble freedom to splendid chains.**
CAMPBELL, John, second duke of Argyle,
and also duke of Greenwich, a steady patriot and
celebrated general, the eldest son of the preced-
ing, was bom October 10, 1678. On the very
day on which his grandfather suffered at Edin-
burgh, in June 1685, he fell from a window on
the upper floor of Lethington, near Haddington,
then the seat of his grandmother, the duchess of
Lauderdale, without receiving any injury. His
father, anxious to put him in the way of advance-
ment, introduced him to King William, who, in
1694, when not full seventeen years of age, gave
him the command of a regiment. On the death of
his father in 1703, he became duke of Argyle, and
was soon after swoni of the privy conncil, made
captain of the Scots horse guards, and appointed
one of the extraordinary lords of session.
In 1704, on the revival of the order of the This-
tle, he was installed one of the knights of that
order. He was soon after sent down as high com-
missioner to the Scots parliament, where, being of
great service in promoting the projected Union,
for which he became very unpopular in Scotland,
he was, on his return to London, created a peer of
England by the titles of baron of Chatham, and
earl of Gi-eenwich.
In 1706 his Grace made a campaign in Flan-
ders, under the duke of Mariborongh, and dis-
tinguished himself at the battle of Ramillies, in
which he acted as a brigadier-general ; and also
at the siege of Ostend, and in the attack of Mee-
nen, of which he took possession on the 25th of
August. After that event he returned to Scot-
land, in order to be present in the Scots parlia-
ment, when the treaty of Union was agitated. lu
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CAMPBELL,
565
SECOND DUKE OF ARGYLE.
1708 he commanded twenty battalions at the bat-
tle of Oadenarde. . He likewise assisted at the
siege of Lisle, and commanded as major-general
at the siege of Ghent, taking possession of the
town and citadel, Janaary 3, 1709. He was af-
terwards raised to the rank of lientenant-generai,
and commanded in chief at the attack of Tonmay.
He had also a considerable share, September 11,
1709, in the victory at Malplaqnet. On December
20, 1710, he was installed a knight of the Garter.
In Janaary 1711 he was sent to Spain as am-
bassador, and at the same time appointed com-
mander-in-chief of the English forces in that king-
dom. On the peace of Utrecht he returned home.
Having changed his views regarding the Union,
in Jane 1713 he supported an unsuccessful motion
in the House of Lords for its repeal, occasioned by
a malt bill being brought into the House for
Scotland, on the ground that the Union had dis-
appointed his expectations. In the spring of
1714 he was deprived of all the offices he held
under the crown. On the accession of George the
First he was made groom of the stole, and was
one of the nineteen members of the regency nomi-
nated by his miyesty. On the king's arrival in
England he was appointed general and com-
mander-in-chief of the king's forces in Scotland.
At the bi*eaking out of the Rebellion in 1715,
his grace, as commander-in-chief in Scotland, de-
feated the earl of Mar's army at Sheriffmnir, and
forced the Pretender to retire from the kingdom.
In March 1716, after putting the army into win-
ter quarters, he returned to London, but was in a
few months, to the surprise of all, divested of all
his employments. Ii^the beginning of 1718 he
was again restored to favour, created duke of
Gi*eenwich, and made lord steward of the house-
hold ; on resigning which, he was appointed mas-
ter-general of the ordnance. In 1722 the duke of
Argyle distinguished himself in the House of
Lords in a very interesting debate on the bill for
banish'ing Dr. Atterbury, bishop of Rochester. It
was chiefly owing to his grace's persuasive elo-
quence that this bill passed. In 1726 he was ap-
pointed colonel of the prince of Wales' regiment of
horse. Such was his zeal for his native country
that he warmly opposed the extension of the malt-
tax to Scotland. In Jan. 1735-36 he was created
field-marshal. In 1787, when the affair of Cap-
tain Porteous camre before parliament, his grace
exerted himself vigorously and eloquently in be-
half of the city of Edinburgh; a bill having been
brought in for punishing the lord provost of that
city, for abolishing the city guard, and f<ir de-
priving tlie corporation of several ancient privi-
leges ; and when the queen regent threatened, on
that occasion, to convert Scotland into a hunting
park, replied, then it was time that he should be
down to gather his beagles. In 1 739, when the con-
vention with Spain was brought before the house,
he spoke with waimth against it; and, in the
same session, his grace opposed a vote of credit,
as there was no sum limited in the message sent
by his miyesty.
In April 1740 he delivered a speech with such
warmth against the administration that he was
again deprived of all his offices. To these, how-
ever, on the resignation of Sir Robert Walpole,
he was soon rest(»^, but not approving of the
measures of the new ministry, he gave up all his
posts for the last time, and never afterwards en-
gaged in afifairs of state. This amiable a^d most
accomplished nobleman has been immortalized by
Pope in the lines,
** Argyle, the state's whole thunder bom to wield
And shake alike the senate and the field.**
Thomson, in his poem of Autumn, also introduces
an encomium on his gi*ace, and he is mentioned
by Tickell, Broome, and other poets of his time.
He was twice married. By his fii-st wife, Mary,
daughter of John Brown, Esq., (and niece of Sir
Charies Duncombe, Lord Mayor of London in
1708,), he had no issue. By his second wife,
Jane, daughter of Thomas Warburton of Wiu-
nington in Cheshire, one of the maids of honour to
Queen Anne, he had five daughters. His eldest
daughter, Caroline, was created, in 1767, baroness
Greenwich, but the title became extinct on her
death in 1794. To his fifth daughter, Lady Mai*y
Campbell, widow of Edward Viscount Coke, the
son of the earl of Leicester, Lord Oxford dedicated
his celobi*ated romance of the ^ Castle of Otranto.'
As the duke died without male issue, his English
titles of dttke and earl of Greenwich and baron of
Chatham became extinct, while his Scotch titles
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CAMPBELL,
566
THIRD DUKE OF ARGYLK
and patrimonial estate devolved on his brother.
He died of a paralytic disorder, October 4, 1743 ;
and a beautiful marble monument, was erected to
his memory in Westminster Abbey. There is an
engraving of John duke of Ai'gyle and Greenwich
in Birches Lives, from a portrait by Aikman, of
which the following is a woodcut
CAMPBELL, Archibald, third duke of Ar-
g}'le, the brother of the precedmg, was bom at
Uam, Surrey, in June 1682, and educated at the
university of Glasgow. He afterwards studied the
law at Utrecht, but entering the army, he served
under the duke of Marlborough, was colonel of
the 36th foot, and governor of Dumbarton castle.
He soon abandoned a military life, and employed
himself in acquiring the qualifications necessary
for a statesman. Li 1705 he was constituted
loi*d high treasurer of Scotland ; in 1706 one of tbe
commissioners for treating of the Union between
Scotland and England ; and 19th October of the
same year, for his services in that matter, was cre-
ated viscount and earl of Hay, and baron Oransay,
Dunoon, and Arrase. In 1708 he was made an
extraordinary lord of session, and after the Union,
was chosen one of the sixteen representative peers
of Scotland. In 1710 he was appointed justice-
general of Scotland, and the following year was
called to the privy council. Upon the accession
of Greorge the First, he was nominated lord regis-
ter of Scotland, and when the rebellion broke out
in 1715, he took up arms for the defence of the
house of Hanover. By his prudent conduct in the
West Highlands, he prevented Greneral Gordon,
at the head of three thousand men, from penetrat-
ing into the country and raising levies. He after-
wards joined his brother, the duke of Argyle and
Greenwich, at Stirling, and was wounded at the
battle of Sheriffmuir. In 1725 he was appointed
keeper of the privy seal, and in 1734 of the great
seal, which office he enjoyed till his death. Upon
the decease of his brother, in September 1743, he
succeeded to the dukedom.
As chancellor of the university of Aberdeen, he
showed himself anxious to promote the interest of
that as well as of the other nniversities of Scot-
land, and he particularly encouraged the school of
medicine at Edinburgh. He was the confidant of
Walpole, and as he had the chief management
of Scots aflairs, he was very attentive in advanc-
ing the trade and manufactares and internal im-
provement of his native country. He excelled in
conversation, and besides building a very magni-
ficent seat at Inverary, he collected one of the
most valuable private libraries in Great Britain.
He died suddenly, while sitting in his chair at
dinner, April 15, 1761. He mai-ried the daughter
of Mr. Whitfield, paymaster of marines, but had
no issue by her gi*ace. On his death the title
of earl of Hay became extinct. By Mrs. Anne
Williams or Shireburn, to whom he left his whole
real and personal property in England, he had a
son, William Williams, otherwise Campbell, who
was appointed auditor of excise in Scotland 4th
January 1739, and was a lieutenant-colonel in the
army. To the son of the latter, Archibald Camp-
bell, Mr. Coxe expresses his acknowledgments for
the papers of his grandfather, Archibald, duke of
Argyle, among which he found several original
letters of Sir Robert Walpole.
The third dnke of Argjie was succeeded bj his oonan,
John, fourth duke, son of the Hon. John Campbell of M§inoi«,
second son of Archibald, the ninth earl of Aigyle, (who was
beheaded in 1685,) bj Elizabeth, daughter of John, eighth
lord Elphinstone. The fourth duke was bom about 169S.
Before he succeeded to the honours of his fainilj, he was an
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EIGHTH DUKE OF ARGYLE.
oOioer in the army, and saw some servioe in France and Hol-
land. During the rebellion of 1716, he acted as aide-de-
camp to his chief, John dnke of Argjle and Greenwich. He
was at the battle of Dettingen in 1741, as a brigadier-general
He had the rank of migor-general 24th Febmaiy 1744, and
serTed a campaign in Germany in that capacitj. When the
rebellion of 1745 broke out, he was appointed to the com-
mand of all the troops and garrisons in the west of Scotland,
and arrived at Inverary, 21st December of that year, and,
with hb eldest son, joined the duke of Comberland at Perth,
on the 9th of the following February. He had the rank of
lieutenant-general 27th April 1747, and was appointed, in
1761, governor of Limerick. He was one of the grooms of
the bedchamber both to George the Second and George the
Third, and on suooeeding as duke, he was chosen one of the
sixteen representatives of the Scottish peerage. He was a
privy councillor, a knight of the Thistle, and became general
22d February 1765. He died 9th November 1770, in the
77th year of his age. He married in 1720 the Hon. Mary
Bellenden, third daughter of the second Lord Bellenden, and
had four sons and a daughter, Lady Carohne, married, first,
to the third eari of Aylesbury, and secondly to Field-marshal
Conway, brother of the marquis of Hertford. Their only
daughter, Anne Seymour, bom 8th November 1748, married,
14th June 1767, the Hon. George Damcr, (eldest son of
Joseph, Lord Milton, afterwards earl of Dorchester,) was a
celebrated female sculptor. She took lessons in the art from
Oeracd and Bacon, and aflerwards studied in Italy. The
colossal statue of George the Thurd, which adorns the interior
of the Register House, Edinburgh, was executed by her, and
presented to her uncle, Lord Frederick Campbell, Lord Clerk
Register. She also cut the figure of the eagle in the gallery
at Strawberry Hill, thus inscribed, "Non me Praxiteles fecit.
Bed Anna Damer,** by the earl of Orford, who bequeathed
that beautiful Gothic villa and the principal part of his for-
tune to her. Her husband died without issue in 1776, and
she herself in 1808. Her uncle, Lord Frederick abovemen-
tioned, was the third of the sons of the 4th duke of Argyle.
He was appointed lord clerk register in November 1768, and
laid the foundation stone of the General Register House at
Edinburgh 27th June 1774. In January 1792 he obtained
from the king a permanent sum of five hundred pounds
a-year for the support of the fabric, and for defraying the
various contingent expenses connected with it Observing
the perishing condition of the parliamentary records of Scot-
land, he formed the design of gettmg them printed for the
public benefit, as the journals of both houses and the parlia-
mentary rolls had been done in England. In 1793 he ob-
tained from his majesty an order for the removal to the
General Register House at Edinburgh of a manuscript which,
beffldes transcripts of many deeds relative to Scottish afiairs,
contained mmutes of several parliaments of Scotland, ante-
' cedent to the earliest parliaments mentioned m the statute
book, that had been discovered in the state paper office at
London. For this service he received the thanks of the court
of session.
John, fiftti duke of Argyle, bom in 1723, eldest son of the
fourth duke, was also in the army, and attained the rank of
general in March 1778, and of field-marshal m 1796. He
was created a British peer, in the lifetime of his father, as
Baron Sundridge of Coomb-bank in Kent, 19th December
1766, with remainder to his heirs male, and failing them to
his brothers, Frederick and William, and their heirs male
Bocoessively. He was chosen the first president of the High-
land Society of Scotland, to which society, in 1806. he made
a munificent gift of one thousand pounds, as the beginning of
a fund for educating young men of the West Highlands for
the navy. He died 24th May 1806, in the 83d year of his
age. He married «t London, dd March 1759, Elizabeth,
widow of James, sixth duke of Hamilton, the second of the
three beautiful Miss Gunnings, daughters of John Gunning,
Esq. of Castle Coote, county Roscommon, Irehmd. Her
grace was created a peeress of Great Britain, as Baroness
Hamilton of Hameldon, Leicestershire, 4th May 1776, ana
died Dec 20, 1790. By her the duke hnd 8 sons and 2
dsuphters, 1. George John, earl of Campbell and Cowal, bom
in 1763, died in infancy; 2. George William, marquis of Lom,
and 6th duke; 8. John Douglas Edward Henrv, 7th duke; 4.
Lady Augusta, m. to General Clavering; 6. Lady Charlotte
J^usan Maria, styled the " Flower of the House of Argyle,**
bom in 1775, w., first, in 1796, Colonel John Campbell, son
of Walter Campbell, Esq. of Shawfield, by whom (he died in
1809) she had a large family; and 2dly, in 1818, the Rev.
Edward John Bury, rector of Titchfield, Hampshire, by whom
she had a daughter. He died in 1882. Lady Charlotte Bury
died in April 1861. She was the authoress of several novels.
George William, sixth duke of Argyle, bom 22d September
1768, succeeded on the death of his uterine brother, Douglas,
duke of Hamilton, in 1799, to his mother's baronage of Ham-
ilton, and took his seat in the house of lords, as Baron Ham-
ilton, 11th Febroary, 1800. He was appointed hb majesty's
vice-admiral over the western coaste and islands of Scotland,
excepting the shires of Bute and the ishmds of Orkney and
Shetland, 9th February 1807. He married, 29th November,
1810, Caroline Elizabeth, daughter of the fourth earl of Jer-
sey, whose previous marriage with the marquis of Anglesea
had been dissolved in Scotland, at her ladyship^s suit, but
had no issue. His grace died 22d October 1839.
His brother, John Douglas Edward Henry, (Lord John
Campbell of Ardincaple, M.P.) succeeded as seventh duke.
He was bom 21st December 1777, and was thrice married ;
first, in August 1802, to Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Wil-
liam Campbell, Esq. of Fairfield, who died in 1818 ; second-
ly, 17th April, 1820, to Joan, daughter anTft heiress of John
Glassel, Esq. of Long Niddry ; and thirdly, in January 1831,
to Anne Colquhoun, eldest *•• of John Cunningham, Esq. of
Craigends. By his 2d wife he had 2 sons and one dr. , namely,
John Henry, bom in 1821, died in 1887; George Douglas, mar-
quis of Jx)m, who succeeded as 8th dnke; and Lady Emma
Augusta, bom in 1825. His grace died 26th April 1847.
George Douglas Campbell, 8th duke, bom in 1823, married
in 1844, Lady Elizabeth Georgina Sutherland-I^veson-Gower,
(bom in 1824), eldest daughter of 2d duke of Sutherland;
issue, John Douglas Sutheriand, marquis of Lom, born in
1845, 4 other sons and six daughters. Author of * An Essay
on the Ecclesiastical History of Scotland since the Reforma-
tion.' Chancellor of University of St. Andrews, 1851 ; Lord
Privy Seal, 1853-5. Postmaster-general, 1855-8; Knight of
the Thistle, 1856 ; again Lord Privy Seal in 1859.
The duke of Argyle is hereditary master of the queen's
household in Scotland, keeper of the castles of Dunoon, Dun-
staffnage, and Carrick, and heritable sheriff of Argyleshire.
CAMPBELL, Akchibald, bishop of Aberdeen,
and a religious writer of some note in his day, was
the son of Lord Kiel CampbeU, and Lady Vere
Ker, the former the second son of the great mar-
quis of Argyle, and the latter the third daughter of
the third earl of Lothian. The date of his birth
is uncertain. He was educated for the episcopal-
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BISHOP.
ian ministry, and after being long in priest's oixiers,
he was, on the death of Bishop Sage, consecrated
a bishop at Dundee, in the year 1711, by Bishops
Rose, Douglas, and Falconar, but without any
particular diocese. On the 10th of May 1721, he
was elected, by the clergy of Aberdeen, to be their
ordinary, but never visited his diocese, residing
chiefly in London; and finding that his views with
regard to certain usages were not approved by the
greater number of his brethren, he resigned his
new ofSce in 1724. IKeith's Scottish Bishops, App.
page 530.] Skinner says of Bishop Campbell,
that **he was highly commendable for his leani-
ing and other valuable accomplishments, which
his curious writings, though out of the common
line in some things, abundantly testify. His
affairs led him to reside mostly at London, where
lie long acted as a Scottish bishop, and in that
character was of great service to our church [the
Scots episcopal communion] ; having been among
the first projector, and, by his activity and con-
nexions, a constant promoter of that charitable
fund which was a great support to the poorer
clergy in their straitened circumstances. He had
got into his hands the original registers of the
General Assemblies produced by [Johnston of]
Warriston in the rebellious Assembly of Glasgow
in the year 1638, [in ^Ir. Skinner's view that fa-
mous Assembly was * rebellious,'] which he gen-
erously communicated to such of his brethren as
had any use to make of them ; and at last, in
1737, made a gift of them to Sion college for pre-
eei'vation. In his latter days, he carried his sin-
gularities to such a length as to form a separate
nonjuring communion in England, distinct from
the SancrofUan line ; and even ventured, in con-
tradiction to the advice and opinion of his brethren
in Scotland, upon the exti-aordinary step of a sin-
gle consecration by himself, without any assistant,
for keeping up the separation which, through Mr.
Laurence, Mr. Deacon, and some others, subsists
in some of the western parts of England to this
day." [Skinner^s Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p.
608.] The records of the General Assemblies
above referred to, were borrowed by the House of
Commons, and the librarian of Sion's College
holds the speaker, Mr. Manners Sutton's receipt
for them. They were burnt in the great fire which
destroyed the two houses of parliament in 1834.
In 1717 Bishop Campbell became acquainted wJth
Arsenius, the metropolitan of Thebais, who was
then in London, and with others of his nonjnring
brethren, made a proposition to that prelate, to-
wards a union with the Eastern church, which
Arsenius, on his going to Russia, communicated
to the emperor Peter the Great. His majesty not
only approved of the design, but directed one of
his clergy, of the order of Archimandrites, or chiefs
of monasteries, from amongst whom the bishops
of the Greek church are always chosen, to assure
Bishop Campbell and his associates of his readi-
ness to promote so good a work by all the means
in his power. A letter of thanks was returned
to the emperor, but as there were five points, as-
similating to the superstitious observances of the
church of Rome, in which Campbell and bis coad-
jutors could not agree with the Eastern church
the union never took effect. Bishop Campbell
died in 1744.
His works are : —
Queries to the Presbyterians of Scotland. Lond 1702.
8vo.
A Query tnmed into an Argument in favoar of Episoopacr
1703, 8vo.
Life of tht Reverend Mr. John Sage. Lond. 1714, 8to
The Doctrines of a Middle State, between Death and the
Resurrection. London, 1731, fol. A veiy scarce and curi-
ous work.
Remarks on some Books published by him, with his Ex-
plications. Edin. 1735, 8vo.
Further Explications with respect to some Articles of the
former Charge; wherein the R Committee, for Purity of
Doctrine, have declared themseJves not satisfied. Edin
1786, 8vo.
Remarks on the Report a -he Committee fiw Puntyof
Doctrine. Edin. 1736, 8vo.
The Necessity of ReveUition ; or an Inquaiy iato tbe Ex-
tent of Human Powers with respect to matters «f Religion,
especially the Being of God, and the Immoitality of the Soul.
Lond. 1739, 8vo.
Donald Campbell, abbot of Cupar, elected bishop of Bre-
chin in 1558, and lord privy seal to Queen Mary, was a son
of the family of Argyle. He never assumed the title of bish-
op, tbe election not being approved of by the Pupe.
The first protestant bishop of Brechin was Alexander
Campbell, a son of Campbell of Ardkinglass. In 1566,
while yet a mere boy, be got a grant of the bishopric, by the
recommendation of the earl of Argyle, and he afterwanU
alienated most part of the lands and tithes of that see to his
chief and patron, retaining, says Keith, for bis suooesBore
scarce so much as would be a moderate competency for a
minister in Brechin. It may be some set off against tbe dis-
pleasure of the worthy bishop, that this alienation was not a
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CAMPBELL.
569
CAMPBELL.
INiTAte arrangement, but done with the Gonaent of the beadu
of the state, and confirmed by parliament. On 7th May
1567 the bishop got a Uoense firom Queen Mai^ to depart
and continue forth from the realm for the space of seven
years, but it would appear that he did not leave Scotland for
more than two years thereafter. In the books of Assump-
tions there is particular instruction that this bishop was
abroad at Geneva, ** at the schools," on the 28th January
1578-4. After his return to Scotland, he sometimes esei^
cised the office of particular pastor at Brechin, though he
still retained the designation of bishop. He died in the year
1606.
I The Campbells of Lochnell, Argyleshire, are descended
I firom Hon. John Campbell, second son of Colin, third earl of
Argyle, and in default of male descendants of John, fourtli
duke of Argyle, are heirs to the titles and Estates. Archi-
bald Campbell of Lochnell, bom in 1777, is the eleventh
laird of Lochnell in direct descent
Four families of the name of Campbell enjoy the dig-
nity and title of a baronet of Scotland and Nova Scotia,
namely, Campbell of Aberuchill and Kilbryde, created in
1627, Campbell of Ardnamurohan ; Campbell of Auchin-
breck; these two baronetcies being created in 1628; and
Campbell of Marchmont, in 1665. Six are baronets of the
United Kingdom, namely, Campbell of Succoth (1808),
Fitzgerald Campbell (1815), Cockburn-Campbell of Gartoford,
Ross-shire (1821), Campbell of Barcaldine and Glennre
(1831), Campbell of Burmah (1831), (see Sufplembht), and
Campbell of Dunstaffnage (1836).
The founder of the Aberuchill family was Colin Campbell,
second son of Sir John Campbell of lowers, and uncle of the
finit earl of Loudoun, who got a charter from the Crown, in
1596, of the lands of Aberuchill, Perthshire. His son, Sir
James Campbell of Aberuchill, a devoted royalist, was cre-
ated a baronet of Nova Scotia by Charles I. ISth Dea 1627.
His representative. Sir James Campbell of Aberuchill, was
oom in 1818.
The first baronet of the Ardnamurchan family was Sir
Donald Campbell, natural son of Sir John Campbell of Cal-
der, who was killed in 1592, by an assassin employed by
Campbell of Ardkinglass, and others of the name of Camp-
bell. [See ante, page 374, art Brbadalbakb.] He was
originally educated for the church, and became dean of Lis-
more; but he was of too restless a disposition to confine
himself to his ecclesiastical duties. His talents and ac-
tivity recommended him to Argyle, by whom he was, in
1612, commissioned to reduce the district of Ardnamurchan
to obedience. He afterwards received from the earl a lease
of Ardnamurohan, and made himself very obnoxious to the
natives by his severities. In May 1618, John Macdonald,
captain of the Clanranald, united with the clan Ian, who
acknowledged him as their chief, and expelled Campbell and
his adherents from Ardnamurchan. He was, however, after-
wards repossessed in the disputed lands, and in 1625 he be-
came heritable proprietor under Ijord Lorn of the district of
Ardnamurchan and Sunart, for which he paid an annual fen
dnty of two thousand merks. He was created a baronet on
14th June 1628, with remainder to his heirs male whatso-
ever, which, in 1634, was changed to remainder to his ne-
phew and his heirs male. He was succeeded by his nephew,
George Campbell, who inherited the estate of Airds in Ar-
gyleshire, but not that of Ardnsmurchan, which, owing to
Sir Donald*s having no male issue, reverted to the family of
Argyle. Neither this gentleman, however, nor any of his
three successon, assumed the title. It was taken up by
the sixth baronet. Sir John Campbell, bom 15th March,
1767, only son of Alexander Campbell of Airds, on bdng
served heir male to Sir Donald Campbell, the first baronet
The seventh baronet, Sur John Campbell, bom in 1807, ad-
mitted advocate in 1831, succeeded his father in 1834. He
was lieutenant-governor of St Vincent^s, and died there in
1853. His eldest son. Sir John William Campbell, bom in
1836, succeeded as eighth baronet He served as an officer
in the artillery in the campaign in the Crimea in 1854-5,
in the trenches with the siege train before Sebastopol.
The first baronet of the Auchinbreck fiunily was Sir Dugald
Campbell of Auchinbreck, knight, the baronetcy being con-
ferred on him 21st March 1628, with remainder to his heirs
male whatsoever. Sv Louis Henry Dugald Campbell, tlie
eighth baronet, bom March 2d, 1844, succeeded his father
9th December 1853.
The first of the Campbells of Marchmont, Berwickshire,
was Sir William Purves, knight, grandson of William Purres
of Abbey Hill, an eminent lawyer and staunch loyalist, who was
appointed by Charles the Second solicitor-general for Scot-
land, and created a baronet of Nova Scotia, 6th July 1665.
He died in 1685, and his eldest son, Sir Alexander Purves,
was nominated by patent his successor in the solicitor- gener-
akhip. He married a daughter of Hume of Ninewells, and
died in 1701. His eldest ton. Sir William Purves, was suc-
ceeded in 1730 by his eldest son Sir William, who married
I^dy Anne Hume Campbell, eldest daughter of Alexander,
second earl of Marchmont, by whom he had three daughters
and a son. Sir Alexander, who married four times, and died
in 1 813. His eldest son, Sir William, bom 4th October 1 767,
assumed, on inheriting the estates of his maternal family,
the additional sumame of Hume-CampbelL His uncle, the
Hon. Alexander Hume Campbell, lord registrar of Scotland,
died without surviving male issue in 1760, and his cousin,
Alexander, fourth eari of Marchmont in 1781, when that
title became dormant [see Mabchmont, earl of]. Sir Wil-
liam died 9th April 1833, leaving an only child. Sir Hugh
Hume Campbell of Purves Hall, the seventh baronet, bom in
1812 ; M.P. for Berwickshire from 1834 to 1847.
The Ardkinglass family was an old branch of the house of
Argyle. Sir Colin Campbell, the son and heir of James
Campbell of Ardkinglass, descended from the Campbells of
Lorn, by Mary his wife, the daughter of Sir Robert Campbell
of Glenorchy, was created a baronet in 1679. The ftimily
ended in an heiress, who married into the Livingstone family,
and was the mother of Sir James Livingstone, baronet,
whoee son, Sir James Livingstone Campbell of Ardkinglass,
was for some time governor of Stirling castle. He entered the
army early in life ; fought under the duke of Cumberland in
tbe Netherlands; and at the battle of Lafeldt commanded
the 25th regiment of foot He subsequently served in Ame-
rica during the Canadian war, and was wounded in the 1^,
which rendered him lame for life. In 1778, when the Westem
Fencible regiment was raised by the duke of Argyle and the
earl of Eglinton, Sir James was appointed lieutenant-colonel.
He was small in stature, but of a military appearance.
He died at Gargimnock in 1788, and was succeeded by his
son, Sir Alexander, on whoee death, in 1810, the title and
estate descended to the next heir of entail, Colonel James
CalUnder, his cousin, son of Sir Jameses sister, Mary Living-
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CAMPBELL,
570
GEORGE.
stone, and Sir John Callander of Graigfortb, the celebrated
Mntiqaarj. Of Colonel James Callander, afterwards Sir
James Campbell, a notice appears on page 684. [Art Cau-
LANDBB.] At his death, without legitimate issue, the title
became extinct
The baronetcj was conferred on the Snoooth family on the
retirement of Sir Hay Campbell from the president*s chair of
I the court of session in 1808. That eminent judge was the
eldest son of Archibald Campbell, Esq. of Snecoth, writer to
the signet, and one of the principal clerks of session, de-
scended from a branch of the ducal house of Argyle. His
mother, Helen Wallace, was the daughter and representative
of Wallace of Ellerslie. He was bom at Edinburgh in 1734,
and admitted adyocate in 1767. His practice soon became
extensire, and he was one of the counsel for the defender in
the great Douglas cause, which excited so much public in-
terest at the time. Immediately after the decision in the
House of Lords, he posted without delay to Edmburgh, and
was the first to announce the intelligence there. In 1783
he was appointed Solicitor General, and in 1784 Lord Advo-
cate. In the latter year he was returned member of parlia-
ment for the Glasgow district of burghs. The university of
that dty at the same time conferred on him the degree of
doctor of laws, and he was elected by the students to the
office of Lord Rector. In November 1789, on the death of
Sir lliomas Miller, he was appointed President of the court
of sesnon, and in 1794, was placed at the head of the com-
mission of Oyer and Terminer, issued for the trial of those
accused of high treason. In 1808 he resigned his high
office of Lord President, and on the 17th September fol-
lowing he was created a baronet After his retirement
from the bench he resided chiefly on his paternal estate
of Garscube. He died 28th March 1823. He had six
daughters and two sons. One of his sons. Sir Archibald
Campbell, who succeeded him in the baronetcy, bom in 1769,
was from 1809 to 1825 a judge in the court of session with
the title of Lord Succoth. He retired on a pension and died
in 1846. His grandson, Sir Archibald Islay Campbell, suc-
ceeded as third baronet The son of John Campbell, Esq.,
eldest son of the second baronet Sir Archibald, was bom at
Garscube, Dumbartonshire, in 1825, and was educated at Ox-
ford, where he was 2d class in classic^ in 1847; was M.P.
for Argyleshire from 1851 to 1857.
Another eminent judge, John Campbell, Lord Stonefield,
was the son of Archibald Campbell, Esq. of Stonefield, many
years sherifi*-depute of the counties of Argyle and Bute. Ad-
mitted advocate in 1748, he was elevated to the bench of the
court of session in 1762. In 1787 he succeeded Lord Gar-
, denstone as a lord of justiciary, which appointment, however,
he resigned in 1792, retaining his seat in the court of session
till his death, 19th June 1801, having been thirty-nine
years a judge of the supreme court. By his wife, I^dy Grace
Stuart, daughter of James, second earl of Bate, and sister of
the prime minister, John, third eari. Lord Stonefield had seven
sons, all of whom predeceased him. Of his second son,
lieutenant-colonel John Campbell, whose memorable defence
of Mangalore, from May 1788 to January 1784, arrested the
victorious career of Tippoo Sultao, a notice will be found be-
low, in larger type.
The family of 'Campbell of Baroaldine and Glenure, in
Argyleshire, (whose baronetcy was conferred in 1831,) is de-
scended from a younger son of Sir Duncan Campbell of Glen-
orcby, ancestor of the marquis of Breadalbane. The second
baronet, Sir Alexander Campbell, son of Sir Duncan, the fixBt
baronet, was bom in 1819 ; married, with issue.
The Campbells of Dunstaffnage descend from Colin, first
earl of Argyle. Sir Donald, the first baronet so created in
1836, was appointed lieutenant-governor of Prince Edward's
Island in 1847, and died in 1850. His son. Sir Angus, bom
in 1827, became a lieutenant R. N.. in 1849. Appointed to
tlie Emydice, 26 guns, in 1854. Is hereditaiy captain of the
royal castle of Dunstaffiaage.
The ancient family of Campbell of Monue, in Perthshire,
descend from a third son of the family of Glenurchy.
For Campbell of Abdbon aio, see Supplement
Campbell, Johh, Baron Campbell (peerage of the United
Kingdom), lord high chancellor of England, 2d son of Rev.
George Campbell, D.D., minister of Cupar, Fifeshbe, by only
daughter of John Halyburton, Esq., was bom in 1781.
After being educated at St Andrews, he went to London,
and became literary and theatrical critic on the Mommg
Chronicle. He studied tlie law at Lincoln's Inn, and was
called to the bar m 1806. In 1821 he married Mary Eliza-
beth, eldest daughter of the first Lord Abinger. She was
created by King William IV., in 1836, Baronesa Stratheden of
Cupar, Fifeshire. In 1827 he became a bencher of Lincob's
Inn. M.P. for Stafibrd in 1830 and 1831, he was elected for
Dudley in 1832, and appointed solicitor-general for England.
In Feb. 1834, he was appointed attorney-general, but resigned
in Nov. of the same year. In April 1885 he was again ap-
pointed attomey-general. M.P. for Edinburgh from June
1834 to June 1841, when he was appointed lord chancellor
of Ireland, and elevated to the peerage as Baron Campbell of
St Andrews. He resigned the chancellorship in Sept of the
same year, and in July 1846 was appointed chancellor of the
duchy of Lancaster. In 1850, he succeeded Lord Denman as
lord-chief-justice of the Court of Qneen*s Bench, and in June
1859, was created lord-high-chancellor. Author of * lives of
the Chancellors of England,* 1845-7, 7 vols. 8vo; * lives of the
Chief Justices of EngUnd,' 2 vols., 1849, 8vo, && He died
suddenly June 23, 1861 ; issue, 8 sons and 4 dn. The eldest
son, Hon. William Frederick Campbell, M.P., succeeded his
mother in 1860 as lA>rd Stratheden, and his father in 1861
as Lord Campbell Lord Campbeirs elder brother, Sir Geofge
Campbell of Edenwood, died in 1854.
The family were originally from Argyleshire. Geori^
Campbell, a steady adherent of the first marquis of Argyle,
settled in 1662 at St Andrews, Fifeshire, and became pro-
prietor of the estate of Baltulla. His great-grandson, the
Rev. Dr. George Campbell, was father of Lord CampbelL
For Sir Coldc Campbell, Lord Clyde, see Supplkmxri.
CAMPBELL, George, D. D., a religions
writer, bom in Argyleshu^ in 1696, and educated
in St. Salvator^s college, St. Andrews, first ob-
tained a living in the Highlands of Scotland. In
1718 he was appointed professor of chnrch history
in the new college of St. Andrews. Certain of
his publications, entitled ^Oratio de vanitate In-
minis natnrie;* ^The Apostles no Ehithnsiasts,*
and * An Inquiry into the Original of Moral Vurt«e/
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having been submitted for examinatiou to a com-
mittee appointed by the commisdion of the General
Assembly of 1785, were found to contain various
unsound and objectionable passages, of an Arme-
nian and Pelagian nature ; similar to those taught
by Professor Simson, professor of divinity in the
university of Glasgow, and for which the latter
had been twice called to the bar of the Greneral
Assembly; and in the Assembly of 1736, Dr.
Campbell was allowed to give in an explanation
and defence, the substance of which was that his
meaning was quite different from what his words
expressed, and that he did not hold the sentiments
which were attempted to be drawn from them.
The Assembly, without passing any censure, agreed
to a recommendation to Dr. Campbell, and all
ministers and teachers of divinity within the na-
tional church, to be cautious not to use doubtful
expressions or propositions which might lead their
hearers or readers into error, however sound such
words or propositions might be in themselves, but
" to hold fast the form of sound words." In the
same year he published a Vindication of the Chris-
tian Religion. He died in 1767, aged 71.
CAMPBELL, CoLiK, an architect of reputation
in the early part of last century, was bom in Scot-
land, but the year of his birth is uncertain. The
best of his designs are Wanstead House, since
pulled down, the RoUs, and Merworth in Kent,
the latter avowedly copied fi'om Andrea Palladio.
He distinguished himself by publishing a collection
of architectural designs in folio, entitled * Vitruvius
Britannicus ;' the first volume of which appeared
in 1715, the second in 1717, and the third in 1725.
Many of these were his own, but plans of other
architects were also introduced. Two supplemen-
tary volumes by Woolfe and Gandon, both classi-
cal architects, appeared in 1767 and 1771. Camp-
bell was sui*veyor of the works at Greenwich Hos-
pital, and died about 1734. — WcUpoWs Anecdotes
of Painters, f^.
CAMPBELL, John, author of the Lives of the
Admirals, a miscellaneous writer of considerable
merit, was bom at Edinburgh, March 8, 1708;
and when five years old his mother removed with
him to England. Being intended for the law, he
was articled to an attorney ; but his taste leading
him to literature, he did not pursue the legal pro-
fession. His early productions are not known.
In 1736 he published, in 2 vols: folio, *The Mili-
tary History of Prince Eugene and the Duke of
Marlborough.' The reputation he acquired by
this work led to his being engaged to assist in
writing the ancient part of the * Universal His-
tory,' which extended to sixty vols. 8vo. The
firet two volumes of his * Lives of the English Ad-
mirals and other Eminent Seamen,' the work by
which he is best known, he published in 1742,
and the two remaining volumes appeared in 1744.
He wi*ote many of the articles in the * Biographia
Britannica,' which was commenced in 1745 ; his
contributions to which work, extending through
four volumes, and marked by a strain of almost
unvarying panegyric, are distinguished by the ini-
tialsE and X.
For the 'Preceptor,' published by Dodsley in
1748, Mr. Campbell wrote the Introduction to
Chronology, and the Discourse on Trade and
Commerce. He was next employed on the mo-
dem part of the * Universal History.' In 1756 he
had the degree of LL.D. bestowed on him by the
university of Glasgow. After the peace of Paris
in 1763, he wrote, at the request of Lord Bute, a
pamphlet in defence of it, pointing out the value
of the West India Islands which had been ceded to
this country. For this service he was, in March
1765, appointed his majesty's agent for the pro-
vince of Georgia in North America. He was the
author of many other publications, a list of which
is subjoined. Dr. Campbell died at London,
December 28, 1775. His works, so far as can be
ascertained, are: —
The Military History of the Prince Engene, and the Duke
of Marlborough ; comprehending the History of both those
iUostrions persona to the time of their decease. Lond. 1736,
2 vols. fol. anon.
The Trials and Adventures of Edward Brown. Lond.
1789, 8vo.
Memoirs of the Basha Duke de Riperda. Lond. 1739, 8vo.
A Concise History of Spanish America. Lond. 1741, 1747,
8vo. anon.
A Letter to a Friend in the Country, on the Publication of
Thurlow's State Papers. 1742.
The Case of the Opposition impartially stated. 1742, 8vo.
Lives of British Admirals, and other eminent Seamen.
Lond. 1742-4, 4 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1750, 4 vols. 8vo. This
work passed through three editions in the author's life-time
and a fourth, with a continuation to the year 1779, was given
by Dr. Berkenhout Lond. 1761-1779, 5 vols. 8vo. A new
edit by R. H. Yorke.
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CAMPBELL,
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GEORGE.
HermippuB ReTired. Lond. 1748. A 2d edition much
onprored and enlarged came out, under the title, Hermippos
RadiviTiis, or the Sage's Triumph over old age and the grave;
wherein a method ia lud down for prolonging the life and
vigour of Man; including a Comroentaiy upon an ancient
inscription, m which the great secret is revealed, supported bj
numerous authorities. The whole interspersed with a great
variety of remarkable and well-attested Relations. Lond.
1749, 8vo. Also, Lond. 1771, 8vo.
Voyages and Travels, containing all the Circumnavigators,
from the time of Columbus to Lord Anson ; a complete His-
tory of the East Indies; Historical details of the several at-
tempts made for the discovery of the north-east and north-
west passages; the Commercial History of Chorea and Japan ;
the Russian Discoveries by land and by sea; a distinct Ac-
oount of the Spanish, Portuguese, British, French, Dutch,
and Danish settlements in America, &c Lond. 1744, 2 vols,
fol.
The Sentiments of a Dutch Patriot; bemg the Speech of
V. H — ^n, in an august assembly, on the present state of
affairs, and the resolution necessary at this juncture to be
taken for the safety of the republic. 1746, 8vo.
A Discourse on Providence. 8vo. 8d edition, 1748.
Occasional Thoughts on Moral, Serious, and Religious Sub-
jects. 1749.
The Present State of Europe. Lond. 1750, 1753, 8vo.
This Work was originally begun in 1746, and some part of it
published in Dodsley's Museum. It has now passed through
six editions. 1757.
An Exact Account of the greatest White Herring Fishery
m Scotland, carried on yearly in the island of Zetland, by the
Dutch only. Lond. 1760, 8vo.
The Modem Universal History. This extensive Work was
published in detached parts till it amounted to 16 vols, folio,
and a second edition of it in 8vo began to make its appear-
ance in 1739. A very large share of this immense undertak-
ing fell on Dr. Campbell.
The Highland Gentleman's Blagazine for January
1751. 8vo.
A Letter from the Prince of the Infernal Legions to a
Spiritual Lord on this side the great gulph, in Answer to a
late invective Epistle levelled at his Highness. 1751, 8vo.
The Naturalization Bill Confuted, as most pernicious to
these United Kingdoms. 1751, 8vo.
His Royal Highness Frederick late Prince of Wales Decy-
phered; or a full and particular description of his Character,
from his juvenile years until his death. 1751, 8vo.
A Vade Mecum; or Companion for the Unmarried Ladies;
wherein are lud down some examples whereby to direct them
in the choice of husbands. 1752, 8vo.
A Particular but Melancholy Account of the great hard-
ships, difficulties, and miseries that those unhappy and much
to be pitied creatures, the Common Women of the town, are
plunged into at this juncture. 1752, 8vo.
The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules. A small work of great
popularity among the lower orders of the people.
A Full Description of the Highlands of Scotland ; with a
scheme for making the most disaffected among them become
zealously affected to his reigning Majesty. 1 751, 8vo.
A Full and Particular Description of the Highlands of
Scotland. Lond. 1752, 8vo.
The Case of the Publicans, both in town and country, laid
open. 1752, 8va
The Rational Amusement ; comprenending a Collection of
Letters on a great variety of subjects, interspersed with Es-
says, and some little Pieces of humour. 1754, 8vo.
A Description and History of the New Sugar Islands in
the West Indies. Lond. 8vo.
A Treatise on the Trade of Great Britam to America.
Lond. 1772, 4to.
A Political Survey of Great Britain ; bong a series of Re-
flections on the situation, lands, inhabitants, revenues, colo-
nies, and commerce of this island. Intended to point out
further improvements. Lond. 1774, 2 vols, royal 4to.
CAMPBELL, George, D.D., au eminent di-
viVie and theological writer, the jonngest son of
the Rev. Colin Campbell, one of the ministers of
Aberdeen, was bom there December 26, 1719.
Being at first intended for the law, he was appren-
ticed to a writer to the signet in Eklinbnrgh, but
afterwards studied divinity in the Marischal college
of his native city. He was licensed Jane 11 , 1746,
and in 1747 was an nnsuccessM candidate for the
living of Fordoun in Kincardineshire. In 1748 he
was presented by Sir Thomas Bamett of Leys,
Bart., to the church of Banchory-Teman, about
twenty miles west fi-om Aberdeen. From this he
was in 1756 translated to Aberdeen, and on the
decease of Principal Pollock in 1759, was chosen
principal of the Marischal college. Soon after he
obtained the degree of D.D. from King's college,
Old Aberdeen. In 1763 he published his cele-
brated ^Dissertation on Miracles,* in answer to
the views on the subject advanced by Mr. Hume.
This work procured him no small share of reputa-
tion, and was speedily translated into the Dutch,
French, and Grerman languages. In 1771 he suc-
ceeded Dr. Gerard In the divinity chair at Mar-
ischal college. His ^Philosophy of Rhetoric*
appeared in 1776, in 2 vols. 8vo, and at once
established his fame as an accurate grammarian,
a judicious ciitic, and a profound scholar. His
great work, * The Translation of the Gospels, with
Preliminary Dissertations,* was published In 1793
in two vols. 4to.
Some time before his death, he resigned his offi-
ces of principal, professor of divinity, and one of
the city ministers, on which occasion the king
granted him a pension of three hundred pounds
a-year. Dr. Campbell died April 6, 1796, in the
seventy-seventh year of his age.
His works are:
The Character of a Minister of the Gospel, ar a Teacher
and Pattern ; a Sermon on Matt v. 13, 14. Aberd 1752, Sro.
Dissertation on Miracles; containing an Examination of
the principles advanced by David Hume, with a correspond-
ence on the subject bj Mr. Home, Dr. Campbell^ and Dr.
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WILLIELMA.
Bkur, to which «re added. Sermons and Tracts. Edin. 1762,
8ro. 8d edit. Edin. 1797, 2 vols. 8vo.
The Spirit of the Gospel neither a Spirit of Superstition
nor of Enthosiasm ; a Scormon on 2 Tim. i. 7. 1771, 8to.
Oocasional Sermons. One of these **0n the Duty of
Allegiance,** preached on the Fast daj, was published in 4to
in 1771, and, afterwards, at the expense of goremment, six
thousand copies were printed in 12mo, enlarged with notes,
and circniatad widely in America, but too late to do any good
there.
Philosophy of Bhetoric Lond. 1776, 2 rols. 8to.
The Soooess of the First Publishers of the Gospel a proof
of its Truth ; a Sermon preached before the Society in Scot-
land for propagating Christian Knowledge. Edin. 1777, 8vo.
Address to the Public, when the great Riots were in Scot-
land on account of the Bill for the Relief of the Roman
Catholics. 1779, 12mo.
A Sermon on the happy Influence of Religion on CivQ
Society. 1779.
The Four Gospels; translated fh>m the Greek. With pre-
liminary Dissertations, and Notes critical and explanatory.
Lond. 1790, 2 vols. 4to. Edin. 1807, 2 rols. 8to. 8d edit
Lond. 8 vols. 8to.
Lectures on Ecclesiastical History. To which is added,
An Essay on Christian Temperance and Self-denial; with the
Life of the Author, by the Rer. Dr. George Skene Keith.
Lood. 1800, 2 Yds. 87o
Lectures on Systematic Theology, and Pulpit Eloquence.
Lond. 1807, 870.
Lectures on the Pastoral Character. Edited by J. Fraser.
1811, 8vo.
These three last works were posthumous.
CAMPBELL, Archibald, Colonel of the 29th
regiment of infantry, and a brigadier-general on
the West India staff, was the younger son of an
ancient family in Argyleshire, and related to the
noble house of Argyle. He served in the Ameri-
can war with great gallantry. On his regiment
coming to £ngland, the majority being vacant, a
commission was made ont at the war office ap-
pointing another gentleman major. On its being
laid before the king for the royal signature, his
majesty threw it aside, and ordered another to be
drawn np for Major Campbell, saying, *^ A good
and deserving officer must not be passed over."
In 1792 he was promoted to the rank of lieuten-
ant-colonel of the 21st, and afterwards to that of
the 29th. He was with his regiment on board the
fleet in the glorions action of the 1st of June 1794.
In 1795 he was sent with the troops to the West
Indies, where, on his arrival, he was appointed
brigadier-general. His merits in this service were
eonspicnons, but nnfoi-tnnateiy he was seized with
a fever, of which he died, August 15, 1796.
CAMPBELL, WiTJJKLMA, viscountess Glen-
orchy, a lady of great piety and usefulness, the
daughter of William Maxwell, Esq. of Preston,
in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, a branch of
the Nithsdale family, was born, after her father's
death, September 2, 1741. Her education, and
that of her sister, devolved upon her mother, a
lady of a proud and ambitious spirit, who strove
to instil the same character of mind into her
daughters. The two sisters were married about
the same time, Mary, the eldest, to the earl of
Sutheriand, premier earl of Scotland, and Willi-
elma to John, Viscount Glenorchy, the second son
and heur of John, the third earl of Breadalbane.
Highly accomplished and beautiful, she was well
fitted to adorn her high station, and for some time
after her marriage she spent her time in the usual
gaieties and pleasures of fashionable life, in the
course of which she resided for two years on the
continent. Her attention was first awakened to
the subject of religion, through an intimacy which
she contracted with the pious family of Sur Row-
land Hill at Hawkstone, in the neighbourhood of
her oocasional residence. Great Sugnal, in Staf-
fordshire. Early in the summer of 1765, while
residing at Taymouth castle, Perthshire, she was
seized with a dangerous fever, in recovei'ing from
which her thoughts were more particularly directed
to religious matters; and from a correspondence
which she carried on with Miss Hill, a member
of the Hawkestoue family, and a relative of the
celebrated Lord Hill, she derived much spiritual
instruction and consolation. Her husband having
sold his estate of Sugnal in Staffordshure, pur-
chased that of Barnton near Edinburgh, and the
change of residence was particularly pleasing to
her ladyship.
With Lady Maxwell, who, like herself, was
zealous in the cause of religion, she joined in the
plan of having a place of worship in which
ministers of every orthodox denomination should
preach. With this design. Lady Glenorchy hired
St. Mary*s ohapel in Niddry's Wynd, Edinburgh,
which was opened for the purpose on Wednesday,
March 7, 1770, by the Rev. Mr. Middleton, then
minister of a small episcopal chapel at Dalkeith.
The countenance which she gave to the Methodist
preachers led to her acquaintance with Mr. Wes-
ley, and caused the ministers of the establishment
to decline officiating in the chapel. Her ladyshio.
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JOHN
therefore, resolved to select a pious clergyman,
who, besides acting as her domestic chaplain,
should regularly preach there. On the recom-
mendation of Miss Hill, the Rev. Richard de
Conrcy, an episcopalian minister, was appointed
to that office. A private chapel had been erected
at Bamton ; but in little more than a month after
Ijord and Lady 6lenorchy*8 arrival there his lord-
ship died, 14th November, 1771, bequeathing to
her his whole disposable property; and her father-
in-law. Lord Breadalbane, having paid the balance
of the purchase-money of that estate, presented it
to her. After her husband's death, Lady Glen-
orchy took up her residence at Holyroodhouse,
spending the summer usually at Taymouth castle.
Being now possessed of considerable wealth, she
formed the design of erecting a chapel in Edin-
burgh, in communion with the Chmch of Scot-
land, which was speedily built at the old Physic
Gardens, in the park of the Orphans* Hospital,
and opened for divine worship on Sabbath, May 8,
1774. Shortly after this, at the request of Mr.
Stuart, minister of Eillin, she built and endowed
a chapel at Strathfillan, placing it under the direc-
tion and patronage of the Society in Scotland for
Propagating Christian knowledge. She also em-
ployed, at her own expense, two licensed preachers
as missionaries in the Highlands, under the sanc-
tion and countenance of the same society. In
the Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale, in 1775, a
strong attempt was made, which for the time was
successful, to prevent the chapel of Lady Glen-
orcliy from being admitted into the communion of
the church. The unfavourable decision of the
Synod, however, was reversed by the General
Assembly in the following May.
After repeated disappointments in the choice of
a minister for her chapel in Edinburgh, Lady
Glenorchy fixed upon the Rev. Francis Sheriff,
chaplain in one of the Scots regiments in Holland,
who soon died. The Rev. Mr. afterwards Dr.
Jones, assistant minister at Plymouth Dock, was
next appointed, and having been duly ordained by
the Scots presbytery in London, he officiated as
minister of Lady Glenorchy^s chapel for upwards
of half a century. Her ladyship also purchased
Presbyterian chapels in Exmouth, Carlisle, and
Matlock, and built one at Workington in Cumber-
land, and another in Bristol, in the latter of wliich
she was aided by a bequest of two thousand fiv«
hundred pounds, from her friend and companion
in her latter yeare, Lady Henrietta Hope, daugh-
ter of the earl of Hopetoun. Lady Glenorchy
dif'd about 1786. Previous to her death she sold
the Bamton estate to William Ramsay, Esq., then
an eminent banker in Edinburgh. Lady Glen-
orchy*8 chapel in the Orphan Park was taken
down in 1845, with other buildings there, for the
formation of the North British Railway. A Life
of her ladyship was published by the Rev. Dr.
Jones, after her death, which is much esteemed.
CAMPBELL, John, a naval officer of merit, of
whose origin and early history nothing is known,
accompanied Lord Anson in his voyage round the
world. He was then a petty officer on board the
Centurion. Soon after his return he was promoted
to the rank of lieutenant, and in 1747 was ap-
pointed captain of the Bellona. In 1755 he was
promoted to the Prince, of 90 guns. In 1759 we
find him under Sir Edward Hawke, as captain on
board the Royal George. His valour was con-
spicuous in the battle which ended in the total
defeat of the marquis de Conflans, off Belleisle, and
he was despatched to England with intelligence of
the victory ; when the offer of knighthood was made
to him, but he declined it. In 1778 he was pro-
moted to the rank of rear-admiral, and afterwards
became progressively vice-admiral of the Blue and
of the White. He died December 16, 1790.
CAMPBELL, John, a lieutenant-colonel in the
army, who, during his too brief career, greatly
distlngidshed himself by his valour and merit, and
gave promise of rendering important services to his
country, was the second son of John Campbell,
Lord Stonefield, a judge of the court of session, de-
scended from the Campbells of Lochnell, and Lady
Grace Stewart, sister of John earl of Bute, and
was bom at Edinburgh, December 7, 1753. He
received his education at the high school of his
native city, and at the age of eighteen became an
ensign in the 57th regiment. Three years after-
wards be was appointed lieutenant of the 7th
foot, or Royal Fusileers, with which regiment he
served in Canada, where he was made prisoner.
In 1775 he was promoted to a captaincy in the
71st foot, and some time after was appointed ma-
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GEORGE.
for of the 74th, or Argyleshire Highlanders. In
Feb. 1781 he exchanged into the 100th regiment, and
with this corps he served with distinction in the
East Indies, against the troops of Hyder Ali, dar-
ing which period he was appointed to the majority
of the second battalion of the 42d regiment. In
one engagement with Tippoo Saltan, when the
latter was repnlsed with great loss, Miyor Camp-
bell was wounded, bat did not quit the field till
the enemy was defeated. He was afterwards en-
gaged in the siege of Annantpore, which he i-e-
daced and took from the enemy. In May 1783
he was appointed to the provisional command of
the army in the Bidnnre coantry. His defence of
the important fortress of Mangalore, where he
was stationed, against the prodigious force of Tip-
poo, amounting to about one hundred and forty
tliousand men, with a hundred pieces of artillery,
is justly accounted one of the most remarkable
achievements that ever signalised the British arms
in India. The garrison, under Major Campbell's
command, consisted only of one thousand eight
hundred and eighty-three men, of whom not more
than two or three hundred were British soldiers,
the remainder being Sepoys, or native infantry.
This little garrison, however, resisted for two
months and a half all the efforts of Tippoo, after
which, a cessation of hostilities taking place, the
uege was turned, for a time, into a blockade.
The bravery and resolution displayed by Major
Campbell on this occasion, were so much admured
by Tippoo, who commanded his army in person,
that he expressed a wish to see him. The major,
accompanied by several of his officers, accordingly
waited on llppoo, who presented to each of them
a handsome shawl ; and after their return to the
fort, he sent Major Campbell an additional present
of a. very fine horse, which the famishing garrison
afterwards killed and ftte. After sustaining a
9iege of eight months, during which they were re-
duced to the greatest extremities by disease and
famine, the garrison at length capitulated, January
24, 1784; and on the SOth they evacuated the
fort, and embarked for TUlicherry, one of the
British settlements on the coast of Malabar. He
bad now attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel ;
, but the fatigue which he endured daring this me-
morable siege had undermined his constitution.
and, in the following month, he was obliged, by
ill health, to quit the army and retire to Bombay,
where he died, March 23, 1784, in the dlst vear
of his age. A monament was erected to his me-
mory in the church at Bombay, by order of the
East India Company.
CAMPBELL, GEOKas, a minor poet, was bore
in Kilmarnock in 1761. Hi^ father died when he
was very young. Who he was, or what trade or
profession he followed, is not known. His mo-
ther, whose maiden name was Janet Parker,
earned a scanty subsistence by winding yam for
the carpet works. His education was very limit-
ed, and he was bred a shoemaker. Being of a
religious cast of mind, he formed the resolution of
studying for the ministry, and to procure the
means necessary for prosecuting his stadies at col-
lege, he laboured at his trade not only very hard
during the day, but frequently during the night,
when others were asleep ; and by thus working
industriously, he raised himself above the occupa-
tion of shoemaklng, and became teacher of a small
school in Kilmarnock. In his efibrts he was
greatly befriended by the late Rev. Dr. Macklnlay
of Edlmamock, who assisted him by lending him
books, and otherwise placing within his reach the
means of intellectual improvement. To aid in
defraying his expenses at college, he collected and
published his poetical pieces, in the year 1787.
They were printed in Elilmamock at the press of
John Wilson, from which had been issued in the
preceding year, the first edition of the poems ot
Robert Bums. The book was of a 12mo size,
containmg 132 pages, and was entitled ^ Poems
on Several Occasions, by George Campbell.' In
the preface the author states *^ that it is the pro-
duction of a tradesman, obliged at the time it was
composed to labour for his daily maintenance,'* and
that his sole intention in writing the various pieces
in the volume was " to celebrate virtue, to ridi-
cule vice, and to paint the works of nature and the
manners of mankind." Though displaying neither
richness of imagination nor depth or originality of
thought, and not remarkable for elegance of dic-
tion, his poems are not deficient in merit, and ex-
hibit in numerous instances much plain good sense,
with a shrewdness of observation and a chasteness
of expression which few minor poets possess The
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ALEXANDER.
longest poem in the volume is founded on the
Book of Esther, and bears tliat name ; but, witli
the exception of a few passages, it is inferior, as
l^oetry, to some of his other productions. The
best of the pieces are, ^ A Morning Contemplation;'
*Ossian's Address to the Sun;' and 'A Winter
Evening — Scene, A Farm-House in the Country,'
which are all in the heroic verse.
After attending the ordinary period at college,
Mr. Campbell was licensed to preach the gospel
by the Burgher Associate Synod, and was ap-
pointed pastor to a congi-egatiou in that connec-
tion at Stockbridge, near Dunbar. As a preacher
he is said to have displayed considerable ability
and zeal. In 1816 he published at Edinburgh a
collection of Sermons, in an octavo volume of 479
pages, more with the desire, as he hints in his
preface, of being nseful as a teacher of Christian-
ity than distinguished as an author. In appear-
ance Mr. Campbell was somewhat slender. He
died of consumption, at Stockbridge, the place of
his ministiy, about the year 1818. — ConUmpora-
ries of Bums,
CAMPBELL, Alexander, a miscellaneous
writer, bom in 1764, at Tombea, Loch Lubnaig,
Perthshire, was the son of a country wright or
carpenter, who, by perseverance and economy, had
saved five hundred pounds, which, with the ex-
ception of a trifling dividend, he lost by lending to
his landlord, who became bankiiipt. Old Camp-
bell then removed to Edinburgh, where he soon
after died, leaving a widow, two sons and three
daughters. Alexander, the younger son, who was
only eleven years old when this event occurred,
had received some education at the grammar-
school of Callander, and with his elder brother,
John (for twenty years a teacher in Edinburgh,
and leader of psalmody in the parish church of
Canongate), became a pupil of Tenducci, an ac-
complished musician who had fixed his residence
in Edinburgh about this period.
Alexander was first known as a teacher of the
harpsichord and of singing, officiating at the same
time as organist to an episcopal chapel in the
neighbourhood of Nicolson street, Edinburgh.
Amongst his pupils was Sir Walter Scott, who
describes him as *^ a warm-hearted man and an
enthusiast in Scotch music, which he sang most
beautifully." Of Scott, however, he could make
nothing, as the great novelist had no ear for music.
His first publication was a volume of * Odes and
Miscellaneous Poems.' His *• Introduction to the
History of Poetry in Scotland,' of which only
ninety copies were printed, appeared in 1798.
After publishing four years later ^ A Tour through
North Britain,' which obtained him some reputa-
tion, he signally failed in a volume of poetry
brought out in 1804. Tho object of this publica-
tion was to expose the depopulation policy of the
Highland proprietors, and to direct the attention
of the legislature to some remedy for it. But
the poetry was not of a very superior order,
and the work ^ fell dead from the press.' One in-
cident, however, related in a note, led to the in-
stitution of the Edinburgh '^ Destitute Sick Soci-
ety," which still exists. By this time he bad
been twice married ; the second time to the widow
of Ranald Macdonald, Esq. of Keppoch. On
marrying this lady he relinquished the profession
of teacher of music, and studied medicine, in the
hope of obtaining an appointment through the in-
fluence of his friends ; but in this he was disap-
pointed. In order to encourage him, however, a
sum of money was voted by the Highland Society
of Scotland to enable him to make a collection of
Gaelic melodies and vocal poetry. He forthwith
set out on a tour through the Highlands and Wes-
tern Islands. Having performed a journey of
between eleven and twelve hundred miles, in
which he collected one hundred and ninety-one
specimens of melodies and Gaelic vocal poetry, he
returned to Edinburgh, and laid the fruits of his
gleanings before the Society, who expressed their
approbation of them. The result of these labours
appeared in his ^ Albyn's Anthology,' a compila-
tion published some tune afterward. AnM>ng
those who furnished pieces for this publication
were Sir Walter Scott; Mr., afterwards Sir
Alexander Bos well; Hogg; Maturin; Mrs. Grant
of Laggan, and other eminent song writers of
the day. In this work he claims anthorship
of the air to Tannahill's beautiful song of
" Gloomy winter's now awa'." The question
has been discussed by Mr. Stenhouse (Musktd
Museum^ vol. vi. p. 508,) but is not important;
and it does not appear that Campbell made out
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bis claim, as an air time out of mind known as
"The Cordwainer*8 march" was the basis of
Smith's set. Diliring the latter yeai-s of his life
Campbell was employed by Sir Walter Scott in
the transcription of manuscripts, which, indeed,
formed his chief mode of subsistence. Although
a man of many accomplishments, they were, says
Sir Walter, dashed with a btzarrerie of temper
which made them useless to their proprietor.
Mr. Campbell died of apoplexy, May 15, 1824,
in the sixty-first year of his age, and an obituary
notice of him, from the pen of Sir Walter Scott,
appeared in the Edinburgh Weekly Journal.
After Mr. Campbell's death, his books, manu-
scripts, and other effects, were sold under judicial
authority ; and amongst other manuscripts was a
tragedy, which was purchased by the late Mr.
William Stewart, bookseller. Both he and his
brother, Mr. John Campbell, were caricatured by
Kay, and biographical sketches of them are in-
serted in * Kay's Edinburgh Portraits.'
The following is a list of his works :
Odes and Miscellaneoas Poems.
Twelve Songs, set to music hj Alejumder Campbell.
An Introdaction to the History of Poetry in Scotland,
quarto, including The Songs of the Lowlands, with illustra-
tive Engravings by David Allan, and dedicated to FoselL
Edinburgh, 1798. A Dialogue on Scottish Music, prefixed
to this work, is said to have first conveyed to foreigners a
correct idea of the Scottish scale.
A Journey from Edinburgh through various parts of North
Britain, &c., in 2 vols, quarto, with aquatint drawmgs by
himself. 1802. This is considered his best work.
The Grampians Desolate, a poem in six books, in 1 voL
8vo, with Notes, 1804.
History of the Rebellion in Scotiand, m 1745-46. 1804, 12roo.
Beauties of Literature, or Cabinet of Genius; containing
the complete Beauties of the most distinguished Authors of
the present Age. 1804, vol. i.
Albyn*s Anthology, or, a Select Collection of the melo-
dies and local poetry peculiar to Scotland and the Isles ; vol-
ume first 1816, volume second 1818.
CAMPBELL, John, a zealous missionary and
African traveller, was bom at Edinburgh in March
1766. His father died when he was not more
than two years old, and his mother when he was
only six. A maternal uncle, of the name of Bow-
ers, a sincere Christian, who was an elder or dea-
con of the Relief church, received him and his two
brothera under his roof, and attended strictly to
their religions training, as well as to their domes-
tic comfort. With his brothers he was educated
at the High School of his native place, then under
the rectorship of Dr. Adams, after leaving which
he was apprenticed to a respectable goldsmith
and jeweller in Edinburgh. About 1789, when on
a journey to London, he became acquainted with
the Rev. John Newton, with whom he i*egulai-ly
corresponded for a long period. In the same year
he began to publish and circulate religious tracts,
at first privately, and that chiefly among his
Iriends and their families. It afterwards occurred
to some of his friends that a plan might be formed
to print small pamphlets on religious subjects, to
be distributed gratis, or sold at a cheap rate, and
Mr. Campbell, in July 1798, was one of about a
dozen who formed themselves into a Religious
Ti-act Society, in Edinburgh, the first society of
the kind that ever existed in the world. His
name, therefoi'e, deserves to be recorded, as one
of the fonndei*s, if not the originator, of Tract
Societies. His next scheme for the advancement
of religion was the establishment of Sabbath even-
ing schoohs, of which very few then oxisted in
Scotland. In 1795, he established Sabbath even-
ing schools at the Archer^s Hall, ahd in the hal!
of the Edinburgh Dispensary, and engaged teach-
ers, at a small salary, to instinct the children
in the essential truths of the gospel. At Loan-
head, then a colliery village, about five miles south
of Edinburgh, he himself taught, for two years, a
Sabbath evening school, which he had also com-
menced there. Tlie success that followed his ef-
forts in and around Edinburgh induced him, in
connexion with Mr. J. A. Haldane, to visit Glas-
gow, Paisley, Greenock, and other places in the
west, to urge the formation of similar institutions,
and the result was that sixty Sabbath schools
were formed in those places within three months.
In 1796 Mr. Campbell^s attention was directed
to the degraded condition of the female street-
walkers of Edinburgh, and with a view to their
reformation, he was mainly instrumental in form-
ing the Philanthropic Society, which was the
commencement of the institution known as the
Magdalene Asylum, and was its secretary till he
left Edinburgh for Glasgow, whei*e he was one of
the first originators of a similar institution in that
city. Towards the end of the same yeai* Mr.
Haldane applied to Mr. Campbell to accompany
him and his associates, Dr. Bogue, and Messi*s.
2o
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CAMPBELL,
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THOMAS.
Ewing and Innes, on their intended mission to
Bengal. At first he was willing to go, bnt the
arguments of his friends, Mr. Newton, and the
pious countess of Leven, were effectual in leading
him to abandon the design. He now commenced
a system of village preaching, and at Gilmerton,
in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, he succeeded
Ml establishing a regular Sabbath evening service,
which was supplied by students of divinity and
lay-preachers. Messrs. Aikman and Haldane, as
well as Mr. Campbell, commenced their exertions
as lay-preachers in Gilmerton. He afterwards
frequently preached also at Lasswade, Dalkeith,
Musselburgh, and Linlithgow, and other places
near Edinburgh. On the formation of the Edin-
burgh Missionaiy Society he was chosen one of the
Directoi-s. In 1798 he suggested the establish-
ment of the Tabernacle in Edinburgh, which was
so long presided over by Mr. J. A. Haldane.
Early in 1799 he gave up his business of a hard-
ware merchant, went to Dundee, and joined a class
under Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Innes, preparatory to
his entering on the regular ministry ; and in 1800,
he, with the other students, removed to (:tm«'i»w,
under Mr. GrevUle Ewing, who had shortly befol^
left the Established Church and joined the Inde-
pendents. At this time he occasionally preached
in the suburbs, particularly at Ruflierglen. In
June of that year Mr. Campbell and Mr. Haldane
itinerated in the south of Scotland, and in the
autumn they preached through Kin tyre. After
leaving the class Mr. Campbell returned to Edin-
burgh, and assisted Mr. Haldane in the Taberna-
cle for sometime, and aided in the instruction of
the students: the academy being then removed
from Glasgow. In April 1808, he again visited
Kintyre, and in the following month he accom-
panied Messrs. Haldane and Innes on a tour to
the counties of Perth, Inverness, Ross, and Caith-
ness, and to the islands of Orkney. Subsequently
he and Mr. Haldane went on an itinerating tour
to the southern cotinties of Scotland and the nor-
thern counties of England. Mr. Campbell after-
wards accepted a call to take the pastoral office
at Kingsland chapel, London, [being ordained in
the beginning of 1804,] the duties of which he dis-
chai'ged for thirty-seven years, with credit to him-
self, and great usefulness to others. For the in-
struction of the young, he set on foot * The Youth's
Magazine," of the first ten volumes of which be
was editor. He was one of the founders of the
British and Foreign Bible Society, of the London
Hibernian Society, and of the Female Penitenti-
ary. As his income was small, he had to take up a
school at Kingsland to add to it. In 1812, at the
request of the Directors of the London Missionary
Society, he visited their stations in South Africa,
and again in 1818. On his return from each of
his voyages to Africa, he travelled throogb most
of the counties of England and Scotland, and also
visited Ireland, to plead in behalf of the Mission-
wry Society. He died April 4, 1840, aged 74.
His works are :
Alfred and Galba. or the History of the Two Brotben,
supposed to be written bj themselves. Lond 1807, 8to.
Remarkable Particolars in the Life of Moees. Lond. 1808,
12mo.
Voyages and Travels of a Bible. 1808.
Travels in South Africa, undertaken at the request of the
Missionary Society. London, 1814, 8vo. 2d edit 1815, 8vo.
Second Journey m South Africa, 1818. 2 tdIa. 8to.
London, 1822. '
He also prepared an abridgment of his African Travels, in
two small volumes, for the Religious Tract Society,, and added
to them a similar volume, giving an account of his voyages.
* Hb was also the author of a small unpretending but useful
little book, entitled * African Light,* the object of which was
to illtistrate passages of Scripture by a reference to hla ow^
obser\'atlons in South Africa.
Walks of Usefulness.
GAMFB£LL, Thomas, a distingnished poet,
the most perfect lyrical writer of bis time, was
bom at Glasgow on the 27th of July, 1777.
Alexander Campbell, the father of the poet, war
the youngest of the three sons of the laird of Kir-
nan, and was born in 1710. He was educated for
the mercantile profession, and early in life went
to America, where be entered into business, and
resided many years at Falmouth, in Virginia.
There he had the pleasure of receiving his brother
Archibald, on his first quitting Jamaica to settle
in the United States, and there also, about ten
years afterwards, he formed an intimate acquaint-
ance with Daniel Campbell, a clansman, but no
relation, with whom he returned to Glasgow, and
there entered into partnership with him as Yir-
ginian tradera, under the firm of Alexander aud
Daniel Campbell. For some years their business
pi*ospered, and both partners were highly esteemed
as men of probity and experience. Daniel, tii«>
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T 11 0 S\ A S CAM P P. E I. L .
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CAAfPBEI.L,
679
THOMAS.
junior partner, bad a sister named Margaret,
whom Alexander took to be his wife, and she
became the mother of the poet. They were mar-
ried in the cathedral church of Glasgow on the
12th of January 1756. At this time Mrs. Camp-
beil was about twenty, while her husband had
reached the mature age of forty-five. They had
eight sons and three daughters, and the poet, who
was the youngest of the family, was bom when
his father had reached his 67th year, the age at
which he himself died.
The outbreak of the war with America in 1776,
two years before the poet's birth, ruined the Vir-
ginia trade, and many of the Glasgow merchants
suffered severely in their business and fortunes.
Amongst others, the old and respectable firm of
Alexander and Daniel Campbell sustained losses
from which they never recovered, and saw very
nearly the whole amount of forty years* successful
industry swept away at once, from the failure of
other houses with which they were connected.
The poet's father is stated by his biographer to
have lost at this disastrous time a sum of not less
than twenty thousand pounds, while his uncle,
Daniel Campbell, alwajrs estimated his own indi-
vidual loss at eleven or twelve thousand pounds.
The poet's father died at the age of 91, in the
spring of 1801, and his death is recorded in the
* Edinburgh Magazine,' with high encomiums on
his moral and religious character. He is men-
tioned as a gentleman of unblemished integrity
and amiable manners, who united the scholar and
the man of business, and amidst the corroding
cares of trade, cherished a liberal and enthusiastic
love of literature. His mother was a person of
much taste and refinement, and well educated for
the age and the sphere in which she moved. She is
described as being passionately fond of music, par-
ticularly sacred music, and she sang many of the
popular melodies of Scotland with taste and efiect.
She knew many of the traditional songs of the
Highlands, especially those of Argyleshire, and
from her it seems probable that the love of song
was early imbibed and cultivated by her children.
The poet was bom in his father's house in the
High sti-eet of Glasgow, which stood nearly oppo-
site the university, but has long since been taken
down. He was baptized by Dr. Thomas Reid,
professor of moral philosophy in the university of
Glasgow, who preached in the college-hall on Sab-
baths, and after whom he was named. He received
the mdiments of his education at the grammar
school, now called the high school, of his native
city. At the age of seven he commenced the study
of the Latin language under the Rev. David Ali-
son, a teacher of much reputation. At thi^ time
he possessed a vivacity of imagination and a vigour
of mind surprising in a boy so young. A strong
inclination for poetry was already discemible in
him, and at an eariy age he began to write verses.
At the grammar school he became an enthusiastic
admirer of Greek ; and a passion for the Greek
poets and orators distinguished him dm-ing life.
In October 1791, when in his thirteenth year, he
entered Glasgow university. At this period he is
described as having, with uncommon personal
beauty, possessed a winning gentleness and mo-
desty of manners, a cheerful and happy disposition,
and a generous sensibility of heart, which made
him the object of universal favour and admiration.
His biographer says that even while a student,
he was not characterized by the virtue of close
application. "While a mere boy," he states,
" Campbell appears to have had the enviable tact
of looking into a book, and extracting from it
whatever was valuable. He took the cream, and
left what remained for the pemsal of less fastidious
readers." In his first year at college he gained
three prizes. He also, after a formidable compe-
tition with a student nearly twice his own age,
who was considered one of the best scholars in
the university, gained the exhibition, called in
Scotland a bursary, on Archbishop Leighton's
foundation, for a translation of one of the comedies
of Aristophanes, which he executed in verse. He
continued seven years at the university, and his
proficiency was each year rewarded by an aca-
demical prize being conferred on him. In trans-
lations firom the Greek he was so successful that
his fellow - students at last declined to compete
with him. His poetical version of several entire
plays of Aristophanes, iE^chylus, and others ob-
tained the high praise of his professor, who, in
awarding him the prize for a translation of ^ The
Clouds' of Aristophanes, accompanied it with the
fiattermg and unusual comnliment, publicly ex-
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THOMAS.
pressed, ** that, in his opinion, it was the best per-
formance which had ever been given in within the
walls of the uniTereity." Some of these transla-
tions he afterwards published among his poems.
By Professor Young, who then filled the Greek
chair in the university of Glasgow, he was encour-
aged to cultivate that love for the language and
literature of Greece, which he had already so
successfully displayed. On one occasion he gained
the professor^s favour, and a holiday for the stu-
dents, by a Greek poem, in the form of a petition,
which he had slipt into the professor's Greek text
book. One of his early poetical attempts at this
period he got printed, in the ballad form, on slips
of paper, and distributed among his fellow-students.
While at college he was obliged by his neces-
sities to give elementary instruction to younger
lads; but while thus prosecuting vigorously bis
classical studies, he continued to pursue his poetical
fancies and work his upward way in the path that
was to lead him to lasting fame. In 1798, while
yet only in his fifteenth year, during the college
vacation, he attended for several weeks in the office
of Mr. Alexander Campbell, a writer in Glasgow,
author of several pamphlets on the bankruptcy
laws, a relation by his mother^s side, but he went
there only on trial, and disliking the business, he
soon left it. During his third session at college,
according to the late Dr. Duncan of Ruthwell,
who was his fellow -student, he made several
enemies by the severity of his satirical efinsions,
particularly on the Irish students; but many of
them were the cause of amusement, rather than of
anger. In the logic class he was commended for
his exercises by Professor Jardine, although not
in the wannest terms, for, at this period, it would
appear that although an excellent Latin and Greek
scholar, he could not spell or write the English
language with propriety. Before leaving college
he also attended the lectures of Professor Millar,
who then filled, with much distinction, the chair
of civil law. He seems at one period to have had
an intention of studying for the church of Scotland,
but the want of any hope of efficient patronage
caused him to change his purpose. He next
thought of studying for the medical profession, but
this required a greater outlay than his circum-
stances permitted, and after attending some pre-
liminary lectures this idea was also abandoned.
He then entered the counting house of a merchant,
where he remained for some time, still hankering
after the church, studying Hebrew in his leisure
hours, and writing religious poetry.
Undecided as to his future pui-suits, he went in
the summer of 1795 to the island of Mull, to act
as tutor in the family of Mrs. Campbell of Suni-
pol. There he remained for five months, and re-
turned to Glasgow for his fifth session. During
the winter he supported himself by private tui-
tion. Among other scholars, he had a youth
named Cunninghame, who became an advocate,
and was afterwards made a lord of session undei
the title of Lord Cunninghame.
After leaving college he passed some time as a
tutor in the family of General Napier, who was
then residing at Downie, on the romantic banlu
of Loch Goil, among the mountains of Argyleshire.
He disliked, however, the profession of a tutor,
and on leaving Downie he went to Edinburgh,
where the reputation he had acquired at the uni-
versity gained him a favourable reception into the
distinguished circle of science and literature for
which that city was then renowned. At this time
the poet proposed to establish a magazine, but
funds were wanting. Through the recommenda-
tion of Mr. Cunninghame he found employment in
the Register House. He was subsequently engaged
in the office of a Mr. Whytt, and being introduced
to Dr. Robert Anderson, the biographer of the
poets, received through him an engagement for an
abridged edition of * Bryan Edward's West Indies,*
for which he was paid £20. He returned to Ghis-
gow to meet a brother whom he had never seen,
and to finish his abridgment. At that time he
wrote ' The Wounded Hussar,' and ' The Dii^ge of
Wallace,' two of his most popular lyrics.
At the age of nineteen he was again in Edin-
burgh, fagging for Messrs. Mundell and Son, the
publishers, at a very limited rate of remuneration.
About this period he formed arrangements to pro-
ceed to Virginia, in North America, but the state
of his health set them aside. He commenced to
write ' the Pleasures of Hope,' about 1797. He re-
sided at this time in a small house on St. John's
Hill, and of the young men then resident in
Edinburgh, with whom he associated, several
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CAMPBELL,
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THOMAS.
raised themselves to eminence and consideration.
Amongst them were the two lawyers who subse-
quently became Lords Cockbnm and Brougham.
He published Hhe Pleasures of Hope' in 1799,
when he was scarcely twenty -two, the volume
being dedicated to Dr. Robert Anderson. It
was sold to the Mnndells for £60 in cash and
books, but for two or three years the publishers
gave him fifty pounds on every new edition, be-
sides allowing him to print a splendid edition of
the work for himself. The success of this work
was such as at once to place the young author in
the foremost rank of the poets of the time. In
planning the poem he seems to have taken Pope
and Goldsmith as his models, and to have caught
something of the spirit of Gray ; but in harmony
of versification, and elegance, and above all genu-
ine fervour of style, he far exceeds them all, as
well as every other poet that had gone before him.
In these and other essential qualities, indeed, this
ex(}uisite production is not surpassed by anything
in British poetry. In the original manuscript the
different sections of the poem had separate dis-
tinctive titles, but by the advice of Dr. Anderson
these were dispensed with, and * the Pleasures of
Hope ' came before the world as a complete poem.
Some lines at the beginning were also omitted.
Soon after its publication, Mr. Campbell entered
into an engagement with Mr. Mundell for another
poem, descriptive of Scottish history, to be called,
'The Queen of the North,' of which the prospectus
was published, and aiTangements for its illustra-
tion were made with Mr. Williams, a landscape
painter, but the work was never completed.
Anxious to become acquainted with German
literature at its fountainhead, as well as to visit
foreign parts, in the summer of 1800 he left for
Hamburgh. This he was enabled to do by the
profits arising from the sale of his ' Pleasures of
Hope.' He had originally fixed on the university
of Jena for his first place of residence, but on his
arrival at Hamburgh, he found by the public prints
that a victory had been gained by the French near
Ulm, and that Munich and the heart of Bavaria
were the theatre of war. From the walls of the
monastery of St. Jacob, he witnessed the memor-
able battle of Hohenlinden, fought on the Sd De-
cember 1800 between the French under General
Moreau, and the Austrians under the Archduke
John, when the latter were signally defeated.
" One moment's sensation," he observes in a letter
to a relation in this country, *^ the single hope of
seeing human nature exhibited in its most dread-
ful attitude, overturned my past decisions. I got
down to the seat of war some weeks before the
summer armistice of 1800, and indulged in, what
you will call, the criminal curiosity of witnessing
blood and desolation. Never shall time efface
from my memory the recollection of that hour of
astonishment and suspended breath, when I stood
with the monks of St. Jacob to overlook a charge
of Klenau's cavalry upon the French under Gren-
nier, encamped below us. We saw the fire given
and returned, and heard distinctly the sound of
the French pas de charge^ collecting the lines to
attack in close column. After three hours wait-
ing the issue of a severe action, a park of artillery
was opened just beneath the waUs of the monas-
tery, and several waggoners, that were stationed
to convey the wounded in spring waggons, were
killed in our sight." His spirit-stirring lyric ot
'The Battle of Hohenlinden' was written on this
event — a poem which, perhaps, contains more
grandeur and martial sublimity than is to be found
anywhere else, in the same compass of English
poetry. He afterwards proceeded to Ratisbon,
where he was at the time it was taken possession
of by the French, and expected, as a British subject,
to be made prisoner ; but, he observes, " Morean's
army was under such excellent discipline, and the
behaviour both of officers and men so civil, that I
soon mixed among them without hesitation, and
formed many agreeable acquaintances at the messes
of their brigade stationed in town, to which their
clief'de- brigade often invited me. This worthy
man. Colonel Le Fort, whose kindness I shall ever
remember with gratitude, gave me a protection to
pass through the whole army of Moreau."
After this Mr. Campbell visited difierent parts
of Germany, and had the misfortune to be plun-
dered, amongst the Tyrolese mountains, by a Croat,
of his clothes, his books, and thirty ducats in gold.
About mid-winter he returned to Altona, where
he remained four months. While in Germany,
he made the friendship of the two Schlegels, and
passed an entire day with Klopstock. At Altona
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THOMAS.
he casaallj became acquainted with some i*eliigee
Irishmen, who had been engaged in the rebellion
of 1798, and their story suggested to him his
beautiful ballad of ' The Exile of Erin.* The hero
of the poem was an Irish exile, named Anthony
M'Cann, whom he had met at Hamburgh. A claim
was subsequently got up by the editor of an Irish
provincial paper, on the part of an Irishman of the
name of Nugent, to the authorship of this song,
professing to have drawn his information from
Nugent's sister; but the question was conclusively
settled by the certificate of the late Lord Nugent, a
relative of the person by whom the song is
said to have been composed, which stated that
for a considerable period, Mr. Nugent, the sup-
posed author, was quite familiar with the song,
knew it in CampbelFs works, and never personally
claimed the authorship. The circumstances con-
nected with the song were all well known to the
party of Irish exiles whom Campbell met at
Altona; by whom it was first sung, and on whose
account it had been written. His beautiful verses
addressed to Judith, the Jewess, were also written
in Altona. About this time also, he wrote * Ye
Mariners of England,* after the model of an old
song ' Ye Gentlemen of England.* A war with
Denmark was at that time expected, and seems to
have suggested to the poet the idea of this noble
lyric. The fifth line of the second stanza was
originally different, but after the battle of Trafal-
gar, Mr. Campbell introduced the name of Nelson,
making it read,
* Where Blake and mighty Nelson fell.
Early in the spring of 1801 war was declared
against Denmark, when the English residents were
obliged to leave Altona, and Campbell sailed for
England on the 6th of March. They were
allowed to pass the English batteries without
molestation, and sailed under convoy to England.
There were only two Scottish vessels in convoy,
and they were carried to Yarmouth along with the
English fleet. Mr. Campbell arrived in London
with only a few shillings in his pocket, for all his
resources had been expended in assisting a friend
at Altona. Though unprovided with a single
letter of introduction, the fame of his poetry
procured him immediate admission into the best
literary society. While on the continent it woold
appear that Mr. Perry of the Morning Lhromde
was paying him for poems contributed to that
journal from tbe seat of war. Although he had
never seen Mr. Perry, he was obliged to call
upon him and explain his situation to him, and he
had no cause to repent of it. Writing to one of
his Scotch correspondents the poet says, " I have
found PeiTy. His reception was warm and
cordial, beyond what I had any right to expect.
* I will be your Mend,* said the good man. * I will
be all that yon conld wish me to be.' ** In reference
to this his first visit to London, he says, in his own
notes, " Calling on Perry one day, he showed me a
letter from Lord Holland, asking about me, and
expressing a wish to have me to dine at the King
of Clubs. Thither with his lordship I accordingly
repaired, and it was an era in my life. There I
met in all their glory and feather. Mackintosh,
Rogers, the Smiths, Sidney, and others.*' After a
short stay in London he returned to Edinburgh,
for the purpose of visiting his mother. On the
voyage to Leith, a lady, a passenger on board,
who had read his poems, without knowing him,
surprised him by expressing her regret that the
poet Campbell had been arrested in London on a
charge of high treason, was confined in the Tower,
and would probably be executed. On his arrival
at Edinburgh he took up his residence with his
mother and sisters in Alison square. He found
his mother greatly troubled by the rumour of his
appi-ehension, which she had heard previous to his
coming. It was a period of high political excite-
ment, and he at once determined to wait on the
sheriff, Mr. Clerk, and report his position. That
functionary frankly told him that they were aware
of his guilt ; but they did not want to see him.
He asked the grounds of the charge against hun,
and was told that " it seems you have been con-
spiring with General Moreau, in Austria, and with
the Irish at Hamburgh, to get a French army
landed in Ireland. You attended Jacobin dubs
at Hamburgh, and you came over from thence in
the same vessel witli Donovan, who commanded a
regiment of the rebels at Vinegar- hill." A box,
with a number of the poet's papers, had been seized
at Leith, in the expectation of finding treasonable
documents among his manuscripts. *The Exile
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of Erin ' was somewhat suspicious, but ^ Ye Maii-
uers of England,^ found in his box, was in his fa-
vour. " The aheriflf,'' he says, *' began to smoke
the whole bubble, and said, * This comes of trust-
ing a Hamburgh spy. Mr. Campbell,* he added,
* this is a cold wet evening — ^what do you say to
our having a bottle of wine during the examina-
tion of your democratic papers?'"
While in Edinburgh his mother and sisters were
dependent on him solely for support. During the
food riots in Edinburgh, in the year 1801, he began
part of a poem, entitled ^ The Mobiade,' in a style
altogether different from his other works, which
was never printed till it appeared in Dr. Beattie*s
* Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell.* From Lord
Minto, whom he met, at his lordship's own desire,
at the house of the late Dugald Stewart, he re-
ceived great kindness, and was invited to Minto
House, Roxburghshire. While there he wrote
* Lochiel's Warning,' during the night. His even-
ing thoughts had been turned to the wizard's
warning, and in the course of the night he awoke,
repeating the idea for which he had been searching
for days, rang for the servant, had a cup of tea,
and produced 'Lochiel's Warning' before day-
dawn.
Early in 1803, Mr. Campbell repaired to Lon-
don, to settle, as the only field that promised any
permanent and profitable exercise of his talents.
On his arrival there he resided for some time in the
nouse of his friend and brother poet, Mr. Telford,
the celebrated engineer. On the 10th of Septem-
ber of that year he married his cousin. Miss
Matilda Sinclair, of Greenock, a lady who was
surpassingly beautiful. After residing a year in
London, he took and furnished a house in the vil-
lage of Sydenham, in Kent, about seven miles
from London. He now devoted himself, most in-
dustriously, to writing and compiling for the book-
sellers, and furnishing occasional articles to the
daily press, and other periodical publications. He
wrote on all subjects, even including agriculture,
for the most part anonymously, and by writing on
the latter subject he acquired so much informa-
tion, as to have been more than once compliment-
ed, as he states himself, on that knowledge by
practical farmers. Soonr after his marriage he
wrote a work, entitled ^ Annals of Great Britain,
fix^m the accession of George III.,' to the Peace of
Amiens, which was published in 1808, in three vol-
umes 8vo, without bis name. Besides his other
literary work, ho accepted an engagement to write
and translate foreign correspondence for the *Star'
newspaper, and the * Philosophical Magazine' con-
ducted by Mr. TuUoch, the editor of *The Star,'
for which he received at the rate of two hundred
pounds a-year. He also contributed several pa-
pers to ' Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopedia, '
especially biographies, an account of the drama,
and an extended historical notice of Great Britain,
which were all marked with the taste and judg-
ment that invariably distinguished his writings.
During the first year of his residence at Syden-
ham, among other poetical pieces which he ela-
borately polished were *Lord Ullin's Daughter,'
'The Soldier's Dream,' and 'The Turkish Lady ;'
the first of which, we are told by his biographer,
had been sketched in the island of Mull, and the
two latter in Bavaria, — but were not revised and
finished until this period. 'The Battle of the
Baltic ' was composed at short intervals during the
winter, and, as soon as it came before the public,
"was set to music and sung with applause by the
great vocalists of the day." Through the influence
principally of Charles James Fox, a pension of
£200 a-year was, in 1806, conferred on liim by his
majesty George HI.
In 1809 appeared his second volume of poems,
containing ' Gertrude of Wyoming,' a simple Indian
tale, in the Spenserian stanza, the scene of which is
laid among the woods of Pennsylvania ; ' Glenara ; '
' Lochiel's Warning ;' ' Lord Ullin's Daughter ;' and
'TheBattle of the Baltic,' the noblest of his lyrics.
To a subsequent edition was added the touchmg^
ballad of ' O'Connor's Child.' This volume greatly
increased his popularity. In the same year he
delivered a course of lectures on poetry, at the
Royal Institution, which excited much attention
at the time, and were afterwards published. He
was also employed by Mr. John Murray, the pub-
lis'her, to edit selections from the British poets,
intended as specimens of each, with biographical
and critical essays, and this work appeared in
1819, in seven volumes.
In the beginning of 1821, in which year, owing
to his literary engagements, he left Sydenham to
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reside in London, he became editor of a new series
of the * New Monthly Magazine/ for Mr. Colburn,
the publisher, to which, however, at that time,
he contribnted little besides a few of his minor
poems, and a «erie8 of lectures on Greek dra-
matic literature. His connexion with this ma-
gazine ceased in 1881, when he was engaged
for a brief period as editor of the ' Metropolitan '
magazine. He had even been assisted by Mr.
Sami|el Rogers, the poet, with five hundred
pounds, to purchase a third share of the ' Metro-
politan,' but finding the concern, as he styled
it, at that time "a bubble," he got back the
money^ and immediately repaid it to Mi\ Rogers.
That periodical was afterwards conducted with
great spirit and talent, under different auspices.
In 1824 appeared his 'Theodric,' a brief poetical
tale of modem life ; but the fire of his genius was
beginning to bum low, and the poem disappointed
public expectation. The volume, however, had,
for the time, an extensive sale, and was declared
by an anonymous punster of that day, to have
been " the odd trick " of the season.
In November 1826, Mr. Campbell was elected
by the students Lord Rector of the university of
Glasgow, after a severe opposition on the part of
the professors. He went down to his native city,
delivered an inaugural address, which he got
printed, and sent a copy of it to each of the stu-
dents, the presentation inscription being in his
own hand, which greatly enhanced the value of such
a gift. No event in his life seems to have grati-
fied his feelings so highly, and he always spoke of
his election with honest pride. The honour was
enhanced by his being three times chosen. Lord
Rector successively. On his re-election, the stu-
dents presented him with'a silver bowl, which, in
his will, he styled one of " the jewels of his pro-
perty." At the same time, a literary club was
formed in Glasgow, and named after him, *The
Campbell Club,' which still exists, and possesses
an excellent library, many of the books having
been donations from the poet, who also presented
the club with an elegant silver cup. The students
of Glasgow university he addressed in a series of
articles inserted in the * New Monthly Magazine.'
The senatus academicus confeired on him the
degree of Doctor of Laws, l)ut he never assumed
the title of Doctor before his name. He contri-
buted in no small degree to the establishment of
the London university, in which project Lord
Brougham was an active coadjutor, but Campbell
might, with some propriety, be considered its
founder.
During the straggle for independence in Greece,
Mr. Campbell took an active interest in the cause
of that country, as he subsequently, and indeed all
his life did in that of Poland. In 1832, in coo
junction with the Polish poet Niemcewicz, Prince
Czartoiyski, and others, he founded the society
styled the ^' Literary Association of the friends of
Poland," for collecting, publishing, and difi^using
information relative to that unhappy country, and
for the aid and support of the Polish exiles in
England.
In the month of September 1828, Mrs. Camp-
bell died. He had lost his youngest sister and his
mother some time previously. In 1830 he went
into chambers ; and for some years he resided, in
a state of comparative loneliness, at No. 61 Liu>
coin's Inn Fields, London. Two sons were the
fruit of his marriage, one of whom, a youth of
great promise, died early. The other, having
shown symptoms of insanity, was for years in a
private asylum, but soon after the poet's death, he
was restored to society, by the verdict of a jury
de hmatico inquirendo^ which declared him to be of
perfectly sound mind.
In 1832, Mr. Campbell visited Algiers, and on
his return he fhraished an account of his journey
to the * New Monthly Magazine,' which he after-
wards published, in a collected form, nnder the
name of * Letters from the South,' in two volumes.
In 1834 he published his * Life of Mrs. Siddons.'
On the death that year of his friend, Mr. Telford,
the engineer, after whom he had named his sur-
viving son, he, as well as Mr. Southey, received a
legacy of £500.
The first time that I saw Mr. Campbell was in
the year 1838. It was in the studio of an eminent
sculptor in London, to whom the poet was at that
time sitting for his bust. On being introduced to
him, he received me with an affability and kind-
ness of manner which put me at once at my ease.
He was about the middle size, and remarkably
well made. In his younger days he was con-
h
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mdered pailicularly handsome, but at this period
time, and care, and thought, had began to make
visible inroads on his frame. lie never had a ro-
bnst constitution, and his domestic calamities had
fallen heavily on his nervous and sensitive mind.
I shall never forget the quiet beauty of his eyes,
which were large and of a deep blue colour, and
when he became animated there was a sparkling
poetical expression in them peculiarly striking.
He wore a wig of chestnut brown. His manner
was frank and unreserved, and his conversation
agreeable and instructive. He was fond of dis-
coursing about poetry, and his criticisms were at all
times marked by good taste and correct appi*ecia-
tion. When he descanted on the beauties of the
Greek and English poets, he occasionally enriched
his remarks by quotations, which he had by heart,
and recited with the greatest enthusiasm. Often
have I, while sitting in his company, been electii-
fied by the beauty and power with which he
recited favourite passages from the Greek poets,
with whose writings his mind was richly stored,
and which he appreciated and praised with the
characteristic warmth of one who was himself a
master in their divine art. The foUowing inci-
dent, to which I myself was a witness, shows
ihe genuine benevolence and kindness of his
heart. Calling one forenoon, in the year 1839,
on the poet at his Chambers 61 Linceln^s Inn
Fields, I found him busily engaged looking over
his books, on the shelves around the room; while
near the fireplace, was seated an elderly gentle-
woman in widow^s weeds. I was desired to take
a chair for a few minutes. Presently the poet
disappeared into his bedroom, and returned with
an armful of books, which he placed among a heap
of others that he had collected on the floor.
"There now," he said, addressing the widow,
" these will help you a little, and I shall see what
more I can do for yon by the time you call again.
I shall get them sent to you in the course of the
day." The widow thanked him with tears in her
eyes, and, shaking her cordially by the hand, he
wished her a good morning. On her departure,
he said to me, with gi-eat feeling, — "That lady
whom you saw just now is the widow of an early
friend of mine, and as she is now in somewhat re-
duced circumstances, she wishes to open a little
book and stationery shop, and I have been busy
looking out all the books for which I have no use,
but which will be of use to her, to add to her stock.
She has taken a small shop in the neighbourhood of
town, and I shall do all I can to serve her, and
forward her prospects, as far as my assistance and
influence extend : old times should not be forgot-
ten." On another occasion, soon after this, on
introducing to him, in that same room, a friend of
mine fh)m Edinburgh of the name of Sinclair, he
said, while he shook him by the hand, " I am glad
to see you, Sur, your name recommends you to
me," adding, with much tenderness, "my wife^s
name was Sinclaur."
In 1842, Mr. Campbell published his ' Pilgrim
of Glencoe,' and other poems, which he dedicated
to his friend and physician, Dr. William Beattie,
whom in his will he named one of his executors,
and who became his biographer. Mr. William
Moxon, of the Middle Temple, barrister, the brother
of the publisher, was also named an executor.
Among Mr. Campbell's other works are a *Life
of Petrarch,' and * Memoirs of Frederick the
Great.' In the year last mentioned Mr. Camp-
bell again visited Germany, and, on his return
to London, he took a house at No. 8, Victoria
Square, Pirolico, his niece Miss Mary Camp-
bell, daughter of his deceased brother, Mr.
Alexander Campbell, formeriy of Glasgow, having
gone to London, to reside with him. But his
health had long been declining, and for change
of air^ in the summer of 1843, he retired to
Boulogne, in France, where he died on Saturday
afternoon, 15th June 1844, aged 67 years. His
niece, his friend Dr. Beattie, Mr. Moxon, the pub-
lisher, and his medical attendants were with him
when he breathed his last; as was also the Rev.
Mr. Hassell, a clergyman of the church of England
His last hours were marked by calmness and
resignation. His body was brought to England,
and buried in the Poets' Comer of Westminster
Abbey, on Wednesday, July 3d; the funeral being
attended by a great number of noblemen and
gentlemen, and by several of the most eminent
authors of the day.
Mr. Campbell was extremely studious, but at
the same time social in his disposition, and gentle
and endearing in his manners. With a delicate
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aud eveu uervous seusibiiity, trequeiuiy aiiied to
real genius, he was yet eminently domestic in his
disposition and habits, and admirably fkted to
shine in society. To his niece, Mary Campbell,
afterwards Mrs. W. Alfred Hill, whose kindness
and attention cheered his latter days, he left the
great bulk of his property and effects, his son be-
ing otherwise provided for. Campbell is decid-
edly tlie most classical of our modern poets. He
never wearied retouching and polishing what he
had written, and yet, notwithstanding his extreme
fastidionsness in this respect, no poet of his day
has exhibited, in his lyrics, so much originality
and freedom, or so much energy of thought aud
style. His works are :
Pleasures of Hope; a poem. Edinburgh, 1799, 12mo.
Aud other Poeras, Edin. 1801, l2mo. 7th edit., Edin. 1804.
Annals of Great Britaui, from the accession of George III.
to the Peace of Amiens. London 1808, 8 vols. 8vo. anon.
Gertrude of Wyoming ; a Pennsylvanian Tale, and other
Poems. London, 1809, 4to. 6th edit 1814, 12mo,
Specimens of the British Poets, with biographical and cri-
tical notices ; and an Essay on English poetry. Lond. 1819,
7 vols, small 8vo.
Theodric, a poem, London, 1824, 8vo.
Inaugural Discourse on being installed Lord Rector of the
University of Glasgow. 8vo, Glasgow, 1827.
Poland, a Poem. 12mo, London, 1881.
Life of Mrs. Siddons, London, 2 vols. 1834.
Letters from the South, London, 1837, 2 vols. 8vo.
Pilgrim of Glenooe, and other poems, 8vo. Londun, 1842.
Life of Petrarch, London.
Memoirs of Frederick the Great, London.
A complete collection of his Poems, of which there are va-
rious editions, appeared after bis death. One of them con-
tains a biography of the poet by the Rev. W. Alfred Hill, the
huiiband of his niece, Maiy Campbell.
Gampbrdown, Earl of, of Lundie, and of Gleneagles. a
title in the peerage of the United Kingdom, conferred in
1831 on the Right Hon. Robert Dundas Duncan Haldune,
second viscount Duncan, third but eldest surviving son of
the celebrated admiral^ first viscount, (see vol ii. page 82.)
Bom in 1785, he succeeded his father in the viscounty in 1804,
and took his seat in tlie house of lords in 1806, soon after
attaining bis majority. On the coronation of William IV.
he was elevated to the rank of earl, and on that occasion the
king was pleaised, as his own special act, and as a tribute to
the memory of the first viscount Duncan, to adopt the unu-
sual step in the case of a new creation of giving his lordship's
brother and sisters the rank of earl's children. His lordship
(K. T. 1848), died in 1859. He had assumed the ilame of
his maternal grandmother Haldane. His elder son, Adam
Duncan- Haldane, viscount Duncan, M.P. for Forfarshire,
bom in 1812, a lord of the Treasury from March 1855
to Feb. 1858, succeeded as 2d earl; married, 1839, with issue.
CANT, Andrew, a rigid Covenanting minister
bom about the end of the sixteenth century,
appears to have belonged to East Lothian. In
tenns of a contract with Lord Forbes, he appears
to have been minister of Alford, Aberdeenshire, in
1617, and held lands there in mortgage till 1649. In
October 1620, being chosen one of the ministers of
Edinburgh, the king and bishops would not sanction
his election, and a Mr. William Forbes of Aberdeen
was appointed in his stead. Nevertheless, on a va-
cancy again occun-iiig, in 1623, the dissentients pro-
tested, but in vain, against proceeding to another
election, on the ground that Cant had been already
chosen, and was of right their minister. About
1638 he was appointed minister to the then newly
erected parish of Pitsligo, on the north coast of
Aberdeenshire. In July of that year, he was sent
by the Tables — as the convention at Edinburgh of
the representatives of the national party then op-
posed to the proceedings of Charles were called —
to Aberdeen, to induce the inhabitants of that
city to subscribe the Covenant, having for his co-
adjutors the earl, afterwards marquis, of Mon-
trose, Lord Couper, the master of Forbes, and
other gentlemen, with two ministers. So earnest
were they in their work that, to the displea-
sure of the citizens of Aberdeen, they declined
all refreshments until the Covenant was signed,
a procedure quite contrary to the practice alwayt
hitherto observed in that hospitable city. In
the November following he sat in the General
Assembly at Glasgow, which abolished episco-
pacy. He was with the army when the Scots
obtained possession of Newcastle, August 30.
1640, and preached by appointment in one of
the churches of that town. He was subsequently
appointed one of the ministers of Aberde^.
According to Mr. Kennedy, in his ^Annals'
of that city, for some time Mr. Cant had the
whole ministerial chai'ge. He exeixused his eccle-
siastical authority with rigour, and fulminated ana-
themas against the magistrates for not complying
with his dictates. His congregation complained
that no person could be admitted to communion
by him, except those who were found qualified to
partake of that ordinance. In place of yielding to
the remonstrances of the magistrates, however,
he declaimed against them from the pulpit for
their interference in what pertained to the kirk
session. The matter was represented to the pro-
vincial synod, but both the magistrates and the
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coDgregation were compelled to submit to his de-
crees. Spalding meutioos that one Sunday after-
noon, during sermon, some chUdren made a noise
ontside the church, when Cant, who was preach-
ing, sprang out of the pulpit and pursued them to
some distance, and when he had dispersed them
he returned and finished his sei*mon ; but the peo-
ple wondered at his behaviour.
When Charles the First visited Scotland, in
1641, it being then his policy to conciliate the na-
tion, Mr. Cant was appointed to preach before
him at Edinburgh, August 21st. He frequently
preached also before the Scots parliament. He
was of that party in the church of Scotland hostile
to the employment of individuals who had served
Charles against the partisans of the fii*st covenant,
and known as the Protesting party. He was op-
posed to the bringing over of Charles the Second
fi-om Holland to Scotland in 1650, and according
to Balfour (Annals, vol. iv. page 160), used all his
influence to prevent the nation from undertaking
to place him on the throne of England. In 1660,
a complaint was presented to the magistrates of
Aberdeen, charging Mr. Cant with having pub-
lished a work written by Samuel Rutherford, en-
titled Lex Rex, and containing opinions then
deemed seditious, and for fulminating anathemas
and Imprecations against many of his congrega-
tion. The proceedings which took place in con-
sequence caused him, although no judgment was
given against him, to relinquish his charge, and
withdraw himself from tne town with his family.
Mr. Cant died about 1664.
A Mr. Andrew Cant, supposed to have been his
son, appears to have changed sides, as he was one
of the Episcopalian ministers of Edinburgh, de-
prived at the Revolution. On 17th October, 1722,
he was consecrated bishop of Glasgow.
In No. 147 of the Spectator the opprobrious word
*cant' is described as having been derived from the
name of this minister, who is there styled ' illiterate,'
but this is equally in violation of sound scholai-ship
and good feeling, as the etymology is certainly the
Latin word Cantus, * a song,' so expressive of the
singing or whining tone of certain preachers.
CARDR088, Lord, a title first oonforred on the enrl of
i Mar, but now a secondary title of the earl of Bqclmn.
The firet possessor having been invested with the right of
conferring it on any of his male heu^ renders the title of Lord
Cardroes unique in the peerage either of Scotland or England.
There is no other instance of such a power having been grant-
ed to a subjeet David, who became, on his grandfather's
death in 1634, second Lord Cardroes, was one of the Scottish
peers who protested against the delivering up of Charles the
First to the English army at Newcastle in 1646. He died in
1671. Of his eldest son, Henry, third Lord Cardroes, distin-
gniahed for his patriotism, a separate notice is given under
the head of Erskikb, Henry, thud Lord Cardroes. A
younger son, the Hon. Colonel John Erskine of Camock, was
father of John Erskine, the well-known author of the 'Inrti-
tutes of the Law of Scotland,* and grandfather of the cele-
brated Dr. John Erskine, minister of Greyfriars, Edinburgh,
of both of whom notices are given under Erskine. On the
death, in 1695, of WiJtiam Erskine, eighth earl of Bnchan,
the succession of that title opened to David, fourth Ixyrd Car-
dross, eldest son of Henry, the third lord, and in the parlia-
ment of 1698, an act was passed allowing him to be called in
the rolls of parliament as eari of Buchan. [See Buchak,
Earl of, ante page 455.]
CAREY, David, a writer of some versatil-
ity, a poet and a novelist, was the son of a man-
ufacturer in Arbroath, where he was bom in the
year 1782. Having completed his school educa-
tion, he was placed in his father^s counting-house,
but cherishing an inclination for literaiy pursuits,
he soon removed to Edinburgh, and was by Mr.
Constable the publisher appointed to the tempo-
i-ary charge of a department of his business allied
in some degree to the profession of literature. As
a better field for the exercise of his talents, he
repaired soon after to London, where he obtained,
through several gradations, the direction of vari
0U8 departments of the periodical press. He be
gan to publish in 1802. The order and titles of
his works will be found annexed. The ability ho
displayed in advocating the measures of the Whig
party, whose side he had espoused, gained for
him the notice of Mr. Wyndham, who offered him
a situation at the Cape of Good Hope, which he
declined. On the change of ministry he wrote a
satire on their successors, entitled ^ Ins and Outs,
or the state of parties, by Chrononhotonthologos,'
of which two large editions were sold in a few
weeks. On the establishment of the * Inverness
Joui-nal ' newspaper, in 1807, he was invited, on
the recommendation of Mr. Constable, to under-
take the oflSce of editor, which, under many dis-
advantages, he discharged during nearly five yeais
with general satisfaction, continuing his llt^*ar^
publications at the same time. During a consid •
erable part of the year 1812, he conducted the
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DONALD.
^Boston Gazette.* He next repaired again to
London, and renewed his connexion with the pub-
lic journals there. With tlie exception of a shprt
visit to Paris, on some literaiy speculation, at a
subsequent period, his labours from this time were
devoted to the press. At length, weary of per-
petual struggles and disappointments, feeling his
health much impaired, he returned to his native
place, to receive the attentions of parental affec-
tion. He died at his father^s house at Arbroath,
of consumption, after eighteen months' illness, on
4th October 1824, in the 42d year of his age.
Besides the works enumerated below, he contri-
buted largely to ' The Poetical Magazine, or the
Temple of the Muses,' consisting chiefly of origi-
nal poemSf published in 1804, in two volumes 8vo,
of which he was the editor. His poems are dis-
tinguished generally by elegance and harmony,
and, with a good deal of purity and feeling, are not
deficient in sentiment and imagery.
His works are
Pleasnret of Natnre ; or the Charms of Rnral Life, and
other Poems, 1802, 8?o.
The Reign of Fancy, a Poem, with Notes, 1803, 12mo.
Ljric Tales, &c. 1804.
Secrets of the Castle ; a Novel. 1806, 2 vols. 12mo.
Ins and Outs, or the state of Parties, by Cbrononhotontbo-
logos. 1807, 8vo
Poems, chiefly Amatory. 1807, 12mo.
Craig Pbadrig; Visions of Sensibilitj, with Legendaiy
Tales, and occasional Pieces, and Historical Notes ; dedicated
to Lord Seafleld, a tribute chiefly of gratitude for the kindness
and bospitalitj of his Highland friends and neighbours.
1810, 8vo.
Picturesque Scenes ; or a Guide to the HigbUmds. 1811,
8vo
The Lord of the Desert; Sketches of Scenery; Foreign
and Domestic Odes, and other poems, 1812.
Lochiel, or the Field of Culloden, 1812. A novel founded
on tlie rebellion of 1745, and eihibiting a vivid picture of lo-
cal scenerv, and a faithful representation of Highland manners.
Caroill, a local surname, derived from a parish so called
in Perthshire. In the fishing village of Auchmithie, Forfar-
shire, in 1859, out of a population of 875, 123 bore the sur-
name of CHrgill.
CARGILL, Donald, an eminent preacher of
the Chnrch of Scotland, in the reign of Charles XL
was the son of respectable parents in the parish
of Rattraj, Perthshire, where he was bom about
the year 1610. He studied at Aberdeen, and be-
came minister of the barony parish, Glasgow, in
1650. On the establishment of the episcopal
chnrch, he refused to accept collation from the
archbishop, or celebrate the king's birthday, which
caused his banishment, by act of council, beyono
the Tay. Paying little regard to this order, he
was, in 1668, called before the council, and com-
manded peremptorily to observe their former
edict. In September 1669, upon his petition, he
was permitted to go to Edinburgh upon some legal
business, but not to reside in that city, or go near
Glasgow. He now became a fleld-preacher, and
so continued for some years, during which period
he had many remarkable escapes from the vigi-
lance of the government. He refused the indul-
gence offered to the presbyterian clergy, and de-
nounced all who accepted it.
In 1679 he was at Both well BHdge, where he
was wounded, but made his escape. He after-
wards went to Holland, but early in the summer
of 1680 was again in Scotland. On June 3d of
that year, he made a narrow escape from being
seized in a public-house in Queensferry by the
governor of Blackness, who, in the struggle, mor-
tally wounded his companion, Mr. llenry Hall of
Haugh-head. In the pockets of the latter was
found a paper of a violent nature, generally sup-
posed to have been written by Mr. Cargill, which
is known in history by the name of the Queens-
ferry Covenant, from the place where it was found.
Mr. Cargill also appears to have been concerned
with Richard Cameron in publishing the declara-
tion at Sanquhar on the 22d of June. In the sub-
sequent September he preached to a large congre-
gation in the Torwood, between Falkirk and Stir-
ling, when be formally excommunicated the king,
and the dukes of York, Monmouth, Lauderdale,
and Rothes, Sir George Mackenzie, and Sir Tho-
mas Dalzell. In consequence of this violent pro-
ceeding, the privy council offered a reward of
5,000 merks for his apprehension, but for several
months he eluded the vigilance of the soldieiy.
In May 1681 he was seized at Covington, in Lan-
arkshire, by Irving of Bonshaw, who treated him
with great cruelty, and earned him to Lanark on
horseback, with his feet tied under the horse's
belly. He was soon after sent to Edinburgh,
where, on the 26th of July, he was tried, and be-
ing condemned to suffer death for high treason,
was accordingly hanged and beheaded, July 27,
1681.
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CARLYLE.
589
CARLYLE.
Garltlb, Lord, an extinct title in the peerage of Soot-
land conferred in 1478 by King James the Third, on Sir
John Carlyle of Torthorwald, knight The first of this name
in ScotUnd was one of the English colonists brought by Ro-
bert de Bras mto Annandale, when he obtamed a grant of
that district from King David the Second. The surname
appears to be local, and was probably assumed from the town
of Carlisle in Cumberland. In the reign of King William the
Lion, one Eudo de Carlyle was witness to a charter of morti-
fication, by Eustace de Vescy, of twenty shillings per annum
out of the mill of Sprouston to the monastery of Kelso, about
1207. Adam de Carleolo had a charter of several lands in
Annandale, firom William de Brus, who died in 1215. Gil-
bert de Carlyle was one of the Scottish barons who swore
fealty to King Edward the First in 1296. Sir William de
Cairlyle obtained in marriage the lady Margaret Bruce, one
of the daughters of Robert earl of Carrick, and sister of King
Robert the Bruce, as appears by a charter of that monarch
to them of the lands of Crumanston, in which she is desig-
nated " our dearest sister.** Their son, William Carlyle, ob-
tained a charter firom Robert the First, under the name of
William Karlo, the king*s sister*s son, of the lands of Culyn,
now Collin, in the county of Dumfries. He also possessed
the lands of Roucan in the vicinity. There are now two vil-
lages bearing these names in the immediate neighbourhood of
Dumfries.
William Cairletl was one of the numerous train of knights
and esquires, who attended the princess Margaret of Scot-
land, daughter of James the First, into France, on her mar-
riage to Louis the dauphin, in 1436.
Sir John Carlyle of Torthorwald, the first Lord Carlyle,
was active in repelling the invasion of the banished Douglases
in 1465, when James earl of Douglas, at the head of a con-
siderable force, entered Scotland by the west marches, and
being met in Annandale by the earl of Angus, the lord Car-
lisle of Torthorwald, Sir Adam Johnstone of Johnstone, and
other barons, at the head of their vassals, sustained a total
defeat ; Archibald, earl of Moray, one of his brothers, was
killed, and Hugh earl of Ormond, another of them, was taken
prisoner by Lord Carlyle and the laird of Johnstone, for
which service King James the Second granted to them the
forty pound land of Pettinun in Lanarkshire. He sat as
Lord Carlyle of Torthorwald in the parliament of November
and December 1475. He was snbsequentiy sent on an em-
bassy to France, and in recompense for the great expense
attending it, he had several grants from the crown in 1477.
Among others he received a charter of the lands of Drumcoll,
forfeited by Alexander Boyd. On the accession of James the
Fourth these lands were claimed by the king, as pertaining
to him and his eldest son, and his successors, by letters of
annexation made of Drumcoll, perpetually to remain with the
kings and princes of Scotland, their sons, previous to the
grant of the same to Lord Carlyle, and on 19th January
148S-9 the lords auditors decreed that the said lands of
Drumcoll were the king*s property. His lordship died before
22d December, 1509. He was twice married. By his first
wife, Janet, he had two sons, John and Robert, and a daugh-
ter, married to Simon Carrathers of Monswald. Hb second
wife, Margaret Douglas, widow of Sir Edward Maxwell of
Monreith, had also two sons to him, namely, John and
George. John, master of Cariyle, the eldest son, died before
nis father, leaving a son, William, second Lord Carlyle, who
was one of the three persons invested with the honour of
knighthood, 29th January 1487-8, when Alexander, second
son of King James the Third, was created duke of Ross. By
Janet Maxwell, his wife, daughter ot Robert Lord Maxwell,
he had two sons, James, third lord, and Michael, fourth lord
Carlyle. The latter Signed the bond of association for the
support of the authority of King James the Sixth in 1567,
and was the only peer signing it who could not write his
name. He was obliged, in consequence, to have recourse to
the assistance of a notary. Soon after, however, he joined
Queen Mary*s party, and entered mto the association on her
behalf, at Hamilton, 8th May 1568. He had three sons,
namely, William, master of Cariyle; Michael; and Petei.
His eldest son died in 1572, in the lifetime of his father,
leaving an only child, Elizabeth Carlyle, who married Sir
James Douglas of Parkhead, slain by Captain James Stew-
art, on the High Street of Edinburgh, 81st July, 1608. On
the death of his eldest son. Lord Carlyle granted a charter of
alienation of the barony of Cariyle, &&, in fiivour of Michael,
his second son, dated at Torthorwald, 14th March, 1573, to
which Adam Carlyle of Bridekirk, Alexander Carlyle his son,
John Carlyle of Brakenquhat, and Peter Carlyle, the third
son of hi^ lordship, were witnesses. Of the family of Bride-
kirk, here mentioned, the late Dr. Alexander Carlyle of In>
veresk, a notice of whom follows, was the male representa*
tive. The above setUement of ih^ estate was set aside, after
a long litigation at a ruinous expense, and the barony of
Carlyle was, on the death of the fourth lord in 1580, found
to belong to his grand-daughter, Elizabeth, already men-
tioned, who thus succeeded to the peerage, in her own right.
A charter was granted to Geoi^ Douglas, second legitimate
son of George Douglas ot Parkhead, of the barony of Car-
lyle, &c, in the counties of Dumfries and Lanark, dated on
the last day of February, 1594. It is supposed that he had
acquired that estate from his brother Sir James, who, ae
above stated, married the heiress of the titie and estates, and
had three sons, Sir James, Archibald, and John, the two lat-
ter of whom died without issue.
Su: James Douglas, the eldest son, was, in right of hu
mother, created Lord Carlyle of Torthorwald, in 1609. He
married, first, Grizel, youngest daughter of Sir John Gordon
of Lochinvar, by whom, it is said, he had a son, William,
who sold his estate, and died abroad without issue ; secondly,
Anne Saltonstall, and by her he had a son, James, baptized
at Edinburgh, 2d January 1621. According to Crawford,
James. Lord Carlyle, resigned his tiUe m 1638, to William
earl of Queensbeny, who had acquired his estate.
In 1730, William Carlyle of Lochartur, in the stewartry ot
Kirkcudbright, was served heir to Michael, fourth Lord Car-
lyle, as descended from Michael, his second lawful son. This
William Carlyle died about 1757, and was succeeded by his
brother, Michael Cariyle of Lochartur, who, on his death, left
his estate to the heir-male of the family. By a decree of the
House of Lords in 1770, the heir- male was found to be George
Carlyle, whose ancestor had settied in Wales. In him also
it was thought lay the right to the peerage ; but after dissi-
pating his estate at Dumfries, in a few years he returned to
Wales. The Rev. Joseph D. Carlyle, professor of Arabic in
Cambridge university, who died in 1831, was understood to
have been the next heur.
This surname has acquired considerable literary lustre from
its being borne by Thomas Carlyle, a celebrated contempo-
rary author, a native of Dumfiries-ahire.
CARLYLE, Alexander, D.D., an accom-
plished presbytcrian divine, son of the minister of
Piestoupans, was bom January 26, 1722, and re-
ceived his education at the universities of Glas-
gow, Edinburgh, and Leyden. In 1745, when
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CARLYLE.
590
CARMTCHARL.
only 23 years of age, he enrolled himself in a body
of volunteers, raised in Edinburgh to defend the
city against the rebels, but which, on tlie approach
of the Highland army, was dissolved. He then
retired to his father^s manse at Prestonpans, and
on the morning of the 21st September, witnessed
from the top of the village steeple the defeat of
the royal army. Previously he had been for a
short time in the hands of a paity of the High-
landers, but had made his escape. He studied
for the church, and, about 1748, was presented to
the parish of Inveresk, in the neighbourhood of
Musselburgh, where he remained 57 years. His tal-
ents as a preacher were of the highest order ; and
in the General Assembly he long took an active
and prominent part on the moderate side. It was
owing principally to his exertions that the paro-
chial clerg}' of Scotland were exempted from the
house and window tax. With this object in view
he spent some time in London, and was intro-
duced at court, where the elegance of his manners
and the dignity of his appearance, are said to have
excited equal surprise and admiration. He was
intimate with all the celebrated men whose names
have confen*ed lustre on the literary history of the
latter part of the eighteenth centuiy, and Smollett,
in his * Humphrey Clinker,' mentions that he
owed to him his introduction to the literary circles
of Edinburgh. Being a particular friend of Home,
the author of Douglas, he was present at the first
representation of that tragedy, for which he was
prosecuted before the church courts, censured and
admonished. It is even said that, in the first pri-
vate reheai-sal, he forgot his character so far as to
enact the part of Old Nerval. To Dr. Carlyle
the world is indebted for the recovery of Collins'
long lost * Ode on the Superstitions of the High-
lands.' The author considered it the best of his
poems, but he had kept no copy of it ; and Dr.
Carlyle finding it accidentally among his papers,
presented it to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
It was printed in the first volume of their Trans-
actions* Dr. Carlyle left behind him a Memoir of
his own Time, which, though long promised, has
not yet been published. He died at Inveresk,
August 25, 1805, aged 84.
The only things Dr. Carlyle published were» the Statistical
Account of the Parish of Inveresk, in Sir John Sinclair's
work; two detached sermons, the names of which are sob-
joined; and two ironical pamphlets on the subject of the tra-
gedy of DougUs, both the latter, of course, anonymously.
One of them was entitled * An Ironical argument to prove that
the tragedy of Douglas ought to be publicly burnt by th«
hands of the hangman, Edinburgh,' 1767, 8vo, pp. 24. He is
also said to have written the prologue to Herminius and Es-
pasia, a tragedy, acted at Edinburgh, and published in 1754.
The titles of his sermons are : —
The Tendency of the Constitution of the Church of Scot-
land to form the Temper, Spirit, and Character of her Min-
isters; a Sermon on Psalm xlviii. 12, 18. 1779, 12mo.
National Depravity the Cause of National Calnmitiw; a
Fast Sermon, from Jerera. vi. 8. Edin. 1794, 8vo.
Cakmichaei^ a local surname, of great antiquity m Scot-
land, derived from the lands and barony of Carmichael, in
the pansh of that name, in the upper ward of Lanarkshire, of
which the earls of Hyndford (a titie now extinct), whose
family name it was, were the proprietors. The parish ap-
pears to have been so named from St. MichaeL under whose
protection it was placed.
The iirst of the family known was William de Carmichael.
who is mentioned in a charter of the lands of Ponfeigli about
1350. John de Carmichael, supposed to be his son, was in-
feft in the lands of Carmichael, on a precept from James earl
of Douglas and Mar, killed at Otterbura in 1388. The name
of William de Carmichael, probably his son, occurs in a char-
ter of donation to the prioiy of St. Andrews in 1410. Sir
John de Carmichael, supposed to be the son of this William,
accompanied the Scottish auxiliaries sent to the assistanoe of
Charks the Sixth of France, against the English. At the
battie of Beang^ in Anjon, in 1422, he is said to have un-
horsed the duke of Clarence, who commanded the English
army, a feat which decided the victoiy in favour c^ the French
and Scots. In the encounto: he broke his spear, and his de-
scendants bear for crest a dexter hand and man armed hold-
ing a broken spear. This deed has been attributed to the
earl of Buchan, and Sir Alexander Buchanan [see onls, page
460. art Buchanan], as well as to Sir John de Carmichael,
and the honour of it must be equally divided among these
three. Sir John died in 1486. By his wife, supposed to
have been a lady Maiy Douglas, he had three sons, name-
ly, William, his successor; Robert, ancestor of the Carmi-
chaels of Balraadie ; and John, provost of St. Andrews, who
was one upon a perambulation of some lands and marches in
that neighbourhood in 1434.
William, the eldest son, was one of the mqueet upon the
service of Sir David Hay of Tester, in 1437. He had two
sons, Sir John, and George. The latter, a doctor of divinity,
was elected bishop of Glasgow in 1482, but died before his
consecration, in the following year. He had previously been
treasurer of that see, as rector of Camwath. The same year
that he was elected bishop, he was joined in commission with
several lords and barons, to treat of a peace with En^and.
Sir John Carmichael, the elder son, had three sons and a
daughter. William, the eldest, had also three sons ; Bartho-
lomew, who predeceased him ; William, who succeeded him ;
and Walter, the progenitor of the Hyndford line. On the
8th March 1528 a remission was granted to William Car-
michael of that ilk, and three others, for art, part and as-
sistance given by them to Archibald sometime eari of Angus,
his brother and erne (or unde). William's son, John Car-
michael, married Elisabeth, third daughter of the fifth knd
Somerville, and had two sons, John and Archibald, and a
daughter, Mary, married to John, son of Sir Robert Hamil-
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CARMICHAEL.
591
CARMICHAEL.
ton of Preston. John Garmicbael, the father, his son John,
hill brother Archibald, James Johnstone of Westraw, and
thirty-one othen, were, January 8th, 1564, indicted before
the high court of justiciary, for wounding and deforcing a
sIierifiTs officer of Lanarkshire, when apprizing certain head
of cattle, and for taking one of his assistants captive and
keeping him in confinement in various places. They were
ordered to enter into ward on the north side of the water of
Spey, and remain there during her majesty*s pleasure.
Sir John Carmichael, the elder son, was, in 1584, with his
son Hugh, and William Carmichael of Rowantreecross, for-
feited for being concerned in the raid of Ruthven. The for-
feiture, however, appears soon to have been taken off, as we
afterwards find him appointed warden of the west marches,
and in 1588, he was one of the ambassadors sent to Denmark,
to negotiate the marriage between King James the Sixth
and the princess Anne, daughter of the Danish king. About
the same time he was constituted captain of his majesty^s
guard. In 1590 he was sent ambassador to Queen Elizabeth.
In 1592 he resigned the wardenship of the west marches in
favour of the earl of Angus, but in 1598, on that nobleman*s
demitting that office. Sir John was restored to it, and as he
eras going to hold a warden^s court at Lochmaben. for the
punishment of offences committed on the borders, he was
murdered, 16th June, 1600, by Thomas Armstrong, * sone to
Sandeis Ringane,' and nephew of Kinmont Willie, and several
associates, on their return from a match at football, sudi meet-
ings being oflen, in those days, arranged for the perpetration
of deeds of violence. The Armstrongs being the most turbu-
lent of the border dans, the warden had announced his intui-
tion to punish severely some ci their recent thefts and forays,
and to prevent this they sent to him a brother of old William
Armstrong of Kinmont, (the noted Kinmont Willie,) whose
name was Alexander Armstrong, alias Sandeis Ringan or
Kinian. On being admitted to a conference with the warden
he found that there was no lenity to be expected from him;
and some of Carmichaers young retainers having, in mockery
<^ Ringan, slipped his sword out of his scabbard and put
yolks of eggs in it, whereby his sword, when sheathed, would
not draw, he vowed in a rage that they should see his sword
out, if they went on ground where he could avenge the insult
When he returned home he told his sons that he had been
" made shame of,** and he would be ** equal " with them yet.
Next day they waylaid the warden, and shot him with a hagbut.
For this murder, Thomas Armstrong was tried before the High
Ck>urt of Justiciary, 14th November, convicted and executed.
Before he was hanged his right hand was struck off at one
stroke by the executioner. He was thereafter hung in chains
on the Boroughmuir, the first instance on record, in Scotland,
of a criminal having been hung in chains. The murder of
Sir John Carmichael sealed the fate of many of the Arm-
strongs, the most distinguished of the warlike thieves of the
Scottish border, and led to the adoption of measures of the
utmost severity against all those of the name who were there-
after convicted, or even suspected of any crime. Sir Walter
Scott supposes that the well-known verses * Armstrong's
Good Night,* were composed by Thomas Armstrong, called
by him * Ringan's Tam,* previous to his execution. In Feb-
ruary 1606, another of the Armstrongs, called Alexander, or
Sandie of Rowanbume, was executed for this murder. An
epitaph on Sir John Carmichael, by John Johnstone, is prmted
in Crawford's peerage. By his wife, Margaret, daughter of
Sir George Douglas of Pittendriech, sister of the regent Mor-
ton, he had three sons and four daughters.
Sir Hugh Carmichael, the eldest son, was sworn a privy
councillor, and appointed master of the horse in 1598. The
same year he was sent ambassador to Denmark. He married
Abigail, daughter of William Baillie of Lamington, and had
a son, Sir John, who died without issue. His estate was in-
herited by his cousin, Sir James Carmichael of Hyndford,
created Lord Carmichael in 1647, and grandfather of the first
earl of Hyndford. (See Hyndford, eari of.) He was de-
scended from Walter Carmichael, of Hyndford and Park,
third son of William Carmichael of Carmichael above men-
tioned. John Carmichael of Howgate, third son of Walter^s
grandaou, James Carmichael, had a son, John, a colonel in
the Russian service, who became governor of Plescow.
From the first-mentioned William de Carmichael to Sir
Wyndbam Carmichael-Anstruther, baronet, who, in right of
his ancestor, Sir John Anstruther, marrying, in 1717, the
I^dy Margaret Carmichael, daughter of the second earl of
Hyndford, succeeded his nephew in the estate in 1831, indu-
uve, there were 20 generations, during a period of 481 years.
Sir John Gibson-Carmichael of Skirling, bart, grandson of
John Gibson of Durie (see GiBSOif, surname oQ and Helen,
h\» wife, daughter of the Hon. William Carmichael, advocate,
son of John, first earl of Hyndford, and father of John, fourth
earl, assumed, at the death of the latter, in conformity to an
entail, the surname and arms of Carmichael in addition to his
own. He married Janet, daughter of Cornelius Elliot, Esq.,
clerk to the signet, by whom he had an only daughter. The
estates with the title of baronet (conferred in 1628 on his an-
cestor. Sir Alexander Gibson of Durie, an eminent lawyer in
the reign of James the Sixth, and lord president of the court
of session) devolved on his brother, Sir Thomas Gibson-Car-
michael, tenth baronet of the Gibson family. He died 18th
Dec. 1849, when his eldest son. Sir Alexander Gibson Car-
michael, bom June 6, 1812, became 11th baronet, but died
8th May «. p. 1850. His half-brother. Sir Thomas, com-
mander R. N.,/2th baronet, died s.p. 80th Dec. 1855, when
his brother, Rev. Sur William Henry Gibson Carmichael, be-
came 13th baronet.
The representation of the Carmichaels of Balmadie, above
mentioned, as descended from the second son of Sir John de
Carmichael who fought at the battle of Beaug^, devolved
upon Thomas Carmichael, Esq., who, in 1740, married Mar-
garet, eldest daughter and heiress of James Smyth, Esq. of
Athemy, and dying in 1746, left an only son, James Carmi-
chael, a distinguished physician, who, in compliance with the
testamentary injunctions of his maternal grandfather, assumed
the additional surname and arms of Smyth — see a biographr-
cal notice of him in this work under Smyth, /kwI He had
eight sons, six of whom adopted a ihilitary life, and two
daughters, the elder of whom, Maria, became the wife of Dr.
Alexander Monro, professor of anatomy in the university of
Edinburgh. His eldest son, Major-General Sir James Car-
michael Smyth, K. C. H., and C. B., bom 22d Febnuiry
1780, was a distinguished officer, and served in command of
the engineers at the battle of Waterloo. He was created a
baronet, 25th August, 1821. At the time of his death he
was govemor of British Guiana. He married, 28tb May,
1816, Harriet, daughter of General Robert Morse, and died
4th March, 1838. His son, Sir James Robert Carmichael, of
Nutwood, county Surrey, second baronet, dropped, by royal
liceuMO, 25th Febraary, 1841, the name of Smyth.
One of the mistresses of King James the Fifth was Kath-
erine Carmichael, daughter of Sir John Cannichael of Mea-
dowflat. Captain of Crawford, described in that carious work
''ITie Memorie of the Somervilles,* as "a young lady, ad-
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CARMICHAEL.
592
CARNEGIE.
mir«d for her beautie, handsomenes of penone, and nvacitj
of spirit.** By her the Idng had John, prior of CoHUnghame,
&C., father of the turbulent Francu Stewart, earl of Both-
welL She afterwards married Sir John Somenrille of Cam-
oosnethan.
Of the third earl of Hjndford, the most disting&isbed of
the noble family of Garmichael, the following is a notice :
CARMICHAEL, John, third earl of Hyndford,
an eminent diplomatist, son of the second earl, was
bom, according to Douglas' Peerage, at'Edinborgh,
15th March 1701, but according to the Old Statis-
tical Account, at Carmichaet house, Lanarkshire,
in April of that year. He was for some time an
officer in the third regiment of footguards, and
succeeded his father in his titles and estates, in
1737. The following year he was chosen one of
the sixteen representatives of the Scottish peer-
age, and four times afterwards rechosen. In
Mai-ch of the same year (1738) he was appointed
one of the lords of police, an office long since abol-
ished. He was twice lord high commissioner to
the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland,
viz. in 1739 and 1740. He was always high in
the favour of (Jeorge the Second, and in 1741,
when the king of Prussia invaded Silesia, the earl
of Hyndford was sent, as envoy extraordinary
and plenipotentiary, to that monarch, and was bo
successful in accommodating matters, that pi*eli-
minaries of peace, between the empress queen of
Hungary and the king of Prussia, were signed at
Breslau, 1st June, 1742. On the conclusion of the
treaty, his lordship was nominated a knight of the
Thistle, and vested with thh insignia of that or-
der, at Charlottenburg, 2d August, 1742, by the
king of Prussia, in virtue of a commission from
King George the Second. In 1744 he was sent,
on a special mission, to Russia, and by his memo-
rable negociations with that power, was instru-
mental in accelerating the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.
i In 1750 he returned to England, and was sworn a
privy councillor 29th. March that year, and ap-
pointed one of the lords of the bedchamber. In
I 1752 he was sent ambassador to Vienna, which
; situation he held till 1764, when he was nominated
I vice-admiral of Scotland, and on that occasion he
I resigned his seat at the board of police. Ho spent
s the remainder of his life at his seat in Lanarkshire.
Some idea may be formed of his assiduity, from
, tiie fact that in the library in Westraw, thei-e are
twenty-three MS. volumes of his political life, in
his own handwriting. Besides this, during the
whole of his stay abroad, he kept up a regular
correspondence with his factor at Carmichael, in
which he evinces an accurate knowledge of archi-
tecture, agriculture, and rural affairs in general.
A few years before his death, he granted leases of
fifty-seven years' duration, in order to improve
his lands, and even at that early period, when
agriculture in Scotland was in a very rude state,
he introduced clauses into the new leases which
have since been adopted as the most approved
mode of farming. The greater part of the beauti-
ful plantations which adorn the now deserted family
mansion of Carmichael house, and which are ex-
celled by none in Scotland, were reared from seeds
which his lordship selected when on the continent,
but particularly when he was in Russia ; and for
many years he employed a great number of work-
men in the buildings and plantations of Carmi-
chael and Westraw. He died 19th July 1767, in
the 67th year of his age, and his remains were in-
terred in the family burial ground in the parish of
Carmichael.
CARMICHAEL, Gerrhom, M.A., a learned
divine, was bom at Glasgow in 1682, and educated
in the university of that city, where he took his
degrees. He was afterwards ordained minister of
Monimail, in Fifeshire; and, in 1722, appointed
professor of moral philosophy in the university of
Glasgow. For the use of his students, he wrote
some leai-ned notes on ^ Puffendorfi de Officiis Ho-
minis.' He died at Glasgow in 1738, aged 56.
CARMICHAEL, Frederick, son of the pre-
ceding, was bom at Monimail in 1708, and re-
ceived his education in Marischal college, Aber-
deen. He was ordained minister of Monimail in
1737, on the presentation of the earl of Leven.
In 1743 he was translated to Inveresk, and in
1747 he was elected one of the ministers of Edin-
burgh, having previously declined an offer made
to him of the divinity chair in Manscnal college.
In 1751 he was seized with a fever, of which he
died, aged 45. He left one volume of sermons.
Carnegie, a local surname, denved from tb« landa and
baronj of Carnegie in the ooontj of Forfar.
In the reign of King David the Second, Walter Maole
granted to John de Bonhard, a charter of the laoda of Carne-
gie, in the baronj of Panmure and parish of CarmvUe, when
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CARNEGIE.
593
CARNWATH.
the latter assumed, iu oonsequenoe, the surname of Car-
ole.
The familj of Carnegie ot that ilk became extinct in the
direct line. The next principal family of that name was Car-
negie of Kinnaird. The first of it was Duthacns, a descend-
ant of Carnegie of that ilk, who obtained a charter from lio-
bert duke of Albany, goTcmor of ScoUand, of half of the lands
of Kinnaird, ha Forfarshire, and the superioritj.
From him lineallj descended Sir Robert Carnegie of Kin-
naird, appointed one of the senators of the College of Justice
in 1547, and ambassador to France in 1551 ; of whom a notice
IS subjoined. He and his predecessors were said to be cup-
bearers to the kings of Scotland, for which thej were in use
to cany a cup of gold on the breast of their eagle to show
their office.
His grandson, Sir David, was created Lord Carnegie of
Kinnaird, 14th April, 1616, in which year be was constituted
one of the lords of session. In June 1633, he was elevated
to the earldom of Southesk. [See Southesk, Earl of.]
These honours were attainted, under James, the fifth earl,
for being engaged in tlie rebellion of 1715; but restored in
1855. (See vol. id. p. 493).
Sir John Carnegie, the second son of David Carnegie of
Panbride, designed of Coluthie, and brother of David, first
earl of Southesk, obtained from his father the lands of Aithie,
&c, in Forfarshire, and was elevated to the peerage, 20th
April, 1639, as Lord Lour or Lower, and advanced 1st No-
vember, 1647, to the dignity of earl of Ethie. He suffered
for his fidelity to Charles the First, and after the restoration
his lordship, in 1662, got an exchange of his titles for those
of Baron Rosehill of Rosehill, and earl of Northesk. [See
NoRTHBSK, Earl of.] He died in 1667, at the age of
about 88.
The seventh earl of Northesk, who distinguished himself
as a naval officer, will be noticed in the article Nortuksk.
CARNEGIE, Sir Robert, of Kinnaird, a lawyer
and statesman, the son of John de Carnegie, who
was killed at the battle of Flodden, was some time
chamberlain of Arbroath, and having attached
himself to the regent Arran, was, July 4, 1547,
appointed a lord of session ; but on the condition
that, until an actual vacancy occun*ed, lie should
be entitled to no salary or emolument. In 1548
he was sent to England to treat for the ransom of
the earl of Huutly, chancellor of Scotland, who
had been taken prisoner at the battle of Pinkie.
Soon afterwards he was despatched on a mission
to France ; and when there, was requested by the
French king, Henry the Second, to use his influ-
ence with the duke of Chatelberault, on his re-
turn, for the resignation of the regency in favour
of Mary of Guise, the queen dowager. In 1551
we find him clerk to the treasurer of Scotland, and
one of the commissioners named to conclude a
peace with England. In 1554 and 1556 he was
nmilarly employed. When the Reformation took
place, he at first attached himself to the queen
I'egent's party, and was employed by her majesty
in negociating with the loi*ds of the congregation.
He afterwards joined the latter, and was sent by
them to the courts of England and Fi*ance to ex-
plain and vindicate their intentions. He died
July 5, 1566. In the queen's letter, nominating
his successor on the bench, he is described as a
person '^well inclined to justice, and expeit in
matters concerning the common weill of this
i-e'alm." He is supposed to have been the author
of the work on Scots law, cited in Balfour's Pi*ac-
ticks as Lib. Cameg.^ or Carnegie's Book. By
Margaret, his wife, daughter of Guthrie of Lunan,
he had, with other sons, David, one of the eight
commissioners of the Tieasury, called Octavians,
who, by his second wife, a daughter of Sir David
Wemyss of that ilk, had Sir David Carnegie,
abovementioned, first earl of Southesk.
CARNEGIE, William, seventh earl of North-
esk. See Northesk, Earl of.
CxBifWATH, earl of, a title in the peerage of Scotland, con-
ferred m 1689, on Sir Robert Dalzell, descended from Thomas
de Dalzell, one of the great barons who swore fealty to King
Edward the First in 1296, and who was afterwards one of the
patriots that joined King Robert the Bmce. The family
possessed the lands and baronj of Dalzell m Lanarkshire from
a very early period, but which they forfeited in the fburteenth
oentnxy. For the origin of the name and family of Dalzell,
see Dalzell, snmame of. Hamilton of Wix^aw, in his
* Description of the shires of Lanark and Renfrew,* says, that
the parish and barony of Dalzell did formerly belong to the
Dalzells of that ilk, till the forfeiture of Sir Robert Dalzell by
King David the Second, for his remaining in England without
the king's permission. Nisbet and others say that the lands
were bestowed by the king on Sir Malcolm Fleming, 20th
June 1848, but according to Hamilton, they were given to
Robert the Steward of Scotland, who granted them, with one
of his daughters, to a knight of the name of Sandilands, and
by the marriage of the granddaughter of the latter to the heir
of Sir Robert Dalzell, they were restored to the ancient pro-
prietors.
The earls of Camwath (the name is derived firom cotm,
* a heap of stones,* and vxUk, * a ford,*) were, at all times, and
to their own injury, — the title having been for more than a
hundred years attamted,— distingnished for their steadfast
loyalty to the house of Stuart. Sir Robert Dalzell, first earl
of Camwath, was the son of Robert Dalzell of Dalzell, by
Janet, his wife, daughter of Gavin Hanulton of Raploch,
conmiendator of Kilwinning. After having received the hon-
our of knighthood, he was, " in consideration of his owl per-
sonal merits, as well as of the constant loyalty of his ances-
tors in all times post,** nused to the peerage by the title of
Lord Dalzell, by patent dated at Whitehall, I8th September,
1628, to him and his heirs male of the name of DalzelL The
title of earl of Camwath was conferred with lunitation to tl.e
hdrs male of his body. The estate of Dalzell had continued
directly in the family, till the death of one of the young lairds
of Dalzell, leavmg only two daughters, the eldest manied to
2p
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CARNWATir,
594
SIXTH EARL OF.
the heir nude of the family, and the other to a hob of the
laird of West Nisbet, who got with her the one half of the
lands, and, with his succe^tsors, was commonly called the
baron of Dalzell. Lord Dalzell, however, porchased from the
latter his half; and in 1634, his lordship acquired the estate
of Camwath from Jam^ earl of Buchan, eldest son of the
second marriage of John earl of Mar, treasurer of ScotUnd.
In 1647 he sold the principal part of the Dalzell estate to
James Hamilton of Boggs, second son of John Hamilton of
Orbieston, by hb wife. Christian Dalzell, the earl^s sister, and
it still remains in the possession of Hamilton's descendants.
The first eari died soon after. By his countess, Margaret,
daughter of Sir Robert Crichton of Cluny, he had, wififc a
daughter, Lady Mary, married to Sir James Muirhead of
Lachop, Lanarkshire, two sons, Robert, second earl, and the
Hon. John Dalzell of Glenae in Dumfries- Hhii-e, who was cre-
ated a baronet, 11th April, 1666, and died in September
1685. He married, first. Miss Sandilands of the Torphichen
family, by whom he had two daughters, both married ; se-
condly, Lady Margaret Johnston, third daughter of James,
earl of Hartfell, without issue; thirdly, Violet, daughter of
Riddel of Haining, by whom he had, with four daughters, two
sons, of whom aiUrwards, as his grandson, Sir Robert Dal-
zell succeeded as sixth earl.
Robert, the second earl, adhered firmly to Charles the
First, and was, with five other earls, accused before the con-
vention of estates of having written a letter to the queen
from Derby, informing her of the design of the Scots to take
np arms against Charles the First, for which they were sum-
moned before- them in June 1643. They all obeyed the sum-
mons, except the earl of Camwath, who retired to England.
On the 24th of the same month, he was decerned to pay a
fine of ten thousand pounds Scots, fur contumacy, in not en-
tering his person in prison, on some words spoken by him to
his majesty, witli which the estates were dissatbfied, and on
the 25th of the following February, decreet of forfeiture was
passed agdnst him. fie was at the battle of Naseby, so dis-
astrous to the king, fought on the 14th June, 16-14, and ac-
cording to Ijord Clarendon, the loss of that battle was mainly
owing to Lord Camwath. He rode next to his imgraty, and
when the king was on the point of charging at the head of
his guards, the earl, (a man never suspected of infidelity, nor
yet one from whom his majesty would have t:tken counsel in
such a case) un a sudden, laid his band on the bridle of the
king's horse, and ^^ swearing two or three fiillmouthed Scot-
tish oaths," said, '* Will yon go upon your death in an in-
stant?*" and before his majesty understood what he would
have, turned his horse round, on which the word ran through
the troops that they should march to the right, and they all
turned their horses, and rode, upon the spur, off the field.
His lordship died soon afterwards. By Christian, his wife,
daughter of Sir William Douglas of Dramlanrig, he had two
sons, Gavin, third earl, and the Hon. William Dalzell, who
died unmarried about the end of 1646.
Gavin, third earl of Camwath, was compelled to pay a
hundred thousand merks for his father's liferent of his est^tw.
He was served heir to his brother William 19th January
1647. He accompanied King Charles the Second into Eng-
land in August 1651, was taken at the battle of Worcester
8d September of that year, and remained in prison for sev-
eral years. He died in June 1674. He sold the estate of
Camwath to Sir George Lockhart, Lord President of tne
coiut of session, and it still remains in the Lockhart family.
The third earl was twice married, first, to Margaret, the
elder of the two daughters of David Lord Camegie, son of
the first earl of Southesk, and by her had two sons, James
and John, auooessively earis of Camwath, and a daughter,
Lady Jean, married to Claud Muirhead of Lachope; and
secondly, to Lady Mary Erskine, eldest daughter of Alexan-
der third earl of Kellie, without issue.
James, fourth earl of Camwath, married Lady Mary Seton,
youngest daughter of the second earl of Winton, and by her
he had one daughter, Lady Mary, married to Lord John Hay,
second son of the second marquis of TweeddaJe, without
issue. He died in 1683, and was succeeded by his brother,
John, fifth eari of Camwath, a nobleman eminent for his
learning and for his knowledge in the science of hersldir.
He died, unmarried, in June 1708. The first appearance oi
TnanteUs (a term in heraldry) in Scotland was on his funeral
escutcheon.
llie title reverted to the grandson of the Hon. Su* John
Dalzell of Glenae, baronet, already mentioned, as having
three sons and four daughters. The sons were, Ist, Sir
John ; 2d, James, an officer in the army of King James the
Seventh, but who, at the Revolution, quitted the service.
He engaged in the rebellion of 1715, and was taken at Pres-
ton, in November of that year. He married a Miss Graham,
by whom, with a daughter, he had a son, John, who took to
wife Harriet^ daughter of the sixth earl of Keomnre ; and
8d, Colonel Thomas Dalzell of the Soots goards, who died in
1743. The latter married Janet, only daughter of the second
son of Ferguson of Craigdarroch, by whom he had a son,
Dand Dalzell, a merchant in Glasgow, and three daughters.
Sir John Dalzell of Glenae, the eldest son, was served heir
to his father, 2d September 1686, and died in 1689. By his
wife, Henriet, second daughter of Sir William Murray of
Stanhope, baronet, he had two sons, namely, Sir Robert,
sixth eari of Camwath, and John, and a daughter, Mary,
married to the sixth Viscount Kenmure, who was behead<
ed for his accession to the rebellion of 1715. The Hon. John
Dalzell, the second son, was a captain in the army on half-
pay, and on the ramoured arrival of the earl of Mar in Soot-
land in the beginning of August of that year, he sent in a
resignation of his commission to the earl of Orkney, that be
might joiu the standard of the Pretender, and set off immedi-
ately to EUiock, the residence of his brother, the eari of
Camwath, to apprize him of Mar's expected arrival. He ad-
vanced with the insurgent army into England, and was at
the battle of Preston. After their defeat there, while nego-
tiations were going on with General Wills, the English com
mander, relative to a surrender, he appeared at Wills' head-
quarters, and requested to know what terms he would grant
separately to the Scots. Wills answered that he would not
treat with rebels, nor grant any other terms than thoee al-
ready ofiSored, namely, unconditional surrender as prisoners of
war. He was among the prisoners taken on that occason,
and was immediately tried by a court martial as a deserter,
but acquitted, having proved that previous to joining the
rebels he had resigned his commission in the service of go-
vemment. He married a daughter of William Tildealy of
Lodge, Esq., and had a son settled in St Christophers.
Sir Robot Dalzell of Glenae, the elder son, on the death
of John, fifth earl of Camwath, in 1703, became the sixth
earl. He vm early instracted by his tutor in the now ex-
ploded doctrines of hereditary right, passive obedience and
non-resistance, which entailed so much misery and misfortune
on those who held them. He was educated at the university
of Cambridge, where he imbibed a strong affection for the
sehrioes of the Church of England. His disposition is de-
scribed as having been naturally sweet, and his address afla-
ble, and, with other gifts and graces, he po»essed a ready
wit and considerable power of language. He engaged in the
-' I
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CARNWATH.
595
CARRICK.
rebellion of 1715 with great ardonr. On receiving from his
brother notice of the expected arrival of the earl of Mar in
Scotland, on 7th August that year, to raise the standard of the
Pretender, he despatched expresses to the earl of Nithsdale,
the viscount Kenmure, and other Jacobite chiefs with the
intelligence. He attended the grand hunting match at Aboyne
in Abordeenshire, oc 27th August, convened bv the earl of
Mar, at which it was resolved to take up arms in support of
the Chevalier, and was one of those summoned by the Lord
Advocate to appear at Edinburgh to give bail for their alle-
giance to the government ; but he paid no attention to the
summons. He joined the insurgent army, on their advance
into England, and on their arrival at Kelso, his chaplain,
Mr. William Irvine, an old episcopalian minister, delivered a
Mrmon, on the afternoon of Sunday, 23d October, full of ex-
hortations to his hearers to be zealous and steady in the cause
of the Chevalier. This discourse, he afterwards acknow-
ledged, he had formerly preached in the Highlands, about
twenty-six years before, in presence of Lord Viscount Dun-
dee and his army. On the following Sunday, the 80th Octo-
ber, the rebels, having arrived at Langholm, sent forward to
Eodefechan, during the nighty a detachment of four hundred
horse, under the earl of Camwath, for the purpose of block-
ing up Dumfries till the foot should come up. This detadi-
ment arrived at Eodefechan before daylight, and after a short
halt, proceeded m the direction of Dumfries, but they had
not advanced far, when they learned that great preparations
had been made for the defence of the town. The earl imme-
diately forwarded the intelligence to Langholm, and in the
meantime halted his men at Blacket-ridge, a moor in the
neighbourhood, till further orders. His express was met by
the main body of the insurgent army about two miles west
from Langholm, on its march to Dumfries, the intended at-
tack on which town was in consequence abandoned. He was
taken prisoner at Preston, 14th November, and on the 19th
January following, with Lords Derwentwater, Nithsdale,
Wintoun, Nairn, Widdrington, and Kenmure, he was brought
before the House of Lords, on an impeachment of high trea-
son. Hera his steadfastness failed him. He pleaded guilty,
and threw himself on the mercy of the king, beseeching their
lordships to uitercede for him with his msjesty, assuring
them that if his life were granted, he should deem himself
obliged to live under the strictest ties of loyalty to King George
for the fhtuie. He was condemned, with six other lords,
and sentenced to be beheaded as a traitor, his titles attainted,
and hit estate, which then amounted to j£868 per annum,
forfeited to the crown. After being respited, he received a par-
don, so far as his life and estates were concerned, and died at
Kirkmichael in July 1787. He was 4 times married ; 1. to
Lady Grace Montgomery, 8d daughter of 9tb earl of Kglinton,
issue 2 daughters; 2. 8d June 1720, to Grizel, daughter of
Alexander Urqnhart of Newhall, issue a son, Alexander; 8.
to Margaret, daughter of John Hamilton of Bangor, issue a
daughter; 4. in July 178^ to Margaret, 8d daughter of Tho-
mas Vincent of Bambmgh Grange, Yorkshire, issue a son, Ro-
bert, married to Miss Addom of Wiseton, in the same county.
Alexander Dalzell, the attainted earVs elder son« assumed
the title of earl, after his father's death. He died at Kirk-
michael, 8d April 1787. By his wife. Elisabeth Jackson, he
bad 5 sona, all of whom, except the 2d, died young, and 2
daughters, styled Lady Margaret and Lady Elizabeth Dnlzell,
the former married to Sir Robert Grierson of Lagg, bHronet.
The latter died unmarried.
Richard, the eldest son, b. in 1753, m. Elizabeth Johnstone,
and had a dr. m. to her cousin, Alexander GnerMn, Esq.,
younger of Lag.^
Robert Dalzell of Glenae, the second and only surviving
son, studied for the bar, and passed advocate in 1776. On
his father's death, he inherited the estates, but did not as-
sume the title. He died at Glenae house, 13th February,
1808. He married, 18th March, 1783, Anne, daughter of
David Armstrong of Kirtleton, Dumfries-shire, advocate, and
by her had two daughters, namely, Margaret, wife of Migor
Dougal Stuart-Dalziel, and Elizabeth, of Henry Douglas,
Esq., third son ot Sir Charles Douglas, baronet of Kelhead,
and a son, John, the youngest of the family, bom 18tli Au-
gust 1795. He succeeded his father in 1808. He was an
•fHcer in the royal navy, and fell in action off New Orleans,
10th October, 1814. As be died unmarried, the issue male
of the attainted eari*s eldest son, Alexander, styled the sev-
enth earl became extinct, and the estates fell to Robert Al-
exander Dalzell, a lieutenant-general in the army, bom 13th
Febraary 1768, descended from the attainted earPs younger
son, Robert. To General Dalzell, the earldom of Camwath
was restored by act of parliament, 26th May 1826. He mar-
ried, first, 28d September 1789, Jane, daughter of Samuel
Parkes, Esq. of Cork, and Ly her, (who died 3d September
1791) he had a daughter, Elizabeth, who died young; sec-
ondly, 26th April, 1794, Andalusia, daughter of lieutenant-
colonel Arthur Browne, by whom he had four sons and three
daughters. This lady died in 1833, and the earl mairied,
thirdly, 11th October, 1838, Jane, relict of Migor Alexander
Morison of Gunnersbury Park, Middlesex, and of John Car-
nell, Esq. of Correnden and Hazel Hall, Kent. His lordship
died January 1, 1839.
His eldest son, Thomas Henry Dalzell, succeeded as ele-
venth earl in succession (including those who should havo
possessed the tiUo during the attainder). He was bora in
1797; married, Ist, Mary Anne, eldest daughter of Rt; Hon.
Henry Grattan, widow of John Blashford, Esq. ; died in 1858,
without issue; married, 2dly, in 1855, Isabella Eliza, daugh-
ter of Colonel Eardley Wilmot, R. A., widow of J. H. Lecky,
Esq. ; issue, a son, Henry Arthur Hew, Lord Dalzell.
Carrick, a surname derived from the southern of the
three districts into which the county of Ayr is divided. The
name appears to have originated from the British carrig, a
rock, probably in reference to Ailsa Craig, a lofty rock in the
sea which lies opposite to, and not very distant from, its sea-
board, and which likewise gave bis tide to the Marquis of
Ailsa.
Carrick, earl of, an ancient title, first held by Duncan, .
son of Gilbert, one of the two sons of Fergus, lord of Gal-
loway, a chief descended of a Saxon family, long previously
placed over these wild people by the English earls of North-
umberland, who, having rebelled against Malcolm the Fourth,
was subdued by him, and became a subject of the Scottish
crown in the twelfth century. At that period, the district
of Carrick formed a portion of Galloway. On Fergus' death,
in 1161, his lands were, according to the law of the country,
divided between Gilbert and his brother Uchtred. They at-
tended William the lion on his invasion of Northumberland
in 1174, but no sooner was he taken prisoner than, returning
into Galloway at the head of their fierce and rapacious clans,
they broke out into rebellion, attacked and demolished the
royal casties, murdered the Anglo-Normans who had settied
among their mountains, and expelled the officers of the long
of Scots. They proceeded next to dispute about pre-emi-
nence and possessions among themselves. On the 22d Sep-
tember, 1176, Gilbert attacked Uchtred, while residing in
his father's house in Loch-Fergus, and having overpowered
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CAJIRICK,
696
EARL OF.
him, caused his ton Malcolm to put him to death, after de-
priving him of his sight and tongae, but was unable to ac-
qmre his possessions, valiantly defended by Boland the son
of Uchtred. On William the Lion regaining his liberty, in
the foUowmg year, he invaded Galloway, subdued Gilbert,
and exacting a pecuniary satisfaction, allowed him to resume
possession of his inheritance. Gilbert died on the 1st of Jan-
uary 1184-5, when Rolnnd, the son of the murdered Uchtred,
seizing the favourable opportunity, attacked and dispersed his
uncle's adherents, 5th July 1185, and obtained possession of
all Galloway as his own inheritance. This procedure was,
however, opposed by Henry the Second of England, then
lord paramount of Scotland, who marched an army to Car-
lisle, and although William would have been well pleased to
see Roland in possession of the whole country, both he and
Boland were forced to submit the matter to the decision of
the English court Satisfied with this acknowledgment of
his paramount ri^^t, Heniy left the settlement of the ques-
tion to William, who granted the district of Carrick to Dun-
can, son of Gilbert as a full satisfaotion. This took place
about 1186, and Duncan was thereupon created earl of Car-
rick. About 1240, he founded the famous abbey of Cross-
raguel or Croesregal, two miles from Maybole, for Cluniac
monks, and amply endowed it with lands and tithes. He
also gave to the monks of Paisley and Melrose, several dona-
tions out of his estate, for the welfare of his souL
His son, Kigel or Niel, second earl of Carridc, like his fa-
ther, was very liberal to the church. In 1255, a oommission
was granted by Henry the Third, for receiving * Niel earl of
Karricke,* and other Scotsmen mto his protection. He was
one of the regents of Scotland and guardians of Alexander
the Third and his queen, appointed in the convention at Rox-
burgh, 20th September, 1255, and died the following year.
He married Maipret, daughter of Walter, high-steward of
Scotland, by whom he had a daughter, Margaret, countess of
Carridc, in her own right, and the mother of Robkrt the
Bruce. She was twice married ; first to Adam de Kiloon-
cath (or Kiloonquhar), Who, in her right, in accordance with
the practice of ^ose days, was third eari of Carrick. Having
joined the crussde of 1268, under the banner of Louis the
Ninth of France, he died at Aeon in the Holy Land in 1270.
The fbllowmg year she married, secondly, Robert Brus, son
of Robert Brus, lord of Annandale and Cleveland, under the
romantic droumstanoes ahready related. [See ants, p. 407,
art Bruck.] Brus, in consequence, became fourth earl of
Carrick. The countess died before 1292, and on 27th No-
vember of that year, her husband resigned to Robert the
Bruce, his eldest son, the earldom of Carrick, with all the
lands he held in Scotland in right of his wife. He still, how-
ever, continued to be styled earl of Carrick. He and his son
swore fealty to Edward the First at Berwick, 28th August
1296, on which oocasipn they are styled in the record * Robert
de Brus le veil (vieil) e Robert de Brus le jouene Counte de
Carrick.' The elder Brus died in 1804. By the countess of
Carrick he had five sons and seven daughters, vi2. 1. Robert
the Bruce, fifth earl of Carrick and king of Soots ; 2. Edward,
nxth earl, crowned king of Ireland ; 3^ and 4, Thomas and
Alexander, who, being taken prisoners in Galloway, 9th Feb-
ruary, 1306-7, by Duncan Maodowal, when bringing succours
to their brother Robert from Ireland, after an engagement in
which they were both severely wounded, and presented by
him at Carlisle to Edward the First, were, by his order, im-
mediately executed ; and, 5, Niel, a young man of singular
beauty, one of those who surrendered at Kildrummie castle
to the earls of Lancaster and Hereford in 1806. He was
tried by a special commission at Berwick, condemned, hanged
and beheaded. The daughters were, 1. Lady Isabel, mar-
ried, first to Sir Thomas Randolph of Strathdon, high-cham-
berlain of Scotland, by whom she had Thomas eari of Moray,
regent of Scotland ; secondly, to an earl of Atbd; and thirdly,
to Alexander Bruce, by whom she had a son of the same
name. Anoong the charters of Robert the Bmoe is one to
Isobel countess of Athol and Alexander Bruoe her son, of the
lands of Culven and Sannaykis. ' Two others are gnmted to
Isabell de Atholia and Alexander Bruce, 'filio suo nepoti
nostro,' of the lands of Balgillo in Forfarshire ; 2. Lady Mary,
married, first, to Sir Niel Campbell of Lochow, ancestor of the
Argyle family, and secondly, to Sir Alexander Frazer, higfa-
chamberiain of Scotland ; 3. Lady Christian, married, first, '
to Gratney, eari of Mar; secondly to Sur Christopher Seton of
Seton, who was put to death by the English in 1306 ; and thirdly,
to Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell ; 4. Lady Matilda, married
to Hugh, earl of Ross; 5. Lady Max^garet married to Sir
William Carlyle of Torthorwald and Crunington ; 6. Lady
Elizabeth, married to Sir William Dishington of Ardross in
Fife; and 7. the youngest daughter, whose name has not
been preserved, nuuried to Sir David de Brechin.
King Robert the Bruce, the eldest son, married, first, Isa-
bella, daughter of Donald, tenth earl of Mar. by whom be
had a daughter, Marjory, who fell into the hands of the Eng-
lish in 1306, and was detained a prisoner in England, in
charge of Henry de Percy till after the battle of Bannockboni
in 1314, when she was conducted hack to Scotland by Walter
the high-steward, to whom she was married in 1315. She
died in March 1315-16, leaving an only child, afterwards
King Robert the Second. The Bruce married, secondly, in
1302, Lady Elizabeth de Burgo, eldest daughter of Richard,
second earl of Ulster. In 1306, she fled to the sanctuary of
St Duthac at Tain, in Ross-shire, but the eari of Ross, vio-
lating the sanctuary, delivered her up to the English. The
directions given for her entertainment while a prisoner, are
preserved by Rymer. She was to be conveyed to the manor
of Brustewick ; to be allowed a waiting woman and a maid
servant, advanced in h'fe, sedate, and of good oonvorsation; a
butler, two men servants, and a fbotboy for her chamber,
sober, and not riotous, to make her bed; three greyhounds,
when she inclined to hunt ; venison, fish, and the fairest house
in the manor. In 1308, she was removed to another prison,
and in 1312, to Windsor castle, when twenty shillings weekly
were allowed for her maintenance. Her last place of confine-
ment was the castle of Rochester, whither she was conveyed
in 1314. The same year, after Bannookbum, the queen, the
sister and daughter of Bruce, with the bishop of Glasgow
and the earl of Mar, were exchanged for the eari of Hereford.
She died 26th October 1327, and was buried at Dimfermline.
Her issue were, a son. King David the Seocmd, and three
daughters, namely, 1. Mai^garet, married, first, to Robert
Glen, who, with his wife, received a grant of Piteddy in Fife
fh>m her brother, David the Second ; and, secondly, to William,
fourth eari of Sutherland, and died in 1358, leaving issue by the
earl ; 2. Matilda, married to Thomas Isaac, a simple esquire,
and had two daughters, Johanna, married to John, lord of
Lorn, and Catharine, who died young. Their mother died at
Aberdeen 20th July, 1353, and was buried at DunfiBrmfine ;
and 3. Elizabeth, married to Sir Walter Oliphant of Aber-
dalgy, for which Crawford refers to a charter d* 11th January
1364, whereby King David erects the lands of Gask^to a
free barony, * dilecto et fideli suo Waltero Olyfant et E&za-
bethse, sponsae sue, dilectse sorori nostrss.* Besides these
children. King Robert the Bmoe had a natural son,. Sir Ro-
bert Bruce, blight who obtained from his father grants of
the Unds of Uddisdale, the barooy of Spronstun, the forfeSteil
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CARRICK,
697
JOHN DONALD.
bmds of Alexander de Abernethy, and Tarioiu other Uoids, in
which grants he is generally styled * filios noster charissimas.*
He fought galhintly at the disastrous battle of Dupplin, where
he was killed, 12th August, 1882.
Sir Edward Brace, the second son, on whom and the hdrs
male of his body, withoat reference to legitimacy, the eaii-
dom of Carrick was conferred by charter by his brother King
Bobert, and who was also k>rd of Galloway and king of Ire-
land, married Isabella, daughter of William earl of Bos, for
which he received a dispensation firom the Pope, dated at
Avignon 1st June 1817, as they were within the third and
fourth degrees of consanguinity, for the purpose of putting
an end to feuds between their parents, rehitives, and friends.
£dwaid, king o'' Ireland, had no legitimate issue, but he left
three natural sons, Robert, Alexander, and Thomas, suooes-
nv«ly €«ils of Carrick. [See an/e, p. 422.]
Robert, seventh earl, the eldest son, inherited that earldom
in Tuine of the charter granted by Robert the First to the
heirs male of the body of his brother, Edward Bruoe, withoat
restricting the succession to legitimate sons. He fell at^e
battle of Dupplm, 12th August, 1882, without issue.
Alexander, eighth earl, his brother and heir, with many
others of the Scottish nobles, submitted to BaUol after the
battle of Dupplin. At the battle of Annan soon after, where
Baliol was suiprised and defeated, he was taken in arms by
the eari of Moray, who saved him from the punishment of a
traitor. Balfour says that he had been constr»ned to follow
Baliol to Annan. At the battle of Halidonhill, 19th July,
1883, he held a command in the third division of the Soots
army, which was led by the regent himself, and fell, fighting
valiantly agunst the English ; thus atoning, says Lord Hailes,
for his short defection from his cousin David the Second.
He married Eleanor, only daughter of Archibald de Douglas,
rister of William first eari of Douglas, and by her had an
only daughter, Lady Eleanor Bruce, married to Sir William
de Cunynghame, who, in her right, became tenth eari of
Carrick. The countess, her mother, after the death of her
husband, eari Alexander, was four times married again,
namely, to James Sandilands of Calder, of the Torphichen
family; William Towers of Dahy; Sir Duncan Wallace of
Sundrum; and lastly, in 1876, to Sir Patrick Hepburn of
Hales. In the Fadera is a safe-conduct for Alianora de
Bruys, countess of Carrick (the daughter), going into Eng-
land, with sixty horse in her train, to visit the shrine of Tho-
mas ^ Becket at Canterbury, to endure for one year, dated 8th
December, 1378.
Thomas Bmce, ninth eari, succeeded hb brother Alexander.
He was one of the associates of Robert the Steward, guardian
of Scotland, whom he joined with the flower of the gentry of
Kyle, in 1384, but died soon afterwards without issue.
On his death the earldom of Carrick reverted to the crown,
and was conferred on Sir William de Cunynghame, knight,
husband of Lady Eleanor Bruce, as appears from an incom-
plete charter of King David the Second, without a date. The
earidom, however, soon again reverted to the crown, and was
oonfiarred by David the Second on John Stewart, Lord of
Kyle, great grandson of King Robert the Bruce, eldest son of
Robert Steward of Scotland, eari of Strathem, by a charter
in the parliament at Scone, 22d June 1363. In 1856 he had
defeated the English in Annandale, and obliged the inhabi-
tants to submit to the Soots government John Stewart,
eleventh eari of Carrick, was present in the parliament held
by David at Perth, 28d October 1870, when the earidom of
Ross was resigned into the king*s hands. After the accession
of his £ftther to the throne, he resigned the earldom into bis
miyesty*s bands, and obtained a new charter thereof to him
and Lady Annahella Drummond, his spouse, in liferent, and
to the heirs procreated between them, in fee, 1st June 1874.
Succeeding to the crown of Scotland in 1890, by the title of
Robert the Third, he conferred the earldom of Carrick on his
eldest son, the ill-&ted duke of Rothesay, who thus became
the twelfth earl. After the death of that prince, the king,
10th December 1404, granted in firee regality to his second
son James, steward of SooUand, afterwards James the First,
the whole lands of the stewartiy of Scotland, including the
earldom of Carrick. That earldom ever after composed part
of the inheritance of the princes end stewards of Scotland,
and is one of the titles of the prince of Wales, duke ol
Rothesay.
The title of eari of Carrick was. for a short time, held by
another John Stewart, the second son of Robert eari of Ork-
ney, a natural son of James the Fifth. He was first created a
peer of Scotland by the title of Lord Kindeven, lOth August,
1607, and had charters of the dominical lands and mill of the
monastery of Croesraguel, of the hmds of Ballersom, Knock'
ronnall, and of the barony of Grenane, &c., 29th August
1616. Being thus in possession of part of the ancient earl-
dom of Carrick, he obtained fhim Gng Charies the First a
patent of the title of eari of Carrick. At the privy council
held 22d July 1628, the procurator for his lordship delivered
to the eari of Mar, lord treasurer, a patent under the great
seal, whereby his miyesty had been pleased to advance him
to that dignity, whidi patent the lord treasurer having exhi-
bited to the council. Sir Thomas Hope, lord advocate, re-
minded the council that the title of earl of Carrick belonged
to the kiug*s eldest son, the prince of Scotland, and was not
oonununioable to any subject, and he recommended to the
council to adrise with his migesty on the subject, before any
* forder wer proceedit herein.* The difficulty appears to have
been got over by the earl's alleging that the title was taken
not from the earldom of Carrick in Ayrshire, but from a
small place called Carrick on his brdship*s estate in Orkney;
for, on 14th December 1630, the lord chancellor delivered to
the earl of Carrick a patent under the great seal, whereby his
majesty made him and the heirs male 'gottin* of hb own
body earls of Carrick, which patent the said earl reverently
accepted on his knees, his ambition now being completely
gratified. His lordship died without male issue in 1652,
when his titles became extinct.
In the peerage of Ireland, the title of eari of Carrick. cre-
ated in 1748, is enjoyed by a family of the name of Butler,
descended from a common ancestor with the house of Or-
monde. The first Viscount Ikerrin, (created in 1629) the
second title of the eari of Carrick, was Sir Pierce Butler of
Lismallon, a lineal descendant of Edmund, created in 1815
earl of Carrick-Mac-6riffyne, for his services against the
Scots, a sort of opposition title when, at the same time, it
was borne by Edward Bruce, afterwards crowned king of
Ireland. The eighth Viscount Ikerrin obtained the earldom
in 1748.
CARRICK, John Donald, a miscellaneous
writer, was born at Glasgow in April 1787. His
father was in humble circumstances; and after re-
ceiving the common elements of education, he was^
at an earlj period placed in the office of a Mr.
Nicholson, an architect in his native city. In
1807, imknown to his parents, with the view of
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CARRICK
598
CARRUTHERS.
trying his fortaae in Loudon, ho set off on foot,
with bat a few shillings in his pocket, sleeping
under hedges, or wherever he could obtain a dor-
mitory. On his anival in the gi-eat city he offered
his services to various shopkeepere, but at fii-st
without success. At last a decent ti*adesman,
himself a Scotsman, took compassion on the friend-
less lad, and engaged him to run his errands, &c.
He was afterwards in the employment of several
other persons. In the spring of 1809 he obtained
a situation in the house of Messrs. Spodes <& Co.,
in the Staffordshire pottery line of business. In
the beginning of 1811 he retmiied to Glasgow, and
opened a large establishment in Hutcheson street,
as a china and stoneware merchant, in which busi-
ness he continued for fourteen years. In 1825, he
published a * Life of Sii' William Wallace,* in two
volumes, which was written for Constable's JMis-
cellany. This, his principal work, was favourably
received. lie also wrote, about this time, some
comic songs and humorous pieces. In that year he
gave up his business, and travelled for two or three
years, chiefly in the West Highlands, as an agent
for some Glasgow house. He afterwards became
sub-editor of the * Scots Times,' a newspaper of
liberal principles then published at Glasgow, and
wrote many of the local squibs and other jeux
ifesprit which appeared in that paper. He con-
tributed 'The Confessions of a Burker,' *The
Devil's Codicil,' and other pieces, to ' The Day,'
a periodical published for six months at Glas-
gow in 1832. Afterwards to a collection of songs
and pieces of poetry, sentimental and humorous,
entitled * Whistle-Binkie.' Mr. Carrick contributed
*The Scottish Tea- Party,' 'Mister Peter Pater-
son,' 'The Harp and the Haggis,' 'The Gude-
man's Pi-ophecy,' ' The Cook's Legacy,' and * The
Mnirlaud Cottagers,' in that vein of humour in
which he excelled. In 1833 he was editor of the
'Perth Advertiseit' during eleven months. In
February 1834 he was editor of the ' Kilmainock
Journal;' but being afflicted with an affection
which finally settled into tic dohreux in the head
and mouth, he returaed to Glasgow in January
1835, where he superintended the first edition of
the 'Laird of Logan,' a collection of Scottish
anecdotes and facetis, which appeared in June of
that year, and of which he was projector and prin-
cipal contributor; and he contributed papers to the
'Scottish Monthly Magazine,* a periodical pub-
lished for a short time in Glasgow. Mr. Carrick
died August 17, 1837, and was interred in the
burying-ground of the High Church of his native
city. As a writer he is principally distinguished
for humorous satire, and a thorough knowledge o<
the manners and customs of his countrymen. To
an enlarged edition of the 'Laird of Logan* we
are indebted for these details of his life.
Garruthebs, a surname derived from an ancient pariah
of the same niune in Dnmfries-sbire, which with Penenaz
was united to Middlebie in 1609, and tbe]r now fotm one
parish, under the latter name. On a height abore the site
of the ancient hamlet of Carmthers stood a British foctlet
whence came the name Caer-rhjth^T, * the fort of the as-
sault.* The lands of Penersax (written also Penesax and
Pennisax, vulgarized into Penersaughs,) belonged in the fif-
teenth century to Kilpatrick of Dalgamock, but passed, in
1499, to Carmthers of Mousewald, and in the reign of James
the Sixth were acquired by the Douglases of Drumlanrig. the
ancestors of the dukes of Queensbeny. A statue of Su* Si«
mon Carmthers of Mousewald, who married a daughter of
that ducal house, lies in the aisle of the pariah church of
Mousewald (originally Moswald, ' the wood near the moss*).
its head pillowed, its feet on a lion, and its bands in the de-
rated posture of supplication ; but it has neither date cor
inscription. In * Pitcaim's Criminal Trials,' (vol L part 1,)
under date, September 13, 1563, a bond is quoted as recorded
in the Caution Book, {Liber PUgiadotdty') whereby Marion
Carmthers. an heiress of Mousewald, finds caution not to
many any chief traitor or other * broken* man. One WHliam
Carmthers in Clonhede, was, January 2G, 1508-9, convicted
of transporting cattle to England (taken fi-om the laird ol
Newby), and of art and part of the slaughter at the same
time of Robert Hood and of an iniant of two years old, as
well as of the burning of the place and mill c^ Newby, in
company with Andrew Johnston *and the traitors of Leven,*
and was sentenced to be drawn and hanged, and all his goods
forfeited. The crime of sending, or * treasonably ontputting,*
as it was called, of cattle to England, was, in those days,
always visited with the severest punishments, as during the
wars between the two countries, frequent famines took pbce
in Scotland , and the constant force maintained on the bor->
ders led to the necessity of bringing cattle from, rather than
sending them to, the English counties. On May 19, 1563,
John Carmthers of Holmends (properly Holmains or llow-
mains), George and William his sons, Edward Irvine of Bon-
shaw, David Irvme of Robgill, and several others their ao-
oomplioes, were indicted for hurting Kirkpatrick of Clusebum,
and sUying several persons whose names were given ; but the
indictment appears to have been departed from. On ISth
March 1618 John Carmthers of Rammerscales, ana William
Johnston, called of Lockerbie, were indicted for the slaughtet
of Christopher Wlghoime (now Wigham or Whigham), bur-
gess of Sanquhar, committed in Jime 1594, but the charge
was not pressed against Carmthers. For the sUugliter of
John Carmthers of Dormont, one Habbie Rae in Mousewald
and twenty-one others were put upon theur trial, 8d Febra-
ary 1619 ; but the case was remitted to the circuit court at
Dumfries, and the i-esult is not recorded.
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CARSON,
699
AGLIONBY ROSS.
CARSON, Agliomby Ross, M.A., LL.D., rec-
tor of the High School of Edinburgh, a classical
scholar of reputation, was born at Holywood,
Dumfries-shii*e, in the year 1780. He received
the elements of his classical education in the en-
dowed school of Wallace Hail, in the ueighbonr-
ing parish of Closeburu ; in which institution he
subsequently acted as an assistant teacher. In
1797 he entered the univereity of Edinburgh ; and
from May 1799, till October 1800, acted as assist-
ant to Mr. John Taylor, of the gi'ammar school,
Musselburgh. He was enrolled a student of divi
nity in the university of Edinburgh in 1799. The
grammar school of Dumfries having become va-
cant by the removal of Mr. Gray to Edinburgh,
Mr. Carson was unanimously elected his succes
soi', on the 15th of October, 1801. In January
1806, in consequence of Mr. Christison's promo-
tion to the chair of humanity in Edinburgh, Mr.
Carson obtained a mastei'ship in the High School.
In 1820, when Mr. Pillans vacated the rector's
chair, in consequence of having succeeded Profes-
sor Christison in the university, the patrons of the
High School placed Mi*« Carson at the head of the
school. His appointment as rector took place on
the dOth of August, 1820. He had, three months
prior, declined acceptance of the Greek professor-
ship in the univereity of St. Andrews, to which,
though not a candidate, he had been elected. Six
yeai-s afterwards, that univereity, in token of his
great learning, confened on him the degi-ee of
LL.D. On the 9th of October, 1845, he found it
necessary, on account of the precarious state of
his health, to tender his resignation as rector of
the High School into the hands of the patrons.
On this occasion the magisti*ates and council tes-
tified their appreciation of his long and faithfiil
services by settling upon him an annuity for life,
of a hundred pounds. At a meeting of his col-
leagues, a series of resolutions were passed, ex-
pressive of their deep regret at his resignation of
rector, and bearing testimony to the merit, acu-
men, and profundity of his co::^tributions to critical
literature — especially in regard to his treatise on
the Latin relative. The resolutions also spoke of
his long, laborious, and valuable services in the
High School, and his popularity as a teacher.
They chai-acterized him as a man of unobtrusive
worths-endowed with rare powere of instruction,
and as possessing a plavinl manner even in matters
of discipline, while he maintained order by the
gentlest means.
A half-length portrait of Dr. Carson, painted in
1833 by Watson Gordon, Esq., president of the
Royal Society of Arts, ornaments the hall of
the High School, of which the following is a
woodcut:
The eicpense was defrayed "by a subscription by
several of his pupils, and was presented to the
school by Dr. Balfour.
He was succeeded in the oflSce of rector of the
High School, on the 16th of December, 1845, by
Dr. L. Schmitz, a native of Eupen, a village near
Aix-la-Chapelle, in the Rhenish province of Prus-
sia. Dr. Carson died at Edinburgh on the 4th
November 1850 — Dr. Steven^ History of the High
School.
Dr. Careon's contributions to litertiture are, an edition of
'Phsedrus, 'Mair's Introduction,' 'Turner's Gnunmatical
Exercises,' and particularly an edition of *Tacitus.' all o*
which, especially the hist, are highly valued.
Of the excellence of his work entitled * The Relative, Qui,
Quae, Quod,' ample testimony is borne by its universal adop-
tion as a guide to the tyro.
He also contributed lai^ely to the * Classical Jonmal,' the
* Scottish Review, and the Enc}-dopcdia Britannica.'
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CARSTAIRS,
600
WILLIAM.
CAKaTAiRSf a samiime derived from the parish of Car-
•tairs, in the upper ward of Lanarkshire. In charters of the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries the name appears in the
form of Cnstleterres or Castletarres, and in documents subse-
quent to that date in that of Carstares, Carstaires, and Car-
stairs. The prefix ear or caer^ which occurs in the old Brit-
ish language, signifies either a fort, walled place, or city, and
most probably therefore any place built of stone and lime,
originally derived from the Latin coilr, ooA Hme, used in
oountries where Roman colonies once existed, to denote a
bnildmg of stone and lime, as cae«, a quay or wharf, m its
abstract form of caero or caeiro^ lime-kiln, or place where
lime is used, still met with in the Spanish and Portuguese lan-
guages. The frequent use of this word caer^ in Saxon names
of places, in England and Scotland, as CarhampUm^ &c, and
the fact of its not occurring in British or Welsh topography
until after the regions had been visited by the Saxons, if not
conquered by them, makes it doubtful if it be originally of
British origin. The word is thus 83monymous with the other
prefix castd. The affix gUnrt or <totr, anciently itaer or tter^
is a corrupt form of the word terrcB or terrace signifying lands
pertaining to or holding of the castle. There was an old
family of this name who possessed the lands of Kilconquhar
in Fife, and from them that estate came to the ancestors of
the present proprietor. Sir John Lindsay Bethune, Bart, de-
scended from the Lords Lindsay of the Byres.
CARSTAIRS, WiLUAM, a divine of great po-
litical eminence, was born, February 11, 1649, at
Catbcart, near Glasgow, of the high church of
which city his father, who was descended from an
ancient family in Fife, was minister. In 'Bal-
four's Annals,' (vol. iv. p. 168,) under date 22d
November 1650, the following entry, relative to
his father in the proceedings of the Estates, occurs:
' The Committee of estaits remitts to the Com. of
quarterings the exchange of prissoners, anent
Alex. Jeffray and Mr. Johne Carster, minister,
with some Englishe prissoners in the castle of
Dumbartan.' His mother, Jane Muir, was of the
family of Glandei-ston, in Renfrewshire. When
vei-y young he was sent to a school at Ormiston
in East Lothian, then kept by a Mr. Sinclair,
which under his care had attained to great cele-
brity. At this school many of the sons of the no-
bility and gentry who afterwards distinguished
themselves in life, were his companions. With
several of them he formed an intimacy which con-
tinued through b'fe, and to this, he was wont to
ascribe, in a great measure, his future fortunes.
In due time he was entered a member of the uni-
versity of Edinburgh, but afterwards, in conse-
quence of the distracted state of the times in Scot-
land, he went to Utrecht, where his prudence and
address recommended him to the notice of the
prince of Orange, to whom he was inti-oduced by
the pensionary Fagel. In 1682 he i-etnmed to
Scotland with the view of enterng the church,
but, discoui*afi:ed by the persecution to which the
Presbyterians were subjected at that period, he,
after receiving a licence to preach, resolved to re-
turn to Holland. As he had to pass through Lon-
don, he was instructed by Argyle and his friends
to treat with Russell, Sydney, and the other lead-
era of that party in England who wished to ex-
clude the duke of York from the succession to the
throne, whereby he became privy to the Rye-
House Plot, on the discovery of which he was ap-
prehended in Kent, and frequently examined.
While, however, he avowed the utmost abhorrence
of any attempt on the life of the king or the duke
of York, he refused to give farther information,
and was sent down to Scotland to be tried. After
a rigorous confinement in irons, he was twice pnt
to the torture, on the 5th and 6th of Sept. 1684,
which he endured with great firmness ; but being
afterwards promised a full pardon, and deluded
with the assurance that his answers would never
be used against any person, he consented to make
a judicial declaration. The privy council imme
diately pubb'shed a statement, which he declared
to be a false and mutilated account of his confes-
sion ; and, in violation of their engagement, pro-
duced his evidence in court against his friend, Mr
Baillie of Jerviswood. After the Revolution, the
privy council of ScoMand made Mr. Carstairs a
present of the * thumbikins,' which had formed the
instrument of his torture. On his release he re-
turned to Holland, in the winter of 1684-5, when
the prince of Orange made him one of his own
chaplains, and procured his election to the office
of minister of the English congi*egation at Leyden
He attended the prince in his expedition to Eng ^
land, and was constantly consulted by him m
affairs of difficulty and importance. On the ele-
vation of William and Mary to the throne. Car-
stairs was appointed his majesty's chaplain for
Scotland, to which were annexed all the emolu-
ments of the chapel royal, and was the chief agent
between the church of that country and the court
The king requii-ed his constant presence about his
person, assigning him apartments in the palace
when at home, and when abroad with the army,
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CARSTAIRS.
601
CASSTLLTS.
allowing him five hundred pounds a-year for camp
equipage.
William was at first anxious that episcopacy
should be the religion of Scotland as well as of
England, but Carstairs convinced him of the im-
propriety of this project, which the king was forced
to abandon, and the establishment of the presby-
terian fonn of church government was the conse-
quence. He was also, in 1694, of great service to
the church in getting the oath of allegiance, with
the assurance, declaring William to be king de
jure^ as well as de facto, dispensed with, the clergj-
naturally being avei-se to the taking a civil oath ,
as a qualification for a sacred office.
On the death of William he was no longer em-
ployed in public business, but Anne continued
him in the office of chaplain-royal. On I2th May
1703, he was appointed principal of the university
of Edinburgh, for which he drew up new rules. I
In the same year he was presented to the church
of Gi-eyfriars in that city, and three years after
was translated to the High Church. He was four
times chosen Moderator of the Genei*al Assembly.
To the universities of his native country he was a
great benefactor. In 1693 he obtained from the I
Crown, out of the bishops' rents in Scotland, a gift
of three hundred pounds sterling per annum to each
of the Scottish universities; and at various times
he procured donations for them for the encourage-
ment of learning. When the union between the
two kingdoms came to be agitated, he took an
active part in its favour. He vigorously opposed
the patronage act of Queen Anne, and at all times
vigilantly watched over the liberties and privileges
of the Church of Scotland. He wai-mly promoted
the succession of the House of Hanover to the
throne of these realms, and was continued by
George the First in his post as chaplain to the
king. Principal Carstairs died in December 1715,
while holding the office for the fourth time of
Moderator of the General Assembly. In 1774 his
State Papers and Letters, with an account of his
Life, were published, in one vol. 4to, by the Rev.
Dr. Joseph M^Cormick, principal of the university
of St. Andrews. There is a portrait of him in the
university of Edinburgh. Another, by Aikman,
is in possession of Alexander Dunlop, Esq. of
Keppoch, which has been often engraved.
The following is a woodcut from an engraving
by II. Adlard :
Principal Carstairs was a man of great learning
and eminence in the chm*ch. So complete was his
mastery of the Latin language that Dr. Pitcaim,
who regularly attended the, in those days, custom-
ary opening Latin oration of the principal, deliver-
ed before the professors and students in the com-
mon hall of the university, used to observe that
when Mr. Caratairs began to address his audience
he could not help fancying himself transported to
the foram, in the days of ancient Rome. " He
managed,^' says Bower, "Scottish affairs with
such discretion, during the reigns of William and
Anne, that he made few public enemies; and such
was his knowledge of human nature, his prudence,
and conciliating temper, that he was held in the
highest estimation by those who still adhered to
the house of Stuart. So great was his influence
in church and state that he was generally called
Cardinal Carstairs."
Cassillis, earl of, a title in the peerage of Scotland, pos-
seeaed by the marquia of Ailsa, and conferred, in 1509, on
David, third Lord Kennedy. The first of the family men-
tioned in any charter was Duncan de Carrick, who lived in
the reign of Malcolm the Fourth, which began in 1153. His
son, Nicol de Garrick, granted, in 1220, the church of St
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*CASSILLIS,
(502
SECOND EARL OP.
Cathbert at &Iayboie, to the nuns of North Berwick. Nicors
Bon, Roland de Canick, obtained a grant of the bailiary of
Carrick from Nigel, earl of Carrick, who died in 1256, to
himself and his heirs male, to be * caput totins progeniei suie,*
that is, chief of his name, and to have the command of all
the men in Carrick, under the said earl and his successors;
which grant was confirmed by Alexander the Third, by a
charter dated at Stirling, 20th Januaiy 1275-6, and ratified
by Robert the Second, by charters dated at Ayr, 1st Octobec,
t372.
Sir Gilbert de Carrick, knight, son of Roland, in 1285 sub-
mitted H Jiffeier.ce between him and the nuns of North Ber-
wick to Robert Bruce, earl of Carrick, father of Robert the
First, and Robert bbhop of Glasgow, to which submission his
sea) is appended, having the same shield of arms as that
borne by the earls of Cassillis. He was one ot the securities
for Robert, earl of Carrick, on his obtaining the resignation of
that earldom firom hb fatlier in 1202
His son, also named Gilbert, reoeired from King Robert
the Bruce a remission for Arthur his son-inlaw having sur-
rendered Lodidoon castle to the English, and was restored to
the government thereof with the lands thereto belonging. Sir
Gilbert de Carrick was one of the prisoners taken at the bat-
tle of Durham in 1846.
His son, Sir John Kennedy of Dunure, is designed in many
authentic writs, the son of Sir Gilbert de Carrick. He was
forfeited in the reign of King David the Second, as appears
from a charter of that monarch to Malcolm Fleming of the
lands of Leigne, which belonged to him. He, however, ob-
tained from that monarch a charter confirming the donations,
grants, and venditions made to him by Marjory de Montgom-
ery, senior, and by his wife, Marjory de ilontgomery, daugh-
ter of Su* John Montgomery, of the lands of Ca^lys (Cassillis)
in the county of Ayr, with other territorial possessions which
he had acquired in Carrick. This, and other charters obtained
by him are entitled, * confirmatio Johannis Kenedy,* the fam-
ily having changed their name firom Carrick to Kennedy, the
latter a Gaelic compound signifying the head of the house ot
family. [See Kennedy, surname of.] He had three sons.
From the second, John, it is supposed that the old Kennedys
of Cullean, now spelled Colzean, are descended.
His eldest son, Sir Gilbert Kennedy, was one of the hos-
tages delivered to the English in 1357, for the liberation of
King David the Second. He married, first, Marion, daugh-
ter of Sir James Sandilands of Galder, by Eleonora, countess
oi Carrick, and had by her four sons, namely, 1. Gilbert, who,
on account of his next brother marrying a princess of Scotland,
was disinherited by his father; 2. James, of whom after-
wards; 3 Alexander i and 4. Sir Hugh Kennedy of Ardstin-
char, who accompanied the Scots troops, under the command
of the earl of Buchan, to France, and distinguished himself at
the battle of Beaug6, 22d March 1421, m consequence of
which he was honoured by the king of France with his armo-
rial bearings, azure, three fleurs de lis, or; which he and his
successors marshalled in the first and fourth quarters with
those of Kennedy in the second and third. From him de-
scended the Kennedys of Bargany, Kirkhill, and Binning, in
Ayrshire. Sir Gilbert married, secondly, Agnes, daughter of
Sir Robert Maxwell of Calderwood, and had by her three sons,
namely, John, Thomas, and David, the latter one of the re-
tinue of knights who attended the princess Margaret of Scot-
land into France on her marriage to Louis the dauphin in
li:J6.
Sir James Kennedy of Dunure, the second son, married
the princess Mary Stewart, daughter of King Robert the
Tuird, and widow of George first earl of Angus of the house
of Douglas. By this marriage the wealth and infloeooe of
the family were greatly increased. From his fat her- in-law
he obtained a charter of confirmation of the bailiary of Car-
rick, and of the lands and barony <^ Daliymple, to himself
and the princess his wife, dated M Dundonald, 27th January
1405-r6. He was killed in the lifetime of his father, in a
quarrel with his elder brother, Gilbert, who had been dinn-
herited in his favour. Gilbert went to France, and died in
the French service. The princess Maty, their father^s widow,
was afterwards again twice married. By her, Sir James
Kennedy had two sons, Gilbert his successor, and James,
bishop of St. Andrews, the celebrated founder of the college
of St Salvator in that city, of whom there is a memoir under
the head of Kennedy, Jame^ post.
Sir Gilbert Kennedy of Dunure, krjight, obtained fitwn
King James the Second, a charter of the keeping of the ctf-
tle of Lochdoon, and of the pennylands thereto belonging, to
him and the heirs male of bis body, 17th May 1450. He was
created a peer of Scotland in 1452, by the title of Lord Ken-
nedy, and on the death of James the Second in 1460 lie was
appointed one of the six regents of the kingdom during the
minority of James: the Third. He died in 1473. He mar-
ried Catherine, daughter of Herbert Lord Maxwell, by whom
he had three sons and two daughters.
His eldest son, John, second Lord Kennedy, was a pnvy
councillor \o King James the Third, and a commissioner to
treat with the English for peace in 1484. He died in 1508.
He married first, Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander, Ixnrd
Montgomery, by whom he had a son, David, third Lord Ken-
nedy; and secondly. Lady. Elizabeth Gordon, daughter ot
George earl of Huntly, relict of the second eari of Errol, and
by her he had, with two daughters, three sons, namely, Al-
exander, ancestor of the Kennedys of Girvanmains and Bar-
quhanny ; John, and William. The elder of the two daugh-
toB, Janet Kennedy, was the mbtress of James the fourth.
She is said to have been the third wife of Archibald fifUi eari
of Angus, celebrated in Scottbh history as Bell-the-Cat. Ac-
cording to Hume of Godscroft, Archibald earl of Angus was
confined to the isle ctf Arran for taking Jean Kennedy, daugh-
ter of the earl of Cassillis, (a mistake for Lord Kennedy.)
out of Galloway, (the dbtrict of Carrick was then considered
a part of Galloway,) to Whom the king bore affection, and to
whom the edrl gave infeftment and seisin of the lands of
Bothwell, though he never married her. She does not ap-
pear, indeed, ever to have borne the title of countess of An-
gus. James the Fourth granted to her a life-charter of the
lands of Bothwell, dated 1st June 1501. She had by the
king a son, James Stewart, created eari of Moray, the same
year. The younger datighter, Helen, married Adam Boyd of
Pinkhill.
The eldest son, David, third Lord Kennedy and first eari
of Cassillis, was one of those who were advanced to the hon-
our of knighthood by King James the Third, on the creation
of hb second son Alexander as duke of Ross, 29th Januaiy
1487-8. He was of the privy council of James the Fourth,
and by that monarch he was created, in 1509, earl of Casal-
lis. He married, first, Agnes, daughter of William, Lord
Borthwick, by Whom he had three sons; and 2dly, Grizel,
daughter of Thomds Boyd, eari of Amui, relict of Alexander
Lord Forbes, without issue. He' fell at the battle of Flodden.
Hb eldest son, Gilbert, second earl, was a nobleman <A
superior abilities, and was employed in several offices of high
trust He had a safe-conduct to go into England as an am-
bassador from Scotland, 6th February 1515-16. In 1523,
when the regent duke of Albany sailed for Franoe, the keep-
ing of the young king*s person was committed to him and
I, I
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THIRD EARL OF.
three oiber lords. He was sworn a privj oouncillor to King
James the Fifth, and signed the association to support bis
HMJesty's aathoritj, 80th July 1624. On the 4th September
following, he concluded a truce with the duke of Norfolk on
the part of Henry die Eighth at Berwick. In Norember of
the same year he was sent ambassador to London, to treat
for a lasting peace, and a marriage between the young king
(James the Fifth) and his cousin the princess Mary, daugh-
ter of Henry the Eighth. In January 1525 he returned to
Scotland for firesh instructions, and tiie following month he
was with the queen dowager, Margaret, in the castle of Ed-
mburgh, when the earl of Angus her husband, with the earls
of Lennox and Argyle, and other confederated lords, took
possession of the city. His attachment to the queen dowager
rendered him obnoxious to the faction of Angus, and in a
oartiament convoked by the latter, his lands were assigned to
the earl of Arran. They were, however, soon after restored
to him. He was assassinated at Prestwick, near Ayr, by
Hugh Campbell, sheriff of Ayrshire, 22d December 1527.
He married Lady Isabel Campbell, second daughter of the
second earl of Argyle, by whom he had seven sons. His
fourth son, Quentin Kennedy, abbot of Croesraguel, is famous
for the dispute which, for three days, he maintained, in 1562,
with John Knox at Maybole^ on the subject of the mass.
He was remarkable for his singular piety and great austerity
of manners, and his seal and leammg so much gratified the
Romish clergy that, on his death in 1564, he was publicly
canonised as a saint He published ' Ane oompendius trac-
tive, oonforme to the Scripturis of Ahnychtie God, ressoun,
and authoritie, declaring the nerrest and onlie way to estab-
lische the conscience of ane Christians man, in all materis
quhilk ar in debate concerning faith and religioun.* His
Correspondence with Willock will be found in the Appendix
to Bishop Keith s History of Scotland.
Gilbert, th« third earl, bom in 1515, was only twelve years
old when he succeeded his father. He was then at the uni-
versity of St Andrews, where, in February 1527-8, only two
months after his accession to the title, he was compelled to
sign the sentence of death pronounced on Patrick Hamilton
the protomartyr, for heresy. He was subsequently sent to
Paris, to complete his education. While there he became
acquainted with George Buchanan, at that time a regent or
professor in the college of St Barbe, and engaged him as his
domestic tutor in 1532. After residing with him for five
years Buchanan accompanied the earl on his return to Scot-
land, and at his seat of CasAillis in Ayrshire, composed his
bitter satire, entitled * Somnium,* against the Franciscan
friars. In 1535, the earl was one of the ambassadors sent to
France, for the purpose of concluding a matrimonial alliance
with a French princess, and in the following year when King
James the Fifth went over to Paris, he and the other ambas-
sadors piet his majesty at Dieppe, and were present at his
marriage with the pnncess Magdalene, eldest daughter of the
French king.
At the fatal rout of the Scottish army at Solway Moss in
November 1542, the earl was among the prisoners taken by
the English, and was committed to the charge of Cranmer,
archbishop of Canterbury, who not only entertained him very
honourably, but strengthened his lordship in the profession of
the Reformed religion, to which he was before greatly in-
clined. With some of the other nobles who were prisoners
like himself, he only obtained his liberty by agreeing to the
•conditions of Henry the Eighth, to support his grand scheme
for a marriage between his son Prince Edward and the infant
Queen Mary, and the perpetual union of England and Scot-
land, and by giving as hostages for hie ransom, which was
dxed at a thousand pounds, his uncle Thomas Kennedy of
Coiff, and his brothers David and Archibald, who were placed
under the custody of the archbishop of York. As he zeal-
ously supported the English connection, Henry the Eighth
gave him a pension of three Hundred marks. In the follow-
ing year, after the regent Arran had become reconciled to
Cardinal Bethune and abjured the protestant religion, the
marriage treaty with England was interrupted, and Henry
issued a proclamation for the Scottish prisoners to return
into England, to which no attention was paid. In Lodge's
Illustrations, vol. i. p. 461, is a piteous letter from his hos-
tages to the earl of Cassillis, dated at York, 11 th December
1548, entreating him to enter himself in all haste, for if he
did not, they should suffer death, and that right shortly.
David Kennedy appeals to the fraternal affection of the earl
for his poor brother * Dandy ;* and his uncle desires him to
remember that the Uird of Coyff has four motheriess bairns,
and to take heed not to make them fatheriess for his cause
In the same work also is a letter from the archbishop of
York to the earl of Shrewsbury, dated 20th August, 1544,
mentioning that since the hostages for the earl of Cassillis
had been with him, that is for a year and a half, they had
not received from his lordship, nor from any of their friends,
towards the finding of their apparel, to the sum of twenty
pounds sterling, so that he was constrained to give them both
coats and gowns, and other things ; and therefore entreating
Shrewsbury to write to Cassillis that it touched his honour,
forasmuch as they were so near of kin, and also pledges for
him, to see that they lacked no necessaries. The archbishop
added that he was content to bestow on them other things
beades apparel, both for themselves and horses, at his charge,
but that Lord Cassillis must provide for the r««t, or else, the
winter coming on, they shall lack many things. Finding the
popish party, with Cardinal Bethune at their head, intent on
a French alliance, he and the other lords who supported the
English interest, entered into a bond or covenant by which
they agreed to employ their united strength in promoting the
projects of the English king. This paper was intrusted to
Lord Somerville, to be delivered to Henry, but that nobleman
being arrested, it was intercepted, on which a pariiament was
convoked, and it was determined tb proceed against Cassillis
and the other subscribing lords, for high treason. To escape
the sentence of forfeiture, they transmitted to the regent
Arran, a similar bond, dated in January 1543-4, in which
they bound themselves to remain true and faithful to the
queen and her authority, to assist the regent in the defence
of the realm against * their old enemies* of England, to sup-
port the liberties of holy church and to maintain the true
Christian f>«ith, meaning thereby the Romish religion. Not-
withstanding this agreement, the parties to which were the
earls of Cassillis, Angus, Lennox, and GlencairL, they still
continued their intrigues with the English monnrch. The
consequence was that a hostile fleet appeared in the fnth of
Forth in the following May, and an English army, under the
eari of Hertford, took possession of Leith, and after plundering
that town, set fire to it
In June of the same year (1544) the eari of Cassillis was
one of those who signed the agreement of the principal Scots
nobility to support the authority of the queen-mother as regent
of Scotland, against the earl of Arran. Soon after, he was,
with Angus, Glencaim, and Somerville, at the siege of Col-
dingham, then held by the English, and joined in the dis-
graceful rout which took place on that occasion. In a par-
liament held at Edinburgh 12th December of the same year,
he and the other noblemen in the Douglas or English interest,
obtained a remission for all treasons committed by them, ex-
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CASSILLIS,
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FOURTH EARL OF.
oept against the qaeen^s person, in return for the good sendees
which thej had rendered the country, although what these
were does not clearly appear.
Alter the defeat of the English at Ancrutn Moor, Henry
resolved to conciliate the Scots, and with this view he in-
trusted the management of the n^tiation to the earl of Gas-
sillis. The earl accordingly repaired to the English court,
February 28th, 1545, when his hostages were released, and
his ransom being discharged, and himself loaded with presents
from the English king, he returned, after a short absence, to
Scotland. At a convention of the nobility, held at Edinburgh,
on the 17th April, Gassillis, as the envoy of Henry, acquainted
them that if they consented to the treaties of peace and mar-
riage with England, Ring Henry would overlook the past,
and forbear to avenge the injuries which he had received.
His efforts, however, were in vain. The Convention declared
the treaties of peace and marriage at an end, and it was re-
solved cordially to embrace the assistance of France. On the
20th, Gassillis by letter, informed Henry of the complete fail-
ure of his negotiation, and advised the immediate invasion of
Scotland with a strong force. Heniy, on his side, finding
Cardinal Bethune more than a match for him, encouraged
the earl in organising a conspiracy for his assassination.
This plot, so damning both to Gassillis and the king, was
altogether unknown to our historians, both Scotch and Eng-
lish, until it was discovered by Tytler in the secret corre-
spondence of the state paper office. [See Tytler's Hittory of
Scotland^ vol. v. p. 887.] It appears that Gassillis had ad-
dressed a letter to Sir Ralph Sadler, Henry's agent on the
borders, in which he made an offer *• for the killing of the car-
dinal, if his roigesty would have it done, and promise, when
it was done, a reward.* Sadler showed the letter to the earl
of Hertford and the council of the North, and by them it vfas
transmitted to the king. Gassillis communicated his purpose
to the earls of Angus, Glencaim, and Marischal, and Sir George
Douglas, and these persons requested that one Forster, an
English prisoner, should be sent to Edinburgh to communi-
cate with them on the design. Hertford accordingly con-
sulted the privy council upon his migesty's wishes in this
affair. They replied, as directed by the king, that Forster
might set off immediately, but as to the assassination of the
cardinal his majesty '^ will not seem to have to do in it, and
yet not misliking the offer," he desired Sadler to write to
Gassillis to say that *' if he were in the earl's place he would
surely do what he could for the execution of it, believing
verily to do thereby not only an acceptable service to the
king but also a special benefit to the reahn of Scotland." No
reward, however, was promised, as that would be to set a
price upon t^e head of the cardinal as well as to offer an in-
demnity to those who should slay him, and the scheme was
abandoned by Gassillis and his dissociates.
The earl of Gassillis was among the chief supporters of
George Wishart, after his return to Scotland in the summer
of 1543. It was by the invitation of the earl and the gentle-
men of Kyle and Cunningham that he ventured to Edinburgh
in the beginning of 1545, but as they failed to meet him be
retired to East Lothian, where he soon after fell into the
hands of the cardinal, and was burnt at the stake at St. An-
drews March 28, the assassination of Bethune himself follow-
ing exactly two months after.
In June 1546 the earl deserted the English party, and
was named an extraordinary lord of session 81st July
following. Previous to the battle of Pinkie, he and otlier
noblemen advised the regent to send the young queen with
her mother, under the clinrge of Lords Entkine and Liv-
ingstone to the isle of Inchmahome, for security. In May
1550. he was one of the noblemen who aocomponied the
queen-mother on her visit to France. In 1554. on the queeo-
mother obtaining the reg^cy, she appointed the earl of Gas-
sillis lord-high-treasurer. In 1557 he was a chief commander
in the army destined to attack Berwick and invade England,
but which was disbanded without effecting any thing. In 1558
he was one of the eight commissioners elected by parliament
to go to France to be present at the nuptials of the yooth-
ftil Queen Maiy with Frauds, dauphin of France. On
the crown matrimonial being demanded the commiasioo-
ers discovered a fixed resolution not to consent to any thing
that tended to introduce any alteratbn in the order of succes-
sion to the crown, which gave great offence to the FVench
court, and on their 'Way home, the coiuniasioners were taken
ill at Dieppe, where the earls of Gassillis and Rothes, and
Bishop Reid, lord president of the court of season, died, all
three in one night, 18th November 1558, under strong suspi-
cions of poison. Lord Fleming, another of the commissioners,
died at Paris. The body of the earl was brought to Scotland,
and interred with his ancestors in the collegiate church of
Maybole. His virtues have been recorded by Buchanan in
his History of Scotland, and in an epitaph published in his
works. He is also celebrated by Johnston in his Heroes.
His lordship married Margaret, daughter of Alexander
Kennedy of Bargany, and had, with two daughters, two sons,
namely, Gilbert his successor, and the Hon. Sir Thomas Ken-
nedy of Gulzean, commonly called the tutor of Gassillis, who
received the honour of knighthood at the coronation of James
the Sixth. He married Elisabeth, daughter of David Mao-
Gill of Granstoun-Riddel, and had three sons and one daugh-
ter, Helen, married to Mure of Auchindrane. Sir Thomas
fell a victim to revenge, being assassinated by Kennedy ol
Drummurchie, May 11, 1602, thereto instigated by his own
son-in-kw, Mure. [See Mubk, surname of, and KsmiEDT,
origin of name.] His youngest son. Sir Alexander Kennedy
of Gulzean, eventually carried on the line of the family.
Gilbert, fourth eari, a nobleman of most rapadoos and un-
scrupulous character, was popuUriy called the king of Gar-
rick. In 1562 he was sworn a privy ooundllor to Queen
Mary, and in 1565 was appointed jusUdary of Gar-
rick. On the night of Damley's murder in February 1567,
he and the earls of Argyle and Huntly accompankd the
queen, when she took her last farewell of her ill-fated hus-
band at Kirk of Field. His name occurs the filth of the
noblemen who subscribed the bond in favour of Bothwell*s
marriage to the queen, at the famous supper given to the no-
bility by that reckless adventurer, and ne fought on the side
of Mary at the battle of Langside, 18th May 1568. In the
parliament of 19th August following, he was declaied guilty
of treason, but jndgmenji was suspended. At the convention
held 14th April 1569, he acknowledged, by oath and subecarip-
tion, the king's authority, and on 17th November following,
the regent dedared that his lordship had made due obedieoee'
to the king. He was afterwards appointed one of the privy
coundL Nevertheless, we find, in March 1570, his name at-
tached to a letter signed by a number of the lords of the
queen's faction, and sent to Queen Elisabeth in Mary's behalf,
and in the spring of the following year the regent Lennox was
obliged to go to Kyle and Garrick, to pursue the eari of Gas-
sillis for perseouting and of^fu-essiug those who acknowledged
the king's authority. On this occasion, to prevent the wast-
ing of his hinds, he gave his brother in pledge that he would
enter the 15th day of May at Stirling, to confirm the condi-
tions craved and agreed upon.
On the death of Quentin Kennedy, the last abbot of Cros6-
j raguel, in 1564. a pension had been conferred on Geon^
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605
FIFTH EARL OF.
Buchanan, of five hundred pounds a-year out of the abbey
revenues, payment of which he appears to have found great
difficulty in obtaining, owing to the seizure of the lands by
the eari of Cttsillis. That rich and celebrated abbey lay in
the vicinity of the earl's casUe, and after be had, by forgery
and murder, possessed himself of the abbacy of Glenluoe, he
cast his eye on Grossraguel ; and the criminal records of the
period exhibit an act of horrible cruelty perpetrated by him
in 1570, for the purpose of adding the abbey lands to his
estates. Allan Stewart, the oommendator of the abbey, who
had succeeded Qnentin Kennedy, and who lived under the
protection of the laird of Bargany, was enticed, under hospi-
table pretences, to leave his safeguard and pass some days in
Mayhole with Sir Thomas Kennedy, brother of the earL On
the 29th August, while visiting the bounds of Grossraguel, he
was apprehended by the earl, and conveyed to the castle of
Dunure, the original seat of the family, the ruins of which
still stand gloomily on a rock, washed by the sea, on the
western boundary of Mayhole parish. The barbarous treat-
ment to which he was subjected, to compel him to sign a feu
charter of the abbey lands, forms a striking part of the ' His-
toric of the Kennedyis,* published in 1880, by Mr. Pitcaim,
from an original manuscript in the Advocates* librazy. The
most graphio account, however, of the transaction is given
by Richard Bannatyne, in his * Journal,' and every part of his
narrative is distinctly confirmed by the oommendator*8 own
statements in his ' Bill of Supplication to the Lords of Privy-
CounciL* It appears that, unable to succeed in his purpose
by any other means, the earl, on the 1st September, caused
his baker, his cook, his pantryman, and some others, to con-
vey the oommendator to the ^ black vault of Dunure,* where
a large fire was blazing, under * a grit iron chimblay.* ** My
lord abbot,** said the earl, "it will please you to confess here
that with your own consent you remain in my company, be-
cause you dare not commit yon to the hands of others.*' The
oommendator answered, '^ Would you, my lord, that I should
tell a manifest lie for your pleasure ? The truth is, my lord.
It is against my will that I am here, neither yet have I any
pleasure in your company.** " But,** rejoined the eari, " you
shall remain with me at this time.** *' I am not able to re-
sist your will and pleasure,** said the oommendator, " in this
place.** "You must then obey me,** replied the earL He
then presented to him certain documents to sign, and, on his
refusal, he commanded 'his cooks,* says the annalist, *to
prepare the banquet,* and so, first, they stripped the unhappy
oommendator, to his * sark and doublet,* and next they bound
him to the chimney, * hb 1^ to the one end and his arms to
the other,* basting him weQ with oil, that * the roast should
not bum.* When nearly half roasted he consented to sub-
scribe the documents, witoout reading or knowing what was
contained in them. Then the ^arl swore those who assisted
him in this cruel proceeding, on the Bible, never to reveal it
to any one. Not content with this, on the 7th September, on
the oommendator 8 refusal to ratify and approve the docu-
ments he had signed, before a notary and witnesses, the tor-
ment was renewed, till Stewart besought them to put an end
to his sufierings by killing hmi at once, nor was he released
till eleven o*clock at night, when they saw his life ^n danger
and his flesh consumed and burnt to the bone. And thus
the eari obtained, in the indignant words of the describer of
the scene, * a fyve yeara tack and a 19 yeare tack, and a
charter of feu of idl the landis of Groceraguall, with the
clausses neoessaire for the erle to haist him to helL For gif
adulterie, sacriledge, oppressione, barbarous creweltie, and
I thift heaped upon thift diserve hell, the great king }f Carrick
can no more eschape hell for ever nor the imprudent abbot
eschaped the fyre for a seasoune.** [J9emf}ai^*« Journal^
edn. 1806, p. 57.] Having thus attained his purpose, the
eari left the oommendator in the hands of his serrants at
Dunure, and the lanrd of Bargany, who knew nothmg of the
treatment to which he had been subjected, raised letters of
deliverance of his person, which not beiilg attended to by the
esrl, he was for contempt thereof denounced rebel and put to
the horn. On the 27th April following, a complaint was
given in to the regent and lords of secret council, by Allan
Stewart, the * half-roasted * oommendator; on which the earl
was summoned b^ore them. On his appearance he pleaded
tihM the points alleged in the said complaint were either civil
or criminal, and that he ought not to answer thereto except
before competent judges. Without prejudice of the ordinary
jurisdiction, the regent, with the advice of the council, ordered
the earl to find security in two thousand pounds, not to molest
tlie person or property of the oommendator. He was also, at
the request of his father s old preceptor, George Buchanan,
* pensioner of Grossraguel,* ordered to find the like security
with regard to him and his pension. And he was sent to
Dumbarton castle nntU he implemented (obeyed) these orders.
In August of the same year, by the persuasion of the eari
of Morton, the earl, with other lords of the queen*s faction,
finally joined the king's party, and attended the parliament
held at Stirling in September, at which his escheats were re-
mitted, in consequence of his owning the king's authority.
He obtained charters of several lands belonging to the abba-
cies of Grossraguel and Glenluoe in 1572 and two following
years, and had a charter of the lands and castle of Tnmberry
to himself and Margaret Lyon his wife (daughter of the
ninth Lord Glammis) 8th March 1575. According to Knox,
by the persuasion of his countess he became a proteetant and
caused his kirks in Garrick to be reformed [Knocks Hittory^
p. 898]. He died in September 1576. He had three sons;
John, who succeeded him ; Hugh, designed master of Gassil-
lis, to whom and to John Boyd his servant, and Hugh Ken-
nedy of Ghapel, a remission under the great seal was granted,
for the slaughter of Andrew M'Kewan in Archatroche, 14th
September 1601 ; and Gilbert, also designed master of Gas-
silli^ as his brother Hugh appears to have died without issue.
Gilbert married Margaret, daughter of Uchtred Macdowall of
Garthland, and by her had a son, John, who became sixth earL
The eldest son, John, fifth earl, being very young at his
father's death, was placed under the guardianship of his uncle,
Su: Thomas Kennedy of Gulzean. In November 1597, he
married Jean, only daughter of James fourth Lord Fleming,
relict of Lord Maitland of Thirlestane, high -chancellor of
Scotland, against the will of all his friends, as the lady was
considerably older than himself and described as **past child-
bearing." In 1599 he was appointed lord-high-treasurer of
Scotland, having advanced forty thousand marks for that
office ; but as he was removed the same year he lost his moifhy.
This eari is remarkable chiefly for the slaughter of Gilbert
Kennedy of Bargany. The feuds between thu earls of Gas-
ttllis and the lairds of Bai^gany had been of long continu-
ance. On the 11th December 1601, the earl of Gassillis hav-
ing learned that the young laird of Bargany was to ride from
the town of Ayr to his own mansion on the water of Girvan,
attended only by a few followers, determined to waylay and
attack him, and for that purpose, with two hundred armed
retuners, he took his station at the Lady Gorse, about half-
a-mile north of Mayhole. The laird of Bargany, with his
small retinue, soon appeared at the Brochloch, on the opposite
side of the valley, and seemg the earl thus attended, said to
his men that he desuvd no quarrel, and would not throw
himself in the earl's way. He accordingly led them down the
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SIXTH EARL OF.
north bank of the rirulet by Bogside, with the view of avoid-
ing a collision with the earl, at so great disadvantage to him-
self. The earl followed down the sonth side, and coming to
some * feal dykes,' which ofiered a good support for the fire-
arms of his followers, he ordered them to discharge thev
pieces at Bargany and his men, by which the young laird,
whose dar^ig courage led hmi with only four gentlemen to
advance upon this disproportionate force, was slain with two
of his followers, after comporting himself with more than
chivalrous gallantry. Bargany appears to have been a youth
of great promise. " He was,** says the historian of this mur-
derous assault, ** the brawest manne that was to be gotten in
ony land ; of hiche stataur, and weill maid ; his hair blak,
bott of ane cumlie feace ; the brawest horsemanne, and the
best at all pastymis." This tragedy was of too flagrant a
nature to be passed over, but the countess of Caasillis, who
had friends at court, rode to Edinburgh, and obtained his
majesty's favour to her husband, who **gott this mutdll
gruntit, that my lord suld cum himself and deall with the
thesaurer (treasurer) for his escheitt;" — "and by reason,**
adds the historian, " of ten thousand markis given to him,
there was obtenit to me lord ane act of counsall, making all
that me lord had done gude service to the king!" Auchen-
drane had married the sister of the gallant youth who thus
fell, and out of the events of this bloody action arose the series
of dark and tragical deeds on which Sir Walter Scott founded
his * Ayrshire Tragedy,' in his prefatory notice to which he re-
lates the circumstances more favourably to the earl of Cassillis.
[See Murk, surname of.] The earl died in 1616, without
issue. His brother, Gilbert, master of Cassillis, predeceased
him, but his son, John, became sixth earl of Cassillis. In
the Appendix to PUcairn's Crimmai Triah^ vol. iiL, is a
bond, dated 4th September 1602, by the fifth earl of Cassillis,
to his brother, Hugh Kennedy, commonly called the master of
Cassillis, to pay him and his accomplices twelve hundred
merks yearly, with com for six horses, as a bribe to induce
him to murder the laird of Auchindrane ; another striking
aad characteristic illustration of the barbarous state of soci-
ety and manners in some parts of Scotland at that period.
The Mxth earl, styled ** the grave and solemn*' earl, is de-
scribed as a person of great virtue and of considerable abili-
ties, and so sincere that he never would permit his words to
be understood but in their direct sense. Being zealously at-
tached to the presbyterian form of worship, he took a pi#-
minent part in the proceedings of the Covenanters in 1638,
and following years, and in June 1689, when the Lyon king
at arms was sent to their camp at Dunse Law, with a procla-
mation from the king, the earl of Cassillis ofiered a protest,
adhering to the last General Assembly held at Glasgow,
which the Lyon refused to receive. On the 17th September,
1641, he was nominated of his majesty's privy council. He
was one of the three ruling elders sent to the assembly of
divines at Westminster in 1643, to ratify the solemn league
and covenant In September 1646, he was one of the com-
missioners directed to repair to Charles the first, to urge his
majesty to accept of the propositions made to him by the
English parliament In 1648 he opposed the ^ Engagement *
to march into England, to attempt the relief of the king.
In 1649, on the dismissal of the earl of Crawford as treasurer,
Cassillis was made one of the four lords of the treasury. After
the execution of Charles, he was sent by the Scots parliament,
in March 1649, with the earl of Lothian, Lord Burly, and
others, as commissioners, to Charies the Second at Breda, to
ofi*er him the crown of Scotland on certain conditions. These
commissioners acted in a double capacity, and had instructions
both from the estates and firom tlie commission of the kirk,
in both of which the earl of Cassillis was the diief person.
Charles endeavoured to prevail on them to modify some of
the conditions, but Cassillis adhered firmly to his instmctiona.
On his return to Scotland, his lordship was appointed justice-
general, and gave his oath ' de fideli administratione,' 39th
June of the same year. On 3d July he was appointed an
extraordinary lord of session. In 1650 he was again one of
the commissioners sent by the parliament to treat with the
king at Breda. After the battle of Dunbar, a deputation
was sent by the estates, consisting of Cassillis, Argyle, and
other members, to the western army "to solidt unity for
the good of the kingdom," General Leslie having threatened
to resign his command if they did not unite with him; but
their efforts were m vain. The eari afterwards refused to
come into any terms with. Cromwell.
On the settlement of the court of session after the Restora*
tion, his lordship, 1st June 1661, was re-appointed one of tbe
four extraordjnaiy lords, but was superseded in July 1662,
on account of his refusal to take the oaths of alliance and
supremacy without an explanation, which the parKament
would not allow of. In the Soots parliament his lordship
moved for an address to the king to marry a protestant, bn(
found only one to second him. When the persecution of the
presbyterians commenced, he obtuned a promise under the
king's hand that he and his family should not be distuiited
in serving God in any way he pleased. He died in April 166&
He married, first. Lady Jean Hamilton, bom 8th February
1607, daughter of the first earl of Haddington, and by her,
who was the heroine of the popuUir ballad of * Johnie Faa,
the Gypsy Laddie,' he had a son, James, Lord Kennedy, who
died unmarried, and two daughters. His elder daughter.
Lady Margaret, became the wife of the celebrated Bishop
Burnet bnt had no issne. She was a lady of considerable
piety and knowledge, but not remarkable for her political
discretion. It is related of her that one day during the com-
monwealth, as she was standing at a winclow, she reviled
some of CromweH's soldiers as murderers of their king. The
soldiers threatened that unless she held her tongue they
would fire at her, but she continued in the same strain, on
which they fired, and a bullet passed between her and ano-
ther lady beside her, narrowly missing them both. Her sen-
timents inclined strongly towards the presbyterians, with
whom she was in high credit and esteem. Owing to the
disparity of their ages, the day before her marriage, the
bishop delivered to her a deed renouncing all daim to her
fortune, which was considerable. Her younger sister, Lady
Catherine, married in 1653, William Lord Cochrane, eldest
son of the first eari of Dundonald. The earl of Cassillis mai^
ried, secondly. Lady Margaret Hay, only daughter of the
tenth earl of Enrol, relict of Henry Lord Ker, and by her he
had a son, John, seventh earl, and two daughters, Ladies
Mary and Elizabeth.
There are vanons versions of the stoiy of the ill-starred
lady, his first countess. The opening stanzas of the ballad
which refers to her, run thus :
" The gypsies cam to lord Cassillis yett.
And O! but they sang bonnle;
They sang sae sweet, and sae complete,
That domi cam oar fair lady
" She cam tnppmg donn the stairi,
Wi' a' her maids bofiwe her,
As soon as they saw her freelfiu-'d (iice.
They cuitt their glamoiir.*o ower her "
It is said that the lady Jean Hamilton j.tevions to her mar-
riage with the eari. had been betrothed t^* g«lUuit yoonjE
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SEVENTH EARL OF.
knight, a Sir John Faa of Dunbar, %vhich town was not inure
than three miles distant from her father*s seat of T^rnmngham.
When the earl of Cassillis offered for her, the match was
esteemed so advantageous that she was commanded by her
father to break off her former engagement ; but she arranged
with her lover that he should go to the continent, under a
solemn pledge that he would return in a few months. Two
full years, however, passed awny, without any tidings of or
from him, and a letter having been received from the English
ambassador at Madrid, giving assurance of his death by the
hands of some bravos, the lady at last reluctantly consented
to marry the earl. Finding that the countess preferred soli-
tude to his societv, he is said to have treated her with the
utmost indifference. One e\'ening as she was taking her ac-
customed walk on the battlements of the castle of Cassillis.
on the left bank of the Doon, she descried a band of gypsies
hastily approaching. Such bands were very common at that
period, but the number and suspicious appearance of this
company were calculated to create considerable alarm, tlM
more especially as the earl was from home, attending th« as
sembly of divines at Westminster. On arriving at the house,
however, instead of offering Wolenoe, they comuMnced some
of their wild strains, and the countess was in the act of drop-
ping some pieces of money from the window to them, when
all at once she recognised in their leader, the tall command-
ing figure of her former lover. Sir John Faa. An interview
immediately took place, and the mysterious cause of hin
long absence was fully explained. He had \een confined for
four years in the Inquisition, on account of some unguard
ed expression he had used respetting the church of Rome.
On obtaining his liberty he hastened to London, where he
learned for the first time that she was married. » He pre
vailed upon her to elope with him ; but they had not pro
ceeded far when the earl most unexpectedly arrived with a
powerful retinue. He immediately pur»ued the fugitives,
whom he tpeedily overtook, and after a short encounter cap-
tured the whole party, but one, at a ford over th0 Doon, still
called ** the Gypsies* steps,** a few miles from the castle. Sir
John Faa and his followers, fifteen in all, were hanged on a
tree, known by the name of the "dule,** or dolor, tree, a
splendid and most umbrageous plane, which still flourishes on
a little knoll in front of the castle gate; while the countesf
was compelled by her husband to survey fix)m a window the
dreadful scene. The particular room in the stately old house
where the unhappy lady endured this torture is still called
**the Countess* room.** After a short confinement in that
apartment, a house at Maybole, which formed the earl's win-
ter residence, and which is now occupied by the factor of the
family, was fitted up for her reception, by the addition of a
fine projecting stair-case, upon which were carved fifteen
heads representing those of her lover and his band. Being
removed thither she there languished out the short remainder
of her life in strict confinement She is said to have occupied
herself in working a prodigious quantity of tapestry, so as to
have completely covered the walls of her prison. In this she
represented her unhappy flight, but with circumstances un-
suitable to the details of the ballad, for she is shown mounted
behind her lover, gorgeously attired, on a superb white horse,
and surrounded. by a group of persons who bear no resem-
blance to a band of gypnes. This fragmentary piece of old
tapestry, which -is said still to be preserved at Culzean
Castle, seems to owe its name and interest to the inventive
faculties of the housekeepers, who of course have the old tra-
dition by rote, and connect the countess with what never may
have had the slightest relation to her.
The above version of the story is different from that recited
in the ballad, which is supposed to have been composed by
the only one of the band who escapeil. There is extant a
letter from the earl to the Rev. Robert Douglas, written
shortly after his first wife's death, in which he expresses a
respect and tenderness for her memory quite inconceivable
had she been guilty of endeavcnnr.g to elope from Urn ; so
that it is very doubtful if the I^y Jean Hamillon was the
** frail fair one ** after all. A portrait of the countess is shown
at Holyrood house, but its authenticity is doubted. It is
thought rather to be a portrail of Lady Sunderland, the
Sachariasa of Waller. Another portnut of the countess, said
to be a correct likeneat, b preserved at Culzean castle. An
engraviag of it is given in Constable's Scots Magazine for
1817, from which the following woodcut is taken:
John, seventn earl, held the same religious principles as his
father, and pursued the same independent line of conduct.
He was the only person in the Scots parliament of 1670 who
voted against the act for punishing conventicles. This gave
great offence to the duke of Lauderdale and the Scots privy
council, who then had the administration of .nffairs, and in
January lf>78, fifteen hundred men of the '* Highland Host**
were quartered in Carrick, chiefly on the Cassillis estates,
which they plundered. His lordship was ordered to attend
at Ayr, 22d February, and on hi* appearance there a bond
was tendered to him to sign, obliging him, under a heavy
penalty, to be answerable that his whole family, tenants, and
labourers, and their respective families should not attend
conventicles nor harbour any of the covenanters or field
preachers. This he refused to do, as contrary to law, and
impossible for him to perform. He was, in consequence, de-
nounced an outlaw, and prohibited frx)m quitting the king-
dom. Nevertheless, with the dnke of Hamilton and twelve
other peers he repaired to Tendon, to complain of Lauder-
dale's proceedings, but as they had left Scotland without per-
mission they were at first refused an audience. At length
they were heard, 25th May, in presence of the cabinet couu-
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CASSILLIS,
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TWELB^ni EARL OF.
oil, but declining to reduce their complaints to writing, with-
out a previona iniemnityf as the most cautious remonstTance
it was possible to frame could be converted into leasing-
making, the king dedared his full approbation of the Scot-
tish measnres. On the rising of the Covenanters in 1679,
the duke of Hamilton, the earl of Cassillis, and tlie other
Scottbh lords then in London, humanely offered to put down
the insurrection, without arms or effusion of blood, if tlie
sufferings of the people were relieved ; but the offer was re-
jected. They afterwards obtained an audience, and were
fully heard on their complaints against Lauderdale, but in
vain. On the Scots council writing to the king to cause the
earl of Cassillis to be sent down prisoner to Edinburgh to be
tried, according to law, for contemning his migesty's procla-
mation, the king refiised, and a stop was put to all further
proceedings against him. He entered heartily into the Revo-
lution, and in 1689 was sworn a privy councillor to King
William, and appointed one of the lords of the Treasury. He
died 23d July 1701. He was twice married; first, to Lady
Susan Hamilton, youngest daughter of James first duke of
Hamilton, and had by her a son, John, Lord Kennedy, and a
daughter, T>ady Anne, married to her cousin-german John
enri of Selkirk and Ruglen; 2dly, to Elizabeth or Mary
Foix, and had by her a son, the Hon. James Kennedy, who
died without issue, and a daughter, Lady Elizabeth. The
second countess found that her peerage formed no protection
to her in violating the law in keeping a gambling house; for
on 29th April 1745 the House of Lords being informed that
claims of peerage were made and insisted oi\^by the Ladies
Mordington and Cassillis, in order to intimidate the peace-
officers from doing their duty in suppressing the public gam-
mg houses kept by these ladies, resolved that no person is
entitled to privilege of peerage against any prosecution for
keeping any public or common gaming house, or any house,
room, or place for playing at any game or games prohibited
by law. She died 12tb September 1746
His son, John, Lord Kennedy, married Elizabeth, eldest
daughter of Charles Hutcheson, Esq. of Owthorpe, in the
county of Kottmgnam, and died in 1700, in the lifetune of
her father, leaving one son, John, who oecame the eighth earl.
His widow married a second time her husband*s cousin-ger-
man and brother-in-law, John, eari of Selkirk and Ruglen.
without issue. After the marriage of his son, the earl of
Cassillis executed a strict entail of his estate, 6th September,
1698.
John, eighth earl, bom in April 1700, succeeded his grand-
father when he was little more than a year old. He held the
office of governor of the castle of Dumbarton. Under the
act of 1747, for the abolition of heritable jurisdictions, he re-
ceived eighteen hundred pounds for the regality of Carrick, in
full of his claim of thirteen thousand one hundred pounds.
He died at London 7th August, 1759, and was buried in SL
James* Church, but in June 1760, his body was removed to
the Collegiate church of Maybole. He married, 26th Octo-
ber 1738, his cousin, Lady Susan Hamilton, the youngest
daughter of his stepfather, John, earl of Selkirk and Ruglen,
by Lady Anne Kennedy, daughter of the seventh earl of Cas-
sillis, but had no issue by her. His lordship, on 29th March
1759, when his countess was at a ball, privately executed a
settlement, in nature of a strict entail, of the whole lands and
estates of Cassillis in favonr of Sir Thomas Kennedy of Cnl-
zean, baronet, the nearest male hen* of the family, and several
other heirs and substitutes therein named. Lady Cassillis
died 8th Februaiy 1763, and was buried in the abbey of
Holyroodhouse.
On the death of the eighth earl, William, earl of March
and Ruglen, afterwards duke of Queensbeny, grandson of tlie
above-named Lady Anne Kennedy, connteos of Selkirk and
Ruglen, daughter of the seventh earl of Cassillis, assumed
the title of eari of Cassillis, and founding on the entail of 5th
September 1698, purchased brieves for having himself served
heir of tailzie and provision to the last eari. He was opposed,
however^ by Sir Thomas Kennedy, who claimed under the
entail of 1759, and got himself 'served heir male to the same
earl. An action of reduction, brought by the eari of March,
for setting aside the latter entail, Was unsuccessful in the
court of session, 29th February 1760, and on appeal the
judgment was confirmed by the House of Lords, thereby estab-
lishing the right of Sir Thomas KennQ({y to the estate ot
Cassillis. Petitions were presented to the House of Lords by
both parties, claiming the title. Their lordships, 27th Janu-
aiy, 1762, adjudged it to belong to Su* Thomas Kennedy,
who thus became ninth eari.
The ninth eari derived his descent from the Hon. Sir
Thomas Kennedy of Culzean, called the tutor of Cassillis,
second son of Gilbert, the th.ird eari He was the second son
of Sir John Kennedy of Culzean, great-great-grandson of the
tutor of Cassillis, by his wife Jean Douglas, of the family of
Mains in Dumbartonshire. His elder brother. Sir John Ken-
nedy, died before him, in April 1744, and he succeeded to his
estate. He was then an officer in the British army in Flan-
ders. He was served heir to his brother, 12th July, 1747.
At the general election of 1774, the eari was chosen one of
the uxteen representatives of the Scots peerage. He died,
unmarried, at Culzean, 80th November, 1775.
His next brother, David, succeeded as tenth eari. He was
bred a lawyer, and in 1752 he was admitted a member of the
faculty of advocates. At the general election of 1768, he was
chosen member of parliament for the county of Ayr. The
year after his accession to the title, namely on 14th Novem-
ber 1776, on a vacancy occurring, he was elected one of the
sixteen representative Scots peers, and rechosen at the gen-
eral elections ot 1780 and 1784. He snppbrted Fox*s India
Bill in 1783, and signed the protest in favour of the prince ot
Wales' right to the regency in 1788. On 2d Febniuy 1790,
he executed a deed of entail of the estates of Cassillis and
Culzean, in favour of Captain Arohibald Kennedy, royal na<»
vy, and the hebs male of his body, gmndson of Alexander
Kennedy of Craigoch, second son of Sir Alexander Kennedy
of Culzean, youngest son of the tutor of Cassillis. The earl
died unmarried at Culzean, 18th December 1792, when the
earldom and estates devolved upon the above-named Captain
Archibald Kennedy.
Archibald, eleventh eari, was the son of Archibald Ken-
nedy, collector of customs at New York, having gone there
about 1722, by his first wife, a Miss Massam. He entered
the navy in 1744, and became captain in 1757. He distin-
guished himself by many brilliant actions when commandu*
of the Flamborough in 1759, particulariy in one when on the
Lisbon station, in consequence of which he was presented by
the merchants of Lisbon with a handsome piece oi plate. He
succeeded to a lai^ estate called Pavonia at Second River,
in the state of New York, which had belonged to his Aither,
but during the war of Independence his house was burned
and all his papers destroyed. He had the command of a
squadron on the coast of North America, and died at Lon-
don, oOth December 1794. He married, first, a Miss Schuy-
ler, a lady of great property in New Jersey, without inoe;
and, secondly, Anne, daughter of John Watts of New York,
Esq., and by her, who died at Edinburgh, 29th December
1798, he had three sons and a daughter.
Archibald, tlie eldest son, became twelfth eari of Cassillis,
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SECOND LORD.
and was created first baron and then marquis of Ailsa. In
1790 he raised an independent company of foot, and in 1793
was lieutenant-colonel of the west lowknd fencible regunent,
but resigned that commission the same year. He succeeded
his father in 1794, and was chosen one of the sixteen repre-
sentative Soot» peers at the general election in 1802. He was
created a baron of the united kingdom by the title of Baron
Ailsa of Ailsa, Ayrshire, 4th November 1806, to himself and
the heirs male of his body, and in 1831 he received the higher
title of marquis of Ailsa. The title was taken from the
*^ ocean pyramid ** called Ailsa Craig, at the mouth of the
Frith of Clyde and nearly opposite his seat of Cnlzean castle.
The marquis was also a knight of the Thistle. He married
at Dun, 1st June, 1793, Margaret, youngest daughter and
eventually heiress of John Ersldne, Esq. of Dun, Forfarshire,
and had by her two sons and four daughters. The eldest son,
Archibald, Lord Kennedy till his father was created marquis of
Ailsa, when he took tlie title of earl of Cassillut, was esteemed
the best shot in the kingdom in liis day. He died suddenly
12th August 1832 before his father. He married Eleanor,
daughter and heiress of Alexander Allardyoe, Esq. of Dunot-
tar, by whom he had nine sons and a daughter, Lady Hannah
Eleanor, married to Sir John Andrew Cathcart, of Carleton,
baronet The second son of the first marquis, Lord John
Kennedy Erskine, married Lady Augusta Fitzclarence, a
daughter of William the Fourth, and resided at Dun House,
near Montrose, sometime previous to his death. He was de-
signed of Dun, and took the name of Erskine as heir to that
estate. Lady Anne, the eldest daughter of the marquis, mar-
ried Sir David Baird of Newbyth, Baronet, and has issue.
The first marquis died 8th September 1846, and was buried
at Dun. He was succeeded by his grandson, Archibald,
eldest son of Lord Kennedy, earl of Cassillis.
Archibald, second marquis of Ailsa, bom 25th August,
1816, was a lieutenant in the 17th dragoons, but retired in
1842. He married, 10th November 1846, Julia, 2d daugh>
ter of Sir Richard Mounteney Jeplison, baronet, of Spring-
)(ale, Dorsetshire ; issue, a son, Archibald, earl of Cassillis,
bom in 1847, two other sons and three daughters. The
marquis is the sixteenth in direct lineal descent from John de
Kennedy, who first changed the name from Carrick to Kennedy.
Cathcabt, a surname supposed to be derived from Ker-
kert, or caer-cart, * the castle on the Cart,' a river in Ren-
frewshire Mr. Ramsay, in his * Sketches' of that county,
prefers the etymology Caeth-cart, * the strait of Cart,' the
river at the parish of Cathcart running in a narrow channel.
The sumame was first assumed by the proprietors of the
lands and barony of Kethcart in the reign of William the
l4on, who succeeded to the crown in 1165.
Cathcabt, Earl, a title in the peerage of the United
' Kingdom, possessed by a family of the same surname of
great antiquity in the west of Scotland, conferred in 1814 on
William, Lord Cathcart (a baron in the peerage of Scotland,
date of creation 1447) for his military sei-vices. This noble
family's great ancestor, Rainaldns de Kethcart, as early as
1178, was witness to a charter by Alan, the son of Walter,
* dapifer regis,' of the patronage of the church of Kathcart,
to the monastery of Paisley. William de Kethcart, his son,
is witness to a charter, whereby Dungallus filius Chris-
tini judids de Levenax exchanged the hmds of Knoc with
the abbey of Paisley, for lands lying near Walkinshaw ; to
which Alan his son is also a witness, about 1199 or 1200.
His son Alan de Cathcart appends his seal to a resignation
iLade by the udge of Levenax to the abbot and convent of
Paisley, of the lands of Culbethe in 1234. He is also wit-
ness to a charter, dated in 1240, of the great steward of Scot
land to Sir Adam Fullarton of the lands of Fullarton, in the
bailiary of Kyle. He had a daughter, Cecilia, married to
John de Perthick; this lady made a donation to the mon-
astery of Paisley of all her lands in the village of Rutherglen
in 1262 ; and a son, William de Cathcart, one of the biurons
of Scotland who swore fealty to Edward the First in 1296
Sir Alan de Cathcart, his son, was one of the patriotic barons
who gave effectual aid to Robert the Bruce in maintaining the
independence of Scotland. He was with Brace at the battle
of LoudonhiU in 1307, when the English troops under the earl
of Pembroke were defeated. The following year he formed
one of a party of fiity horsemen under Edward Bmce, who,
under cover of a thick mist, surprised on their march, fifteen
hundred cavaliy under John St. John in Galloway, attacked
and dispersed them. The particulars of this rencontre he
related to Barbour, who thus describes him *
** A kni^t that then was in his rout,
Worthy and wight, stalwart and stout,
Courteous and fair, and of good £une,
Sir Alan Cathcart was his name."
On this Lord Hailes remarks, " It is pleasing to trace a fam-
ily likeness in an ancient portrait" [Annals of Scotland^
voL ii. p. 25, noteJ] He is designed dominus ejusdem in a do-
nation which he made to the Dominicans of Glasgow in 1336
By his wife, the sister of Sir Duncan Wallace of Sundrura,
the fourth husband of Eleanor Bmce, countess of Carrick, he
had a son, Alan de Cathcart, who succeeded him. On the
death of Sir Duncan Wallace about 1374, without issue, Alan
de Cathcart, in right of his wife, inherited the baronies of
Sundmm and Dalmellington in Ayrshire.
His son, Alan de Cathcart, dominus ejusdem, entered him-
self a hostage for Kmg James the First in England in June
1424, in room of Malcolm Fleming. He oieo m 1440.
His grandson. Sir Alan de Cathcart, added largely to
his patemal estate. In 1447 he redeemed several lands
in Carrick from John Kennedy of Coyff, which had been
mortgaged by Sir Alan de Cathcart his grandfather. The
same year he was, by James the Second, raised to the
Scots peerage by the title of Lord Cathcart. He obtam-
ed by charter the lands of Auchencruive and other lands
in Ayrshire, 2d July 1465, and on 11th April 1481, he was
sworn into the office of warden of the west marches, at Holy-
roodhouse. He had a grant from King James the Third oi
the custody of his majesty's castle of Dundonald and of the
lands thereof in Ayrshire, 13th December 1482. He also ob-
tained the lands of Trabeath in King's Kyle, then in the
crown by the forfeiture of Lord Boyd, and in 1485, he was
constituted master of the artillery. He died before 12th
August 1499. By his wife, Janet Maxwell, he liad four
sons, and one daughter, namely Alan, master of Cathcart,
who predeceased his father, leaving a son, Johni second Lord
Cathcart; David, who also died before his father; Hugh,
ancestor of the Cathcarts of Trevor, and John of Gabiyne.
Helen, the daughter, married David Stewart of Craigiehall
in the dounty of Linlithgow.
John, second Lord Cathcart, succeeded on the death of his
grandfather. He had a charter to himself and Margaret
DougUis, his wife, of the lands of Auchencruive, 12th Au-
gust 1499, and other lands in Ayrshire, forfeited to the king,
as steward of Scotland, for the alienation of the greater part
of the same by the first Lord Cathcart, without his migesty's
consent 6th March 1505. He died in December 1535. He
married, first, Margaret, daughter of John Kennedy of Blair-
2«
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EIGHTH LORD.
qnban, by whom be had a son, Alan, master of Gatheart ;
aecondljf Marg^t, daughter of William Douglas of Drom-
Unxig, and bj her he had four sons and iom* danghters.
Alan, master of Cathcart, and his two half-brothers, Robert
and John, were killed at Flodden. Robert married Margaret,
daughter and heiress of Alan Catncart of CarietOn, ano by
her he had a son, Robert Gatheart, from whom are dosoendefd
Sir John Andrew Gatheart of Garleton and KiUochan castle,
Ayrshire, baronet, (baronetcy conferred in 1703), and the
Gathcarts of Genoch. The third son of the second marriage,
David Gatheart, married Agnes, daughter of Sir George
Grawford of liffinorris, by whom he had Alan, his son and
heir, who added to his paternal estate the barony of Garbis-
ton, by marrying Janet, daughter and heiress of William
Gatheart of Garbiston. From him were descended Mtgor
James Gatheart of Garbiston, of the nmeteenth regunent of
light dragoons, who distinguished himself in the East Indies,
and his brother, Gaptain Robert Gatheart, royal navy. The
fourth son of the second mamage was Hugh, ancestor of the
Gathcarts of Goiff, a family now extinct.
Alan, thurd Lord Gatheart, the son of Alan, master of
Gatheart, by his second wife Margaret, daughter of Patrick
Maxwell of Newark, succeeded his grandfather in 1535. He
fell at the battle of Pinkie 10th September 1547. By Helen,
his wife, eldest daughter of the second Lord Sempill, he had
a son, Alan, fourth Lord Gatheart, and a daughter, Mariot,
married to Gilbert Graham of Rnockdolian in Garrick. About
1546 his lordship sold his estate of Gatheart to his wife's un-
do, Gabriel Sempill of Ladymuir, younger son of the first
Lord SempilL In this branch of the Sempills the estate
continued till the beginning of the eighteenth century, when
it was sold to John Maxwell of Williamwood. In the end of
the centuiy it was disposed of in parcels. The castle and
principal messuage were acquired by James Hill, firom whose
representatives they were purchased by the tenth lord and
first eari of Gatheart in 1801. Thus, after the kpse of two
centuries and a half, this portion of the barony returned to
the direct male heir of its anaent owners. The earl after-
wards acquired another portion named SymshilL
Alan, fourth Lord Gatheart, was a zealous promoter of the
Reformation, particularly in the west, where his influence was
great. In 1562, when John Knox was preaching in Kyle, a
bond was drawn up for the maintenance of the reformed reli-
gion, which was signed by many of the barons and gentlemen
of Ayrshire, among whom Lord Gathcart*s name appears.
In 1567 he entered into the bond of association for the de-
fence of James the Sixth. At the battle of Langside, 18th
May 1568, he fought at the head of his vassals, on the side
of the regent Murray. A place is still pointed out on an
eminence fiilly in view of ^e field of battle, and near the
castle of Gatheart, where the unfortunate Maiy anxiously
awaited the result In 1579 he was appointed master of the
household, and on 28th January 1581, he subscribed the second
confession of faith, commonly called the King*s Gonfession,
which was signed by his nugesty and his household with sev-
eral others. During the regency of the earl of Morton he
had several grants fVom the crown, which were afterwards
resumed. His lordship died in 1618. He had married
Margaret, daugjter of John Wallace of Graigy, by whom he
had a son, Alan, master of Gatheart, who died before his
father in 1603, leaving by his wife, Isabel, daughter of
Thomas Kennedy of Baigany, a son, Alan. fifUi Lord
Gatheart
The fifth Lord Gatheart was served heir to his grandfather,
8th May 1619, and died on 18th August 1628. He mamed,
first, Lady Mai^aret Stewart eldest daughter of Francis earl
of Bothwell, without issue ; secondly, Jean, daughter of Sir
Alexander Golquhoun of Luss, and by her had a son,
Alan, sixth Lord Gatheart, bom in 1628, the same year
his father died. He is described as a noblemar of much
goodness and probity, but does not seem to have taken any
prominent part in public affairs. His attendance in poriia-
ment is mentioned in Balfour's Annals, in the second aessoL
of the second triennial parliament, 23d June 1649, with the
remark that " there were ten noblemen only present fhmi the
downsitting to this day, — often fewer, but never more." He
died 13th June 1709, in the eighty-first year of his age. He
married Marion, eldest dau^ter of David Boswell of Auchin-
leck, and had three sons, namely, Alan, seventh lord ; Hon.
James ; and Hon. David Gatheart killed in the pubHo ser-
vice at the time of the Revolution.
Alan, seventh Lord Gatheart, bom about 1647, was in his
sixty-second year when he succeeded his father. He died in
1732, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. He married the
Hon. Elizabeth Dalrymple^ second daughter of James first
Viscount Stair, the eminent lawyer, and had three sons and
one daughter. Alan, the eldest son, perished at sea in Au-
gust 1699, on his passage to Holland. Gbarles, the seoom'.
son, became eighth Lord Gatheart; and James, the third
son, a m^or in the army, was killed in a duel by Gord-m of
Ardoch. llie daughter, Hon. Margaret Gatheart, married
Sir John Whitefoord of Blairquhan, baronet, and had issue.
Gharles, the eighth lord, bora about 1686, was a distin-
guished military commander. He entered early into the
army, and had a captain's oommisdon 29th June 1703. In
the following year he went over to Flanders, where he had a
company in General Macartney's regiment, and soon after-
wards he commanded the grenadier company. He quitted
that regiment in 1706 for a troop in the second regiment 3f
dragoons or royal Scots Greys. In 1707 he acted as major
of brigade under the earl of Sisar. In 1709 he became ma-
jor in the Scots Greys, and was afterwards promoted to be
lieutenant-colonel .of that distinguished corps. On the ac-
cession of George the First, he was appointed one of the
grooms of his migesty's bed-chamber. At the breaking out
of the rebellion of 1715, he, being then Golonel Gatheart,
joined the duke of Argyle at Stirling, and, on 23d October,
was despatched by his grace with a detachment of dragoons
against a body of the rebels, consisting of two hundred foot
and one hundred horse, who had been sent towards the town
of Dunfermline, for the purpose of raising contributions. Re-
ceiving intelligence that they had passed Gastle Gampbell,
and had taken up their quarters for the night in a village on
the road, Golonel Gatheart continued his inarch during the
whole night, and coming upon their resting-place unperoeived
at five o'clock in the morning, surprised the party, some ol
whom were taken while in bed. In the fi«y several of the
insurgents were killed and wounded, and the prisoners
amounted to eleven gentlemen and six servants. He return-
ed to the camp at Stirling the same evening, having sus-
tained no loss, as only one of his men was wounded in the
cheek, and one horse hurt At the battle of Sherifiinuir,
which followed, 13th November, when Argyle perceived tiiat
he could make no impr^non in front upon the numerous
masses of the insurgents, and that he might be outflanked by
them, he resolved to attack them on their flank with part ot
his cavahy, while his foot should gall them with their fire in
front He therefore ordered Golonel Gatheart to move ak>ng
the morass to the nght with a strong body of cavalry, aiMi
to fall upon the flank of Mar's left wing, a movement whicfa
he executed with great skilL Gatheart, after receiving a fire
from the rebel horse, immediately charged them, bat th«|
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CATHCART,
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NINTH LORD.
snstained the assault with great finnnees. After nearly lialf-
an-honr'B contest, however, they were oompelled to give way,
and the rebel fioot being also foroed to fall back, a general
rout of the left wing of the insm^nts in conseqnenoe ensued.
Colonel Cathcart was promoted to the command of the 9th
regiment of foot, 15th February 1717, and of the Slat, 13th
August 1728. On 1st January 1781 he received the com-
mand of the 8th dragoons. He succeeded his father as Lord
Cathcart in 1732, and was appointed one of the lords of the
bedchamber to Qeoi^ the Second in January 1733, in room
of the duke of Hamilton resigned. He was made colonel of
the third regiment of horse or carbineers, 7th Angust 1733.
He was chosen one of the sixteen representative Scots peers
at the general election of 1734. In the following year he was
appointed governor of Duncannon fort, and in 1739 of Lon*
donderxy, with the rank of major-general in the army.
In 1740, after war had been dedared against Spain, it was
resolved to attack the Spanish dominions in South America,
and Lord Cathcart was appointed general and commander-in-
chief of all the British forces in this service. He sailed from
Spitbead in October of that year, but never reached his desti-
nation, as he died at sea, after thirteen days* illness, 20th De-
cember 1740, aged fifty-four years, and was buried on the
beach of Prince Rupert*s bay, Dominica, where a monument
IS erected to his memozy. His death, happening at the time
it did, was considered as a national loss. His lordship mar-
ried, first, at London, 29th March 1718, Marion, only child
of Sir John Shaw, baronet, of Greenock, county of Renfrew,
and by her, who died in 1733, he had five sons and five daugh-
ters. The eldest two, twins, died young. Charies, the third
son, succeeded as ninth Lord Cathcart The Hon. Shaw
Cathcart, the fourth son, an ensign in the third regiment of
foot guards, fell in the sanguinary battle of Fontenoy, SOth
April 1746, in his twenty-third year, unmarried. Lord
Cathcart married, secondly, in 1739, Mrs. Sabine, the daugh-
ter of a Mr. Malyn of Southwark and Battersea, but by her
he had no issue. The history of this lady was somewhat re-
markable. She married, first, James Fleet, Esq., lord of the
manor of Tewing in Hertfordshire; secondly. Captain Sabine,
younger brother of General Joseph Sabine of Quinohall in
Tewing; thirdly. Lord Cathcart; fourthly, 18th May 1746,
Hugh MacGuire, an Irish officer in the Hungarian service, for
whom she purchased a lieutenant-coloners commission in the
British army, but was not encouraged by his treatment of
her to verify the posey on her wedding ring:
-HI survive, I shall have five.-
The colonel took her over to Ireland, and secluded her m a
solitary place in the oountiy, keeping her in confinement till
his death, which, to her great satis&ction, happened in 1764,
when she returned to England. She danced at Welwyn a»-
sembly when past eighty years of age, with all the spirit Hnd
gaiety of a young woman. She died at Tewing 3d August
1789, in her ninety-eighth year, after having enjoyed the
liferent of the manor of Tewing for fifty-six years. In the
well-known novel of Castle Rackrent, by Maria Edgeworth and
her brother, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, several particulars
concerning the harsh treatment of Lady Cathcart by Col
MacGuire are given by Mr. Edgeworth, who mentions that he
was acquainted with Colonel MacGuire, and had lately ques-
tioned tiie servant who lived with him, during the time that
Lady Cathcart was confined by him, whicn was neariy
twenty years.
Charies, ninth Lord Cathcart, bom at Edinburgh 21st
March 1721, was also an officer of distinction. He succeeded
his father in 1740, and became a captain m the 20th regi-
ment of foot in 1742. He was aide-de-camp to field-marshal
the earl of Stair, under whom he served at the battie of Det-
tingen, June 16, 1743. Subsequently he was appointed one
of the lords of the bedchamber to the duke of Cumberland,
and was aide-de-camp to his royal highness, commander-in-
chief at the hard-fought battie of Fontenoy, April 80, 1745,
where bis lordship was severely wounded in the face, and his
only brother feU. He accompanied the duke, with three
others of his aides-de-camp, when, in Januaiy 1746, he ar-
nved m Scotland to put down the rebellion, and was present
at the battie of CuUoden, where he was wounded. He was
also wounded at the battie of Laffeldt, July 2, 1747. In the
following year Lord Cathcart and the earl of Sussex were no-
minated hostages for the delivery of Cape Breton to the king
of France, in virtue of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. They
were nresented to Louis the Fifteenth, 27th November 1748,
and ranained in France till October 1749. On 12th April
1750, his lordship was appointed adjutant-general to the
forces in North Britain, with the rank of colonel. In No-
vember 1762, he was elected one of the sixteen Scots repre-
sentative peers, and re-chosen at all succeeding elections
during his life. In 1756, he was appointed lord high com-
missioner to the General Assembly of the Church of ScotUmd,
and continued to fill that high office for the eight subsequent
years to 1763, inclusive. He attained the rank of major-
general, 21st Januaiy, 1768, and of lieutenant-general, 14th
December 1760. In June 1761, he was appointed governor
of Dumbarton castie, and in 1763 was invested with the or-
der of the Thistie. In January 1764 he was named first
lord of police, on which he resigned the governorship of Dum-
barton castle.
In February 1768 Lord Cathcart was appointed ambassa-
dor eztraordinaiy and minister plenipotentiaiy to the em-
press of Russia, and was sworn a privy councillor, 2d August
same year. He remained at St Petersburg till 1771, Russia
being at that time engaged in a war with Turkey. After his
return from St Petersburg he was re-appointed lord high
commissioner to the Gen^id Assembly of the Church of
Scotland, firom 1773 to 1776, both inclusive. In the ktter
year he was constituted one of the lords of the bedchamber
to Geoige the Third. His lordship died 14th August 1776,
in his fifty-sixth year. He married at Greenwich Hospital,
24th July 1763, Jane, fourth daughter of Lord Archibald
Hamilton of Riccarton and Pardovan, master of Greenwich
Hospital, and sister of Sir William Hamilton, K.B., and by
her he had five sons and four daughters, namely, L Jane, bom
May 20, 1764, married John, fourth duke of Athol, and died
in 1791, leaving issue ; 2. William Shaw, tenth Lord Cath-
cart ; 3. Mary, bom at London in March 1767, married, 26th
December 1774, to Thomas Graham, Esq. of Balgowan, in
Perthshire, afterwards the gallant Lord Lynedoch, and died,
without issue, in June 1792, aged thirty-six; 4. Louisa, bom
in July 1768, married first, David, Viscount Stormont, af-
terwards earl of Mansfield, with issue, and secondly, the
Hon. Robert Fulko Qreville, second brother of the earl of
Warwick, also with issue ; 5. the Hon. Charles Allan Cath-
cart, who distinguished himself both as a soldier and a diplo-
matist, bora at Shaw Park, county Clackmannan, 28th De-
cember, 1769. He entered the army in 1776, as a volunteer
in the grenadier company of the 65th regiment of foot, with
which he served in America. After obtaining a lieutenant's
commission m the 23d foot, or Royal Welsh Fualeers, in
1778 he became captian in tlie Athol Highlanders or 77th
foot, then m Britain. He embarked at New York to join his
regiment, but was taken by a French privateer, 2l8t Septem-
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VISCOUNT AND EARL.
ber, afUr a severe engagement On 29th May 1780 he was
appointed major of the 98th foot, and soon after became
lieutenant-colonel of that regiment He aocompanied it to
the East Indies, where he was employed in diplomatic mis-
sions by Sir John Macpherson. Subsequently he served
under Migor-general Stuart agunst the French at Cudda-
lore, and commanded the grenadiers at the storming of the
redoubts of that place, ISth June, 1783, when the whole of
them, with the outposts and eighteen pieces of artUleiy, were
carried at one stroke. He and Colonel Gordon commanded
in the trenches, 25th June, when the enemy made a sortie,
but were completely repulsed, and the Chevalier de Damas,
their leader, taken prisoner. After the surrender of Cudda-
lore. Colonel Cathcart was sent home with the despatches,
and for his gallant conduct was appointed quarter-master-
general of the forces in India, Sd August 1788, and in 1784
had a sword of a hundred guineas value voted to him by the
Court of Directors. At the general election in the latter year
he was chosen member of parliament for the county of Clack-
mannan. In 1788 he was invested with full powers from the
king and the East India Company, to open a commercial in-
tercourse with the emperor of China. He embarked on board
the Vestal frigate for China, but died on the passage in the
Straits of Banca, 10th June 1788, in his twenty-ninth year,
unmarried. The companions of his voyage erected in the
Dutch fort of Anjerie a monument to his memoiy, with a suit-
able inscription in Latin ; — 6. John, bom 1761, died in in-
fancy ; 7. Archibald Hamilton, bom 7th July 1764, rector of
Metheley, in Yorkshire, and prebend of York, married Fran-
ces, daughter of John Freemantle, Esq. of Abbot's Aston,
Buckinghamshire, with issue; 8. a still-bom son; and 9.
Catherine Charlotte, bom in Russia, 8th July,. 1770, maid of
honour to the queen, died at London, unmarried, in 1794.
William Shaw, tenth Lord Cathcart, bom at Petersham, in
Surrey, 17th September, 1755, and received part of his educa-
tion at Eton college ; but in 1768, on the appointment of his
father as ambassador to Russia, he accompanied the family to
St Petersburg, where he pursued his classical studies, under
his private tutor, Mr. Richardson, professor of humanity in
the university of Ghsgow. After his retum to Scotland he
studied for the bar, and in 1776, was admitted advocate. The
same year he succeeded his father, when he tumed his views
to the army, and in 1777 had a comet's commission in the
7th dragoons. Proceeding to America, then in a state of re-
Tolt against Britain, he served as aide-de-camp, first to Mtyor
General Sir Thomas Spenoer Wilson, and afterwards to Sir
Henry Clinton, and distinguished himself on various occasions.
In 1778 he was major-commandant of the British Legion, a
body of volunteer infantry raised in North America, but re-
ligned that command in 1780, preferring to serve with the 88d
regiment of foot, of which he had been appointed miyor the
previous 3rear. He also held the office of quarter-master-
genend in America. Being app<»nted to a company in the
Coldstream regiment of foot-guards, he retumed to England,
and continued in that regiment till October 1789, when he
exchanged into the 29th foot, long stationed at Windsor, of
which regiment he was made lieutenant-colonel. He was
elected one of the sixteen representative Scots peers on a
vacancy, 10th January 1788, by a minority of one over the
«arl of Dumfries, and he was re-chosen at every subsequent
general election, till raised to the peerage of the united king-
dom. He filled the office of chairman of the committees of the
House of Lords from 1790 to July 1794, when the duties bemg
incompatible with foreign service. Lord Walsingham was
chosen in his stead. In January 1795, Lord Cathcart was
Appointed vioe-admiral of Scotland. He attained the rank of
colonel in the army, 1 1th November 1790, and was promoted
to the command of the 29th foot, 5th December 1792. In
December 1793 he had the rank of brigadier-geDera] on the
continent, and in 1794 accompanied the earl of Mouna to the
relief of Ostend. In the face of a formidable body of the
French they succeeded in effecting a junction with the duke
of York at Malines, July 9. He commanded a brigade at the
defeat of the French at Bommel, and attained the rank of
migor-general 4th September the same year. With the 14th,
27th, and 28th regiments of foot, he attacked the Frendi, 8th
January 1795, near Buren, and after an action of several hours
succeeded in driving them beyond Geldermalsen, taking horn
them a piece of cannon, and maintained his ground till
night, in spite of repeated assaults from fresh bodies of tiie
enemy, who poured in from different quarters. This post so
gallantly defended by his lordship was, however, too much
exposed to be retained in the face of a strong army. The
troops, therefore, retired to Buren, and the whole British
forces, under the conmiand of Sir David Duudaa, were
obliged to evacuate Holland. Lord Cathcart proceeded to
Germany, and remained on the Weser, and in other pUoes,
having been intrusted by his migesty with the command of
the British light cavalry and the foreign light corps in British
pay, in all thirty squadrons^ till December 1795, when he
embarked at Cuxhaven for England. On 7th August 1797
he was appointed colonel of the 2d regiment of life guards,
and was swom a privy coundllor at We3rmouth, 28th Sep-
tember 1798. He had the rank of lieutenant-general in tiie
army, 1st January 1801, and was appointed commander-in-
chief of the forces in Ireland, 28th October 1808.
In 1805, Lord Cathcart received the appointment of am-
bassador extraordinary to the emperor of Russia and the king
of Prasaia, and at his audience of leave at Windsor, 2dd
November that year, was invested with the order of the
Thistie. As both monarchs were then in the field, it was
deemed advisable, on account of the critical situation of
affairs, to postpone Ids embassies to the spring, and they were
never carried into effect In the meantime he was appointed
to the command of the British, in a combined army of British,
Russians, Swedes, and Prussians. He had the local rank of
general on the continent, 30 th November 1805, and the fol-
lowing month took the command of the British tioops in
Hanover. Aft«r the battle of Austerlitz he retumed home
with the army, in Febraary 1806 ; and the same year, waa
appointed conmiander of the forces in Scotland.
In the summer of 1807, to prevent the Danish fleet at Co-
penhagen from falling into the hands of the French, it was
resolved by the British govemment to take possession of it,
and on this important service an army was sent under the
command of Lord Cathcart, with a fleet under Admiral Gam-
bier. Aft«r waiting the result of ineffectual n^odation.
Lord Cathcart proceeded to invest Copenhagen; which he
bombarded with so much effect that, after a siege of eighteen
days, a capitulation was entered into, on 6th September, in
consequence of which the citadel and arsenal were put into
the possession of the British, and the Danish fleet, conasting
of sixteen ships of the line, fifteen frigates, six brigs, and
twenty-five gunboats, and an immense quantity of naval
stores and ammunition, brought to England.
On his retum home, Lord Cathcart was, on 8d No^'ember,
created a British peer, by the tities of Baron Greenock of
Greenock, and Viscount Cathcart of Cathcart in the county
of Renfrew. On the 7th he arrived at Edinbur]^ to resume
the command of the forces in Scotland, and had the freedom
of the dty voted to him, 17th November. On the 28th of
the following January the thanks of parliament were voted
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CATHCART,
613
OF CARLETON.
to his lordship and to Lord Gambier. His lordship attained
the fall rank of general in the army in January 1812, and
retained his command in North Britain nntil May 1813,
when he was called upon to undertake another misuon to St
Petersburg. In the same year the emperor Alexander con-
ferred upon him the order of St Andrew and the Cross of
the military order of St. George of the fourth class. On 18th
June 1814, he was advanced to the dignity of an earl of
Great Britain, by the title of earl Cathcart B^des being
governor of Hull, he was a member of the board of general
officers, and a commissioner of the royal military college, and
royal military asylum. Ho died, the senior general in the
service, 16th June 1843, at the advanced age of eighty-eight,
retaming his active habits and vigour of mind to the last
He married, 10th April 1779, Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew
Elliot, Esq. of Greenwells, Roxburghshire, collector of cus-
toms at New York. By her he had six sons and four
daughters. William, the eldest son, bom at London 80th
June 1782, chose the navy for his profession, and served his
time in the Mediterranean and in the inshore squadron off
Brest He was acting lieutenant of the Medusa frigate at
Boulogne, on board of which Nelson had hoisted his flag, and
commanded the cutter of that vessel at the attempt on the
French flotilla, 16th August 1801, when his critical assist-
ance rescued Captain Parker (who was mortally wounded),
in charge of one of the divisions, and his crew, when their
boat had fallen alongside a French ship. This gallant young
officer fell a victim to the yellow fever, at Jamaica, when
in command of the Clorinde frigate, with the rank of post-
captain, 5th June 1804, in his 22d year, unmarried.
The second son. Charles Murray Cathcart, became eleventh
baron and second earl. After his brother's death he was styled
Lord Greenock. Bom at Waltens, Essex, 2l8t December,
1783, he entered the army in 1799 as an ensign in the 71st
foot After being in various regiments, he was made captain
in the 89th foot, 9th July 1808, and served as assistant quar-
ter-master-general in Ireland, and in the Mediterranean. He
was in the expedition to the Scheldt, at the siege of Flushing,
&c, served in the Peninsular war, and was at the battle of
Waterloo. He attained the rank of lieutenant-general in No-
vember 1841, and of general in 1854. He was governor of
Edinburgh castle and commander of the forces in Scotland
from 1837 to 1842. In March 1846, he was appointed com-
mander-in-chief of the forces in Canada, Nova Scotia, New
Branswick, &c., and in 1847 he became colonel of thfe 3d dra-
goon guards. He married in France, 30th September 1818,
and remarried in England, 12th Febraary, 1819, Henrietta,
second daughter of Thomas Mather, Esq., issue, two sons and
two daughters. The second earl died 16th July 1859. His
elder son, Alan Frederick, Lord Greenock, bom 16th No-
vember 1828, succeeded as twelfth baron and third earl;
married, with issue. The younger son, the Honourable
Augustus Murray Cathcart^ bom in 1830, is also an officer in
the army.
The third son of the first earl, the Hon. Frederick Mac-
adam Cathcart of Cnugengillan, bom at Twickenham Com-
mon, Middlesex, 28th October 1789, also chose the profession
of arms, in which his family had acquired so much distinc-
tion. In January 1805, he was appointed comet of the 2d
dragoons or Royal Scots Greys, and became lieutenant 1st
May 1806. He served as one of the aides-de-camp to his
father in 1805, 1806, and 1807, and in the latter year was
sent home with the intelHgenoe of the surrender of the cita-
del of Copenhagen and the Danish navy. On the 8th Sep-
tember his father wrote : '' I send this despatch by lieuten-
ant Cathcart who has been for some time my first aide-de-
camp; who has seen everything that has occurred here and
at Stralsund, and will be able to give any further details that
may be required." He was minister plenipotentiary at St
Petersbuig from 1820 to 1822. and at Frankfort from 1824
to 1826. A knight of the Russian order of St Anne.
He was aidenle-Kwmp to his father, when commander of the
forces in Scotland; and in 1837 became a colonel in the
army. He married, 18th October 1827, Jane, daughter and
heiress of Quentin Macadam, Esq. of Craigengillan, Ayrshire,
and in consequence assumed the surname of Macadam before
that of Cathcart ; issue, a son and several daughters.
The Hon. Sir €^rge Cathcart, the fourth and youngest son,'
bom in 1794, received a comet's commission in the 2d Life
Guards in 1810, and served as aide-de-camp to his father in
the campaigns of 1813 and 1814, in Germany and France. In
1815, as aide-de-camp to the duke of Wellington, he was pres-
ent at the battle of Quatre*Bras. He held a high command
in Canada during the insurrection there. In 1851 he became
roi^r-general, and was appointed govemor and commander-
in-chief of the forces at the Cape of Good Hope. Subsequently
nominated a E.G.B., in 1853 he was appointed lieutenant-gen-
eral and commander of the 4th division of the British army
during the Crimean war. He was killed at Inkerman in 1854.
The family of Cathcart of Carleton, Ayrshire, is a junior
branch of the noble family of the same name. The castle and
lands of Carleton originally belonged to, and took their name
from, a family named Carrol, subsequently possessors of Crug-
gleton Castle, Wigtownshu«, (see M*Ebrlib, surname of). A
charter of Carleton was granted in 1324 by Robert the Brace.
Another charter was obtained from Robert II. dated in 1386.
The Hon. Sir John Cathcart 4th son of the 1st Lord Cath-
cart, married the daughter and heiress of Carleton of that
ilk, and had a son, Alan Cathcart, who became proprietor of
Carleton, and Dec 3, 1505, received from) James IV. a charter
of the lands of Carleton and others. His only daughter and
heiress, Margaret, married her relative, Hon. Robert Cathcart
2d son of 2d lord, by whom he had a son, also named Robert
On March 26, 1547, Thomas Kennedy of Knockdow, and David
and Fergus, his sons, found security that they would satisfy
Robert Cathcart of Carleton, for mutilating his left hand, and
for wounding him in the face, and on May 10, 1549, the two
latter were respited from the same. The Cathcarts seem to
have been, from an early period, opposed to the Kennedys.
Accordingly we find that so late as 1607 John Cathcart of
Carleton and John his son were put to the hom, for assisting
Mure of Auchindrane in an attack on the earl of Cassillis in
the fields at Maybole, when the master of the household ot
the latter was slain, and several of his followers wounded.
The ** fause knight,** of the old ballad of May Collean is
popularly said to have resided at Carleton castle, which gives
title to this branch of the Cathcarts. It is situated about
two miles to the south of Gu-van, a tall old ruin standing on
the brink of a bank which overhangs the sea, and the country
people affirm that the heroine, May Collean, was a daughter
of the family of Kennedy of Culzean, now represented by the
nuirquis of Ailsa. The ballad begins :
'* Oh I heard ye of a bladie knleht,
Lived in the south oountrie?
He has betrayed eight ladies fUr,
And drowned them in the sea.
Then next he went to May Coilean,
A maid of beauty rare.
May CoUean wes this lady's name.
Her fiOher's only heir.**
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CATHOART.
614
CAWDOR.
She refuses at first to wed him, Imt by means of a charm, she
consents to aooompanj him, when he takes her to a lonely
place called Bunion Bay, where he commands her to strip
herself of her clothes and ornaments, previously to drowning
her like the rest; bat under the pretence that she could not
take off her clothes in presence of a man, she prevailed upon
bim to turn his back, when she seized him in her arms and
threw him into the sea. She then mounted his * dapple grey,*
%nd galloped off, and according to the tradition, acquired all
his immense wealth. May there not be in this ballad some
covert allusion to the frequent fbuds between the Cathcarts
and the Kennedys?
The son of the above Robert Cathcart, John Catbcart of
Carleton, built the castle of Killochan, the present family
residence. He was a leading supporter of the Reformatdon,
and in 1570, when Eirkaldy of Grange began to show his
hostility to John Knox, and a report spread that he had be-
come his enemy and intended to slay him, the Ifurd of Carle-
ton, Lord Ochiltree, the earl of Glencium, and ten others of
the prindpal reformers of Kyle and Cunningham, sent him
a formal letter from Ayr, solemnly warning him of any at-
tempts to injure Knox, '* that man whom God had made the
first planter and waterer of his church.** In 1581 he was one
of the committee named by the General Assembly to deliberate
as to the bishops mtting in parliament and performing judi-
cial functions both civil and criminal, when they gave in a
report recommending that commissioners from the Assembly
should take the place of the bishops in parliament, and that
their temporal jurisdiction should be exercised by head bai-
lifis. By his wife, Helen, he had a son, Hew, from whom
are lineally descended the Cathcarts of Greenock, and Hew
Catbcart of Carleton, who was created a baronet of Nova
Scotia, 20th June, 1703. The latter married, in 1696, a
daughter of Sir Patrick Brotm, baronet, of Colstoun. His
son, Sir John Catbcart, married, first, in 1717, Catherine,
daughter of Robert Dundas, Lord Amiston, his issue by
whom, a son and two daughters, died before him ; and, seo-
ondly, in 1729, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Kennedy of
Culzean, baronet, by whom he had a numerous family. His
eldest son. Sir John Catbcart, died, without issue, in 1785,
when the title and estates devolved on fab next brother, Sir
Andrew Catbcart, a lieutenant-colonel in the army ; at whose
death, without issue, in 1828, in hiti 87th year, they passed
to his grand-nephew, the 4th baronet, John Andrew Catb-
cart, eldest son of his nephew, Hugh Cathcart. Sir John
Andrew Cathcart, 6th baronet, bom in February 1810, at one
time a captain in 2d Lifeguards, married, in 1836, Xady
Eleanor Kennedy, only daughter of the earl of Cassilli^ and
grand-daughter of 1 St marquis of Ailsa, issue, Reginald Ar-
chibald Edward, bom in 1838. two other sons, and a daughter.
There is a tradition in the Cathcart family that either Sir
Alan Cathcart, the companion in arms of Robert the Bruce,
or his son, attended Douglas to Spain, on his way to the
Holy Land, with the heart of the patriot king, in consequence
of which the Cathcarts carry a heart in theu: coat of arms.
David Cathcart, a senator of the College of Justice, under
the title of Lord Allowky, was bom at Ayr, in January 1764.
His fetther, Elias Cathcart, a respectable merchant, who
dealt in French wines, and traded with Virginia, previous to
the Revolution in North America, was at one time provost of
that tcwn His son David received the elementary part of
his education at the schools of his native burgh. He studied
for the bar at Edmburgh, and passed advocate 16th July 1786.
He was promoted to the bench 8th June 1818, and was ap-
pointed a lord of justiciary in 1826. He married in 1793,
Margaret Muir, daughter of Robert Muir, Esq. of Blairvtoo,
on the banks of the Doon, through whom be sooeeeded to
that estate, which became the property of his son Elias Catb-
cart, Esq., styled of Auchindrane. The small estate of
Greenfield, purchased by his father, was also the property of
his lordship. In one comer of it stands the venerable and
roofless rain of Alloway's " auld haunted kirk,** fipom which
Mr. Cathcart took his judicial title when raised to the bench.
He died at Blairston, 27th April 1829, at the age of sixty-
five, and was interred in the ruin of Alloway kirk.
Cawdor, earl of, a title in the peerage of the united king-
dom, possessed by a branch of the ducal house of Argyle.
The founder of this family was Sir John Campbell, third son
of the second earl of Argyle, who in 1610 married Muriel,
daughter and heiress of Sir John Calder of Calder, in the
ooimfy of Nairn. (See Calder. surname of, amte, p. 626,
and Campbell, surnaif^e of, p. 647.)
The name was anciently Calder, but it was known in the
latter form to Hector Boece, and Shakspeare makes the witches
in Macbeth hail him as thane of Cawdor. This way of spelling
the name was adopted as the family title when the peerage
was conferred in 1796. In Bleau*s Atlas it is ^ven as * Cathel/
hence Caddel (see Caddel and Calder, surnames of).
Sir John Campbell died 1st May 1646. Muriel survived
till about 1676. Their eldest son, Ardiibald, died in 1661.
His next brother, John, was bishop of the Isles. John, Ar-
chibald's son, tutor to the young earl of Argyle, was assassin-
ated by Campbell of Ardkinglass in February 1691 (see vol.
L p. 878). Sir John, his eldest son, acquired Isla. He re-
signed the estates in favour of his son, John, in 1622, and died
circa 1642. John, commonly called " the Fiar,** married Eliz-
abeth, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty.
In 1639, he was cognosced as a lunatic, and died in June
1664. He was succeeded by bis nephew. Sir Hugh, who was
knighted in 1660. Being especially anxious for the introduc-
tion of the Lord's prayer as a part of the regular service in the
Presbyterian church, he repeatedly addressed letters to the
presbytery of Invemess, to Principal Carstairs of Edinburgh,
and to the General Assembly. He also published the follow-
ing two works on the subject: *An Essay on the Lord's
Prayer,* 1704, 8vo ; and * Letters relative to an Essay on the
IiOrd*s Prayer,' Edinburgh, 1709, 8vo. Sir Hugh resigned in
favour of his eldest son, Sir Alexander, in 1698, and diedin 1716.
Sir Alexander served in several parliaments as oommis-
noner for the county of Naim, and like the other commia-
sioners, he received an allowance from his shire for his ex-
penses. He married Elizabeth, sister and heiress of Sir John
Gilbert Lort, baronet, of Stackpole court, Pembrokeshire, on
whose death in 1698 that estate passed to the Campbells of
Calder, and is now possessed by the earls of Cawdor. Sir
Archibald's son, John Campbell, Esq. of Cawdor castle, M.P.
for the county of Pembroke, was appointed a lord of the ad-
miralty in 1736, and of the treasury in 1746. He sold Isla
and the Argyleshire lands. He married &f air, eldest daugh-
ter and oo-heiress of Lewis Pryse, Esq. of Gogirthen, Wales,
and died in 1776. He had three sons and three daughtera.
His sons were, Pryse, his heir ; John Hooke Campbell, Lord
Lyon of Scotland; and Alexander, a lieutenant-oolonel in
the army, father of Genera] Sir Heniy Frederick Campbell,
K.C.B., and G.C.H.
Pryse Campbell of Cawdor castle, the eldest son, was
elected member of parliament for the counties of Cromarty
and Nairn in 1762, and appointed a lord of the treaimry in
1766. He married Sarah, daughter and oo-heiress of Sir Ed-
mund Bacon, Baronet, and had two sona, John, his heir,
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CESSFORD
615
CHALMER.
first Lord Cawdor; Sir Qeorge, admiral of the white who I
died in 1821, and a danghteis Sarah.
John Campbell of Cawdor castle, the elder son, was bom
and in part educated in Scotland, but resided chiefly on his
estate in Wales. In 1774 he was returned member of par-
liament for the town of Cardigan, and rechosen in 1780,
1784, and 1790. He was created a baron in the peerage of
Great Britain, 21st June, 1796, by the title of Lord Cawdor
of Castlemartin, county of Pembroke. In 1797, when the
French landed at Fishguard, a sea-port town in the county
of Pembroke, his lordship encountered them at the head of a
body of peasantry, assisted by a few troops, and compelled
twelve hxmdred French soldiers to surrender themselves pris-
oners. In 1799, he spoke, in the House of Lords, on the
Volunteer Exemption Bill, which he* did not altogether ap-
prove of, as precluding the services of many who-took refuge
in these corps for no other purpose than exemption from the
militia. In 1804 his lordship expressed his dissent to the
Militia oiEcers bill. He did not vote on the trial of Viscount
Melville, but divided with those peers who wished to go into
a committee on the Irish Roman Catholic petition ; and on
the meeting of the new parliament in 1807, he assisted at the
great dinner of the party in opposition to the ministry of the
duke of Portland. He m., 27th July 1789, Lady Caroline
Howard, eldest daughter of 5th earl of Carlisle, and had two
sons, John Frederick, first earl of Cawdor, and George Pryse,
captain, R.N. He died in 1821.
His elder son, John Frederick Campbell, 2d baron and Ist
earl of Cawdor, bom in Nov. 1790, married, 6th Sept. 1816,
Elizabeth, eldest dr. of 2d Marquis of Bath, issue 3 sons and 4
drs. Created eari of Cawdor and viscount Emlyn, 24tli Sept.
1827, in the peerage of the United Kingdom. Educated at
Oxford ; D.C.L. 1841 ; a fellow of the Royal Society. He died
Nov. 7, 1860. and was succeeded by his eldest son, John
Frederick Vaughan, bom in 1817, t»., in 1842, Sarah-Mar)',
the 2d dr. of the Hon. Col. Henry F. Compton Cavendish, and
granddaughter of 1st earl of Burlington, issue 3 sons and 4 drs.
Cessford, Baron, a title of the duke of Roxburgh, from
Cessford castle, in the parish of Eckford, Roxburghshire.
[See RoxBUROH, duke of, and Ksb, surname of.]
Chaucer, erroneously Chalmers, (Lat de Camera^ a sur-
name derived from the office of '• Camerarins regis,* chamber-
Iain of the king, held by Herbertus, the first on record of the
ancient Ayrshire family of Chalmer of Gadgirth, latterly Gait-
girth, but at first spelled Galdgirth, the girth of Galdus. This
Herbertus was Camerarins Sootin, or great chamberlain of
Scotknd, in the reign of David the Fh^t, from 1124 to 1163.
[Crawfor^s Officers qf StateJ] He is witness to the grant
which King David made ' ecdesisB sancti Kentigemi de Glas-
gow,* of the lands of Govan, which afterwards became an
endowment for a prebend in that cathedral church. Besides
his lands in Ayrshire, which remained for more than ax hun-
dred years in the family, he had also the barony of Kinniel in
Linlithgowshire, as appears from the first charter of these
lauds to Sir David Hamilton, in the reign of David the Sec-
ond, in which it is expressed that they were to be held as
freely as * quondam Herbertus Camerarins Regis David' held
the same. In his old age this Herbertus Camerarins took
orders and became abbot of Kelso. [Nisbefs 3y»tem of Her-
aldry^ vol iL App. p. 20.] The name de Camera from him
was retained by the family down to the reign of James the
Fifth.
His son, Reginaldus de Camera, (bora before his father
was in holy orders,) was possessed of the barony of Gadgirth
in the reign of William the Lion, between 1165 and 1214, and
as Nisbet remarks, assumed the name of de Camera, as a
surname, in the same manner as the family of the great
Stewards of ScoUand assumed that of Stewart as a cognomen
frt)m the office of theur great progenitor. He is a frequent
witness to the gifts and donations made by Walter the High
Steward, from his lands in Kyle, in the neighbourhood of
Gadgirth, to the monks of Pidsley, when he founds that
monastery in 1160. This remote antiquity of the family is
farther established by a writ under the great seal of Scotland
in 1609, referred to by Nisbet, in which it is acknowledged
by the crown that the famUy of Chalmer had possessed the
barony of Gadgirth for upwards of five hundred years before
that period. In consequence of several of the earliest char-
ters of the family having been lost, a chasm occurs in the
line of succession for about a hundred years or more, till
about 1296, when William de Camera, with others of the
barons of Kyle, swore an extorted allegiance to King Edward
the Fu^ of England.
Reginald de Camera, the son of this Wilham, jomed Robert
the Brace, and continued faithful to him throughout all his
vicissitudes and straggles. After the battle of Bannockbura
he received from that monarch a charter, under the great
seal, of his own estate of Gadgurth, under the title of ' Regi-
naldi de Camera terrarum de Galdguth.' This charter has
no date, as was usual in many of the writs of those days, but
it is supposed to have been about 1320.
His son, Wilham de Camera, adhered to King David
Brace, even when his fortunes were at the lowest ebb, and
after that monarch's release from his long captivity in Eng-
land, he was appointed in 1369, derk-regbter and justice-
clerk north of the Forth, the kingdom at that time being
divided into two justiciary districts of north and south of that
river. His son, Reginald de Camera, besides the estate of
Gadgirth, had a charter from King Robert the Second of the
lands of Craiginfeoch in Renfirewshire in the year 1375,
which, in 1507, were alienated to the Lord SempiU. In the
rolls of the county of Renfrew they were anciently called
Craigmfeoch-Chalmer, but afterwards they acquired the name
of Cruiginfeoch-SempiU.
Sir John de Camera of Gadgirth, the son of this Reginald,
in several authentic documents is called dominus or lord of
Gadgirth, a designation which infers that this family was
considered at that time in the rank and character among the
proceret and magnates regni^ ot greater barons of the king-
dom, and as such to have had a hereditary right to a seat in
parliament. His son, also named John, dominus de Gad-
girth, was one of fifteen barons of Ayrshure, (his name ap-
pears first on the list,) who were impannelled as a jury in a
cause in 1417, in which the buxgh of Irvine laid claim to a
piece of muir groimd, which was decided by their verdict in
favour of the town. [Robertson's Ayrshire FamUies, vol iii.
p. 265.] He was one of the Scots auxiliaries who, under the
earls of Buchan and Douglas, went to France in 1419, to the
assistance of Charles the Seventh against the English. At
the battle of Veraeuil, 17th August, 1424, gained by the
Scots, he highly distinguished himself, and in consequence
had &fl&ir de Us added to his coat of arms, held by a Uon in
his dexter paw which for some centuries afterwards was
borne as their crest by the family, instead of as previously a
hawk volant, but the latter was in the course of time revived.
According to tradition this John de Camera of Gadgirth was
slain at the battle of the Herrings in France, before 1429.
After that time, at least, his name is no more mentioned.
His son, Sir John de Camera of Gadgirth, was veiy young
at his father's death, but lived to a considerable age. He
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CHALMER.
616
OF GADGIRTH.
had the honoar of knighthood conferred upon him by King
James the Thurd. In 1468, he received a charter erecting
the lands of Gadgirth and Culralth in Ayrshire, into one bar-
ony. He sat as a baron in 1484, the date of the first par-
liament of James the Fourth, as dominns de Gaitgirth, taking
place and enrohnent * inter dominnm Ker et dominnm Bal-
comie,* two barons of great rank, that is, after the one and
before the other. He married dame Elizabeth Hamilton,
dnnghter of Sir James Hamilton of Cadzow, and sister of the
first Lord Hamilton, by whom he had a son, John, who suc-
ceeded him, and a daughter, Marion, married William Dal-
rymple of Stair, ancestor of the earls of Stair. It is stated
in Douglas* Peerage, lEdited by Wood, toL ii. p. 620,] that
" She was a ladjr of excellent worth and virtue, and one of
the Lollards of Kyle summoned in 1494 before the king^s
council on account of their heretical doctrines^ but the mag-
nanimity of James the Fourth treated the charges with con-
tempt, and the accused persons were dismissed.**
The son, John de Camera, married, in 4491, Marion Hay,
daughter of Peter Hay of Menzean, brother of John Lord
Hay of Yester, ancestor of the marquis of Tweeddale, and
had a son, James, and three daughters, who were all well
married. The son, James de Camera, on Ist October 1601,
as heir to his father, was infeft, on a precept of chancery, in
the lands of Culraith and Chalmerhouse, from which latter
had sprung the designation of that ilk. He married a daugh-
ter of Alexander Stewart of Galston, brother of John first
earl of Lennox and Damley, by whom he had a son Robert,
and a daughter, Margaret, married to Robert Cmmingham of
Cunninghamhead.
Robert de Camera of Gadgirth, the son, by his wife, the
daughter of Sir Hugh Campbell of Loudoun, had two sons,
James, of whom next paragraph, and Andrew, styled of Ne-
ther Bruntshiels, and a daughter, Margaret, married to Alan
Cathcart of Carleton.
James Chalmer of Gadgirth, the elder son, was a zealous
reformer, and is described by Archbishop Spottiswood, John
Knox, and other ecclesiastical historians, as one of the bold-
est of the leaders of the reformation in Scotland. In 1668,
when the preachers were summoned to appear at Edinburgh,
and in consequence the professors of the reformed religion
flocked in great numbers to the capital on the day fixed,
(the 19th of July,) the bishop of St Andrews and the priests
procured a proclamation to be made, that all who had come
to the town without commandment or warrant, should repair
to the borders and remain there fifteen days. The bishop of
Galloway said in rhyme to the queen :
** Madame, because they are come wfthont <m]er,
I red yoo tend them to the border.**
It happened that those of the west country who supported
the reformed reli^on had arrived that same day in Edin-
burgh, and hearing of the proclamation, they went in a body
to the privy chamber, where the queen regent and the bish-
ops were, and complained of this strange proceeding of the
priests ; on which the queen began to put in practice some
of her usual craft, when a zealous and bold man, as Calder-
wood calls him, James Chalmer of Gadgirth, said, "Ma-
dam, you know that this is the malice of the jawels (a term
of reproach much in use in those days, supposed to have the
same meaning as jail birds) and of that bastard (meaning the
bishop of St. Andrews) that standeth by you. We vow to
God we shall make a day of it. They oppress us and our
tenants, for feeding their idle bellies. They trouble our
preachers, and would murder them and us. Shall we suflfer
this any longer? No, Madam, it shall' not be so,* and
thereupon every man put on his steel bonnet {^Catdeneood's
History, vol. i. p. 844.1 '^^ queen regent found herself
obliged to temporise. She denied all knowledge of the pro>
clamation, and forbade the bishops to trouble either the pro-
fessors or their preachers. The bishops were in consequence
obliged to adjourn the day of compearance till the first of
September. In May 1669, he was one of the barons of the
west who hastened to the relief of Perth, when the queen
regent threatened to march against that town with her French
troops. In September 1662 he was among the barons and
gentlemen of Ayrshire who subscribed the famous bond at
Ayr, for the defence of the " holy Evangel,** and their own
mutual protection, and in July 1667, as a member of Aastm-
bly, he was one of the commissioners of towns who signed
the articles then agreed to, for the maintenance of the au-
thority of the young king, James the Sixth, the defence of
the reformed religion, and the utterly rooting out of popery
in the realm. He had several charters under the great seal
in 1641 and 1648, of parts of his estates both in the counties
of Ayr and Wigton. John Knox, when m the west, preached
in Gadgirth castle, situated in the parish of Coylton, and
found, as did all the reforming ministers, a warm friend and
fearless defender in its possessor. He married Annabella.
daughter of Cunningham of Caprington, and had James, his
son and successor, and three daughters, the second of whom,
Margaret, was married to James Boyd of Trochrigg. arch-
bishop of Glasgow, and was the mother of the famous Dr.
Robert Boyd of Trochrigg, principal of the university of Glas-
gow. James Chalmer, the son, married Marion, daughter
of John Fullarton of Dreghom, and had by her a son, James,
and four daughters.
This latter James Chalmer was infeft in the estate in 1580,
as heir to his father. By his wife Isabella, daughter of Sir
Patrick Houston of that ilk, he had, with three dau^ters, a
son, James Chalmer of Gadgirth, who by commission under
the great seal, 8th September 1682, was by King Charies the
First made sheriff principal of Ayrshire, when the crown ac-
quired that heritable jurisdiction fi^m the earl of Loudoun.
In 1638, he was one of the representatives of Ayrshire in
parliament In 1641 he was conjoined with the eari of Ca»-
sillis and the laird of Caprington as oommisnoners ^m the
Scots parliament to Newcastle. In the same year he and Sir
William Mure of Rowallan were appointed auditors of the
accounts of the commissary-general. In 1643 he was a
commissioner of supply, and also one on the committee of
management. In 1646 he was on the committee of war, and
in 1649 he had a troop in Colonel Robert Montgomery's
regiment of horse. By his wife Isabel, daughter of John
Blair of Blair, he had five sons and five daughters. His sons
were John, his successor ; Reginald of Polquhaim ; David of
Elsick in Galloway ; Brice, and Robert.
His grandson, John Chalmer of Gadgirth, was a member
of the convention parliament in 1689, and in the same year
of the first parliament of William and Mary. He married
Margaret eldest daughter of Colonel James Montgomery of
Coilsfield, third son of the sixth earl of Eglinton, and, with
three daughters, had three sons, John, James, and Hugh.
The latter, when scarcely seventeen years of age, was killed
at the battle of Malplaquet in September 1709.
John, the eldest son, at the age of sixteen entered the ser-
vice of the United Provinces as a volunteer in the raiment
commanded by Lieutenant-general George Hamilton, in
which he afterwards obtained a captain's commission. In
1714, when a general reduction of the army took place, and
that regiment was disbanded, he was continued in the estab-
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liBhment of Great Britain on half-pay till December 1726,
when he got a command in the seventh foot Owing mainly
to the great debts which had been incnired by the family from
their active adherence to the party of Charles the First, and
whidi were accamnlated in subsequent years, abjudications
were carried on against the estate in 1692, and in April
1695, Hugh earl of Londonn, James Yisoonnt Stair, and Da-
vid Ganninghame of Milncraig (afterwards Sir Da^nd), who
seem to have been the curators during the minority of Cap-
tain Chalmer, entered into a contract amongst themselves,
in which they allotted certain portions of the estate to each
other, at sixteen years* purchase, for which they became
bound to pay the preferable debts affecting it. On his return
home, however. Captain Chalmer challenged the parties at
law for thus parcelling out among themselves the lands of his
fathers, when he recovered part of them. He died unmar-
ried about 1740, when h^ was succeeded in that portion of
the estate which he retained possession of, by his three sis-
ters, Mary. Anna, and Elizabeth. Mary, the eldest, mar-
ried the Rev. John Steel, minuter of Stair, but dying, at a
very advanced age»»without issue, she left her portion of the
estate to her husband; and he, marrying again, had two
daughters, the elder of whom married a Mr. Redfeam, who
sold his part of Gadgirth to Colonel Burnet, who had married
the youngest daughter; Anna the second daughter married
Mr. Farquhar of Townhead of Catrine, and had no issue.
Elizabeth, the youngest, became the wife of Mr. John Mure
of Ayr, and had several children. Their eldest son was John
Mure Chalmer, W.8. On the death of his parents he ob-
tjuned that portion of the lands of Gadgirth which was his
mother's; and his aunt Anna engaged in her lifeHme to
make over her share of the estate to him on his assuming the
family name. He married Miss E. Farquhar of Edinburgh,
and by her had a son George, and several other children.
George Chalmer. Esq., the only son, first a lieutenant in
the royal navy, afterwards an advocate at the Madras bar,
where he realized a considerable fortune, married at Madras
Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Latour, Esq. of that pmi-
dency, by whom he had a son, Francis Day Chalmer, and
two daughters; Anne, married to John Jenkins, Esq. (bro-
ther of Dr. Jenkins, master of Baliol, and vice-chancellor of
the university of Oxford), and Eliza, the wife of Robert Haig,
Esq. of Viewpark, fourth son of James Haig of Blairhill,
county Perth, and Lochrin, county Edinburgh.
Francis Day Chalmer, the 26th in direct descent of this
ancient family, major 7th 'dragoon guards, married 26th May
1833, Sarah Mary Emily, daughter of James Robertson, Esq.,
captain of engineers, Bengal army. This lady was the cousin
and heiress of the late Sir Gilbert Stirling of Mansfield, bar-
onet, who left his estate of Larbert, and his large personal
fortune, to be invested in land to be entailed on her heirs.
Her eldest son, Gilbert Stiriing Chalmer Stirling, bom 18th
January 1843, will inherit these estates, and the direct lineal
representation of Herbertus de Camera, great chamberlain
of Scotiand in the reign of David I., (1124—1153). The
younger children of Major Chalmer are* 2. Reginald, 8.
George, 4. Francis ; I. Anne, 2. Emily Eliza, 8. Catherine
Frances, 4. Charlotte Amy Rachel.
There was a family of the name of Chalmers settled in
France, who were barons of Tartas in Normandy. Thev are
said to have been descended from the ancient family of Chal-
mers in Scotiand by means of Job Chalmers who, leaving
that country, married in France Martha de Cuiglosse, heiress
at Tartas, m the year 1440. The reason of hisleaving Scot-
land was that seven brethren of the fiunily of Chalmers, of
which this Job Chalmers was supposed to be one, had mur-
dered the baron of Balgonie, and in consequence were ban-
ished the kingdom and thdr estates confiscated. In a letter
written at Paris the 26th October 1644, by the Abbe Chal-
mers, a Scotsman, nominated bishop of Vance in Provence,
in answer to one from Mens. CbaUners, counsellor to the
king and lieutenant-general Tartas at Tartas, whom he
styles his cousin, he says that the decay of their ancient fam-
ily in Scotland was ** by reason of the unhappiness of the
times, and chie^y by means of the hero^ whereof his great-
grandfather and grandfather were such furious protectors
that they were known to have ransacked the churches at
Aberdeen, whereof their ancestors were as perpetual governors
for five hundred years,*' as, he adds, ** may be seen at tbb day
by their magnificent tombs in the said city." He also says
that the baron of Balgonie was killed by the seven brethren,
** for ane abuse done to their father.** A memorandum sent
to Blaise Chalmers, lieutenant-general of Tartas, by David
Chalmers, lord of Dormont (Ormond), a judge of the court of
session, (of whom a notice follows,) about a hundred years
before, states that the baron of Gadgirth was the chief of
the name of Chalmers. The father of this David Chalmers,
as we learn from that document, was Andrew Chalmers
of Strequelin (Strichen), in the county oi Aberdeen. Men-
tion is also made of Peter Chalmers, councillor to the king
(of France) and lieutenant-general of the jurisdiction of
Tartas. Of all these parties the arms were stated to be the
same as thoee of the family of Gadgirth. Notwithstanding
their thus connecting themselves with the Ayrshire fkmily,
we rather think that the branch in France belonged to the
house of Chalmers of Aberdeenshire, which was altogether of
distinct origin.
The family of Chahners of Bahuunraig, m Aberdeenshire, is
considered by all Scottish genealogists as springing fix>m the
clan Cameron, and a totally different family from that of
Gadgirth, although of the same surname. This is instructed
by the difference in thehr coats of arms, for there is not one
figure in the arms of the one that corresponds vrith those of
the other ; and antiquaries generally allow that the origin
and ancient descent of families are better ascertained by ar-
morial bearings than by surnames, arms being of greater anti-
quity. It is supposed that the ancestors of the family of
Balnecraig were settied at an early period in the north of
Scotland, but the first that can be fixed upon with any cer-
tainty was Robert Chalmers of Kintore, who married Helen
Garviehaugh or Garioch, sister of Sir James Garviehaugh,
kni^t, a gentieman of good descent, who had from Sir Tho-
mas Randolph, the great earl of Moray, tenant of Duncan
earl of Fife in the estate of Lumphanan, a charter of the
lands of Babiacraig, Belode (Beltie), Claychock (Cloak), and
Talanschyn (Tillyching), with their patents, &a This Ro-
bert Chalmers of Kintore received, jointiy with his wife, from
her nephew, Andrew Garviehaugh of Caskieben, the son of
the above knight, a charter of the lands named, dated at
Aberdeen, 8th August, 1357, to be holden of the earl of Mo-
ray and his heins for a pair of white gloves rendered yearly
at the manor of Caskieben if asked for. and became the
founder of a house which flourished for more than four hun-
dred years. This charter was confirmed by Isabel Randolph,
daughter and heiress of the said eari of Moray, lord of An-
nandale and Man. Robert and Helen Chalmers left a son;
William Chalmers or de Camera, as the name was then
spelled,- who was several times provost of Aberdeen from 1392
until 1404. He seems to have had a son. or brother, Thomas
Chalmers, who was also provost of that dty in 1412. Alex-
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CHALMERS,
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OF CULTS.
aoder Chalmers, probably his son, was provoit in 1448, and
for several difierent jears thereafter, down to 1495, when he
is designed of MorthilL In the pubhc registers is a charter
granted bj Alexander Chalmers of Bahiacraig to Henry For-
bes, of the lands of Thomaston and Fnllarton, with an aa-
nnal rent of five shillings out of the king's lands of Kinkell
and Djce, in the thanage of Kintore and shire of Aberdeen,
dated 7th April, and confirmed at St Andrews 1st March,
1535. In the eighteenth centuiy the estate of Balnacraig
passed into the possession of the Farqnbarsons of Finzean,
and Patrick Chalmers, Esq. of Auldbar in Forfarshire, is be-
lieved to be the representative of the Balnacraig family.
In 1746, while a party of military were preparing to bum
the old mansion-house of Balnacraig, in the parish of Aboyne,
one of the soldiei-s thrust his head into a jar of honey, and
could only be extricated by a portion of the mouth of the jar
being broken ofi*, which was done amid the jeers of his com-
rades. During this scene a counter order to save the house
arrived. The honey-jar, with its broken lip, was in conse-
quence preserved at the house as the cause of its preserva-
tion.
The family of Chahners of Cults, m the parish of Tarland,
was an early cadet of that of Balnacraig. Alexander Chal-
mers, the first of Cults, is supposed to have been a grandson
of the William Chalmers above-named. He married Lady
Agnes Hay, daughter of the earl of Enrol. Alexander Chal-
mers of Cults, the fifth in descent from the above-named
Alexander, the first of Cults, was provost of Aberdeen in
1567. By his wife, Janet, daughter of Lumsden of Cushnie,
he had two sons, Gilbert his successor, and William, minister
of Boyndie, of whose descendants afterwards. His elder son,
Gilbert Chalmers of Cults, received a charter of confirmation
of part of his paternal estates in November 1601. He seems
also to have sold the greater portion of them to Sir James
Gordon of Lesmoir in 1612, among which were the lands of
Cults, which now belong to the duke of Richmond. By his
wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Frazer of Dores, he had a son,
Alexander Chalmers, who appears nevertheless to have been
designated of Cults. He married Janet, daughter of James
Irvine of Drum, and had a son, Alexander Chalmers of Cults,
who married Maijory, daughter of Robert Lumsden of Cush-
nie, advocate, by whom he had an only daughter, Marjoiy,
the wife of John Urie, of Pitficby, and their son was Sir John
Urie or Urrie, lieutenant-general in 1648, under the great
marquis of Montrose. In this Alexander Chalmen ended
the elder male branch of the family of Cults.
William, second son of Alexander Chalmers of Cults, the
provost of Aberdeen, above referred to, was the first protee-
tant minister at the kirk of Boyndie, in Banffshire, and was
planted there in the early part of the reign of Charles the
First He married Elizabetii, daughter of William Chalmen
of the same family of Cults, minister of Skene, and had four
sons, who were all episcopal clergymen, namely, Isl, William
Chalmers, minister at Fettercairn. After the revolution he
was sent to London by the episcopal clergy of the north of
Scotland, to attend to their affairs at oourt; and soon after
the accession of Queen Anne, he presented to her an address
from his brethren, when her majesty conferred a pension of a
hundred pounds a-year on him. He married Elizabeth,
daughter of Barclay of Towie, and had two sons, William,
minister at Glammis, and James, minister at Cullen. 2d,
James, parson of Paisley. He was first one of the professon
of philosophy in Marischal college, Aberdeen, which office
he held in 1650, when Charles the Second was in Scot-
land ; and while at Aberdeen his nugesty distinguished him
with particular marks of fiivour. On one oecasbn, especially,
when he waited on the king, Charles, in the bearing of all
present, saluted him with these words, ** God save yon, Mr
Chalmers !** Having entered into holy orders, he was pre-
sented to New Macbar, within seven miles of Aberdeen, but
soon after was translated to the kirk of Cnllen, of which
his nephew James was afterwards incombent During his
ministry here, preaching once on Jotham^s parable (Judges,
chap, ix.) in the time of Cromwell's usurpation, he gave so
great offence to a company of soldiers, then quartered there,
that they carried him pnaoner to Elgin, where he was con-
fined for some time. After the establishment of episcopacy
in Scotland in 1662, he was promoted to the kirk of Dum-
fries, and there is an act of the lords of secret council in his
favour, dated 11th December that year, registered in the
council books, allowing him to draw the year's stipend due
to the late minister of Dumfries, as well as his own due from
Cullen. It was after tins that he became parson of Paisley.
He was nominated by Charles the Second to the bishopric of
Orkn^, but died at Edinburgh before he could be consecrat-
ed, and was buried in the Chalmen' tomb in Greyfnars
churchyard of that city. He married, first, a daughter of
William Scroggie, bishop of Argyle, and, secondly, EUsabeth,
sister of Robert Petrie of Portlethen, provost of Aberdeer
finom 1664 to 1671, and had two sons, James, minister of
Kirkpatrick- Fleming, and Charles, who was admitted writer
to the signet, 16th October 1704, but afterwards entered the
army, and was for some time a captain in the Scots guards,
but sold his commission in 1714. He was killed at the battle
of Sheriffhiuir, on the side of the Pretender, in 1715. He
was twice married, and had two sons, Roderick, Ross herald
and herald painter in Edinbuigh, and James, who was alfeo
an artist 8d, John, minister of Peterhead, and chiq>lain to
John earl of Middleton, commissioner to the first Soots par-
liament after the restoration. He married Maiy, daughter of
Keith of Whiteriggs, sheriff of Mearns. 4th, Patrick, suc-
ceeded his father as minister of Boyndie. By his wife, Anne,
daughter of James Ogilvie of Raggel in that parish, he had
two sons and a daughter. The elder son was a clergyman of
the Church of England in the county of Essex. The younger
died a youth at Marischal college, Aberdeen, The daughter
married George Ogilvy of New Rayne.
A baronetcy was conferred in 1664 on a member of the
younger branch of the Cults family, but the name of the
grantee is not known.
Although the title is of Cults, the family had ceased to
possess that property, and graduaUy fell into decay. Aifoat
the middle of the last century the grandson of the first baro-
net wa.H Sir Charles Chalmers, oaptain in the royal raiment
of artillery, who died at Pondicherry in the East Indies, in
November 1760, and was succeeded by his brother Sir George
Chalmen of Cults, baronet, who was long resident in India.
He died in 1764, and is supposed to have left a son, Sir
Geoi^ Chahnere, nominally of Cults, an eminent painter.
He was a native of Edinburgh, and the scholar of Ramsay,
but he afterwards studied at Rome. The honoure of his fam-
ily descended to him without fortune, their estates having
been previously sold, as already related. Sir George wtf m
consequence obliged to make art his profession. He resided
a few yean at Hull, where he pamted several portraits, and
frequently exhibited at the Royal Academy. He died in
London about the early part of 1791. There is a mezzotinto
print of General Lord Blakeney, after a painting by Chalmers,
done in 1755, at Minorca, when his lordship, who was his
particular friend, was governor of that island. In Brom-
ley's Catalogue of engraved portraits, mention is made of a
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CHALMERS,
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DA.VID.
portrait of his relation Roderick Chalmers, Rose Herald and
Painter of Edinburgh, in his Herald's coat, which was en-
graved by G. Chalmers, j. He married at Edinburgh, 4th
.Tune 176e, Isabella, daughter of John Alexander, Esq., histo-
rical and portrait pamter m that aty, and had a son. Sir Ro-
bert Chakners, baronet, commander of the Alexander Laza-
retto, sUtioned at the Motherbank. He died at Portsea in
1807. His son, Sir Charles W. Chahners, an officer in the
royal navy, was the last baronet of whom there is any ac-
The office of prindpal of King's College, Old Aberdeen, was
held for nearly sixty years by Dr. John Chalmers, who died
7th May 1800. William Chalmers, of the family of Strichen,
WMS professor of medicine there. The first newspaper in the
north of Scotland, the Aberdeen Journal, was begun in
1746 by his son, Mr. James Chalmers, printer in that city;
and hU grandson in 1771 established the Aberdeen Alma-
nack there.
Major-General Sir William Chalmers, knight and C.B., eld-
est son of William Chalmers, Esq. of Glenericht, Perthshire,
and nephew of Sir Kenneth Douglas, baronet, of Glenbervie,
bom in 1787, entered the army in 1808. He served in the
whole campaigns of the war with France, chiefly as a staff
officer, in Portugal, in Spain, at Walcheren, in Belgium and
France. He was severely wounded in the assault of the en-
trenchments at Sarre, and had nine horses killed or wounded
under him in action, three of them at the battle of Waterloo,
where he commanded a wing of the 52d foot ; he received the
brevet of major for his services at the Pyrenees, and that of
lieutenant-colonel for Waterloo. He was created a military
companion of the Bath in 1838, a knight commander of the
order of Guelphs of Hanover in 1887, and a knight bachelor
by letters patent in 1844. He was made a major-general in
the army in 1846, a lieutenant-general in 1854, and was col-
onel of 78th foot He married in 1826 the daughter of Tho-
mas Page, Esq. ; issue, two sons and three daughters. Sir
William Chahners died 2d June 1860.
CHALMERS, David, judicially styled Lord
Oimond, an historian, piiest, and lawyer, was
born in the county of Ross, about 1630, and edu-
cated in the university of Aberdeen. In some
biographies his name is erroneously spelled Cham-
bers, but according to the continuator of Nisbet
he belonged to the family of Chalmers of Stricbcn,
in Aberdeenshire, and his father*s name was An-
drew Chahners. After taking orders, he pro-
ceeded to France and Italy, where he studied
theology and the canon and civil laws, as was
customary in those days. In 1556 he was a pupil
of Marianus Sozcnus, at Bologna. On his retuiii
to Scotland, he became successively parson of
Suddy, provost of Creichton, and chancellor of the
diocese of Ross. On 26th January 1565, he was
appointed by Queen Mary one of the lords of ses-
sion on the spiritual side, when he assumed the
title of Lord Ormond. In the letter of presentar
tion he was styled the queen*s ^^ weil beluffit clerk
and familiar servitor," and he was also named a
privy councillor. In 1566, he was employed, with
other legal functionaries, in compiling and pub-
lishing the Acts of the Scottish parliament. The
volume in which these are contained is known by
the name of the " Black Acts," from being pilnted
in black letter. The same year, Buchanan says.
Queen Maiy lived in the Exchequer, " quod in
propinquo diversabatur David Camerius^ Bothuel,
cliens, cujus posticum erat hortis Regin«e vicinum,
qua Bothuelius, quoties lubitum esset commearet.'
A curious tale as to the use made of these apart-
ments may be found in Buchanan's * Detection,
p. 6. In December of that year, he obtained a
charter of the lands of Castleton and others in the
earldom of Ross, ** hir majestic havand respect to
the gud, trew, and obedient service done in all
tymes past to hir Majesties honour, will, and con-
tentment, not only in this realme, bot in sic foreyn
cun tries as it plesit hir hieness to command hiqi,
and that, therethrow, baith he put his persoun in
periU and danger, but alsua gretlie superexpendit
himself;' and this grant was ratified by parlia-
ment, 19th April, 1667.
Lord Ormond engaged in the conspiracy for
murdering the queen's husband, the ill-fated
Damley, and in a placard affixed to the door
of the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, on the night of
the 16th February, he, with the earl of Both-
well, Mr. James Balfour, parson of Flisk, and
* black Mr. John Spence,' were publicly denounced
as the principal devisers thei'eof. Mr. Tytler,
however, is mistaken in supposing that his lord-
ship took guilt to himself by a precipitate flight to
France ITytler's Craig ^ p. 96], as he was in the
following year, namely on 19th August 1568, for-
feited for his assistance to Queen Mary after her
escape from Lochleven, and particularly for being
at the field of Langside on the side of her majesty.
When the misfortunes of Queen Mary forced her
to quit the kingdom, Lord Ormond, who continued
faithful to her, was compelled to fly to Spain,
where he experienced a gracious reception from
King Philip the Second. He subsequently took
refuge in France, and in 1572 he published at
Paris * Histoire Abreg^ de tons les Roys de France,
Angleterre, et Ecosse ;" which work he afterwards
enlarged with a history of the popes and emperors,
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GEORGE.
and dedicated to the French king, Henry the
Third. In 1579, he published other two works in
the French language (see following list). Some-
time afterwards he retnmed to Scotland, and on
4th September 1583, received at Falkland his
"hieness' pacification,'* restoring him to all the
lands and offices, benefices, dignities, honours and
privileges, which had formerly pertained to him.
Against this measure the Creneral Assembly of
the church strenuously remonstrated with the
king, as Lord Ormond still lay under the suspicion
of having been accessary to the death of his ma-
jesty's father ; in consequence of which, although
the remission was ratified in parliament, 22d May
1584, it was clogged with a proviso that it should
not extend to the " odious mnrthers of our sove-
rane Lordis darrest fader and two Rcgentis." He
was, however, never brought to trial for this or
any other crime; and on the 21st of June 1586,
he was restored to his seat on the bench. He
died in November 1592. His works are:
Histoire Abr^g^ de tons les Roys de France, Angleterre,
et Eoosae, mise en ordre par forme d*harmonie; oontenant
ausn nn brief disconrs de randenne alliance et mntuel seoours
entre la France et rEoosse: plus, TEpitome de rHistoire
RomaJne dee Papes et Empereura. Paris, 1679, 8vo.
La recherche dee Singtdarit^ lea plus renuukables concer-
nant VEUt d'Ecosse. Paris, 1579, Svo.
Disconrs de la legitime Succession dea Femmes anx Poe-
sesstons de lenrs Parens, et dn GouTemment des Princesses
auz Empires et Royanmes. Paris, 1679, 8to.
CHALMERS, George, a distinguished histor-
ical, political, and antiquarian writer, descended
from the family of Chalmers of Pittensear, in the
county of Moray, was bom at Fochabers in the
end of the year 1742. He received the early part
of his education at the grammar school of his
native town, and afterwards removed to King's
college, Old Aberdeen, where he had as one of his
preceptors the celebrated Dr. Reid, then professor
of moral philosophy. From thence he went to
Edinburgh, where he studied law for several years.
In 1763 he sailed to America with an uncle, to
assist him in the recovery of a tract of land of
considerable extent in Maryland. He subse-
quently settled at Baltimore, where he practised
as a lawyer till the breaking out of the revolution-
ary war. On his return to Britain in 1775 he
settled in London, where he applied to literary
pursuits, and in 1780 produced his 'Political An-
nals of the United Colonies;' and in 1782 his
* Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Great
Britain during the Present and four Preceding
Reigns.' These works are said to have recom-
mended him to the notice of government, and in
August 1786 he was appointed chief clerk of the
Committee of Privy Council, for the consideration
of all matters relating to trade and foreign planta-
tions. He also acted as colonial agent for the
Bahama islands. A list of the various works of
Mr. Chalmers, who was a member both of the
Royal and Antiquarian Societies, as well as an
honorary member of the Antiquaries of Scotland,
and of other learned bodies, is subjoined. His
greatest production is his * Caledonia,' the first
volume of which appeared in 1807, and which he
himself styled his '* standing work." This truly
national publication was intended to illustrate the
antiquities, the language, the history, civil and
ecclesiastical, and the agricnltural and commercial
state of Scotland from the earliest period, and dis-
plays a vast amount of research and erudition.
It was left unfinished, only three out of four vo-
lumes having appeared. He had for many years
been engaged in collecting materials for a * His-
tory of Scottish Poetry,' and ' A History of Print-
ing in Scotland.' Under the name of Oldys he
published a Life of Thomas Paine. His Life of
Ruddiman the grammarian, throws mnch light on
the state of literature in Scotland during the ear-
lier part of the eighteenth century, and his Life of
Mary, Queen of Scots, is a work of great labour
and research, but it is understood not to have
been entirely original. Mr. Chalmers published
various pamphlets, apologising for those who, like
himself, believed in the authenticity of the Sbak-
speare manuscripts of Yoltigem and Rowena,
forged by lyfr. Ireland. He died May 31, 1825,
aged 82 years. His publications are:
An Answer trom the Electors of Bristol to the letter ci
Edmund Burke, Esq., on the affiurs of Amerioa. London,
1777, 8vo.
The Propriety of allowing a qualified Export of Wool dis-
oossed historically. London, 1782, 8to.
An Introduction to the Histoiy of the Rerdlt of the Colo-
nies, vol L only printed, which was cancelled. London, 1782,
8to, 600 pages, ending with the rdgn of George the First
Three Tracts on the Irish Anangenients. LonuL, 1786, 8tow
A Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and other
Powers. Lond. 1790, 2 vols. 8vo.
Political Annals of the present United Cololue^ from the
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ALEXANDER.
Settlement to the Fe«oe of 1763. Compiled chiefly from Re-
cords. Ending at the Revolution, 1688. Lond. 1780, 4to.
An EatiniAte of the oonipiirative Ktreii|ii;th of Great Britain
during the present and four preceding reigns, and of the
Losees of her Trade from every War since the Revolution.
To which is added, An Essay on Population, by Judge Hale.
[x>ud. 1782, 4to. 1786, 8vo. 1794, 8to. A new edition
corrected, and continued to 181), 8vo.
Opinions on interesting subjects of Public Laws and Com-
mercial Policy, arising from Auierican Independence. Lond.
1784, 8vo.
Historical Tracts, by Sir John Davies, with a Life of the
Author. 1786, 8vo.
Life of Daniel De Foe. Lond. 1786, 1790, 8vo.
Life of Thomas Paine, the author of the seditious work
entitled Rights of Man. (Tenth edition.) London, 1793, 8vo,
published under the assumed name of Francis Oldys, A. M.,
of the University of Pennsylvania.
Prefatory Introduction to Dr. Johnson*s Debates in Par>
liament. London* 1794, 8vo.
Lifeof Thomas Ruddiman, M. A. To which are subjoined,
new Anecdotes of Buchanan. Lond. 1794, 8vo.
Vindication of the Privilege of the People in respect to the
Constitutional Right of Free Discussion ; with a Retrospect
of various proceedings relative to the violations of that right
London, 1796, 8vo. (Anonymous.)
Apology for the Believers in the Shakspeare Papers which
were ezUbited in Norfolk Street London, 1796, 8vo.
A Supplemental Apology for the Believers in the Shak-
speare Papers, being a Reply to Mr. Malone's Answer,
which was early announced, but never published, with a
Dedication to Geoige Steevens, and a Postscript to T. J.
Mathias. London, 1799, 8vo.
Appendix to the Supplemental Apology; being the Docu-
ments for the Opinion Uiat Hugh Boyd wrote Junius* Letters.
1800, 8vo.
The Poems of Allan Ramsay, with a life of the Author.
Lond. 1800, 2 vols. 8vo.
Observations on the State of England, in 1696, by Gregory
King; with a Life of the Author. 1804, 8vo.
life of Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, Lyon King at
Arms under James V. with Prefatory Dissertations, and a
Gloesaxy of his Poetical works. Lond. 1806, 8 vols. 8vo.
Caledonia; or an Account, Historical and Topographical,
of North Britain, finom the most ancient to the present times,
with a Dictionary of Places, Chorographical and Philolo-
gical. VoL L Lond. 1807, 4to. Vol iL 1810, 4to. Vol iiL
1824, 4to.
A Chronological Account of Commerce and Coinage in
Great Britain, from the Restoration till 1810. 1810, 8vo.
Considerations on Commeroe, Bullion and Coin, Circulation
and Exchanges. 1811, 8vo.
An Historical View of the Domestic Economy of Great
Britain and Ireland, from the earliest to the present times.
New edition of ' The Comparative Estimate,* corrected and
enlarged. Edin. 1812, 8vo.
Opinions of Eminent Lawyers on various points of English
Jurisprudence, chiefly concerning the Colonies, fisheries, and
Commeroe of Great Britain. London, 1814, 2 vols. 8vo.
A Tract, privately printed, in answer to Ma]one*s account
of Shakspeare*8 Tempest London, 1816, 8vo.
Comparative Views of the State of Great Britain and lie-
land before and smce the war. London, 1817, 8vo.
The Author of Junius ascertained, from a concatenation of
circumstances, amounting to moral demonstration. 1817.
Churchyard*s Chips concerning Scotland; being a Collec-
tion of his Pieces relative to that Country; with Historical
Notices, and a life of the Author. London, 1817, 8vo.
Life of Maiy Queen of Soots, drawn from the State Papers,
with six subadiary Memours. London. 1818, 2 vols. 4to.
Reprinted in 8 vols. 8vo. From the preluoe of this work we
learn tiiat the Rev. John Whitaker, the Historian of Man-
chester, and the vindicator of the Scottish queen, had left at
his death an unfinished life of Mary. His papers were put
into Mr. Chalmers*s hands by his widow and danghtem fur
publication, but his avocations, and some years of ill health,
had prevented him from executing th«r desires, and he had
found it necessary ' to re-write the whole.
The Poetical Remains of some ot tiie Scottish Kings, now
first collected. London, 1824, 8vo.
Robene and Makyne, and the Testament of Cresseid, by
Robert Henryson, edited and presented by Mr. Chalmers as
his contribution to the Bannatyne Club. Edin., 1824, 4to.
A Detection of the Lo?e Letters lately attributed in Hugh
Campbell's work to Mary Queen of Scots. London, 1825,
8vo. These fictitious letters purported to be * originals* ot
love letters from Queen Mary to Uie eari of Bothwell.
Beddes these works he had prepared for the press an eU-
borate History of the Life and Reign of David I.
In 1812, on the murder of Mr. Perceval, Chancellor of the
Exchequer, a pamphlet appeared entitied '* An Appeal to the
generosity of the British nation on behalf of the family of the
unfortunate Bellingham,** with Mr. Chalmers* name ss the
author; but it was an impudent forgery, as he knew nothing
of it till it was published. Nevertheless, in Watt's Bibliotheca
Britannica, it is mentioned among his works.
CHALMERS, Alexander, M.A., F.S.A., a
biographical and miscellaneous writer, the young-
est son of James Chalmers and Susanna Trail,
daughter of the Rev. James Trail, minister at
Montrose, was bom at Aberdeen, March 29, 1759.
His father was a printer at Aberdeen, of great
classical attainments, who established the Aber-
deen Journal, the first newspaper published in that
city. Having received a classical and medical
education, about 1777 he left his native city, and
never returned to it. He had obtained the situa-
tion of surgeon in the West Indies, and had arrived
at Portsmouth to join his ship, when he suddenly
changed his mind, and proceeded to the metropolis,
where he soon became connected with the periodi-
cal press. His literary career commenced as
editor of the Public Ledger and London Packet.
He also contributed to the other popular journals
of the day. In the St. James' Chronicle he wrote
numerous essays, many of them under the signature
of Senex. To the * Morning Chronicle,' the pro-
perty of his friend, Mr. Peny, he for some years
contributed paragraphs, epigrams, and satirical
poems. He was also at one time editor of the
'Morning Herald.' Being early connected in
business with Mr. George Robinson, the celebrated
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THOMAS.
publislier in Fatemoster-Row, he assisted him in
*ndging of manascripts offered for sale, as well as
occasionally fitting the same for publication. He
was also a contributor to the * Critical Review,'
then published by Mr. Robinson, and to the
* Analytical Review,' published by Mr. Johnson.
In 1793 he published a continuation of the
• History of England,' in letters, 2 vols., which
reached four editions, the fourth being published
in 1821. His publications after this were numer-
ous, . and followed each other in constant succes-
sion. A list of them is subjoined. In 1805 he
was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiqua-
ries. Besides other works edited by him in pre-
vious years, in 1809 he edited Bolingbroke's
Works, 8 vols. 8vo, and in this and subsequent
years he contributed many of the lives to tlie
magnificent volumes of the 'British Gallery of
Contemporary Fortraits,' published by Cadell and
Davies. In 1811 he revised through the press
Bishop Hurd's edition of Addison's Works, 6 vols.
8vo, and an edition of Pope's Works, 8 vols. 18mo.
In the same year he republished, with corrections
and alterations, a periodical paper, entitled ' The
Frojector,' 3 vols. 8vo, the essays contamed in
which were originally printed in the Gentleman's
Magazine. He had previously written a periodical
paper, called ' The Trifler,' in the Aberdeen Mag-
azine ; but the essays under that head were never
separately printed. The work on which Mr.
Chalmers' fame as an author chiefiy rests is * The
General Biographical Dictionary.' The first four
volumes of this work were published monthly,
commencing May 1812, and then a volume every
alternate month, to the thirty-second and last
volume in March 1817, a period of four years and
ten months of incessant labour, and of many per-
sonal privations, as is too commonly the fate of
professional authors. In November 1816 he re-
published * The Lives of Dr. Edward Focock, the
celebrated orientalist, by Dr. Twells; of Dr.
Zachary Fearce, Bishop of Rochester ; and of Dr.
Thomas Newton, Bishop of Bristol, by themselves^
and of the Rev. Philip Skelton, by Mi-. Burday,'
in 2 vols. 8vo.
Mr. Chalmers was a valuable contributor to the
Gentleman's Magazme, to which he was very par-
tial, finding it of the greatest use in the compila-
tion of his biogi-aphical works. During the last
few years of his life, he suffered much from illness.
He died at London, December 10, 1834. He be-
longed to various Uteraiy clubs of the old school,
of which he was nearly the last surviving member.
Plis works and editions are:
Continuation of the * History of England,* in letters. 2
vols. London, 1793, 4th edition, 1821.
Glossary to Shakspeare. London, 1797.
A Sketch of the Isle of Wight London, 1798.
An edition of the Rev. James Barclay's Complete and Uni-
versal English Dictionary. London, 1798.
The Biitish Essayists, with Prefaces, Historical and Bio-
graphical, and a general Index. 45 vols. London, 1803.
This seriee begins with the Tatler and ends with the Obsenrer.
An edition of Shakspeare, 9 vohj. 8vo, with an abridgment
of the more coptoos notes of Steevens, and a life of the greai
dramatist London, 1803. Reprinted in 1812, illnstrated
by plates iipom designs by Fnseli.
A Life of Boms, prefixed to his works. London, 1805.
A Life of Beattie, prefixed to his woiics. London, 1805.
In 1806 he edited the following works, namely.
Editions of Fielding's works, 10 vols. 8vo; I)r. Johnson's
works, 12 vols. 8vo ; Warton*B Essays ; Bolingbroke's works,
8 vols. 8vo; The Tatler, Spectator, and Gnardian, 14 vols.
8vo ; and in 1807 he agisted the Rev. W. Lisle Bowles in
the publication of Pope's works, 10 vols. 8vo.
An edition of Gibbon's History, with a Life of the Avthor,
12 vols. 8?o. I^ndon, 1807.
Walker's Classics (so called from the name of the pablisher),
a collection, selected by Mr. Chalmers, with prefaces, 46 vols.
London, 1808, and following years.
The works of the Engtbh poets from Chancer to Cowper,
an enlarged edition, including the series edited, with prefaces,
biographical and critical, by Dr. Johnson, and the most ap-
proved translations; the additional lives by Mr. Chahners, 21
vols, royal 8vo. London, 1810.
A History of the Colleges, Halls, and Public Buildings at-
tached to the University of Oxford, including the Lives of
the Founders. London, 1810-, 2 vols. 8vo.
A Life of Alexander Gruden, prefixed to the 6tb edidon of
his Concordance. London, 1812.
General Biographical Dictionary, containing an Histonca
and Critical Account of the lives and Writings of the most
eminent Persons in every nation, partieularty the Bridsh and
Irish, from the earliest accounts to the present time. A new
edition revised and enlarged, 32 vds. London, 1812-1817.
County Biography, 4 numbers. London, 1819.
A Life of Dr. Paley, prefixed to his works. London, 1819.
Dictionary of the English Language abridged from the
Rev. H. J. Todd's enlarged edition of Dr. Johnson's Dio-
tionaiy. 1 voL 8vo. London, 1820.
Bo6well'& life of Johnson, ninth edition, edited by Mr.
Chalmers. London, 1822.
A new edition of Shakspeare; also, another edition d Dr.
Johnson's works, London, 1823.
Two papers in the Looker-on, by Mr. Alexander Chalmers,
have erroneously been ascribed to his namesake Mr. George
Chalmers, author of ' Caledonia.'
CHALMERS, Thomas, D.D., LL.D.^ adistin-
gaished divine and theolo^cal writer, was bom on
the 17th of March 1780, at Anstruther, a small
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CHALMERS,
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THOMAS.
seaport town on the east coast of Fife. His fatlier
was a dyer, shipowner, and general merchant, de>
scended from a family long connected with that
part of the country. His great-grandfather, Mr.
James Chalmers, son of John Chalmers, laird of
Pitmedden, was ordained minister of Elie in 1701 .
In the year after his ordination he married the
daughter of an episcopal clerg}'man, who, by
the savings of economy, purchased the estate of
Rademie, which is still held by her descendants.
Her eldest daughter was married to Mr. T. Kay,
minister of Kib*enny, and it was to Mra. Kay^s
son-in-law, Dr. Adamson of St. Andrews, that Dr.
Chalmers was indebted for the presentation to
Kilmany parish. The eldest son (the eldest bro-
ther of Dr. Chalmers' grandfather) succeeded his
father as minister of Elie, and was afterwards
translated to Kilconquhar. Mr. Chalmers' second
son (Dr. Chalmers' grandfather) married Barbara
Anderson, Easter Anstruther, and settled in that
town as a merchant. He was succeeded in busi-
ness by his second son, Mr. John Chalmers (Dr.
Chalmers' father), who married Elizabeth Hall,
daughter of a wine merchant at CraU. They had
a numerous family — consisting of nine sons and
five daughters — all of whom, save one, reached
manhood. Dr. Chalmers was the sixth child, and
fourth son. When yet almost an infant, he was
committed to the care of a nurse, *^ whose cruelty
and deceitfulness haunted his memory through life."
To escape this woman he went to school when
only three years old, but here he was tormented
by a pedantic and irritable schoolmaster, named
Bryce, " a sightless tyrant," who used to steal be-
hind upon his victims, like a tiger, guided by the
sound of their voices. This man had an assistant
named Daniel Ramsay, who was as aisy as his
principal was severe, and both were equally ineffi-
cient. In his old age Ramsay fell into a state of
destitution, and was often relieved by his old pupil.
Dr. Chalmers, who gave him many a pound note.
The stories and precepts of the Bible, at a very
early period, made an impression on his mind.
When only about three years of age, he was one
evening found pacing up and down the nursery
alone, in the dark, excited and absorbed, repeat-
ing ''O, my son, Absalom! O Absalom, my son,
my son 1" It would appear that as soon as he
could form or announce a wish, he declared that
he would be a minister ; and the sister of one of
his schoolfellows relates that breaking in one day
on her brother and young Chalmers, she found the
future divine standing on a chair, and preaching
vigorously to his single auditor on the text, " Let
brotherly love continue ! "
In November 1791, whilst not yet twelve years
of age, accompanied by his eldest brother William,
he entered as a student the united college of St.
Andrews, and among his fellow students was John
Campbell, the son of the minister of Cupar, who
afterwards became Lord Campbell, lord chief jus-
tice of the queen's bench. At that time he could
not write at all con^ectly ; his letters were fall of
bad grammar and words mis-spelled. As in the
case of many other great men, his talents did not
develope themselves early. He was volatile and
idle in his habits, and paid little attention to his
classes during the first two years of his college
course. He excelled at football, but still more at
handball, owing to his being left handed. His
third session at college was his intellectual birth-
time. His physical powers had now been ma
tured, and science awoke the mental activity and
force of will, which never afterward slumbered.
Dr. James Brown, the assistant mathematical pro-
fessor, was the means of kindling young Chalmers'
enthusiasm, and a friendship commenced between
the pupil and teacher, which lasted for many
years. In November 1795, when fifteen years
old, he was enrolled a student of divinity. His
attainments in theology did not at first attract
much notice, indeed his biographer tells us that
theology occupied very little of his thoughts, but
he early discovered a predilection for mathe-
matics and chemistry. Towards the close of the
session, however, he turned his attention to Ed-
wards on Free Will, and studied that author so
intensely that some were afraid his mind would
lose its balance. At that time the members of the
university assembled daily in the public hall for
prayer, which was performed by the theological stu-
dents in rotation. When it came to Chalmers to
officiate for the first time, his prayer was an am-
plification of the Lord's Prayer, so eloquently ex-
pressed as to excite wonder; and when the people
of St. Andrews knew it to be his turn to lead the
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CHALMERS,
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TUOMAS.
devotions, they flocked to the hall, which was open
to the public.
For the cultivation of his talent for composition,
he was largely indebted to debating societies
formed among the students. In session 1798-9,
he took as a subject for the debating society con-
nected with the college, "Is man afiree agent?"
and defended the negative side. Even then,
though but eighteen years of age, he was a formida-
ble antagonist in debate. It was about this time
that he penned a college essay on religious enthu-
siasm, which is said to have been the groundwork
of the splendid speech delivered by him forty years
afterwards, in a solemn convocation of four hun-
dred evangelical ministers, when in November
1842, they met to decide upon separating from the
Church of Scotland, and produced an eflfect as
overwhelming as anything he ever uttered.
After his college course was finished, he became
tutor in a family who treated him with great su-
perciliousness. ' From his private letters at this
time it would appear that he was sadly mortified
at the conduct of this f&mily-~even the veiy ser-
vants treatmg him with marked disrespect. '^ The
whole combined household," says his son-in-law
and biographer. Dr. Hanna, "were at war with
him. The undaunted tutor resolved nevertheless
to act his part with dignity and effect. Remon-
strances were vain. To the wrong they did him
in dismissing him, when company came, to his
own room, they would apply no remedy. He de-
vised therefore a remedy of his own. — He was liv-
ing near a town in whicn, througli means of intro-
ductions given him by Fifeshire fnends, he had
already formed some acquaintances. Whenever
he knew that there was to be a supper firom which
he would be excluded, he ordered one in a neigh-
bouring inn, to which he invited one or more of
his own friends. To make his purpose all the
more manifest, he waited till the servant entered
with his solitary repast, when he ordered it away,
saying, 'I sup elsewhere to-night.' — Such curi-
ously-timed tutorship suppers were not very likely
to be relished by Mr. , who charged him
with unseemly and unseasonable pride. *Sir,'
said he, ^ the very servants are complaining of your
haughtiness. You have for too much pride, sir.* —
* There are two kinds of pride, sir,' was the reply.
* There is that kind of pride which lords it over
inferiors; and there is that pride which rejoices in
repressing the insolence of superiors. The first I
have none of — the second I glorj' in."
When but nineteen years of age, he applied tor
license as a preacher; which was granted on the
plea that he was " a lad o' pregnant pairts." He
was licensed dlst July 1799, and preached his first
sermon in Chapel-lane Chapel, in Wigan, on 25th
August. On the following Sabbath he preached
in Liverpool. His brother James, who heard
him preach, wrote to his father that he thought
Thomas more occupied with his mathematical
studies than with his religious, and referred in
proof, to some documents in Thomas' handwrit-
ing, adding, " if you can read them," — ^for even
then his handwriting was so bad that his father
is said to have laid aside his letters till he re-
turned home to read them himself. He subse-
quently attended for two sessions the classes of
chemistry and natural philosophy at Edinburgh,
under Dr. Hope and Professor Robison. He had
also a ticket to Dr. Brown^s class of moral philo-
sophy. About this period, he became an admirer
of the works of Godwin, and thencefoith the phi-
losophical scepticism which for a time character-
ised him commenced. In a letter to his fiather, he
mentioned that he was getting into a stock of ser-
mons, which would render *^ the business abun-
dantly easy," when he got a church, which he
was at that time expecting.
In 1801 he became assistant minister of the
parish of Cavers, near Hawick, in Roxburghshu^.
At this period of his life he evinced nothing, either
in his mode of preaching or in general ability, to
distinguish him from the ordinary run of young
probationers, except perhaps in the positive char-
acter of his habits, and a somewhat self-willed and
independent spurit of abstraction. In 1803, when
little more than twenty-two years of age, he was
appointed assistant to Professor Vllant, the profes-
sor of mathematics in the nniversity of St. Andrews.
This situation was quite to his taste. '^ His thirst for
literary distinction was intense; to fill the mathe
matical chair in one of the uuivereitles, the high
object of bis ambition ; to this the assistantship at
St. Andrews might prove a stepping-stone." This
prospect influenced his literarr ardour to the nt-
I t
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most. His lectures were eloquent, and unusually
brilliant, and his students regaixled him with ad-
miration. The old professors, in the true spirit of
all mediocrity, were envious, and tried to dispar-
age him. He repelled their attempts to injure
him with indignation, and maintained his inde-
pendence as a man of science. *^ Under his extra-
ordinary management," wi*ites one of his pupils,
^* the study of mathematics was felt to be hardly
less a play of the fancy, than a labour of the intel-
lect; the lessons of the day being continually in-
terspersed with applications and illustrations of
the most lively nature, so that he received, in a
singular manner, the confidence and attachment
of his pupils."
In 1803, through the influence of his relative.
Dr. Adamson, professor of civil history at St. An-
drews, as already stated, he was presented by his
university to the Uving of Kilmany, a small scat-
tered village in the county of Fife, situated about
midway between Cupar and Dundee, to which
chai'ge he was ordained on the 12th of May in that
year. Soon after this envy deprived him of his as-
sistant professorship. His father, also, who wished
him to attend exclusively to his ministerial duties,
did not approve of his teaching in the univei*slty.
During the first session diflerences arose between
him and the professor, so that he was told that his
services would not be required. He resolved to
vindicate his injured honour by opening classes of
his Qwn at the very door of the university, which
he did in the session of 1804. His class was most
numerously attended. He also lectured upon che-
mistry as well as mathematics. The opening of
this private class, in apparent opposition to the
university professor, brought upon him, as well
as upon the students who attended him, the full
indignation of the United college. His presbytery
also interfered with him, because he gave so much
of his time to these lectures. But he met them in
the same spirit of defiance, and as they could not
bring against him any charge of neglect of duty,
he tdd them that he had as good a right to indulge
in this ^^ amusement" as they had to enjoy them-
selves in their own favourite pastimes.
So far from being deterred by the opposition of
the professors, on a vacancy occurring, in 1804, he
became a candidate for the natural philosophy
chair in the university of St. Andrews, but was
unsuccessful. Finding the manse of Kilmany old
and in wretched repair, he made many efforts to
get it rendered habitable for himself and his two
sisters who were to reside with him. Not content
with his labours at St. Andrews, he gave courses
of lectures on chemistry, <&c., in vaiious of the
neighbouring towns. It is related that having, by
his chemical acquirements, lighted up his manse of
Kilmany with gas, his parishionei-s were hugely
astonished thereat, as at that period this new
lighting power, now become so common, was
almost unknown in this country. Their feelings
on the subject, however, need not be considered
matter of suiprise, when it is stated that even Sir
Walter Scott at one period scoffed at the idea of
light from gas, and yet lived to introduce it into
his house at Abbotsford, and afterwai-ds became
chairman of the Edinburgh Gas Company.
At the time of the threatened invasion of Great
Britain by the French, when the volunteers were
organised, Mr. Chalmers showed his patriotic
feelings by enrolling himself in the St. Andrews
corps, holding a double commission as chaplain
and lieutenant. In 1805 he joined the corps at
Earkaldy, where it was then on permanent duty.
When the chair of mathematics in the university
of Edinburgh became vacant in that year (1805)
by the translation of Professor Playfair to the chair
of natural philosophy, in the same university, Mr.
Chalmers was one of the many candidates, who
competed With the late Sir John Leslie for the
vacant professorship. He withdrew, however, at
an eai'ly period of the protracted contest which
ensued, and in the end Sir John was elected. It is
understood to have been in compliance with the
wishes of his father and nearest relatives, who were
anxious that he should remain a minister, that he
retii*ed from the competition, and for a time sat
down quietly in his charge. Nothing but a strong
6ense of filial obligation could have induced him
thus reluctantly to foi*ego the prospect of realizing
his heart's warmest desire, and continue to peiform
in his village charge the somewhat monotonous
though highly honourable and responsible duties
of a country minister. It was on occasion of this
contest that his first publication was called forth.
Mr. Playftiir, in his letter to the Lord Provost of
2 B
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CHALMERS,
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THOMAS.
Edinburgh, from the number of clergymen who had
come forward as candidates, was led to observe that
there were very few Scottish clergymen eminent in
mathematics or natural philosophy, and that the
vigorous and successful pursuit of these sciences
was incompatible with clerical duties and habits.
Mr. Chalmers immediately took up his pen, and
under the title of ' Observations on a Passage in
Mr. Playfair's Letter to the Lord Provost of Edin-
burgh, relative to the mathematical pretensions of
the Scottish Clergy,' he published a ti-act vindi-
catiug the character of his brethren, and assert-
ing that they had sufficient leisure for literary
pursuits. In that pamphlet he alleged that one
weekday was quite enough for the duties of the
parish, and the rest was leisure time. After he
changed his views of the nature of the work of
the ministry, he endeavoured to recall this unfor-
tunate pamphlet.
At the beginning of 1808, he fii*st commenced
authorship in that department in which he after-
wards excelled, namely, political economy. His
volume was entitled * An Inquiry into the Extent
and Stability of National Resources,' and he found
some difficulty at first in obtaining a publisher.
The object of this work was chiefly to show that
if our native resources were properly cultivated,
and our means duly economised, there would be
no necessity for depending on foreign trade, — a
theory which he was subsequently convinced was
not altogether a correct one. Amidst much that
was questionable, the volume inculcated some
sound views in political science; but its vehe-
mence of tone, although at times lofty and eloquent,
prevented it from making any great impression,
and it was in some instances very severely assailed
by the Reviewers.
At this period the mind of this extraordinary
man seems to have been more occupied with sub-
' jects of a political and sclentiflc than of a religious
I nature. For some years after his settlement at
I Kilmany, he attracted very little attention as a
I preacher beyond the lunits of his own parish. In-
deed, for a number of years, from his violent and
excited mode of delivery, he was rather unpopu-
lar in the pulpit.
In May, 1809, he made his maiden speech in
the General Assembly, on a question of augmen-
I tation of stipends, and that speech caused a great
sensation, and was published by request. He
used to say that *' Butler's Analogy, ' which he
commenced to study at an early period, '^madc
him a Christian." The deaths of his sister and his
uncle, and a long illness which followed, led him
about this time to serious thought, and to a com-
plete change in his religious views. On 17th
March, 1810, he says he had completed his thir-
tieth year, and lamented that on a review of the
last fifteen years of his life, at least two-thirds of
that time had been uselessly spent. He became,
about this time, greatly fortified in his belief of
Christianity. One day he called on a friend, and
said, " Tell me all you ever heard against Chris-
tianity from its enemies — I am more than able to
reftito them all. The evidences of our religion
ai-e overwhelming." He at this time reviewed
Dr. Charteris' Sermons, and intended the criticism
for the Edinburgh Review, but sent it to the Rev.
A. Thomson for the * Christian Instructor.' The
latter demuned to it as a review, but in'^erted it
among the miscellaneous contributions. In a note
Mr. Thomson regretted the absence of the pecu-
liar doctrines of the cross in the volume under
review. About the beginning of 1811 Mr. Chal-
mere took up Wilberforce's 'Practical View of
Christianity,' and he got on in reading it till he
felt himself on the eve of a greiit revolution in all
his opinions about the gospel. He wrote his mo-
ther that he had reached the conclusion that his
profession required all his talents and energy— a
change of views, certainly, on this point So
great an improvement was now observable in his
mode of preaching, that his congregation was
equally surprised and delighted; and from this
important era in his life may be dated the com-
mencement of that distinction to which he was
soon after to advance. He had become intimately
acquainted with Dr. (aflerwards Sir David)
Brewster, and was engaged by him to write
several articles fbr the Edinburgh Encycloptedia
conducted by him, and amongst others the paper
on * Christianity.' In the course of the research
and investigation into which he was led while
preparing this celebrated article, which he after-
wards expanded into his well-known Treatise on
the Evidences, he became deeply impressed with
'! I
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far more serious and heartfelt views of the
great truths of the Grospel, than he had ever
previously entertained ; and the result was soon
apparent. From a mere formal preacher, he
became a bold, eloquent, and earnest pulpit
orator, upon whose discourses hung enchained
thousands of admiring hearers. He broke through
all at once, like the sun from behind a cloud, and
his parishioners were filled with amazement at the
sudden transformation. *^It was not long," says
his biographer, ^^till the whole aspect of the
Sabbath congregations in Kihrnany church was
changed. The stupid wonder which used to sit on
the countenances of the villagers or farm servants
who attended divine service, was tm-ned into a
fixed, intelligent and devout attention. It was
not easy for the dullest to remain uninfonned; for
if the preacher sometimes soared too high for the
best trained of his people to follow him, at other
times, and much ofkener, he put the matter of his
message so as to force for it an entrance into the
most sluggish understanding." So remarkable,
indeed, was the change that the parish church of
Kilmany, which had till then been attended by a
thin and listless auditory, was now thronged, not
only by the inhabitants of the parish, but by
crowds of strangers from the surrounding towns
and villages, thousands flocking from St. Andrews,
and even from Dundee, to hear him.
His fame, as a preacher, soon reached Edin-
burgh, the capital; where he preached on several
occasions, with great acceptance, and henceforward
he was universally acknowledged to be the most
powerful and popular preacher in the Scottish
Church.
In November 1814 he was elected by the Town
Council of Glasgow minister of the Tron church
in that city, and was admitted to that charge on
the 2l8t of the following July. Here he preached
those eloquent discourses which soon raised him to
the rank of one of the first preachers in Europe.
The characteristics of his eloquence have often
been described. The provincial Scotch accent, the
guttural voice, the heavy blue eye kindling into
fury and the uncouth gestures which distinguished
him, were all forgotten when he spoke. His
amazing powers of oratory, and great command of
language, enabled him to triumph over all these
appai'ent defects. Before leaving Kilmany, he
published 'The Duty of Giving an Immediate
Diligence to the Business of the Christian Life/
being an address to the inhabitants of that parish.
In his farewell sermon preached July 9, 1815, he
a£fectingly alludes to the change which had taken
place in his views of religious truth since coming
among them. For the greater part of twelve years,
he says, his preaching was attended with Tittle
reformation of heart or conduct; and he adds —
'*Out of your humble cottages have I gathered a
lesson, which, I pray God, I may be enabled to
carry with all its simplicity into a wider theatre,
and to bring with all the power of its sabduin^
eflBcacy upon the vices of a more crowded popula-
tion."
On the 21st of February, 1816, the degree of
D.D. was conferred on Mr. Chalmers by the Se-
natus Academlcus of the university of Glasgow.
In May 1817 Dr. Chalmers appeared for the fii*8t
time in a London pulpit, having on the 14th of
that month preached in Surrey chapel, the anni-
versary sermon for the London Missionary Soci-
ety. His reputation had preceded him, and al-
though the service did not commence till eleven
o^clock, '^ at seven in the morning the chapel was
crowded to excess, and many thousands went off
for want of room." On the following Thursday
he preached again in the same place on behalf of
the Scottish Hospital, and on the succeeding Sun-
day in the Scotch church, London Wall, and in
the Scotch church, Swallow Street. Many of the
clergy of the Church of England, peers, and mem-
bers of parliament, flocked to hear him. Among
the latter were Husklsson, Wilberforce, and Can-
ning, and the latter, on one occasion, when the
preacher paused to take breath, after one of his
electrifying bursts of oratory, was overheai'd to
whisper to a gentleman beside him: ''This is
indeed true eloquence. The tartan beats us all."
The amount of misery and wretchedness which
he found existing among the poorer classes of
Glasgow, filled his heart with sorrow ; and to the
work of the pastor was soon added that of the
philanthropist. He now devoted much of his at-
tention to the Christian and civic economy of
towns, and laboured anxiously to introduce an
improvement in the mode of maintaining the poor.
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with the design of amciiorating their condition, as
well as doing away with compnlsoiy assessment.
His sagacity foresaw that our poor-laws would
pauperise Scotland, and that the more given by
legal sanction the more would pauperism be cre-
ated. Having explained his views to the magis-
trates of Glasgow, they were favourably enter-
tained ; and he was translated to the pansh of St.
John*s, in that city, that he might be the better
enabled to develop bis plans. For this purpose,
on the 18th of August 1819, the Town Council
unanimously resolved that *■*■ Dr. Chalmers should
have a separate, independent, and exclusive man-
agement and distribution of the funds which may
be raised by voluntary or charitable collections at
the doore of St. John's church, for the relief of the
poor resident in said parish."
In St. John's, then containing a population of
nearly 12,000 souls, who had been, till then, much
neglected, he laboured with great zeal and success
in the moral and religious education of the poor.
In carrying out his gi-eat design of " excavating
the heathen" — one of his own happy and signifi-
cant phrases — he went boldly to the lanes and
alleys of his parish, to compel them ^^to come in."
His aptitude for familiarising himself with those
he visited, and disarming prejudice and opposition,
is well illustrated by the following incident: —
Going the round of his visitations, he called one
day upon a poor cobbler, who was industriously
engaged with awl and ends, QEistening sole and
upper. The cobbler kept fast hold of the shoe
between his knees, perforating the stubborn bend,
and passing through the bristled ends right and
left, scarcely noticing his clerical visitor; but the
glance that he gave showed evident recognition ;
then rosining the fibrous lines, he made them
whisk out on either side with increased energy,
showing a disinclination to hold any parley. " I
am," said the Doctor, ^^ visiting my parishioners at
present, and am to have a meeting of those resi-
dent in this locality, in the vestry of St. John's
(on a day which he named) when I shall be hap-
py to have your presence along with your neigh-
bours." The shoemaker kept his spine at the
sutor's angle, and, making the thread rasp with
the force of the pull, coolly remarked, " Ay, step
your wa's ben to the wife and the weans; as for
me, Vm a wee in the deistical line, Doctor."
With that intuitive perception of character and
tact in addressing himself to the variety of dispo-
sitions and characters in society, which distin-
guished him, he entei'ed into conversation with
the cobbler, asking questions about his profession,
and the weekly amount of his earnings, sympa-
thising with him on the exceedingly limited
amount of his income, compared with the outlay
necessary for food, clothing, house I'ent, &c. Then
taking up one tool after another, he asked and ob-
tained explanations of their different uses, and,
following up the conversation by a chain of moral
reasoning, from cause to efiTect, led the cobbler
away from his last, and obtained a patient hear-
ing, which ended m the latter becoming a steady
church-goer.
The church of St. John's was soon found to be
far too small for the eager crowds anxious to hear
him. He not only preached twice every Sunday,
but once on the week-days. His splendid * Astro-
nomical Discourses,' perhaps the most fiiscinating
of all his works, were part of the fruits of his
week-day preachings. Though week-day sermons
were by no means popular, he was attended by
crowds of all ranks and classes; and noblemen
jostled with humble tradesmen in the great desire
to hear Dr. Chalmers. The same continued till
his last pulpit appearance, wherever and whenever
it was known that he was to preach.
Among the works published by Dr. Chalmers
during his residence in Glasgow, were the follow-
ing: 'Thoughts on Universal Peace, a Thanksgiv-
ing Sermon,' 1816; 'The Utility of Missions, a
Sermon,' 1816; 'A Series of Discourses on the
Christian Revelation, viewed in connection with
the Modem Astronomy,' 1817 ; ' A Sermon delivered
at Glasgow, on November 19th, 1817, the day ot
the Funeral of the Princess Charlotte;' 'Sermons
Preached in the Tron church, Glasgow,' 1819-20;
'Tlie Importance of Civil Government to Society;
A Sermon,' 1820 ; ' The application of Christianity
to the Common and Ordinary affairs of Life, in a
Series of Discourees,' 1820; 'The Christian and
Civic Economy of Large Towns,' 2 vols, 1821-
1828; 'Sermons Preached on Public Occasions,'
1823, and ' The Evidences of Christian Revelation,'
1824. His works became very popular and sold
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rapidly; but he preferred devoting himself to his
parochial duties, at a time when his writings
would have brought him large remunerating prices
from the publishers.
At the commencement of his ministry at St.
John's, that he might not be impeded in his philan-
thropic schemes in that parisli, the whole parochial
aiTangements being on his shoulders, and guided
and impelled by him by almost superhuman energy,
he had secured the services of the Rev. Edward
Irving, then a licentiate of the church, as an assist-
ant. Mr. Irving also assisted him in household
visitation.
In 1822, he started on a tour through England,
in search of information as to the state and pros-
pects of its poor-law administration; on which
occasion he again visited London, and had inter-
conrse with Lord Calthorpe, Lord Teignmouth,
Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Clarkson, Mr. Malthus, and
others.
In 1823, he was elected professor of moral
philosophy In the university of St. Andrews.
Attached to a college life, and believing that his
greater usefulness consisted in teaching, he now
saw his wishes in this respect accomplished, and
that in his own alma mater. He accepted the chair
in preference to a pastoral charge in Edinburgh,
to several of which he had been invited. He
demitted his charge of St. John's on the 5th No-
vember, and was installed and delivered his intro-
ductory lecture at St. Andrews, on the 17th of the
same month.
His professional labours at St. Andrews gave an
impulse to that ancient seminary which, in some
measure, tended, for the time, to restore it to some
portion of its former fame, and while he continued
there he also delivered a separate course of lectures
on political economy as connected with the moral
philosophy dass. But it was a sphere too limited
for his usefulness, and by far too narrow for his
genius; and a larger iteld, and higher office soon
opened to him in the Scottish metropolis itself,
which was destined to become the scene of his
greatest triumphs.
In 1828, on the divinity chair in the university
of Edinburgh becoming vacant. Dr. Chalmers was
unanimously elected to the professorship, by the
magistrates and town council of thkt dty, and he
at once accepted the appointment. Ue entered on
the duties of his new chair by pronouncing an
address of surpassing eloquence and splendour;
and, during the fifteen years that he held it, he
was eminently successful in his lectni*es, and has
left the impress of his original genius, and vast
stores of theological instruction, on the minds of
many of the students, who afterwards became
ministers of the gospel.
Although the theological chair in the university
of Edinburgh is considered the highest academical
professoi*ship in Scotland, that chair is but poorly
endowed in comparison to the corresponding chair
in the univereity of Glasgow, and the latter, in
consequence of its being richer, is of more con-
sideration to a man, who like Dr. Chalmers, had
a family, whose disposition was generous in the
extreme, and whose benevolence was unbounded.
On the professorship of theology, therefore, becom-
ing vacant in the university of Glasgow, (le offered
himself as a candidate, but the election was vested
in the college; and as Chalmers was a leader
among the non-intrusionists — ^that is, those who
were opposed to the exercise of patronage in
appointments to livings in the church, and an
anti-pluralist to boot— he had become obnoxious
to the university authorities, and was rejected.
In 1829 Dr. Chalmers took an active part in
favour of the emandpation of the Roman Catholics,
— a concession which, there is reason to believe,
he lived to regret. In 1832 appeared the evidence
given by him and the Right Rev. J. Doyl6, befoi-e
a Select Committee of the House of Commons, on
the State of Ireland. In that year were also
published two of his works, namely, ^On: Political
Economy in connection with the M6ral state and
Moral prospects of Society,' and ' The Supreme
Importance of a right Moral to a right Economical
State of the Community.'
His treatise on * The Power and Wisdom and
Goodness of God, as manifested in the adaptation
of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual
Constitution of Man,' appeared in 1833. This
was one of the celebrated Bridgewater Treatises.
The Right Hon. and Rev. Earl of Bridgewater,
who died in 1829, left the sum of £8,000, at the
disposal of the president of the Royal Sodety, as
a reward to the author of the best treatise on the
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Power, Wisdom, aud Goodness of God as illus-
trated in Creation, &c. That gentleman took the
opinions of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the
Bishop of London, as well as of a nobleman, a
friend of the deceased eai'l, on the best means of
carrying out the bequest; and it was very judici-
ously resolved that instead of being given to one
man, for one work, the money should be allotted
to eight different persons for eight separate trea-
tises on separate subjects, though all connected
with the same primary theme. Dr. Chalmers was
selected as one of the writers, and in 1833, ac-
cordingly, appeai*ed froip his pen, in two volumes,
the work already mentioned. His collected works
revised by himself, were published in 1836, in 25
duodecimo volumes. His valuable Lectures on
St. PauPs Epistle to the Romans, were published
in 1837.
During what was called the great voluntary con-
troversy. Dr. Chalmers took a very active and in-
fluential part in support of the obligation of civil
rulers to provide for the religious instruction of
the people, and for the maintenance of a national
religion. He delivered a series of valuable lec-
tures on the Importance of Chureh Establishments,
which made a great impression at the time. He
was also the chief promoter of chureh extension in
Scotland. For his successful labours in this cause
he repeatedly received the thanks of the General
Assembly of the Church of Scotland. In 1838,
he was invited to London to deliver a course of
lectures on the Establishment and Extension of
National Churches, which he did in the Hanover
Square rooms, to overflowing audiences. Amongst
his hearers on this occasion were the Duchess of
Kent, the Duke of Cambridge, many of the pre-
lates and clergy of the Church of England, and
the most distinguished members of both houses of
parliament. These lectures were said to be got
up at the expense of a nobleman, who desired to
strengthen the existing institutions of the country,
and were designed principally for the higher classes
of society.
When he preached in London, the Duke of
Wellington, the late Earl of Eldon, the Duke of
Sussex, with several other members of the royal
family, and many among the higher ranks, whom
the journalists of the day remarked " they were
not accustomed to elbow at a place of publit* wor-
ship,*' were found among the crowded congrega-
tions assembled from all parts to hear him. Kone,
indeed, ever enjoyed a larger share of popularity
— *' that thing," as he expressed it in his own gra-
phic language, " of etare, and pressure, and ani-
mal heat."
Dr. Chalmers continued to occupy the chair of
divinity in the university of Edinburgh, till the
disruption took place in the Established Church
of Scotland, in May 1843, when, at tne bead of
more than four hundred ministers, he quitted the
Establishment, and immediately founded the Free
Protesting Church of Scotland. As a matter of
course, he resigned his chair in the university, and
was elected principal and pnmarins professor of
theology to the seceding body. Driven by con-
science from the walls of the Establishment, be
did not relinquish one jot of his Establishment
principles; and, indeed, what is called the volun-
tary doctrine forms no part or portion of the Free
Church creed. The fundamental doctrine of the
Free Church, as distinguished from the Estab-
lished Church, is that the State, while bound to
provide for the interests of religion, and to protect
and defend the church, has no right whatever to
interfere, and ought not to be allowed to interfere,
in things pertaining to the spiritual province of
the church; that patronage is a sin and crying
grievance, and that no minister should be ^* in-
truded" on any parish or congregation contrary
to the will of the people. Hence the distinctive
name, before the disruption, of Intrusionists and
Non-Intrusionists. These principles are very plain
and simple; and yet Dr. Chalmers used to com-
plain that he could never get an Englishman to
understand them.
In the proceedings of the new church, Dr.
Chalmers took a leading part, and was the princi-
pal framer of the scheme of the Snstentation Fund
for the support of the clergy. In 1845, he retired
fi-om the management of the more weighty and
important business of the Free Church, and con-
fined his attention almost entirely to what be-
longed to the new college. In his address on the
occasion he stated that he had " neither the vigour
nor the alertness of former days ;" that he found
his strength sn£Scieut neither for the debates of
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the Assembly nor the details of committees or of
correspondence; and he therefore resigned "a gen-
eral care of the church for a more special and in-
tense care of those students who are to the chnrch
her future guides and guardians.*' He planted a
church on the territorial system, in the West Port
of Edinburgh, in one of the poorest and most d^-
titnte localities of Scotland's capital, and in the
near vicinity of the spot where Burke and Hare
committed their wholesale mm-ders in 1827; and
one of his last appearances in an Edinburgh pulpit
was on opening that humble and obscure place of
worship. Three weeks before his death, he was
called to London, to give evidence before the com-
mittee of the House of Commons on the refusal of
certain landholders in Scotland to allow sites for
churches on their properties to adhei'ents of the
Fi*ee Church. While in the metropolis on this
his last visit, be preached three times to crowded
congi-egations, among whom, as usual, were many
of the great and noble of the land; and having
finished his testimony, he returned fix>m London
on Friday the 28th of May, to his own house at
Momingside, about two miles from Ediuburgh.
On the succeeding Sunday he attended public
worship, along with the Rev. Dr. Cunningham, in
Momingside Free Church, and at an early hour
that evening, he retired to rest in his usual health.
Next morning, the 31st of May, 1847, he was
fbund dead in his bed. " It appeared," says the
' Witness ' newspaper, " that he had been sitting
erect when overtaken by the stroke of death, and
he still retained in part that position. The massy
head gently reclined on the pillow. The arms
were folded peacefully on the breast. There was
a slight air of oppression and heaviness on the
brow, but not a wrinkle or a trace of sorrow or
pain disturbed its smoothness. The countenance
wore an attitude of deep repose. No conflict had
preceded dissolution."
The union in one person of such zeal and elo-
quence as Dr. Chalmers displayed, is exceedingly
rare. As a preacher the grandeur of his concep-
tions, the novelty and amplitude of his illustra-
tions, and the graphic force and significancy of his
diction, with the irresistible earnestness of his
manner, altogether formed such a combination of
qualities as. is seldom found in modei-n oratoiy.
The celebrated Robert Hall said that Dr. Chal-
mere' preaching " stopped people's breath." The
e£fect he produced, it has been remarked, was like
that of the sage in Rasselas — **when he spoke,
attention watched his lips; when he reasoned,
conviction closed his periods."
His accent and his appeai'ance were both against
him. The former was broad provincial Scotch;
the latter was dull and heavy, and by no means
conveyed any idea of the wonderful fertility and
energy of his mind. In stature he was about the
middle height, stout, large-boned, and muscular,
but not at all approaching to corpulency. His
gi-ey eye, which in his ordinary moods had a pla-
cid expression, when excited shone with intense
brilliancy; his forehead was broad and massy,
but not particularly lofty ; his step was quick and
eager, his accents fast and hmrying, his gesture
awkward, and his delivery monotonous; but yet,
when roused from his lethargy, when fairly within
his subject, these drawbacks were all forgotten in
the powerful and rapid stream of bis eloquence.
He usually commenced speaking in an undertone;
and it was not until he had gone on for some time
that feelings of admiration began to be kindled, at
the exhibition of those wondrous powers which
made him the first pulpit orator of the age. His
eloquence, it may be said, did not flow on in a
continuous strain. He allowed himself and his
hearers intervals of repose, during which he uttered
nothing very striking. But these pauses, like the
breathings which ever and anon the wind takes
in a tempest, or like the temporary cessation of
the thunder when it appears to be collecting all
its foixse for a new explosion, were succeeded
by bursts of the most electrifying nature, which
perfectly enthralled his hearers. Those who
never heard him preach can collect from his pub-
lished discourses no adequate conception of the
effect which his pulpit addresses produced on his
audiences. ^^ His earnest and massive eloquence,"
says one of his newspaper biographers, '*bore
down all before it. His accents might at first
appear uncouth; but all this impression speedily
disappeared before a torrent of rapid and brilliant
thoughts. He seized on his text, turned it over
and over in a thousand shapes, showed it in a
thousand lights, and never left it till it was writ-
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ten on the hearts of his liearei's. Even the cool
and critical Jeffrey said that there was some-
thing remaricable about that man; he reminded
him more of what he had read of Cicero and De-
mosthenes than any orator he had ever heard."
Although a thorough Calvinist, deeply imbaed
with the theology of the great man whose system
he had imbibed, he carefully and faithfully divided
the word of truth. While he was anxious to point
out the only ground of a sinner's acceptance, no
one ever urged so earnestly and eloquently the
*^ duties and decencies, and respectabilities and
charities of life." Besides the degree of D.D.
which, as already mentioned, he obtained from the
university of Glasgow, he received that of LL.D.
from the university of Oxford. He was also a
corresponding member of the Royal Institute of
France, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Lon-
don. He married in 1812, Grace, second daughter
of Captain Pratt of the 1st royal veteran battalion.
This lady survived him. He also left six daugh-
ters, two of whom were married to Free Church
ministers ; the one to the Rev. Mr. Mackenzie of
Ratho, and the other to the Rev. Dr. Hanna, for-
merly of Skirling, now of Edinburgh, at one time
editor of the North British Review, to the pages
of which Dr. Chalmers himself regulai'ly contri-
buted, and author of t,he Memoirs of Dr. Chal-
mers, published after his death. His third
daughter was married in November 1852, to Wil-
liam Wood, Esq., accountant, Edinburgh, son of
the late John Philip Wood, Esq., auditor of excise
and editor of Douglas' Peerage. — His works are :
Obeenrations relatire to the mathematical pretensions of
the Scottish Clergy. Edin. 1805.
Scripture References; designed for the use of parents, teach-
ers, and private Christians, 8d ed. 8vo.
A Sermon, preached before the Society for the Relief of the
Destitute Sick. Edin. 2d ed. 8vo.
The Utility of Missions, ascertained from Experience ; a
Sermon, preached before the Society in Scotland for propagat-
ing Christian Knowledge, 2d ed. 8vo.
The Two Great Instruments appointed for the Propagstion
of the Gospel; a Sermon, preached before the Dundee Mis-
sionary Society. 8d ed. 8vo.
An Enquiry into the Extent and Stability of National Re-
venues. Lond. 1808, 8vo.
Speech delivered in the General Assembly, respecting the
Bill for augmenting the Stipends of the Clergy of Scotland,
1809, 8vo.
A Sermon, 1813, 8vo.
The Influence of Bible Societies on the Temporal Necessi-
ties of the Poor, 1814, 8vo.
The Evidences and Authority of the Christian Revelation.
Glasgow, 1814, 8vo. 6th edit. 1818.
An Address to the inhabitants of the parish of Eilmany,
on the duty of givmg an immediate diligence to the bosineK
of the Christian Life. Edin. 1815. 2d edit. 8vo. 1817.
llioughts on Universal Peace a Sermon delivered on
Thursday, January 18, 1816, the day of National Thanks-
giving. Ghugow, 1816, 8vo, 2d edit
A Series of Discourses on the Christian ReveUtion, viewed
in connexion with the Modem Astronomy. Glasgow, 1817
8vo. 9th edit Edin. 1818, 8vo. Numerous editions.
The Doctrine of Christian Charity applied to the came of
religious difference ; a Sermon, preached before the Auziiiaiy
Society, Glasgow, to the Hibernian Society for eetabliahing
Schools and circulating the Holy Scriptures in Ireland. Glas-
gow, 1818, 8vo.
A Sermon delivered in the Tron Church, Glasgow, on
Wednesday, Nov. 19th, 1817, the day of the Funeral of her
Royal Highness the Princess Chariotte of Wales. GLiagow,
1818, 8vo.
Sermons and Tracts. New edition, 8vo.
Sermons preached in the Tron Church, Glasgow. Glasg.
1819, 8vo.
Discourses on the application of Christianity to the Com-
mercial and Ordinary Affairs of Life. 8vo., GUsgow,
1820.
Sermon on the Importance of Civil Government Ediu.
1820.
The Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns. 8 vols.
8vo. Glasgow, 1821-6.
A Speech before the General Assembly Explanatwy oTthe
measures which have been successfully punsued in St John's
parish, Glasgow, ibr the extinction of its compulsory pauper-
ism. Gbsgow, 1822, 8vo.
Sermons preached in St John*s, Glasgow. Glasgow, 1823.
On the Use and Abuse of Ecclesiastical and Literary En
dowments. Glasgow, 1827, 8vo.
Political Economy. GUugow, 1882, 8vo.
The Supreme Importance of a right Moral to a right Eoo-
nomical State of the Community. Edin. 1882.
Letter to the Royal Commissioners for the viaitatioo d
Colleges m Scotland. Ghugow, 1832.
On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as mani-
fested in the adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and
Intellectual Constitution of Man. 2 vols. 8vo. Bridgewater
Treatise. London, 1838.
The Right Ecclesiastical Economy of Laige Towns. Edin.
1885, pamphlet
An Argument on Chapel Bonds. Edin. 1835, pamphlet
On the Evils which the Established Church in Edinburgh
has suffered, and still suffers, fix>m the Seat-letting being in
the hands of the Magistrates. Edin. 1835, pamphlet An
answer to the same by Adam Black immediately appeared.
Re-assertion of the Evils of the Edinburgh System of Seat-
letting. Edm. 1835, pamphlet
Speech on the Proceedings of the Church Deputation in
London, delivered in the Commission of the G«ieral Assem-
bly. Edin. 1835, pamphlet
The Cause of Church Extension. Edin. 1885, pamphlet
Report of the Committee of the General Assembly on
Church Extension. Edin., 1835, pamphlet
Reports to General Assembly on Church Extension for
1837, 1838, and 1839. Pamphlet
Lectures on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans.
Glasgow, 1837-43, 4 vols. 8vo.
The Cause of Church Extension, and the Qutttioo shortly.
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stated between Obarohiuen and D'uiHenters, in regard to it.
Edin., 1835, 16mo.
Sermon on Cruelty to Animals. Edin. 1826.
Five Lgofcares on Predestination. London, 1837.
A Conference with certain Ministers and Elders on the
Subject of the Moderatorship. Glasgow, 1837, pamphlet.
Supplement to his late Pamphlet on the Moderatorship.
Glasgow, 1837, pamphlet
Lectures on the Establishment and Extension of National
Churches. Glasgow, 1888, pamphlet
Substance of a Speech delivered in the General Assembly
respecting the Decision of the House of Lords on the Anch-
terarder case. Glasgow, 1839, pamphlet
On the present position of the Church of Scotland, occa-
sioned by the Dpmi of Faculty's letter. Glasgow, 1889.
What ought the Church and the People of Scotland to do
now? Glasgow, 1840, pamphlet
Course of Lectures on Butler's * Analogy of Religion, de-
fivered in the Univermty of Edinburgh. London, 1841, 8to.
Sufficiency of the Parochial System without a Poor Rate.
Glasg. 1841, 12mo.
Earnest Appeal to the Free Church on the subject of its
Economics. Edin. 1846, pamphlet
Introductory Essay on Christian Union. 1846.
Pamphlet on the Evangelical Alliance. 1846.
His original works as republished by himself, oonristing of
his Natural Theology, Evidences of ChristiaDity, Moral and
Mental Philosophy, Commercial Discourses, Astronomical
Discourses, Congregational Sermons, Sermons on Public Oo-
camons, Tracta and Essays, Introductoiy Essays to Select
Christian Authors, Christian and Economic Polity of a Na-
tion, Church and College Establishments, Church Extension,
Political Economy, Sufficiency of a parochial System, and
I^ectnres on the Romans, &o., have been re-issued in 25 vola
12mo, and his Posthumous Works, in 9 vols. 8vo, as under.
llie Memoirs of Dr. Chalmers by his son-in-law Dr. Haii-
n:i, are in four large thick volumes, and include Dr. Chal-
mers' diaries.
Posthumous Works, edited by Dr. Hanna.
Daily Scripture Readings, 3 vols.
Sabbath Scripture Readings, 2 vols.
Sermons, 1798 to 1847, 1 vol.
Institutes of Theology, 2 vols.
Lectures on Butler, Paley, Hill, &c 1 vol.
CnAMBRRS, a surname supposed to have been originally
the same as Chalmers. It seems, however, of French origin,
being derived from de la Chcmibre. In the Ragman Roll
occur the names of Robert de la Chambre and Symon de la
Chambre, as among those barons who swore a forced fealty
to Edward the First in 1296, conjectured by Nisbet, without
stating any grounds, to have been among the predecessors of
Chalmer of Gadgirth in Ayrshire. Sir George Mackenzie,
in his Genealogical Manuscript of the Families of Scotland,
says, ** One of the clan Cameron going to France, put his
name in a Latin dress, by designing himself Camerario,
which in French is de la Chambre, who upon his return to
Scotland was, according to our dialect, called Chambers.**
In the article on Chalmer of Gadgirth, we have shown that
Camerarius was the undoubted origin of that surname, at a
very eariy period in Scotland. [See anie^ p. 615.]
CHAMBERS, David, a Roman Catholic wri-
ter, who flourished in the seventeenth century,
was the author of a curious work, styled ' Daviaia
Camerarii Scoti, de Scotorum Foi-titndine, Doc-
trina. et Pietate l-.ibri Quatuor,' published at Pa-
ris in small 4to in 1631. It contains an account
of all the saints connected with Scotland, and is
dedicated to Charles the First. Scarcely anything,
is known concerning him.
Chancellor, a surname derived from the oflSce of that
name, and supposed to have come Ifrom France at the Nor-
man conquest with the Somervilles. A family of great anti-
quity named Chancellor have held the lands of Shieldhill and
Quothquhan m Lanarkshire for more than four centuries, as
appears from a charter of confirmation still extant granted by
Thomas Lord Somerville to one of their ancestors, dated 6th
March 1434. In the * Memorie of the Sommervilles,' it is
stated that a firm friendship subsisted between the house of
Lord Somerville and the family of Chancellor of Shieldhill
and Quothquhan as early as the tame of Robert the Bruce, in
1317. In July 1474, William Chancellor rode with the rest
of the third Ix)rd Somerville*s vassals, to meet King James
the Third on his way from Edinburgh to Cowthally castle, to
partake of the festivity of the ** speates and raxes.** [See
SoMBCERViLLK, Lord, jpott."] In 1667, William Chancellor
of Shieldhill joined the adherents of Queen Mary at Hamilton,
after her escape from Lochleven, and fought for her at the
battle of Langside, in consequence of which his mansion-
house at Quothquhan was soon afterwards burnt down by a
party of horsemen, sent out by the victorious regent Murray
to demolish the houses of those who had remained faithful to
his unfortunate sister. The residence of the family was then
removed to Shieldhill, its present site. After the battle oi
Bothwell-bridge, James Chancellor of Shieldhill was impri-
soned on suspicion of having harboured some of the fugitive
insurgents, but nothing being proved against him he was
liberated after some days confinement. The same gentleman
was returned as elder by the presbytery of Biggar to the first
General Assembly which met after the revolution of 1688.
(>f this name, Chancellor, was a celebrated English navi-
gator, of the sixteenth century, who was the means of estab-
lishing the Russian Company.
Chapman, a surname evidently derived from trade, aa
chapman is the old Saxon word for a small trader, a dealer in
petty wares, or more properly a pedlar. Bums, in the com-
mencement of Tam 0*Shanter, says,
*' When Chapman billies leave the street.
And dronthy neighbours nelghboon meet**
It was the name of an English poet, who was contemporary
with Shakspeare and Spencer.
CHAPMAN, or Chephan, Walteb, the first
person who introduced printing into Scotland,
(abont 1507,) is supposed to have held some re-
spectable office in the household of King James the
Fourth. He was a citizen of wealth and import-
ance, and in his titles is styled Walter Chepman
de Everland. Tliat his office was not of an eccle-
siastical character is proved by the fact that his
wife, Agnes Cobum, is mentioned in the same
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titles, and he consequently was not boand by vows
of celibacy. His name is frequently mentioned in
the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scot-
land, inserted in the Appendix to Pitcairn^s Cri-
minal Ti-ials. On the 2l8t February 1496 there is
the following item : ^^ Giffen to a boy to rynne fra
Edinburgh to Linlithg. to Watte Chepman, to
signet twa letteris to pas to Woddis, 12d."
In August 1503, on occasion of the king's mar-
riage, in a list which is titled " Pro Servitoribus,"
there is an entry ^*for five elne Inglls claith to
Walter Chepman, ilk elne, 84s." " Chepman,"
says Mr. Pitcaim, " was an extensive merchant
and burgess of Edinburgh, as well as the earliest
Scottish printer." From a gi-ant under the privy
seal, dated September 15, 1507, printed in the
fii-st volume of Blackwood's Magazine, it appears
that it was at the special request of King James
tliat Walter Chepman, and his paitner, Andro
Millar, also a merchant and burgess, were induced
to set up a pnnting press in Edinburgh ; and, for
their encouragement, the king conferred upon
them the sole privilege of *^ imprenting within our
Realme of the bnkis of our Lawis, actis of Par-
liament, croniclis, mess bukis, and portuus efter
the use of our Realme, with addicions and Icgen-
dis of Scottish Sanctis, now gaderit to be ekit
thai*to, and al utheris bukis that salbe sene neces
sar, and to sel the sammyn for competent piicis."
In the Treasurer's Accounts there is a payment
entered under date December 22, 1507, of fifty
shillings, for "three prentit bukes to the king,
tane fra Andro Millaris W3rff." The printing oflBcc
of Chapman and Millar, the first printers in Scot-
land, appears to have been in the Cowgate, then
called the South gaitt, near to what is now King
George the Fourth's Bridge. This appears from
the imprint on the rare edition of " The Knightly
Tale of Golagros and Gawane," and others of
the earliest issues from their press in the year
1508.
In January 1509, we find Chapman asserting
his patent against " Wilyiam Frost, Francis Frost,
William Sym, Andro Ross, and divers uthers,
merchandis within the bnigh of Edinburgh," for
having infringed it, by importing books into Scot-
land contrary to the privilege granted to him by
the king; and the lords of council accordingly
prohibited these parties, and ail others, from en-
croaching on his right in future. '* It affords evi-
dence," says Wilson, in his Memorials of Edm-
burgh, (vol. i. p. 30) " of the success that attended
the printing press immediately on its introduction,
that in the year 1513, Walter Chepman founded
a chaplainry at the altar of St. John the Evange-
list, on the southern side of St. GileV chui-ch, and
endowed it with an annuity of twenty-three
marks." A set of works produced by Chapman
and Millai* are preserved in the Advocates' library.
We learn from a passage in the Traditions of
Edinburgh, that Walter Chapman, on 12tli
August 1528, founded another chaplainry at the
altar in the chapel of Holy rood, in the Nether
Kirkyard of St. Giles', and endowed it with his
tenement in the Cowgate. The yeai* of his death
is not known, but there is good reason for believ-
ing that he was interred in the south transept of
St. Giles' church.
A list of the works printed by Chapman and
Millar, some of which ai'e very rare, will be found
in Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica.
CHAPMAN, George, LL.D., author of some
educational works, was bom at the farm of Little
Blacktown, in the parish of Alvah, Banffshire, in
August 1723. At King's college, Aberdeen, be
obtained a bm-sary by competition, which enabled
him to study there for four seasons. He was af-
terwards appointed master of the parish school of
Alvah. In 1747 he became assistant in Mr. John
Love's school in Dalkeith. In 1751 he removed
to Dumfries as joint-mast«r of the gi*ammar school
thei-e, in which situation he continued for twenty
yeai-s. Having acquired some wealth, he was in-
duced, from the increase in the number of pupils
who boarded in his house, to i*elinquish the school ;
but finding that his success in this line injured the
prospects of his successor, he generously gave up
his boarding- school, quitted Dumfries and went
to reside on his native farm in Banfishire, where
he kept a small academy. Being invited by the
magisti-ates of Banff to superintend the grammar
school of that town, he converted it into an aca-
demy. He finally removed to Edinburgh, where,
for some years, he canied on business as a print-
er. His treatise on Education appeared in 1782.
He also published some smaller works on the
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same subject. Dr. Chapman died Febraary 22^
1806. — His works ai-e
A Treatise on Edncation, with a Sketch of the Author^
Method of Instrnction, while he taught the School of Dum-
fries; and a View of other Books on Education. Edin.
1773, 8vo. Lond. 1774, 1790. 6th edit. Lond. 1792, 8vo.
Hints on the Education of the Lower Ranks of the People,
and the appointment of Parochial Schoolmasters.
Advantages of a Classical Education, &c
An Abridgment of Mr. Ruddiman*s RodiOMOts and Latin
Grammar.
East India Tracts, Ttz. GoUoghon Bengalense; a Latin
Poem, with an English Translation, and a Dissertation, &o.
Edin. 1805, 12mo.
Chakteris, the surname of an Anglo-Norman family
which, sajrs Douglas in his Baronage, " is of great antiquity in
Scotland, and it is the opinion of some antiquaries that they
are of French extraction ; that William a son of the eari of
Chartres in France, came to England with William the Con-
queror ; that a son or grandson of his came to Scotland with
King David the First, and was progenitor of all of the sur-
name of Charteris in this kingdom, and certain it is they be-
gan to make a figure in the south of Scotland soon after that
era."
The immediate ancestor of the family of Charteris of Amis-
field, (anciently Emsfield, and sometimes Hempisfield,) in
Dumfnes-shire, was Robert de Charteris, who flourished in
the reigns of King Malcolm the Fourth and King William the
Lion. In a charter of confirmation by the latter to the mon-
astery of Kelso, Robert de Charteris is one of the witnesses.
It has no date, bnt as Ingelram bishop of Glasgow, another
of the witnesses, died in 1174, it must have been granted in
or before that year. His son, Walter de Charteris, is men-
tioned in a donation to the monastery of Kelso, and also tlie
son of the latter, Thomas de Charteris, who lived in the reign
of King Alexander the Second. His son, Sir Robert de
Charteris, made a donation to the same monastexy of the
patronages of two churches in Dumfries-shire, by a charter,
in which he is designed Robert de Comoto, miles. It is to
be observed that in ancient charters the family name is often
thus Latinized, but when Englished it is invariably called
Charteris.
The son of thi^ Sir Robert, Sur Thomas de Charteris, was
in 1280 appointed lord high chancellor of Scotland by King
Alexander the Third, and seems to have been the first lay-
man who held that office. He was also, with Sur Patrick de
Graham, Sir William St Clair, and Su: John Soulis, nomi-
nated on an embassy extraordinary to the court of France, to
negodate the king's marriage, which important negociation
they quickly accomplished, but King Alexander's untimely
death soon after prevented the good effects of it Sir Tho-
mas died in 1290. His son, Andrew de Charteris, was among
the barons of Scotland who were compelled, in 1296, to make
submission to Edward the First of England ; but he soon re-
tracted what he had done, for which he was forfeited the
same year, and his lands of Amisfield bestowed on an Eng-
lishman. Several others of the name who had positions in
different counties, were also at the same time forced to swear
allegiance to the English king, as William de Charteris, Ro-
bert de Charteris, and Osbom de Charteris.
Andrew's son, William de Charteris, did homnge to King
Edward in 1304, for his lands in Dumfries-shire, but he took
the first opportunity of joining the party of Bruce, and was
one of those patriotic barons who attended the latter at Dum-
fries when Comyn was slain in 1306. With Walter de Pov
chys he resigned the half of their barony of Wilton, m Rox-
burghshire, in favour of Heniy de Wardlaw. fie died about
1880. His son, Sir Thomas Charteris of Amisfield, was a
most faithful subject of David tbe Second. In 1885, when
that monarch was m Fjcanee, he was, by the estates of the
kingdom, appointed one of the ambassadors extraordinary to
the court of England ; and, 20th March 1841, he was aguiu
sent on another embassy to treat with the English. After
King David's return to Scotland, he appointed him, in 1842,
lord high chancellor. He was killed in 1846 at the battle ot
Durham, where his royal master was taken prisoner.
His descendant in the sixth generation, John Charteris of
Amisfield, married Janet, a daughter of Sir James Douglas
of Drumlanrig, ancestor of the dukes of Queensberry. Be-
tween the families of Amisfield and Kilpatrick of Kirkmi-
cliuel there were constant feuds. In PUcaim^s Crimittal
TriaU, vol. L, under date March 19 and 20, 1526, John
Charteris of Amisfield, Robert and John his sons, Robert
Charteris his brother and thirty-nine others, found caution to
underlie the law on May 29, in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh,
for the slaughter of Roger Kilpatrick son and heir of Sir
Alexander Kilpatrick of Kirkmlchael, knight, and for the
mutilation of the latter ; and on the 24th of the same month,
Sir Alexander Kilpatrick and his sons, Robert, John, and
William, found caution to appear the same day to answer for
all crimes to be imputed against them by John Charteris ot
Amisfield. He also became security for Uie entry of William
Kilpatrick his brother, the two sons of the latter, and twenty-
three others the same day.
His son, Sur John Charteris oi Amisfield, held, in the reign
of James the Fifth, the ofiSce of warden of the west marchea,
one of the most important under the crown, and appears,
from various charters, to have possessed an immense estate,
which is said to have been much reduced fr^ the following
circumstance, according to a traditionary stoiy narrated in
* Forsyth's Beauties of Scotland,' vol. ii. page 812. King
James the Fifth being at Stirling, previous to setting out
on a progress to the borders for the redress of grievance, re-
ceived a complaint from an old woman, a widow, who lived
on the water of Annan, that in a recent incursion of the Eng-
lish into the district, her only son and two cows, her whole
support and comfort on earth, had been carried ofi^ and that
Sir John Charteris of Amisfield, warden of the west marches,
on being informed of the outrage, and that the marauders
were only a few miles distant, not only refused to pursue
them, but also treated her with rudeness and contempt The
king told her he should shortly be in Annandale, and would
attend to the matter. When he arrived at the head of Niths-
dale he left his attendants, and went forward in disguise to
the castle of Amisfield. He requested the porter to tell the
warden that he came express to inform him of an inroad of
the English. The porter, nnwiUing to disturb his master,
said he had gone to dinner ; but the king, bribing him first
with one silver groat, and then with two, prevailed upon him
to convey two messages to Sir John, the latter being that the
general safety depended on his immediately firing the beacons
and alarming the country. On this second message, Si^ John,
in a rage, threatened to punbh the intruder, when the kmg
bribed another servant to inform Sir John that the goodman
of Ballangeigh had waited a considerable time at his gate for
admittance, but m vain ; and throwing off his disguise, he
sounded his bugle-horn for his attendants. Sir John, in
great alarm, hastened to meet his sovereign, who reprimanded
him for neglect of his duty, and commanded him to pay the
widow her loss tenfold, adding that 'f ner son was not ran-
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CHARTERIS.
Bomed within ten days, he (Sir John) should be hanged.
And, as a farther token of his displeasure, he billeted upon
him hb whole retinue, in number two thousand knights and
barons, and obliged him to find them in prorender during
their stay in Annandale.
In 1581 the son of this baron, Sir John Gharteris (or
Charterhouse, as it was sometimes spelled), as cautioner for
George Douglas of Parkhead, was ** unlawit in the pane of
ane hnndreth poundis," for the non-appearance of the latter
to take his trial for high treason, in not delivering up the cas-
tle tower and fortalioe of Torthorwald to Robert Maxwell,
messenger, sheriff in that part, &c On December 22, 1593,
a commission was granted to William Lord Henries and nine
others, among whom appears the name of " John Charter-
hous of Amysfield,** for the preservation of the peace of the
west borders, on account of the rebellion of Sur James John-
ston of Dunskellie and others of his name. By his wife Lady
Margaret Fleming, daughter of John earl of Wigton, he had
a son, Sir John Charteris, who succeeded him. At the par-
liament held at Edinburgh, 15th July 1641, Sir John Char-
teris of ^Emisfield* was present as commissioner for Dum-
fries-shire, and on 16th November of that year, he was
appdnted one of the commissioners of parliament for con-
firming the Ripon treaty. He was an active loyalist, and
suffered many hardships on account of his attachment to
Charles the First In April 1646, he was cited before the
parliament, and obliged to find security for his good behavi-
our, nevertheless sentenoe of banishment was immediately
thereafter passed against him. Having been engaged with
the marquis of M6ntrose, he was apprehended and imprisoned
in the castle of Edinburgh. His brother, Captain Alexander
Charteris, was one of five of Montroee*s most distinguished
officers who, after that nobleman^s execution, were beheaded
by the Maiden at Edinburgh, having been with him when he
appeared in arms in Caithness in 1650« Captain Charteris
was the last who suffered, and his death excited great regret.
" He was,** says Browne, " a man of a determined mind; but
nis health being much impaired by wounds which he had
received, he had not firmness to resist the importunities of
his friends, who, as a means of saving his life, as they
thought, prevailed upon him to agree to make a public decla-
ration of his errors. This unhappy man, accordingly, when
on the scaffold, read a long speech, which had been prepared
for him by the ministers, penned in a peculiarly mournful
strain, in which he lamented his apostasy from the covenant,
and acknowledged other things which he had vented to
them (namely, the ministers) m emricular eonfestion! Yet,
notwithstanding the expectations which he and his friends
were led to entertain that his life might be spared, he had no
sooner finished his speech than he was despatched.** [Hw-
tory of the Highlandt^ vol. ii. page 50.] Sir John Charteris
married Lady Catherine Crichton, daughter of William, earl
of Dumfries, by whom he had two sons, Thomas his heir, and
John, father of tlie notorious Colonel Francis Charteris. On
the death of his uncle Thomas without male issue. Colonel
Charteris became undoubted male representative of the an-
cient family of Amisfield, but the estate went to his cousin
Elizabeth, only child and sole heiress of his uncle. She mar-
ried John Hogg, Esq., and her son, Thomas Hogg, assumed
the name of Charteris as heir to his mother, and was ances-
tor to the present family of Amisfield in Dumfries-shire.
Colonel Charteris having purchased the lands of NewmiUs
near Haddington, changed the name to Amisfield, from the
ancient seat of his forefathers in Nithsdale. He married
Helen, daughter of Alexander Swinton, a lord of session,
under the title of Lord Mersington, and by her had an only
daughter, Janet, his sole heiress, who married James, fourth
earl of Wemyss, and her second son, the Hon. Francis
Wemyss, afterwards fifth earl of Wemyss, inherited the
estates of his maternal grandfather, and in consequence as-
sumed the name and arms of Charteris. [See Wemtss,
Earl of, post,"] Arbuthnott's epitaph on Colonel Charteris,
who acquired a vast fortune by usury and other vices, has
been much admired as a complete, and masterly oompositioD
of its kind. It is as follows : " Here continnetb to rot, the
body of Francis Charteris, who with an inflexible oonstan<7
and inimitable uniformity of life, permsted, in spite of age and
infirmities, in the practice of eveiy human vice, excepting
prodigality and hypocrisy; his insatiable avarice exempted
him from the first, his matchless impudence from the second.
Nor was he more singular in the undeviating pravity of his
manners than successful in accumulating wealth ; for, with-
out trade or profession, without trust of public money, and
without bribe-worthy service, he acquired, or more pro]miy
created, a ministerial estate. He was the only person of his
time who could cheat without the mask of honesty, retun his
primeval meanness when possessed of ten thousand a-year;
and having daily deserved the gibbet for what he did, was at
last condemned to it for what he could not do. Oh indignant
reader! Think not his life useless to mankind 1 Providence
connived at his execrable designs, to give to after ages a con-
spicuous proof and example of how small estimation is exor-
bitant wealth in the sight of God, by his bestowing it on the
most unworthy of all mortals.** In Pope*s Works, voL iL p.
142, the following paragraph appears: "Francis Chartres, a
man infamous for all manner of vices. When he was an en-
sign in the army, he was drummed out of the regiment for a
cheat ; he was next banished to Brussels, and drummed out
of Ghent on the same aocoimt. After a hundred tricks at the
gaming tables, he took to lending of money at exorbiunt
interest and on great penalties, accumulating preoiinm, inter-
est, and capital into a new capital, and seising to a minnte
when the payments became due ; in a word, by a constant
attention to the vices, wants, and follies of mankind, he ac-
quired an unmense fortune. He was twice condemned for
rapes, and pardoned ; but the last time not without imprison-
ment in Newgate^ and laige confiscations. He died in Scot-
land in 1731, [at Stoneyhill near Musselburgh, in February
1782. in the fifty-seventli year of his age.] The populace at
his funeral raised a great riot, almost tore the body out of the
coffin, and cast dead dogs, &c., into the grave along with it**
As Colonel Charteris* oharacter, it is remarked in another
place, was singular in every other respect, so it is said to have
been in this, that he was a oowaxd who had his fighting days.
He would auffer himself to he banged and basketed for refus-
ing a challenge one day; and on the next he would accept
another, and kill his man. [Biog. BriL Kippii* edit vol. I
page 24©.]
The founder of the old family of Charteris of Knfauns in
Perthshire, — which disputed the chieftainship with the family
of Amisfield in Dumfries-shire, — is said by tradition to have
been Thomas de Chartres, oommonly called Thomas de Lon-
gueville, a Frenchman of an ancient family, who having killed
a nobleman at the court of Philip le Bel, in the end of the
thirteenth century, turned pirate, under the name of the Red
Reaver, and was encountered and made prisoner by Sir Wil-
liem Wallace on his supposed voyage to France, in 1301 or
1302, and, after being pardoned and knighted by his own
sovereign, accompanied Wallace to Scotland, and fought
against the English, first under his banner, and afterwards
under that of Bruce, who, as a reward for his bravery, oon-^
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CHARTERIS.
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CHARTERI&
ferred upon him the lands of Kinfaons, in the neighbourhood
of Perth ; as an eridenoe of which a donble-handed sword,
called the sword of Chartens, is professed still to bcf shown in
the modem cattle of Kinfanns ! In every account of the ori-
gin ot the Perthshire house of Charteris we find the same
storj told, but we think it eitremelj improbable. It is more
likelj that that familj was a branch of the familj of Char-
teris in Dumfhes-shire, as the name had become much ex-
tended in Scotland at that period, and that the Sir Patrick
Charteris, who was present with the* eari Marshal and Lord
Crawford at the conflict of the clan Chattan and the dan Kay,
on the North Inch of Perth, in 1896, was a direct descendant
of the founder of the house of Amisfield.
In the fifteenth century and beginning of the sixteenth,
the family of Kinfauiis was one of great influence in Perth-
shire. In 1465, Andrew Charteris of Kinfauns was provost
of Perth and continued to be so till 1471, inclusive. He
again filled the office in 1473 and 1476. In the latter year
one GUbert Charteris, who was afterwards dean of guild, was
one of the bailies. In 1484 Andrew Charteris was again
provost, and at various times thereafter till 1503, which ap-
pears to have been the last time he held the office. In 1507
John Charteris was provost, and also in 1509. Others of
the name frequently held situations in the magistracy of that
city. In 1529 William Lord Rnthven was elected provost,
the first of his family that ever filled the office ; there could
thus, up to that time, be nothing hereditary in his occupancy
of the provostship, as is commonly believed. Between the
Kinfauns family and the Ruthvens a rivalry and fend seem to
have existed, which, on several remarkable occasions, led to
fatal results. On 25th February that year, Patrick Char-
teris of Cuthilgurdy, a near kinsman of the laird of Kinfauns*
and who had been provost of Perth, from 1521 to 1528, both
inclusive, and in 1525, and again in 1527 provost and sheriff,
found Robert Maule of Panmure as his cautioner that he
I would underlie the law for art and part of the fire-raising
and burning of the village of Cowsland, and for the plunder
of certain cattle and other goods, from the tenants thereof,
and finom William Lord Ruthven ; and on 28th of the same
month, John Charteris, his brother, and eleven others, found
security to answer for the same crime. On September 20,
1530, Patrick Charteris of Cuthilgurdy received a letter of
licence to pass in pilgrimage beyond the seas. On 80th Sep-
tember 1538, John Charteris of Kinfauns was elected provost
of Perth, but he seems to have died soon thereafter, as on
June 13, 1589, we find Thomas Charteris of Kinfauns, con-
victed of art and part using a forged acquittance or discharge
of a certain large sum of money assigned by the king to
James Ross, his servant, due to his majesty by the death of
Alexander bishep of Moray, as his heir, or granted to the king
by the privilege of the pope. He was sentenced to be warded
in Edinburgh castle during the king's pleasure, and all his
moveables to be escheated, but by petitioning the lords of
privy council, he was admitted to * free ward,* on finding
security that he would not attempt to escape. [^Piicttim's
Crmmai Trials.']
On August Ist 1543, the regent Arran issued an order to
the provost, baiHes, and community of Perth, charging them
to obey John'Chafteris of Cuthilgurdy and Thomas Charteris
of Kinfauns in all votes, in preference to letters already issued
in favour of Lord Ruthven, and on 1st October following,
John Charteris was elected provost On 26th January suc-
ceeding he was, however, by the regent and lords of secret
council discharged of the office, and on 15th April a procla-
mation by the queen appeared against the said Thomas and
John Charteris, and their accomplices, to the number of
eighty, denouncmg them rebels, and commanding them to be
apprehended. On 7th October the same year (1544) Patrick,
Lord Ruthven, was elected provost of Perth, and in the fol-
lowing January, on Cardinal Bethune's persecuting visit to
that dty with the regent Arran, he instigated the latter to
turn Lord Ruthven out of the provostship, and restore John
Ohartens of Kinfiiuns to that office. The dtizens refused to
acknowledge Charteris for their provost, and would not allow
him to enter the town. He therefore applied to Lord Gray,
to whom he was allied, and persuaded him, and Norman
Leslie, and others of his friends, to assist him with their
armed forces, in attacking the town. The master of Ruth-
ven, aided by the laird of Moncrieff and the dtizens, resolved
to defend it at all hazards. Lord Gray was to enter the town
from the bridge, while Norman Leshe was to bnng up ammu-
nition and ordnance by water to storm it on its open side, but
the tide was against him, and he did not arrive m time.
The former finding the bridge undefended, marched up into
the town as far as the Fishgate, when he was encountered by
the master of Ruthven, who routed and repulsed his party,
about uxty of whom were slain. The Ruthvens ever after
had possession of the provostship^ till May 1584, when Wil-
liam, earl of Gowrie, Uien provost, was executed at Stirling.
In 1552, John Charteris of Kindaven, in Perthshire, was
killed by the master of Ruthven, on the High Street of Edin-
burgh, **upon occasion,** says Bishop Lesly, **of old feud, and
for staying of a decret of ane proces, which the said John
pursued against him before the Lords of Session." [^Bishop
LesHe^s History^ p. 247.] This led to the passing of an act
by the following parliament, that whosoever should slay a
man for pursuing an action against him, should forfdt the
right of judgment in hia action, in addition to hb liability to
the laws for the crime.
On the 29th of May 1559, when the queen regent entered
Perth with her French troops. Lord Ruthven, then provost,
was dismissed, with the rest of the magistracy, and John
Charteris of Kinfiinns, who was not only no firiend to the
Reformers, but entertained a hostile feeling to the dtizens
ever smce 1544, was appointed provost in his place. He was
the queen^s tool in fining, imprisoning, and banishing the in-
habitants, but his rdgn was short, lasting only till the 26th
of June, when Perth capitulated to the Reformen.
The family of Kinfauns appear also to have been at feud
with the Blairs of Balthayock. On May 2, 1562, John Char-
teris of Kinfauns, with David, his brother, and thirty- nine
others, found surety to take thdr trial on the 15th of that
month, for attacking Thomas Blair of Balthayock and his
followers, and giving them injurious words. He protested
that the finding of the security should be no prejudice to him
because he was a parish-derk; that is, that as a churchman
he was liable only to the jurisdiction of the churdi courts.
Thomas Blair, on his part, and sundry of his friends, also
found security to underlie the law, for the slaughter of Alex-
ander Rae, in the feud with the laird of Kinfauns. Owing to
the loss of a scroU-book the result of these cases is unknown.
[^Piicaim^s Criminal Trials.]
In 1537 one Andrew Charteris, a brother of the provost of
Dundee, a friar, fled out of Scotland to England, where he
stayed a year, and thereafter retired to Germany, where he
cast off liis cowL After residing at Wittenberg for twelve
months he went to Antwerp, and was robbed by the way,
but was relieved by some of his countrymen when he arrived
at the latter town. Thence he went to Zealand, and in a
letter still extant to his brother, the provost, he inveighed
vehemently against the whole Roman Catholic hierarchy,
bishops, priests, abbots and monks,
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CHETNi:.
688
CHEYNE
** Black Man and grey.
With all their trompery."
He was a man of a ready genina and goodly appearance ; so
much so that King Henry said to him, after he had talked
with him an hour, ** It is a pity that erer you were a friar.**
[Caldenoood's Hi^ory, vol. L p. US.")
An eminent printer and bookseller, in the Scottish capital
in the sixteenth century, was Henry Charteris, who published
Sir David Lind8ay*8 works in 1568. He mentions that he
was present at the performance of Sir David*s * Pleasant Sa-
tyro of the Three Estaitis,*' when it was " playit besyde Ed-
inburgh in 1644, in presence of the Quene Rec:ent,** and that
he sat patiently for nine hours on the bank at Greenude to
witness it. In 1589, he was one of thirteen commissioners
appointed by a convention of noblemen, ministers, burgesses,
&c, held at Edinburgh, to meet weekly to consult as to the
defence of the reformed religion, and in 1596^ the Confession
of Faith was printed by him in folio. In 1604 his name ap-
pears among those members of the Edinburgh presbyteiy who
subscribed it of new.
His son, Mr. Henry Charteris, was educated for the church,
and about 1590 he became one of the regents in the univer-
sity of Edinburgh. On the death of Principal Bollock, 8th
January 1599, he was senior regent, and on 14th February
following he was appointed principal in his place, and pro-
fessor of divinity in the university. He held these offices for
twenty-one years. Although an eminent scholar, he was a
man of singular modesty, for in 1617, says Bower, when he
arrived at the honour of being principal and professor of di-
vinity, he declined presiding at the dlnputation which was
held in the presence of the king at Stirling. He was the
author of the onlj Greek epitaph, among twenty-«ight, on
Principal Bollock, and of two others in Latin. His father
was probably king*s printer and printer to the university, and
was for a very considerable time in the ma^stracy, but does
not seem to have lived to see his son so honourably distin-
guished as he became. In 1620 he accepted the parochial
charge of North Leith, on which he resigned the principalship
and the divinity chair, but in 1626 he was restored to the
latter. He died two years afterwards in the sixty-third jear
of his age.
Chetiie, formerly written Chein and Chien, a surname of
great antiquity in Scotland. Sir Reginald le Chein, (nephew
of John Comyn, lord of Badenoch, who was killed by Bruce
at Dumfries in 1305,) was great chamberlain of Scotland
from 1267 to 1269. He was baron of Inverugie, Strabrock,
&c in Aberdeenshire, where, as well as in Caithness-shire, he
had immense estates. In 1285, he gave the lands of Ardlogy
and Leuchendy, in the parish of Fyvie, in the former coun^,
to the priory of Fyvie, in connection with the abbey of Ar-
broath. He is generally styled p(tUr, to distinguish him
from his son of the same name. Sir Beginald was one of the
Magnates Scotiae, who concurred in settling the succession to
the crown on Margaret of Norway, grand-daughter of Alex-
ander the Third, in 1284. He was also one of the barons
who in 1289 addressed Edward the First of England, on the
sul^ect of a marriage between the young queen of Scots and
his son the prince of Wales, with the view of uniting the
kingdoms. He made his submission to the English monarch
aK Aberdeen, on 17th July 1296, and his name, as well as
that of Reginaldus le Chein, JUiut^ is found in the Ragman
Bon.
His brother, Henry le Cheyn, was bishop of Aberdeen,
from 1281 to 1333, (although according to Boece ano other
writers he died in 1829.) The house of the Carmelite frian
in Aberdeen had been built and endowed by his father, Begi«
nald le Cheyn, who, besides other revenues, bestowea upon it
two pounds yearly out of the lands of Blackwatar in the par-
ish of St. Fergus, Aberdeenshire, which entirely belonged to
him. Henry, like his brother and nephew, swore fealty to
Edward the First in 1296, and on Bmce*s asserting his right
to the throne, he was obliged for a time to retire into Eng-
land ; but was permitted by King Robert, after being settled
on the throne, to return to his see, when, according to tradi-
tion, he applied all the rents of his bishopric, which, during his
absence had accumulated to a considerable amount, in bnildin|
the fine old Gothic bridge with one arch, over the river Don,
(the celebrated Brig of Balgownie,) near Aberdeen. It is pro-
bable that if he had any concern in the bridge at all, it was at
the command of King Bobert Bruce that he thus devoted the
unapplied rents of his see to such a purpose. In the account
of the bishop in Boeoe*8 Lives, there is no mention made of
such a work, while the distinct assertion in the charter ot
Sir Alexander Hay, who bequeath^ in 1605, an annual
sum of two pounds, five shillings, and eightpenoe, for the
support of this bridge, that certain annab testified that it
was erected by the oi-der and at the expense of King Robert,
is a fair proof that the structure was the work of that mon-
aroh, and not of the prelate, who had rendered to his author-
ity an unwilling obedience, and to whom it has ever bean
popularly imputed.'
The above-named Sir R^inald le Chein, chamberlain,
was succeeded by his son, who, as already stated, bore the
same name. Nisbet mentions a charter, without a date,
granted ** by Reynald Chein, son of Reynald, of the lands of
Dury, which he disponed to Gilbert, son of Robert of Strath-
em, and which charter was afterwards confirmed by Adam of
Killconehangh, eari of Carrick, and after that, King Robert
the Bruce gives the lands of Dummany, which formerly be-
longed to Rodger Moubray, to Sir Reginald Chein, as that
king*s charter bears.** Sir Reginald, the son, was taken
prisoner at the battle of Halidonhill in 1333, and died, with-
out male issue, in 1850. He had two daughters, Mariota
and Mary. Of these the following story is related. Sir
Reginald, who possessed more than a third of Caithness, in-
cluding the district which now forms the parish of Wick, is
still famous in the Highland districts as a mighty hunter,
under the name of Morar na Shien. He was most anxious
for a son to heir his vast estates ; and when his wife, Mary,
brought him a daughter, in a paroxysm of fury he ordered
the child to be destroyed. It was, however, conveyed awi^,
and a subsequent daughter escaped, in a «milar manner,
the rage of the twice disappointed chief. Years rolled on,
and Morar na Shien often lamented his childless condition.
At length, on some public occasion, a great festival was held,
at which Sir Reginald noticed two young ladies, who far out-
shone the rest of the company. He expressed his admira-
tion, and lamented to his wife his cruel mfatuation, which had
led him to order the death of his daughters, who, had th«7
been allowed to live, would have been about the age of theae
peerless beauties. Mary de Cheyne hastened to confess her
justifiable disobedience to her husband's orders, and intro-
duced the young ladies to him as his own daughters. Over-
powered with joy. Sir Ranald de Cheyne acknowledged
them as his ; and constituted them heiresses of his extennve
possessions. Mariota, the elder daughter, married, first. Sir
John Douglas, and after his death, without issue, John de
Kdth, of Raven's Craig, second son of Sir Edward Kdth.
great marischal of Scotland, and with her the estate of lu-
venigie oassed into the Keith family. They had a son. An-
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CHEYNE,
GEORGE.
drew, who became poaBessed, m ngbt of bis mother^ of the
liuids of Ackergill and other estates in Caithness-shire. The
descendants of this marriage continued a separate branch of
the Keiths for seven or eight generations. Mary or Marjory,
the yonnger, was heiress of Doffus, and married Nicol Snth-
erland, second son of Kenneth, third earl of Sutheriand, who
fell at the battle of HaHdonhilf in 1383, and with her obtained
the barony of Dnffas in the county of Elgin [see Ditffwi,
lord]. In consequence he added the arms of Cheyne te his
paternal coat of Sutherland.
From the Cheynes of Invenigie descended ssveral very
considerable families, as the Cheynes of Amags, Esselmont,
Straloch, Dundarg, Pitfitchie, &c. Most of these arc now
extinct in the male line. The last of the fkmily of Amage
was the learned James Cheyne (Jacobus Cheynieus ab Ar-
nage), professor at Douay, of whom a notice follows.
A son of Cheyne of Invcrugie married the heiress of Mar-
shal of Esselmont, and with her got the lands of that name,
on account of which the family quartered the arms of Mar-
shal with their own. From ^is family was descended the
eminent physician, Dr. George Cheyne, of whom also a notice
follows. •
Christian Cheyne, a daughter of Cheyne of Sti-aloch, mar-
ried Sir Alexander Seton of Soton, ancestor of the earls of
Winton, and governor of Berwick, whose son, Thomas, was
hanged by Edward the Thurd of England, in July 1333, be •
cause his father would not deliver up the town of Berwick to
him, before the time agreed upon, he being then a hostage in
his hands.
This name was, by Charles the Second, ennobled in the
peerage of Scotland, the title of Viscount Newhaven, Lord
Cheyne, having been in 1681 conferred on Charles Cheyno oi
Chelsea, in the county of Middlesex. [See Nkwiiavrn,
Viscount"!
CIIEYNE, James, rector of the Scots college
at Donay, was bom in Aberdeenshire in the six-
teenth centuiy. He was of the ancient family of
Arnage in that county. After studying at Aber-
deen, he went to Paris, and taught philosophy at
the college of St. Barbe, from whence he removed
to Donay, and, after teaching there with gi-eat
reputation, became the head of the seminary. He
was also canon and great penitentiary of the ca-
thedral of Tonrnay, and died in 1602. His works
are : '
Analysis m Philosophiam Aristot. Douay, 1573, 1595, 8vo.
De Sphsera sen Globi Ccelestis Fabrics. Douay, 1575, 8vo.
De Geographia, lib. duo. Douay, 1676, 8vo.
Orationes duas de perfecto Philosopho et de Prsedicadonibus
Astrologorum. Douay, 1577, 8vo.
Analysis et Scholia in Aristot lib. xiv. De Prima sen Di-
vina Philosophia. Douay, 1578, 8vo.
Analysis in Physiologiam Aristotelicam. Paris, 1580, 8vo.
CHEYNE, George, a physician and medical
writer of considerable eminence in his day, was
bom in 1671, at Auchencruive, parish of Meth-
lick, Aberdeenshire, and educated at Edinburgh
under the celebrated Dr. Pitcairn, whom, in the
preface to one of his works, he styles his '^ grand
master and generous friend." After taking the
degree of M.D., he repaired, about the thirtieth
year of his age, to London. He had passed his
youth in close study and gi*eat abstemiousness,
but after going to the metropolis, finding it neces-
sary to frequent taverns ifl order to get into prac-
tice, and indulging in habits of excess, he grew
fat, short-breathed, lethargic, and listless, and
swelled to such an enormous size, that he at one
time exceeded thirty-two stones in weight. Hav-
ing tried medicine in vain, he next retired to the
country, and lived very low. This proving inef-
fectual, he went to Bath, and drank the waters,
but without permanent relief. On his return to
London he had recourse to a milk and vegetable
diet, which removed his complaints. His bulk
was reduced to almost one-third; he recovered
his strength, activity and cheerfulness, with the
free and perfect use of bis faculties ; and, by reg-
ular observance of this regimen, he reached a good
old age. It was his custom to practise in London
in winter, and in Bath in summer. He died at
the latter place April 12, 1743, in his 72d year.
Besides his medical publications, he was the au-
thor of ' Philosophical Principles of Natural Reli-
gion,' published in 1705, at which time he was a
fellow of the Royal Society, and dedicated to the
earl of Roxburgh, at whose request, and for whose
use, it was written ; and also of a work on Flux-
ions, which was replied to by the celebrated
French mathematician Abraham de Moivre, and
i-egarding which he himself in after life said that
it was conceived in ambition and brought forth in
vanity. — Dr. Cheyne's works are :
A New Theory of Acute and Slow-continued Fevers;
wherein, besides the appearance of snch, and the manner oi
their core, oocasionally the Stmcture of the Glands, and the
manner and laws of Secretion, the operation of purgative,
vomitive, and mercurial medicines are mechanically explained.
Ijond. 1702, 8vo. 1722, 8vo. 1724, 8vo. To this he pre-
fixed an Essay concerning the improvements of the Theory of
Medidne.
Remarks on two late Pamphlets written by Dr. Oliphant
against Dr. Pitcaim*s, and the New Theory of Fevers. Edin.
1702. 8vo.
Fluxionnm Methodus inversa ; sive quantitatnin fluentium
leges generaliores. Lond. 1708, 4to.
Rudimentomm Methodi Fluxionuro inversa Specimina ad-
versus Abr. de Moivre. Lond. 1703, 1706, 4to.
Philosophical Principles of Natural Rehgion ; containing
the Elements of Natund Philosophy, and the proofs for Na-
tural Religion arising from them. Lond. 1705. 8vo. 1706
8vo.
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CHTSHOLME
640
CHISWOLME
Phikwophiciil Principl«8 of Religion, Natural and Revealed.
Lond. 1715, 1786, 8vo.
Ooservations concerning the Nature and True Method of
Treating the Gout. Together with an Account of the Nature
and Qualities of the Bath Waters, the manner of using them
and the Diseases in which they are proper ; as also the Na-
ture and Cure of most Chronical Distempers. Lond. 1720,
8vo. 1722, 1726, 8vo.
De Natura Fibne ejusque laxte slve resolutte conditionis
morbis tractata^t. Lond. 1725. 8vo. PMiis. 1742.
Essay on Health and Long Lifk Lond. 1725, 8yo.
The English Malady, or a Treatise of Nervous Diseases of
all kinds: as spleen, vapours, lowness of spirits, hypochon-
driacal and hysterical distempers, &o. Lond. 1733, 1735,
1739, 8vo. Dublin, 1783, 8vo.
An Essay on Regimen; together with five Discourses,
medical, moral, and philosophical: serving to illustrate the
principles and theory of Philosophical Medicine, and point
out some of its moral consequences. Lond. 1739, 1740,
1753, 8vo. In Italian, Padua, 1765.
The Natural Method of curing the Diseases of the Body,
and the disorders of the Mind depending on the Body ; in
three parts. London, 1742, 8vo.
An Account of himself, and of his vAfieus Cures. Lond.
1743, 1753, 8vo.
Chisholxk, a surname derived from the Norman French
ches^^ to choose, and the Saxon holme. The family who
first bore it in Scotland possessed lands in Roxburghshire and
Berwickshire so early as the reign of Alexander III. The chief
of the name was 'Chisholme of Chishohne in the former
county, of whom Chisholme, now of Stirches, also in Rox-
burghshire, is the direct heir male and representative, to
the Ragman Roll appear the names of Ridiard de Chese-
holme, oounte de Rokesbrugh, and his son, ZTohn de Chese-
holme, afterwards Sir John de'Cheseholme, who married in
1335, Ann, dr. of Sir Robert Lauder of Quarrelwood, Naifti-
sliire, and constable of the royal castle of Urquhart, Invemess-
•hire. In 1846, bis son. Sir Robert de Cheseholme, whs taken
prisoner with David IL, at the battle of Durham. In 1859
he succeeded his father-in-law as constable of Urquhart cas-
tle, and died in 1872. His eldest son, John, succeeded to
the border estate and the lands of Quarrelwood in Nairnshire,
while his second son, Alexander, married Margaret de la
Ard, heiress of Erchless, and founded the family of Erchless
and Struthglass, in Inverness-shire. He is mentioned in a
deed of date 1368, as comportioner, along with Lord Fenton,
in the barony of Ard, and was succeeded by his son, Thomas,
as appears by an indenture, dated 1403, entered into between
William de Fenton of Baky on the one part, and Margaret
de la Ard, domina de Erchless, and Thomas de Chisholme,
her son and heir, on the other part. This Thomas died with-
out issue. His brother, Alexander, who succeeded him, had
only daughters, who conveyed the estate into other families
by marriage, and so the family of Chisholme of Strathglass
came to an end. WUliam, t.if third son, was treasurer of
Moray. John, the eldest son, had three sons : John ; Robert,
who succeeded John ; and Edmund, founder of the house of
Cromllx, after mentioned. John's only daughter, Morella,
married Alexander Sutherland of Du£^ who got with her
Quarrelwood and other lands in Nairnshire. Robert's great-
grandson, John Chisholme, tenth of that ilk, forfeited the
estate during the minority of James V. ; but in 1531, it was
restored to his brother Geoi^ by Douglas of Drumlanrig, to
whom it had been granted. His son, Walter, is styled baron
of Chisholme in the parliamentarian roll of chieftains, anno
1587. He was succeeded, in 1589, by his eldest ton, Wal-
ter, whose son, also named Walter, a minor on his father's
death, married a lady named Stirling, against the will of hik
guardian and feudal superior, Douglas of Drumlanrig. As tint
lands held from the latter by the old feudal tenure of ward of
marriage, he became liable in a fine of 5,600 merks Scots,
and failing to pay it the estates were attached and lost to the
family. He had two sons, Walter and '\^liam. The former
acquired the estate of Stirches from Thomas Scott of Whits-
lade in 1660. His eldest son, William, the second of Stir-
ches, was succeeded by his eldest son, John (died in 1755),
whose son, also named John, was succeeded in 1794, by his
third son, Gilbert, the elder two having predeceased him.
By his second wife, Elizabeth, second daughter of John Scott,
Esq. of Whitehaugh, Gilbert had two sons and two daugh-
ters, and died in 18^0. The eldest son, John Chisholme, the
sixth of Stirches and twentieth in descent from Richard de
Chisholm, married in 1840, Margaret, eldest daughter and
coheiress of Robert Walker, EsqT of Mumrills, Stirlingshire,
with issue. On succeeding, in 1852, to the lands of White-
haugh, he assumed the name of Scott Chisholme.
The old family estate of Chisholme^was purchased, about
1784, by William Chisholme, a great-grandson of Walter the
first of Stirches, from Sir James Stewart of Cultness, and on
the death of his son, Ciiarles, without issue, it fell to his
cousin, Scott of Coldliouse, who also assumed tlie name of
ScoU Chisliolme.
The modem clan Cnisutti^i in Inverness-shire, though
claiming to be of Celtic origin, are, it is probable, descended
from one of the northern collaterals of the original family of
Chisholme of Chisholme in Roxburghshire, and cannot be
traced farther back than the reign of James IV., when a
Wiland de Chesholin obtained a charter of the lands of Comer
dated 9th April 1513. At a later period they obtained a gift
of the lands of Erchless and others. In 1587, the chiefs on
whose lands resided *' broken men," were called upon to give
security for their peaceable behaviour, among whom appears
" Cheisholme of Cummer." After the battle of Killiecrankie,
in 1689, Erchless castle, the seat of tho^ie^ vras garrisoned
for King James, and General Livingstone, the commander of
the government forces, had considerable difiicnlty In dislodg-
ing the Highlanders. In 1715, Ruari, or Roderick Maclan,
the chief, signed the address of a hundred and two diiefs and
heads of houses to George the First, expressive of their at-
tachment and loyalty, but no notice being taken of it, he en-
gaged very actively in the rising under the eari of Mar; and
at the battle of Dunblane, the clan was headed by Chisholm
of Crocfin, an aged veteran, for which the estates of the chief
were forfeited and sold. In 1727, he procured, with serend
other chiefs, a pardon under the privy seal, and the lands
were subsequently conveyed, by the then proprietor, to Ro-
derick's eldest son, who entailed them on his heirs male.
In 1745, this chief joined the standard of the Pretender
With his clan, and Colin, his youngrat son, was a{^)ointed
colonel of the dan battalion. Lord President Forbes thus
states the strength of the Chisholms at that period.
"Chisholms — Their chief is Chisholm of Strathglass, in
Gaelic called Chisallich. His lands are held d the crown,
and he can bring out two hundred men." At the battle of
Culloden, William Chisholm, a near kinsman of the chief,
was flag-bearer of the clan. He fought long and manfully;
and even after the retreat had become general, he rallied
and led his clansmen again and again to the charge. A
body of the Chisholms uUimatcly sought shelter in a bam,
which was soon surrounded bv hundreds of the soldiere of the
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royal annj, but William Ghisholm cut his way through them
until he waa shot by some Englishmen. His widow, Chris-
tiana Fergnsson, a native of the pansh of Contin. Roas-shire,
where her father was a blacksmith, composed a beautiful
lament for him in Gaelic, * Cumha do dh* Uilleam Siseal,'
which is still popular in the Highlands. One of the seven
outlaws who sheltered Prince Charles in a cave m the Braes
of Glenmoriston, during his wanderings after the battle of
CuUoden, was a Chisholm, who, with another of the men
named Grant, safely conveyed him to the coast of Arisaig,
rensting the temptation of thirty thousand pounds offered for
his capture. From this man, Hugh Chisholm, who after-
wards resided for many years in Edinburgh, Mr. Home ob-
tained some of his information for his account of the Rebel-
lion. Sir Walter Scott knew him personally, and in his Tales
of a Grandfather gives some interesting details respecting
him, but too long for insertion here, besides being somewhat
mflated, and probably in part apocryphal
Alexander Chisholm, chief of the dan, who succeeded in
1785, left an only child, Mary, married to James Gooden,
Esq., London, and dying in 1798, the chieiship and estates,
agreeably to the deed of entail, devolved on his youngest bro-
ther, William, who married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of
Duncan MacDonnell, Esq. of Glengarry, and left two sons and
one daughter. On his death in 1817 he was succeedea oy
tiie elder son, Alexander William, once member of parliament
for Inverness-shire, who died, prematurely, in September
1838, and of whose amiable life an interesting memoir has
been published. " His eminent classical and scientific at-
tainments,'' says the writer of the account of the parish of
Kilmorack, in the Statistical Account of Sootiand, "graced
and sanctified by his unostentatious and unfeigned piety,
rendered him peculiarly fitted for the honourable situation of
representative of his native county in parliament. To that
situation he was called at an early period of his life, but
death cut short his career almost in its commencement." He
was succeeded by his brother, Duncan MacDonnell Chisholm,
who died in London 14th Septeml>er 1858, aged 47, when the
estate devolved on the descendants of Archibald Chishdlm,
eldest son of Chisholm of Muckrath.
The prefix *The* is employed occasionally and appropri-
ately by the chiefs of clans who use the name Mac or Mag-
nut^ as The Macnab, The MacGregor, meaning the chiefs
of the clans Nab and Gregor. It is also used in the same
sense by the head of an Irish family, viz. *• The O'Connor
Don ;'' the Spanish adjunct Don, Dcminui^ or lord, having
the same meaning. " The Chisholm ** is the only instance of
its use without the accompanying term of headship. An old
chief of the clan Chisholm once not very modestiy said that
there were but three persons in the world entitled to it —
*■ the pope, the king, and the Chisholm.'
One of the chiefs of this clan having carried off a daughter
of Lord Lovat, placed her on an islet in Loch Bruirach, where
she was soon discovered by the Frazers, who had mustered
for the rescue. A severe conflict ensued, during which the
young lady was accidentally slain by her own brother. A
pluntive Gaelic song records the sad calamity, and numerous
tumuli mark the graves of those who fell.
The once great family of Chisholme of Cronilix, sometimes
written Cromleck, in Perthshire, which for above a centxuy
were hereditary bailies and justiciaries of the ecdesiastical
lordship of Dunblane, a7\d furnished three bishops to that
see, but which is now extinct, was also descended from the
border Chisholmes; the first of that family, Edmund Chis-
bolme of Cromlix, early in the fifteenth centuiy, bdng the
feon of Chisholme of Chisbohne in Roxburghshire, who also
possessed the estate of Tindale in England. He married,
first, Mai^ret^ Sinclair, a widow, a daughter of the house of
Dryden, and the mother of Sir John Ramsay of Balmain, the
unworthy favourite of James the Third, afterwards for a time
Lord Bothwell [see ante, p. 858]. By this lady he had two
sons, James, of whom afterwards, and Thomas. He married,
secondly, Janet, daughter of James Drummond of Coldoch,
brother of John Lord Drummond, and by her he had two
sons. Sir James, who succeeded him, and William, bishop of
Dunblane, and also three daughters.
His elder son, by the first marriage, James Chiahobue, was
chaplain to James the Third, and having been sent by that
monarch to Rome, was by Pope Innocent the Eighth made
bishop of Dunblane in 1486, but was not consecrated till the
following year. In his old age, after having been forty yvara
in the see, he resigned it in the year 1627, in favour of his
half-brother, William Chisholme, above mentioned, retaining
the administration of the fruits of his bishopric, and died in
1584.
Sur James Chisholme, the elder son of the second mamage,
succeeded his father, as second laird of Cromlix. He mar-
ried Lady Catherine Grahame, sister of the thurd earl of
Montrose, and by her had three sons and four daughters.
His eldest son. Sir James, succeeded him. William, the
second son, succeeded his uncle William, as bishop of Dun-
blane ; and Alexander, the third son, was parson of Comrie.
William Chisholme, the youngest ton of Edmund Chishohne,
and full brother of the first Sir James, was consecrated bishop
of Dunblane in April 1527. He was a great opponent of the
Reformation, and alienated the episcopal patrimony of his see
to a considerable extent Most of it he gave to his nephew,
Sir James Chisholme of Cromlix, but large portions of it
were also bestowed on James Chishohne of Glassengall, his
own natural son, and on his two natural daughters, one of
whom was married to Sir James Stu-ling of Keir, and the
other to John Buchanan of that ilk. He died in 1564. His
nephew, William Chishohne, was, in June 1561, by papal
brief, constituted coadjutor and successor to him in the see of
Dunblane. This nephew wa^ much employed by Mary queen
of Scots in public affairs, and was one of the commissionerB
for the divorcing of the earl of Bothwell from Lady Jane
Gordon, previous to the marriage of that nobleman with the
queen. He dilapidated what his undo had left of the reve-
nues of his bishopric, and was forfeited for noncompliance
with the new measures both in church and state. Retiring
into France, he was made bishop of Vaison, and in his old
age he resigned that see in favour of his nephew, also named
William Chisholme, and became a firiar at Grenoble. He
died at Rome.
Sir James Chisholme, the third laird of Cromlix, married
Jean Drummond, daughter of Sir John Drummond of Inver-
peflfray, by his wife, I^y Margaret Stuart, widow of Lord
Gordon, and daughter of King James the Fourth. By this
lady he had four sons and four daughters. Sir James, the
eldest, succeeded him. William, the second son, was bom at
Inverpeffiray, March 11, 1551, and was educated in France.
On his uncle's resigning his see in his favour, he became
bishop of Vaison. John Chisholme, the third son, bom
at Dunblane in August 1557, lived chiefly in France, and
was the secret agent of the king of Spain and the duke of
Parma with the Scottish Catholic lords, of whom mention is
made infra, Thomas Chisholme, the fourth son, whose
name in old documents is spelled (iheeseholm, was portioner
of Butter-Gask, and died without heirs. The eldest daugh-
ter, Jean, was married to James Drammond, second son of
2a
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CHISHOLME.
David Lord Drammond, and by her he got the lands of In-
verpefiraj, which were her mother*8 portion. He first bore
the title of Lord Inchafiray, being commendator of that ab-
bacy, bnt was, in 1607, cr^ited Lord Maderty, a title merged
in 1711, in the viscounty of Strathallan, the second title of
which is Lord Drammond of Cromlix. [See Strathat.lan,
Viscount of.] Helen, the second daughter, was married to
Charteris of Kinfauns; Margaret, the third, to Mushet of
that ilk ; and Agnes, the youngest, to Napier of Merduston.
Sir James Chisholmet, eldest son of Sir James, the fourth
laird of Cromlix, was bom at Muthil, 10th September 1550.
The first Lord Balmerinoch, principal secretaiy of state in 3cot-
land, on his trial in 1608, for high treason, for sending a let-
ter to the Pope, in his majesty's name, without his author-
ity, confessed that, in 1598, he had written to his holiness,
in the king*s name, for a cardinaPs hat for the bishop of Vai-
son (William Chisholme, »ecimdm). Lord Balmerinoch was
a connectbn of the Cromlix family, and hence the interest he
took in their advancement. [See ofUe, p. 228.] Robertson
in his History of Scotland, and Douglas in his Peerage, erro-
neously call this bishop Drummondy a vexy natural mistake,
as the Chisholmes and Dmmmonds were very nearly con-
nected by frequent mtermarriages, bnt he was William Chi$-
hobne^ second of the name and surname. It was also stated,
on that occasion, by the lord privy seal, that, in 1588, the
same bishop came to Scotland, with great offers from the
Pope, that if King James made any kind of acknowledgment
of him, he would have prevented the sailing of the great Ar-
mada, ** and after him came Sir James Chisholme, who dealt
in the same course, and because he did not prevail, he broke
bis heart and so died.** On the alarm of the Spanish Armada
that year, the General Assembly remitted to the presbytery
of Edinbufgh, to summon before it certain papists and apos-
tates, among whom was the abovenamed John Chisholme, bro-
ther of the bishop of Vaison (William Chisholme, tertitu),
and son of Sir James Chisholme of Cromlix, who, in the in-
tercepted correspondence between the duke of Parma and the
Catholic lords was, for better concealment, called John Jam-
eson, while the duke was styled *' our miller.** Robert Bruce,
the Roman Catholic trafficker, in his letter to the duke, mter-
cepted in January 1589, speaks of Sir James Chisholme as
the eldest brother of this John Chisholme, and with reference
to the money which he had brought from the duke, he says
that he would be guided by his advice in the disposal of it,
«* for he is a man confident and wise, and one upon our part,
and very little suspected.** lCalderwood'9 History, vol. v.
p. 22.] Sir James married dame Anna Bethune, daughter
of the laird of Creich, and by her he had hb successor. Sir
James, and other children.
The eldest son, Sir James Chisholme, styled of Dundam
and Cromlix, knight, was one of the masters of the house-
hold to King James the Sixth, and high in the favour of
that monarch. Notwithstanding of his position and pros-
pects, however, he seems to have been much mixed up with
the intrigues of the Catholic lords for the overthrow of the
reformed religion in Scotland ; and in 1592, it was intended
that he should proceed to Spain, on their part, to procure
assistance for the advancement of their projects ; but not be-
ing ready in time, Mr. George Kerr went in his stead. That
gentleman was^ apprehended in the island of Cxmibray, and
upon him were found, besides seventeen letters of a treason-
able and dangerous character, eight others, signed in blank
by the earls of Huntly, Angus, and Eirol, and by Gordon of
Auchindown ; which, on being known, created great conster-
nation and alarm in the kingdom. An account of the dis-
covery of this Popish plot, called the affair of the " Scottish
Blanks,*' has been reprinted, finom a rare tract of the time, in
Pitcum's Criminal Trials, (voL i. p. 317,) to which the reader
is referred. On February 15, 1592-3, Sir James Chisbohne
was denounced for not appearing to answer '^ touching his
practising and trafficking in sundry treasonable matters
against the true religion,** &o, ; and at the provincial synod
of Fife convened at St Andrews, 25th September 1593, be
was, with the Catholic earls, Angus, Huntly, and Errol, and
Sir Patrick Gordon of Auchindown, formally exconminni-
cated; but in 1595, on his appearing before the Assembly,
which met in June of that year at Montrose, confessing his
apostacy, and declaring his adherence to the reformed fiuth,
he was released from the sentence of excommunication, and
admitted a member of the reformed church.
This Sir James Chisholme was the author of the touching
and interesting love-song of * Cromlet*s Lilt,* written in his
youth, when absent in France, on the supposed inconstancy
of his betrothed, Helen Murray, commonly called **Fair
Helen of Ardoch,** daughter of William Stirling, brother of
the laird of Ardoch, and grand-daughter of Murray of Strew-
an, one of the seventeen sons of Sir William Murray of Tul-
libardine, already referred to [see anie, Art Athol, p. 164].
It begins :
"■ Since all thy vows, falM maid.
Are blown to air.
And my poor heart betrayM
To sad despair,
Into tome wlldemess
My grief I wtU express.
And thy hard-heartedness,
O oruel fairr
And ends most pathetically,
" Ajid wlien a ghost I am
ru visit thee;
O Lhon deoeltfal dame.
Whose cmelty
Has kiU'd the kindest heart.
That e'er felt Cupid's dart.
And never can desert
From loving thee.**
It is pleasant to know that fair Helen became, after all, tbe
wife of Chisholme, notwithstanding her forced and unooo-
summated marriage with his treadierons confident, whicfa
was annulled on his return to Scotland, on the exposure of
the treachery and villany of his false friend, who had kept up
his letters, and prepossessed the lady against her absent knrer.
By her Sir James had two sons, James, and John, who both
inherited the estate of Cromlix. besides several daughters.
The estate afterwards became the property of General Dram-
mond, by purchase.
A John Chisholme, son of Cheeeholme of Chesebolme,
Roxburghshire, and a relative of the Cromlix family, was in
the reign of Queen Mary comptroller of artillery, and as aach
was in 1564 infefted in the building, called tbe King's
Work, at the mouth of Leith harbour. The ancient buildings
had shared in the conflagration which signalised the depar-
ture of the army of Henry VIII. of England in 1544, and tbey
would appear to have been recmilt by Chisholme in a most
substantial and magnificent style. Tbe following are tbe
terms in which the queen confirms ber fbnner grant: —
** Efter her hienes lauchfull age, and revocation made in par-
liament, hir migeste sett in feu fume to hir bvxte suitoors ,
Johns Chisholme, liis airis and assignais, all and baiDe hir
landis, callet the King's Werk in Leith, within the boondis
spedfit in the infeftment, maid to him thaimpon, quhilkii
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CHRISTIE.
than war alluterlie decayit, aod sensyne are reparit and re-
edifit be the said Johnne Chisholme, to the policy ant great
decorationn of this realme, in that oppin place and sight of
all strangearis and uthois resortand at the schore of Leith.**
Notwithstanding the terras of this rojal grant, the proper^
of the King's W.^rk remained vested in the crown. [ WU$on*$
MemoridU <^ EairMurghy vol. ii. p. 144.]
CHISHOLM, Alexander, an artist of consid-
erable merit, was born at Elgin, in 1792, or 1793.
He was intended by his father for the hnmble oc-
cupation of a weaver, for which he entertained a
strong aversion. He early manifested a predilec-
tion for art, and he was accustomed, from his own
untaught impulses, to sketch on the cloth on which
he was occupied at the loom, all the odd figures
he saw, and remarkable objects which struck him.
He had been placed with a master weaver at Pe-
terhead, and when his leisure permitted him, he
nsed to resort to the seashore, and sketch on the
sand. When about thirteen or fourteen years of
age he walked from Peterhead to Aberdeen, and
wandered about the streets for some time; his
attention was at length arrested before a shop
window by seeing some advertisement about col-
ours. He entered the shop, introduced himself to
the shopkeeper, and from him received his first
lessons in light and shade. At this time there was
a meeting of the Synod of Aberdeen, the members
of which he was permitted to sketch; and his
work gave such satisfaction that he was forthwith
commissioned to paint them, but was compelled
to decline doing so, from his ignorance of the use
of colours. When he was about nineteen or twen-
ty, he proceeded to Edinburgh, where he was pa-
tronized by Lord Elgin and the earl of Buchan,
and was subsequently appointed an instructor at
the Academy of Painting, &c. He married Miss
Susanna Stewart Eraser, one of his private pupils.
In 1818, he went to London, and obtained a con-
siderable share of encouragement. His favourite
style of art was history. He also painted portraits
with considerable success. In the Exhibition of
the Royal Scottish Academy of 1830 he had a pic-
ture very well treated, * Shall I fight or not?' in
that of 1848 one of * The Fair Maid of Perth list-
ening to the instructions of the Carthusian Monk,'
and In that of 1847, one of a bolder character than
either, *The Signing of the Covenant in Greyfriars
Churchyard, February 28, 1638.' The point of
time in the picture is when Mr. Henderson is ad-
ministering the oath, which was '^ taken with
drawn swords in their hands and tears in their
eyes." Having suffered affliction during nine years
before his death, his latter paintings do not exhibit
that degree of vigour which characterized his ear-
lier works. Mr. Chisholm died at Rothesay, in
the Isle of Bute, on the 3d of October 1847.
CHRISTIE, Hugh, master of the Grammar
School at Montrose, was bom there in 1730. He
was the author of several classical works, of some
repute in their day. He died in 1774. His pub-
lications are :
A Grammar of the Latin Tongae, after a New and Easy
Method, adapted to the capadties of children. 1757, 12mo.
Introduction to the making Latin, with some Remarks on
the idiom of the Roman Language. « Edin. 1760, 12mo.
An Essay on Ecclesiastical Establishments in Religion,
shewing their hurtful Tendency ; and that they cannot be de-
fended either on the Principles of Reason or Scripture. To
which are annexed, Two Discourses. Montrose, 1791, 8vo.
CHRISTIE, Thomas, a miscellaneous writer,
was the son of a merchant in Montrose, where he
was bom in 1761. He was intended for trade by
his father, but his own inclination leading him to
the study of medicine, he went to London, and
entered himself *at the Westminster Ceneral Dis>
pensary, as a pupil to Dr. Simmons. He next
spent two wintera at Edinburgh, and subsequently
proceeded to the continent for farther improve-
ment; but while he was at Paris, an advantageous
oifer, from a respectable mercantile house in Lon-
don, induced him to become a partner in that
house. Early in 1789 he published the first of
his works, and continued his labours as an author
during subsequent years. Having become a part-
ner in another mercantile firm, some arrange-
ments of trade caused him to take a voyage ta
Surinam, where he died in 1796. His works are ;
Letters on the Revolution of France, and on the new Con-
stitution established by the National Aznembly. Translated
from a corrected edition of the original French. London,
1791, 8vo. part i.
Miscellanies, Philosophical, Medical, and Moral, containing,
I. Observations on the Literature of the Primitive Christian
Writers. II. Reflections suggested by the Character of Pom-
philus of Cnsarea. III. Hints respecting the State and
Education of the People. IV. Thoughts on the Origin of
Hunlan Knowledge, and on the Antiquity of the World. Y.
Remarks on Professor Meiner'a History of Ancient Opinions
respecting the Deity. VL Account of Dr. Ellis* Work on the
Origin of Sacred Knowledge. 1792, 8vo.
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CLAPPERTON
644
HUGH.
CLAPPERTON, Hugh, a distinguished Afri-
can traveller, was bom in Annan, Dumfries-shire,
in 1788. His grandfather, Robert Clapperton,
M.D., a native of tlie north of Scotland, studied
medicine at Edinburgh and Pai'is, and, mai'i^iug
Elizabeth Campbell, a distant relative of the
Campbells of Glenljon, settled in Dumfiies-shire,
firat at a place called Crowden-Nows, and after-
wards at Lochmaben. He acquired some reputa-
tion in the locality as a physician, and an amateur
both in mineralogy and antiquities. He made a
collection of objects in natural history in the district
mines, and of antiquities at the site of the camps
of Agricola ; and some old border ballads and gen-
ealogies communicated by him were inserted in
the 'Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.* With
one daughter, he had six sons, all of f^hom were
medical men, except the youngest who, in the be-
ginning of 1798, became second lieutenant of
mai'ines. George, the eldest son, the father of the
traveller, was a surgeon in Annan. He was twice
married, and is said to have had in al] twenty-one
children. By his first wife, a daughter of John
Johnstone, proprietor of the lands of Thomiwhate
and Lochmaben castle, he had ten or eleven sons
and one daughter. Of this marriage Hugh was
the youngest child. The limited circumstances of
his father prevented him from obtaining a classical
education, but he was early placed under the tui-
tion of Mr. Bryce Downie, a mathematical teacher
of some eminence at Annan, under whom Edward
Irving also studied ; and after acquiring an ele-
mentary knowledge of practical mathematics, he
was, at the age of thirteen, at his own wish, ap-
prenticed to the owner of a vessel, named the
Postlethwaite of Maryport, trading between Liv-
erpool and North America, in which he made sev-
eral voyages across the Atlantic. After one of
these, as it proved to him the last, when the ship
was at Liverpool, being caught by a custom-house
officer bringing ashore a few pounds of rock-salt
in his handkerchief, for the use of his landlady, he
was threatened with imprisonment for smuggling;
but having consented to go on board the Tender,
then in that port, he was carried round to Ply-
mouth, and draughted on board of his majesty's
ship Gibraltar, of eighty guns. In 1806, he ar-
rived at Gibraltar in a naval transport, from which
he was impressed, with others, on board the fri-
gate Renomm^, captain Sir Thomas Livingstone.
Fortunately for him, during the time he was there
the Saturn, captain Lord Amelius Beauclerc, be-
longing to Lord Collingwood's fleet o£f Cadiz,
arrived at Gibraltar for the pni'pose of watering
and refitting; and learning that his uncle was
captain of marines on board of her, young Clap-
perton sent him a letter describing his situation in
the Renomm^. The uncle immediately waited
upon Sir Thomas Livingstone, who was an old
messmate of his, when they were both lieutenants
at the Cape of Good Hope many years before,
and through his intercession. Sir Thomas at once
placed his nephew on the quarter-deck, as a mid
shipman. The Renomm^ soon after left Gibral-
tar for the Mediterranean, and when on the coast
of Spain, had occasion to send boats to attack
some of the enemy's vessels on shore. Clapper-
ton being in one of the boats, was slightly wonnded
in the head, and for a time suffered much annoy-
ance from the wound. On the Renomm^ being
paid off in 1808, he joined the Venerable, Captain
King, in the Downs, as a midshipman, but learn-
ing from his friends at home, who were interesting
themselves in his advancement, that by gett-
ing into the Clorinde frigate. Commander Briggs,
this object was likely to be facilitated, he applied
to be transferred to that vessel. His request was
granted, but as the Cloi*inde had previously sailed
for the East Indies, he was ordered by the admiral
to have a passage in a ship proceeding to the same
destination. In the course of the voyage he was
nearly drowned in attempting to aid a vessel in
distress, which passed near their ship.
Clapperton remained on board the Clorinde fri
gate, and in the East Indies, from March 1810 to
the end of 1813. He then returned to England, and
was, with some other clever midshipmen, sent to
Portsmouth dockyard, for the purpose of being
instructed, by the celebrated swordsman Angelo, in
the improved cutlass exercise recently introduced,
and in which he afterwards excelled. When these
midshipmen were distributed to the different ships
of the fleet as drill-masters, Clapperton was ap-
pointed to Sir Alexander Cochrane's flagship, the
Asia, to instruct the officers and crew in the use
of the cutlass. The Asia sailed fi*om Spithead in
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HUGH.
the end of January 1814, and daring the passage
to Bermada, his services as drill-master were per-
formed on the quarter-deck. On her arrival, he
was sent to Halifax, and thence to the Canadian
Lakes, just then about to become the scene of
warlike operations. With the utmost diligence in
the discharge of his duty, he is described as hav-
ing been at the mess- table the soul and life of
the party. He could sing a good song, tell a
merry tale, paint scenes for the ship^s theatricals,
sketch views and di*aw caricatures, while his con-
versation was at all times extremely amusing.
He thus became a general favourite on boai'd.
He arrived at Upper Canada in 1815, and daring
the winter he was placed in command of a block-
house on Lake Huron, with a party of seamen,
and one small gun, for the purpose of defending it.
Being attacked by an American schooner, the
blockhouse was destroyed, and he found that him-
self and party must either become prisoners of
war, or cross Lake Michigan upon the ice, a jour-
ney of nearly sixty miles, to York, the nearest
British depot. The latter alternative was adopt-
ed, and the party, after great suffering and re-
markable devotion and humanity on the part of
Clapperton, by attempting to carry a poor boy
who was unable to proceed, and died of exhaus-
tion while on his back — reached York emaciated,
almost famished, and nearly out of clothing. Ow-
ing to the long inaction of his left hand in holding
up the boy, Clapperton lost, from the severity of
the frost, the first joint of this thumb.
Soon after, on Sir Edward Owen being ap-
pointed to the command upon the Canadian lakes,
he gave to Clapperton an acting order as lieuten-
ant, and appointed him to the command of the
Coniiance schooner. While she rode at anchor
near the shores of Lake Erie or Lake Huron, he
occasionally repaired to the woods, and with his
gun kept himself well supplied with fresh provi-
sions. In these excursions he cultivated an ac-
quaintance with the aborigines, whose mode of
life he very much admired. His acting order as
lieutenant he had sent to England for confirma-
tion by the Board of Admu-alty, but a very large
promotion having just previously taken place, the
board declined confirming the commission. On
this disappointment, he foimed the idea of aban-
doning the navy altogether, and becoming a den-
izen of the Noith American forests; but this
romantic notion he soon abandoned. At this time
he occasionally dined on shore, and being an ex-
pert swimmer he not unfrequently plunged into
the water with his clothes on and swam to th9
schooner. This he did, partly to show his dex-
terity, but chiefly for the purpose of keepinjf his
men on the alert. The practice, however, had
very nearly proved fatal to him, as he was one
night so much exhausted that he could scarcely
make those on board hear his cries, till he was on
the point of sinking, when he was luckily observed
and taken on board, but he never again tried the
experiment.
About the end of 1816, when Su: Edward Owen
returned to England, he got Clapperton*s commis-
sion of lieutenant confirmed by the Board of Ad-
miralty; and in 1817, on our vessels on the Cana
dian lakes being paid off and laid up. Lieutenant
Clapperton came home, and, with many more, was
put on half-pay. In 1818, he retired to Lochma-
ben, where he lived with an aged sister of his
mother, and amused himself principally with rural
sports. In 1820, he removed to Edinburgh,
where he became acquainted with Dr. Oudney,
a young Englishman who was then about to embark
on a mission to the interior of Africa, and re-
quested permission to accompany him. Dr. Oud-
ney was told by a friend, a medical man, who
knew Clapperton well, that in all varieties and
under every circumstance, however trying, he
would find him a steady and faithful friend, and
that his poweiful and athletic form and excellent
constitution had never been surpassed ; great re-
commendations for a companion on such a hazard-
ous enterprize. Lieutenant, afterwards Coloiiel
Denham, having volunteered his services, and it
being intended that researches should be made to
the east and west of Bomou, where Dr. Oudney
was to reside as British consul, Clapperton*s name
was added to the expedition by Earl Bathurst,
then secretary of state for the colonial department.
After their arrival at Tripoli, the travellers set out,
early in 1822, in a line nearly south to Monrzook,
which place they reached on the 8th of April.
Clapperton, with his friend Oudney, then made
an excursion to the westward of Monrzook, into
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CLAPPERTON,
646
HUGH.
I the country of the Tuaricks, and penetrated as
far as Ghraat, in the eleventh degree of east
longitude. On the 29th November the travellers
left Mourzook, and arrived at Lake Tchad, in the
kingdom of Bomou, Febraary 4, 1823, after a
journey of eight hundred miles. On the 17th they
reached Konka, where, being well received by the
Sultan, they remained till the I4th of December,
when they set out for the pui*pose of exploring the
course of the Niger. They arrived in safety at
Murmer, where Dr. Oudney died, January 12,
1824.
Clapperton pursued his journey alone to Kano,
and from thence to Saccatoo, the capital of the
Felatah empire. On the road he was met by an
escort of one hundred and fifty horsemen, with
drams and trumpets, which Bello, the sultan, had
sent to conduct him to his capital. Not being
peimitted to proceed to the Niger, which was only
twe days' journey to the westward, he returned to
Kouka, July 8th, 1824. He was here rejoined
by Colonel Denham, who did not at first know
him, so altered was he by fatigue and illness.
The travellei-s now returned to England, where
they arrived June 1, 1825; and on the 22d of
the same month Clapperton was made a com-
mander in the navy.
The result of this expedition was a work pub-
lished at London in 1826, in one volume quarto,
entitled * Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in
Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822,
1823, and 1824, by Major Denham, ^Captain Clap-
perton and the late Dr. Oudney.' Although the
disputed questions of the course and termination
of the Niger were left undecided, the geographical
information collected was of great value, inas-
much as it determined the position and extent of
the kingdoms of Mandara, Bomou, and Houssa,
with the situation ofthen* principal cities. Before
he could finish this work for the press, he was en-
gaged again by Lord Bathurst, colonial secretary,
to take the management of another expedition,
by the way of the western coast of Africa, near
the Bight of Benin, to carry presents from his
sovereign to the Snltan Bello, and to El Kanemy,
the sheikh of Bomou. He sailed from Poits-
raouth in his majesty's sloop Brazen, Captain
Willis, and was accompanied by Dr. Dickson,
Captain Pearce, royal navy, and Dr. Morrison, a
naval surgeon, and also by Richard Lander, a
young Englishman, who attended him in the ca-
pacity of confidential servant. They called at
SieiTa Leone ; from that sailed to Benin, where tiiey
landed, and thence proceeded up the country, and
on 29th November Clapperton arrived at Badagiy.
Dr. Dickson had left him near Whidah, and Captain
Pearce and Dr. Morrison died a short time after
leaving the coast. Quitting Badagry, December
7, 1825, accompanied by his faithful servant,
Richard Lander, he pursued a north-easteriy direc-
tion, with the intention of reaching Saccatoo.
In January 1826, he reached Katnnga, the
capita] of Touriba, and soon after crossed the
Niger at Boussa, the place where Park met his
fate. Continuing his journey north, he reached
Kano, and leaving Lander there with the baggage,
he proceeded westward to Saccatoo, the residence
of Sultan Bello, who, though he accepted his pre-
sents, refused to allow him either to return to
Kano, or to revisit Bomou, on account of the war
in which he was then engaged with the sheikh of
the latter place. He was, in consequence, de-
tained five months at Saccatoo ; and in the mean-
time the Sultan had inveigled Lander to the capital,
and obtained possession of the presents intended
for the sheikh ; and then refused both master and
servant permission to leave by way of Bomou.
While thus detained. Captain Clapperton was
attacked with dysentery, and died April 13, 1827,
at Chungary, a village about four miles from Sac-
catoo. He was the first European who traversed
the region of Central Africa, extending from the
Bight of Benin to the Mediterranean. He was
about five feet eleven inches in height, possessed
a frank and generous disposition, and had acquired
a thorough knowledge of the habits and prejudices
of the inhabitants of Central Africa. On Lander's
return to England, a quarto volume appeared, en-
titled * Joumal of a Second fbcpedition into the
Interior of Africa, from the Bight of Benin to
Saccatoo. By the late Commander Clapperton,
R. N. To which is added the Journal of Richard
Lander, with a portrait of Captain Clapperton.*
From this portrait, which was painted by Gildon
Manton, and engraved by Thomas Lupton, the
following woodcut is taken :
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CLARK.
647
CLEGliORN.
Clark, Clarke, or Cij5RK, a surname aenved from the
eoclesiafttical office of Clerk, or clericut. See Clerk.
CLARK, John, physician and medical writer,
the son of a wealthy farmer, was born at Rox-
burgh in 1744. Destined for the church, he at-
tended the theological classes at the university of
Edinburgh; but afterwards devoted himself to
the study of medicine. On leaving college, he
was appointed assistant-surgeon in the service of
the East India Company ; and in 1773 he pub-
lished his * Observations on the Diseases in Long
Voyages to Hot Countries, and particularly in the
East Indies.' He received the degree of M.D.
from the university of St. Andrews, and having
settled in practice at Newcaatle-dn-Tyne, he con-
tributed greatly to the improvement of the public
hospital there, and founded a dispensary. He
died at Bath, April 24, 1805. He belonged to
the Medical Society of Edinburgh, to whose Trans-
actions he was a contributor. His works are :
Olwervations on the Diseaaeis in long voyages to hot Coun-
tries, particularly on those which prevail in the East Indies;
and on the same Diseases as they appear m Great Britain.
London, 1778, 8vo. London, 1793, 2 vols. 8vo.
Observations on the Hepatitis. Med. Com. v. p. 423. 1777.
History of a Case of obstructed secretion of Urine. Med.
Com. vi. p. 204. 1778.
Observations on Fevers, especiaDy those of the continued
Type: on Scarlet Fever, with Ulcerated Sore Throat, as it
appeared in 1778: a comparative view of Scarlet Fever, and
the Origina Maligna. London, 1780, 8vo.
Letter on the Influenza, as it appeared in Newcaatle-npon-
Tyne. London, 1783, 8vo.
An Account of the Plan for the Improvement and Exten-
sion of the Infirmary at Newcastle. Newcastle, 1801, 12mo
A Collection of Papers, intended to promote an Institution
for the Cure and Prevention of Infectious Fevers, in New-
castle and other populous towns; together with communica-
tions of the most eminent Physicians, relative to the safety
and importance of annexing Fever Wards to the Newcastle
and other Lifimiaries. Part^ i. and ii. Newcast, 1802, 12mo.
Sketch of Professional Life and Character. By John
Ralph Fen wick, M.D. of Durham. London, 1806, 8vo.
CLARKE, John, an engraver, who flourished
in the seventeenth century, was a native of Scot-
land, but the exact place of his birth is not known
He executed two profile heads in medal Of Wil-
liam and Mai*y, dated 1690; and prints of Sir
Matthew Hale, George baron de Goertz, aiid Dr
Humphrey Prideaux. He also engraved seven
little heads of Charles the Second, his queen,
Prince Rupert, the prince of Orange, the dukes of
York and Monmouth, and General Monk. He
died about 1697.
Clayhills, a surname oelonfpng to an old family m For-
farshire, possessing the lands of Iiivergowrie, which were ac-
quired hy their ancestor David Clayhills, son of Robert Clay-
hills of Baldovie, near Dundee, on the 22d May 1664. In
1586 Andrew Clayhills was admitted by the General Assem-
bly minister of Jedburgh, and his name appears in Calder-
wood*8 History of the Church uf Scotland, in this and follow-
ing years, as taking an active part in church matters.
CLEGHORN, George, a learned physician,
son of a farmer at Granton, near Edinburgh,
was bom there, December 13, 1716. He received
the elements of his education in the parish school
of Cramond. In 1728 he was sent to Edinburgh
to be instructed in the classics,' and in 1731 he
commenced the study of physic and sUrgei^ under
Dr. Alexander Monro. While yet a student,
he and some other young men, among whom was
the celebrated Fothergill, established the Royal
Medical Society of Edinburgh.
Early in 1786 he was appointed sm-geon in the
22d regiment of foot, then stationed at Minorca,
on which island he continued for thirteen years.
In 1749 he accompanied his regiment to Ireland ;
and in autumn 1750 he went to London to publish
his treatise on ' The Diseases of Minorca.' While
there he attended the anatomical lectures of the
celebrated Dr. Hunter. In 1751 he settled in
Dublin, and began to give an annual course of
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CLEGHORN.
648
CI^LAND.
lectures on anatomy. A few years afterwai-ds,
he was admitted into the university as lecturer on
anatomy, and from this he was advanced to be
professor. In 1777, when the Royal Medical So-
ciety was established at Paris, he was nominated
a fellow of it ; and in 1784, the College of Physi-
cians in Dublin elected him an honorary member.
He died in December 1789. His works are :
Observations on the Epidemical Diseases of Minorca, from
1744 to 1749; containing a short account of the climate, pro-
ductions, inhabitants, and endemical distempers of Minorca.
London, 1761, 1768, 1799, 8vo.
Index of an Annoal Coarse of Lectures. Dublin, 1 767, 8va
Case of a Feather swallowed by a Young Lady. Med.
Obs. and Inq. iii. p. 7. 1766.
The Case of an Aneurismal Yorix. lb. p. 110.
CLEGHORN, Wiixiam, M.D., a nephew of
the preceding, was his associate lecturer on ana-
tomy at Trinity College, Dublin, the author of a
clever dissertation * De Igne.' He died in 1783.
CLEGHORN, James, an accomplished actu-
ary, born in ,Dunse in 1778, was, though lame
from his birth, for many years a farmer. In 1811
he removed to Edinburgh, and at first supported
himself chiefly by literature. He was editor of
the Farmer's Journal, and joint editor, for a time,
of Blackwood's Magazine, and subsequently of
the Scots Magazine; also, a contributor to the
supplement of the 6th edition of the Encyclopedia
Britannica. Becoming an accountant, he was the
projector and founder of the Scottish Provident
Assurance Company, of which he was manager.
He was also actuary of the Edinburgh National
Security Savings' Banks. Eminent in his day
for the accuracy of his calculations as to life as-
surance, annuities, and widows' fund schemes,
his " Widows' Scheme for the Faculty of Advo-
cates," his " Report on the first Investigation of
the Widows' Fund" of that body, his " Report on
the Widows' Fund of the Writers to Her Majesty's
Signet," and other papers, proved his abilities in
this respect. He died, unmarried, 27th May 1838.
CLELAin>, a surname belonging to an old fiunily in Lan-
arkshire, and derived from the lands of that name in the pa-
rish of Dalzeil. The Clelands of that ilk were hereditaiy
foresters to the old earls of Douglas, and had for arms a hare
saliant, argent, with a hunting horn, proper, about its neck;
crest, a falcon standing on a left hand glove, proper. At
other times, for supporters they had two 'greyhounds. James
Cleland of Cleland, was one of the patriots who joined Sir
William Wallace, and fought, under his command, against
the Enfi;li»h. He also remained faithful to King Robert Bruce;
and for his services received from that monarch several laiuU
lying within the barony of Calder in West Lothian. From
him was descended William Cleland of that ilk, who, in the
reign of King James the Third, married Jean, dan^ter ot
William Lord Somerville. From them branched Cleland of
Faskine, Cleland of Monkland, and Cleland of Cartneas.
About the beginning of the seventeenth omtary, Sir James
Cleland purchased the barony of Monkland from Sir Thomas
Hamilton of Binning, first earl of Haddington, but his son
and heir, Ludovick CleUnd, sold it to James, marquis of
Hamilton. On 6th September 1615, this Sir Jamee Cleland
of Monkland was, with two others, indicted for trial, for tre*-
sonably resetting Jesuits, hearing of mass, &c, offimces very
seriously punished in those days, but the diet was deserted
against them. The Cartness family terminated in an heireaa,
previous to the middle of the eighteenth century, married to
Sir William Vere of Blackwood in the same county.
Alexander Cleland of that ilk, with his cousin, William
Cleland of Faskine, were both killed at Flodden in 1513.
James Cleland of that ilk, an eminent man in the time (tf
King James the Fifth, whom he trequently attended while
hunting, married a daughter of Hepburn of Bonnytoun,
descended from the earl of Bothwell, by whom he had a son,
Alexander Cleland of that ilk, who was a faithful adherent of
Queen Maiy. He married Margaret, a daughter of Hamilton
of Haggs, by whom he had William his sucoeasor, who mar-
ried the sister of Walter Stewart, first Lord Blantyre. Their
eldest son, Alexander, married the sister of John EbmOton,
first Lord Bargeny, and their son and heir sold the lands <^
Cleland to a cousin of his own name.
Major WilUam Cleland, the great-grandson of the last men-
tioned Alexander Cleland of that ilk, was one of the Commis-
sioners of the Customs in Scotland, about the middle of the
last centiuy.
The name was formerly Kneilland, with the K pronounced
In 1608 Mr. Andrew Kneilland was justice depute; and then
are several instances of Cleland of Cleland being called KneO-
land of that ilk; thus, among the persons who were *■ delated '
for being art and part in the murder of King Heniy Damley
were William Knelund of that ilk, and Arthur Kndand of
Knowhobbilhill, afterwards softened into ConnoblehiU, in the
parish of Shotts. (See Knelaitd, surname of.)
CLELAND, William, a brave and accom-
plished soldier and poet, was bom about 1661.
Of his family or lineage nothing is recorded. At
the conflict of Dmmdog, when be was scarcely
eighteen years of age, he acted as an officer of foot
in the Covenantei-s^ army; and at Bothwell Bridge
he held the rank of captain. After the latter af-
fair, he and his brother were, among other leaders
of the insurgents, denounced by proclamation, be-
ing described as *^ James and William Clelands,
brethren-in-law to John Haddoway, merchant in
Douglas." It is likely that, on the defeat at Botli-
well, he made his escape to Holland, as we find
that he published *• Disputatio Juridica de Proba-
tionibus,' at Utrecht, in 1684. He was in Scot-
land, however, in 1685, " beitfg then under hid-
ing," among the wilds of Lanarkshire and Ayrshire.
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CLELAND,
649
JAMES.
After the Reyolution he was appointed lieatenant-
colonel of the earl of Angus' regiment, called the
Cameronian regiment, from its being chiefly raised
from the extreme presbjterian party.
On the 21st August 1689, before he was twen-
ty-eight years of age, Colonel Cleland was killed
at the head of his corps, while manfully and suc-
cessfully defending the churchyai*d of Dnnkeld
against a superior force of Highlanders, the re-
mains of the army of Dundee, which had been
victorious at Killiecrankie in the preceding month.
His poetical pieces were published in a small
duodecimo volume in 1697. The first in the book,
* Hollo, my Fancie, whither wilt ihou go?' was
written by him the last year he was at college,
and before he was eighteen years of age. This
poem, which displays considerable imagination,
wUl be found in Watson's Collection of Scottish
Poems. His principal piece, entitled ^A Mock
Poem on the Expedition of the Highland Host,
who came to destroy the Western Shires in Win-
ter 1678,' is in the Hudibrastic vein, and conceived
in a style of bitter sarcasm.
Colonel Cleland is erroneously stated to have
been the father of William Cleland, Esq., bom in
1 673, one of the commissioners of the customs in
Scotland, and author of the Prefatory Letter to
the Dunciad. This person, said by Sir Walter
Scott, in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, to
have been also a Colonel Cleland, (he was only a
major, see previous page,) is mentioned by some
of the annotators on Pope as the original of Will.
Honeycomb iu the Spectator. He died in 1741,
leaving a son, John Cleland, the author of an in-
famous novel, entitled * Memoirs of a Woman of
Pleasure,' published in 1750; for which Ralph
Griffiths, a bookseller, gave him 20 guineas, and
the profits of which are said to have exceeded
£10,000. Want of money and want of principle
were alike the cause of this prostitution of his
talents. To rescue him from such pursuits. Earl
Granville allowed him a hundred pounds a-year.
He afterwards wrote two novels of a more inno-
cent description, and not destitute of merit, en-
titled * Memoirs of a Coxcomb,' and ' The Man of
Honour.' He published, besides, an etymological
work, entitled *The Way to Things by Words,
and to Words by Things,' 1766, 8vo; and a
'Specimen of an Etymological Vocabulary, or
Essay, by means of the Analytic Method, to Re-
trieve the Ancient Celtic,' 1768. He died in
1789, aged S2,— Chalmers's Biog, Diet, Art. John
Cleland, — Brownis History of the Highlands,
CLELAND, Jambs, LL.D., a distinguished
statistical writer, was bom at Glasgow in the
month of January 1770. His parents, though
highly respectable, were in a humble station of
life ; his father's trade being that of a cabinet-
maker, to which his son was likewise brought up.
Although he himself had received but V scanty
education, Mr. Cleland, senior, who possessed
great shrewdness of character, had the good sense
to be aware of the advantages of a good one, and,
accordingly, James was early initiated in English
grammar and the rudiments of the Latin language,
and made considerable progress in arithmetic.
I'n the workshop of his father he continued till
1789, when, in order to render himself perfect in
his business, he went to London f in which city
he remained for two years. On his return, he
entered into partnership with his father, and from
his peculiar tact and straightforward mode of con-
ducting business, he, in a short period, rendered the
trade in which he was concerned one of the most
flourishing in Glasgow. It was while thus en-
gaged that he first exhibited his inclination to
figures; the foremost of his printed productions
being * Tables for showing the Price of Packing-
Boxes of sundry Dimensions and Thicknesses,' an
opuscule which was highly thought of at the time,
and which is still in common use amongst trades-
men.
In 1814, the office of superintendent of public
works at Glasgow having become vacant. Dr.
Cleland was unanimously elected to it by the
Town Council, and in this situation he continued
until 1834, when, owing to some alteration in the
distribution of offices — consequent on the operation
of the Municipal Reform Bill, he deemed it expe-
dient to resign. Many of his fellow - citizens,
however, considering that some compensation
should be afforded him, called a public meeting
on 7th August of that year, at which it was unani-
mously resolved, that a subscription should imme-
diately be set on foot, in order to present Dr.
Cleland with some tangible mark of the esteem
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CLELAND,
660
JAMES.
in which be was held by them. This was accord-
ingly done, and in the course of a very few weeks,
when the subscription list was closed, the sum
collected amounted to no less than £4,600, —
which it was agreed upon by a committee sliould
be expended on the erection of a productive build-
ing, to be placed in a suitable part of the city, and
to bear the name of the '•'• Cleland Testimonial."
That this very superb present, however, was not
totally undeserved, will be apparent even from
the following isolated trifling fact : — Previously to
Dr. Cleland^s election to the ofSce of superintend-
ent of public works in 1814, the caravans of per-
formers, who were accustomed to meet at Glasgow
during the fair week in Jidy, had been allowed to
be pitched on ground belonging to the town, with-
out paying anything for such a privilege. But
when Dr. Cleland entered on his duties, he imi-
tated the example of the corporation of London
with regard to Bartholomew Fair, and by charg-
ing a small sum for each steading of ground, he
was enabled, during the period between 1815 and
1884, to pay into the hands of the city chamber-
lain, from this source alone, no less than £2,500.
In 1821 Dr. Cleland was employed by govern-
ment to draw up and classify the enumeration of
the inhabitants of Glasgow ; and, from the follow-
ing high eulogium contained in the government
enumeration volume, it will be observed in what
point of view his services were regarded at head-
quarters;— "It would be unjust," observes the
writer, ** not to mention, in this place, that Mr.
Cleland has transmitted documents containing
very numerous and veiy useful statistical details
concerning the city and suburbs of Glasgow, and
that the example has produced imitation in some
other of the principal towns in Scotland, though
not to the same extent of minute observation by
which Mr. Cleland*s laboura are distinguished."
In 1831 Dr. Cleland again drew up the enumera-
tion for government, and the very flattering mode
in which it was received, both at home and in
several of the countries of the Eui'opean continent,
attests its value.
From 1820 until 1834 the bills of mortality for
Glasgow were drawn up by him, and from the
following panegyric on them by the highest au-
thority on the subject, we may judge of their
accuracy and value : — " Of all the statements de-
rived from bills of mortality and enumerations of
the people," observes Joshua Mylne, Esq. in the
Encyclopedia Bntannica, ^^ only those for Sweden
and Finland, Dr. Heysham's for Carlisle, and Dr.
Cleland's for Glasgow, have been given in the
proper form, and with sufficient correctness to
afford the information, which is the most impor-
tant object of them all, viz. that which is neces-
sary for determining the law of mortality." In
the year 1836 a number of gentlemen having
united themselves into a society for promoting
the advancement of statistical inquiry. Dr. Cle-
land was unanimously elected president, and in
the first part of their Transactions there appeared
a paper written by him on his favourite subject,
the State of the City.
From tlte date of his resignation to his death,
which took place after an illness of nearly a year's
duration, on 14th October 1840, Dr. Cleland
never ceased to entertain a lively regard for the
interest and prosperity of his native city, and not
a month before he expired, he published a pam-
phlet, ^ On the Former and Present State of Glas-
gow.' By the university of Glasgow he was hon-
oured with the degree of doctor of laws. He was
a member of the Society of Civil Engineers of
London ; a Fellow of the Statistical Societies of
London, Manchester, and Bristol ; a correspond-
ing member of the Society of Antiquaiies of Scot-
land ; and a short period before his decease, he
was elected an honorary member of the Soci^t^
^ran^ois de Statistique Universelle.
The following is a list of Dr. Cleland's works:
Aonals of Glasgow. 1816, 2 vols. 8vo.
Abridgment of the Annals of Glasgow. 1817, 8vo.
Rise and Progress of the City of Glasgow. 1820, 8vo.
Exemplification of Weights and Measures of Glasgow.
1822, 8vo.
Statistical Tables relative to Glasgow, 8vo; and Elnmnera-
tion of Scotland. 1823, 8va
Specification for Rebuilding Ramshom Church, 8vo; and
Account of Ceremonial at Laying Foundation-Stone of Fuvt
House in London-street, Glasgow. 1824, 8vo.
Historical Account of the Steam Engine. 8vo.
Historical Account of the Grammar School, GUsgow; and
Account of Ceremonial at Laying Foundation-Stone of John
Knox*s Monument, Glasgow. 1825.
Specification for Rebuilding St Enoch's Chuirb, Sro, and
Poor Rates of Glasgow. 1827, 8to.
Maintenance of the Poor, 8vo.
Account of Cattle Show at Glasgow, 8vo.
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CLEPHANE.
651
CLEPHANE.
Statistical and Popnlataon Tables relative to Glasgow, 8vo.
Enumeration of the Inhabitants of Glasgow. 1828, 8vo.
Abridgment of Annals, second edition. 1829, 8to.
Ennmeration of Glasgow and Lanarkshire, folio, small,
1831 ; a second edition of the same appeared in folio, large,
In 1832.
Ceremonial at Laying Foundation-Stone of Broomielaw
Bridge. 1882, 8to.
Historical Account of Weights and Measures for Lanark-
shirs. 1833, 8vo.
Statistics relatiTe to Glasgow. 1884, 8vo. (Read before
the British Association at Edinburgh).
On Parochial Begistiy of Scotland. 1834, 8to.
Glasgow Bridewell or House of Correction. 1835, 8vo.
(Read before the British Association at Dublin).
A Few Statistical Facts relative to Glasgow. 1836, 8vo.
(Read before the British Association at Bristol).
The articles Glasgow and Butherglen for the New Statisti-
csl Account of Scotland, 1838 ; the article Glasgow in the
seventh edition of the Encvdopssdia Britannica.
On the Former and Present SUte of Glasgow. 1840.
(Read before the British Association at Glasgow).
An Historical Account of the Bills of Mortolitj and Proba-
bility of Human life in Glasgow, and other Large Towns.
1840, 8vo.
Dr. Cleland also wrote the article Glasgow for Brewster's
Encyclopsdia, and likewise a description of that city for the
Edinburgh Gazetteer.
Clephame, a surname belonging to a family of great anti-
quity which, in very eariy times, possessed lands in the coun-
ties bdth of fife and Berwick. The immediate ancestor of
the family was Alanus de Clephane in the reign of King Wil-
liam the Lion. He was sheriff of Lauderdale, and is witness
m a donation to the monastery of Kelso by Roland lord of
Galloway ; also, in a donation to the monasteiy of Newbottle,
by the said Roland. In another donation to the monasteiy
of Kelso he is designed " Alanus de Clephane, vicecom. de
Lawdyr,** &c, &c., anno 1203. He died in the end of 'the
reign of William the lion. His son and successor, Walterus
de Clephane, is mentioned in a donation without a date to
the monasteiy of Newbottle by Thomas of Galloway, fifth
earl of Athol, who died in 1234. This Walter is supposed,
in the reign of William the Lion, to have married the daugh-
ter and heiress of William de Carslogie, son of Richard de
Carslc^'e, in Fife, and with her got the lands and barony of
Carslogie, which became the chief title of the family. He
died in the reign of King Alexander the Second. His son,
David de Clephane, succeeded to the estate of Carslogie, and
died in the reign of Alexander the Third. He had three sons,
J&hn his heir, Marcus de Clapan, mileSy who was witness to
several charters by dominus Alexander de Abemethy of Aber-
nethy. In the Ragman Roll occurs the name of Marcus de
Clypan, as having sworn fealty to Edward the First, dth
August 1296, at Arbroath. This appears to have been the
same Marcus. William, the thurd son, was also forced to
submit to King Edward the First. The eldest son, John, got
a charter from Dimcan, earl of Fife, (supposed to have been
Duncan the twelfth earl), of the lands of Carslogie, which bears
him to possess them " adeo libere sicut David de Clephan pater
ejus et prsBdeoessores eas tenuerant** As was usual with such
documents in those days, this charter is without a date, but
from the witnesses to it, ** dominis Alexandro de Abemethy,
Mlchaele et David de Wemyss, Hugone de Lochor, Johanne
de Ramsay, Wilfielmo de Ramsay, et Henrico de Ramsay,
eum multifl aliis,*' i( appears to have been granted in the be-
ginning of the reign of Robert the First He had two sons, Alan
his heir, and John de Clephane, who was killed near Norharo
in England, fighting against the enemies of his country, in
1327. His elder son, Alan Clephane of Carslogie, fought
with Bruce on the field of Bannockbum, where he is said to
have lost his right hand, and had one of steel made in its
stead and so fitted with springs as to enable him to wield his
sword. He is mentionea m the ehartularies of Dunferm-
line and Balmerino in 1331, and by Sir Robert Sibbald
in 1332.
His descendant m the fourth degree, John Clephane of
Carslogie, lost by apprisings, &c., the bulk of the family estate
in Lauderdale, which had been about three centuries in their
possession. This appears by a charter under the great seal
from King James the Fif^ dated 2d September 1516.
Alexandro Tarvet de eodem, quadraginta mercatas texramm
de Quhelplaw in balivat de Lauderdale, infra vice-comitat. de
Berwick, qusB appretiaUs fuerunt a Johanne Cltphane de
Carslogie, &c. By his wife, a daughter of Sir John Wemyss
of that ilk, he had a son, George Clephane of Carslogie, who
married Christian, daughter of Learmont of Dairsie, by whom
he had two sons and two daughters. James, the elder, car-
ried on the line of succession. William, the younger, was
progenitor of James Clephane, Esq., who went early into the
service of the estates of Holland, where he rose to the rank
of migor. He subsequently entered the British service, and
in 1757, as major to Colonel Erasers regiment, he was at the
nege of Louisburg, ana serveo with grei^ reputation in all
the campaigns in America till the expulsion of tne French
from Canada in 1760. He died in 1768. His brother. Dr.
John Clephane, was physidan to the British army, and died
in 1768.
The last of the eldest branch of the family, Migor-general
William Maclean Douglas Clephane, who died in 1804, was
the twenty-first laird, in the direct male line, without the
intervention of a female or the suceession of a younger branch.
He sold the remaining portion of the barony, and it is a sin-
gular coincidence that when the property went entirely from
the family, the eldest male line became extinct The general
married the daughter of Mr. Maclean of Torloisk, Mull, and
after his death Sir Walter Scott was chosen by his daughters
to be their guardian. His eldest daughter married, in 1815, the
second marquis of Northampton. Her ladyship died in 1830.
The Clephanes are said to have been an exceeding tall, strong
race of men, and General Clephane was far above the usual
height His brother, Andrew Clephane, Esq., Advocate,
sheriff of the county of Fife, who died in 1838, though not so
tall, exhibited in his person evident marks of the family
characteristic in this respect The old house of Carslogie, for
oentunes the residence of the Clephanes, became the property
of the Rev. Mr. Laing, an Engli^ clergyman.
According to tradition, in anaeiic times, when private
feuds were common among the Scottish barons, the lords of
Carslogie entered into a league of mutual defence with the
proprietors of Scotstarvet, whose residence, Scotstarvet tower,
is situated on a lower ndge or shoulder of Tarvet bill, about
two miles to the south. The tower of Carslogie being situ-
ated in a hollow, might have been approached by an enemy
without his being observed until veiy near it, but as the more
commanding situation of Scotstarvet enabled the warden on
the battlements to see to a greater distance, he, on occasions
of danger, instantly sounded his horn, which was replied to
by the warden from Carslogie, and the vassals were imme-
diately in arms for the defence of the castle. Mr. Leighton
in his History of Fife, oelieves. on good grounds, that thiit
league was not with the Scotts of Scotstarvet, wbo only ac~
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CLERIC
652
CLERK.
quired poesession of that estate in the seventeenth century,
bnt with the previous propnetors of Upper Tarvet, a farail/
of the name of Inglis. The horn of Candogie, with which
the call to battle was sounded, has been rendered famous bj
Su: Walter Soott, and is said to be still preserved by the re-
presenUtives of the family of Clephane. Besides the hom,
the steel hand already mentioned, which was alao commemo-
rated by Sir Walter Soott, was long in possession of the
family. One tradition is that this steel hand was a present
from an ancient king of Scotland to a baron of Cantlogie, who
had lost his hand in battle, in defence of his country. It
does not seem, however, to be agreed what king this was, or
which of the long line of barons of Carslogie received the
royal gift The more popular aoouunt has it that the hand,
as above stated, was lost at Bannockbum, and that the gift
was made by Robert the Bruce to Alan de Clephane, bnt
others, bringing the story down to a later period, say, that
it was presented to the great grandfather of the late Gene-
ral Clephane, the last direct male heir of the Clephanes
of Carslogie. This famous steel hand is said to be still pos-
sessed either by the representatives of the family or by the
third marquis of Northampton, General Madean-Douglas-
Clephane*s grandson.
Clbrk, a surname, as ahvady statnl, derived from the
word CZerteitf, the designation given m the dark ages to
those of the clergy and the few other persons who acquired
the arts of reading and writing, for the purpose of being abl^
to transcribe the orders of the sovereign, the sentences of
courts, and the acts of the legislature; kings and nobles, in
those remote times, confining their attention almost exclu-
sively to martial exercises and deeds of arms. Blackstone ob-
serves ** that the Judges were usually created out of the sacred
order; and all the inferior offices were supplied by the lower
^<^rg7i which has occasioned their successors to be denomi-
nated clerkt to this day.** — Canun. i. 17. ** Adam the clerk,
son of Philip the scribe, occurs as the designation of a person
mentioned in an ancient record at Newcastle." [^Jjower an
EnffiUh SumametJ] The name of Clenous was assumed
both by those who held such offices, and by their descendants.
Claik and Clarke, the English method of spelling it, are but
variations of the same name. Though the spelling may be
different, the pronunciation is invariably Clark.
The family from which the Clerks of Pennycuik are de-
scended can be traced as far back as the year 1180, and the
reign of William the lion.
In the charter of a donation by King William to the
Abbacy of Holyrood-house, Hugo Clericus regis, Hugo Cleri-
cus cancellarii, Johannes Clericus, and several others, append
their names as witnesses.
The witnesses to such deeds were always of high rank, and,
from different sources it appears that, in early times, there
were many Scottish barons, and proprietors of estates, of this
name.
In 1296 Richard Clerk, a considerable freeholder, was com-
pelled to submit to Edward the First of England, afler his
invasion of Scotland; while another baron of the same name,
a strenuous defender of the liberties of his country, scorning
to comply with the demands oi the usurper, was carried pri-
soner to London.
William Clerk, descended from a branch of this family
settled in Perthshire. He was an eminent merchant and
patriot, and attended David the Second in his unfortunate
expedition into England, in 1846. He was taken prisoner at
the battle of Neville's Cross, near Durham, on the 17th
October of that year carried to London and retained m cap-
tivity there, until liberated, along with his jovereagn, elereo
years afterwards.
John Clerk, merchant- burgees and chief magistnite of
Montrose, became one of the hostages for the ransom of King
David, in 1357
His family continued in the direcfaon of the affiurs of that
ancient burgh for several centuries, the provost of Montrose,
as appears from the books of ooundQ, being of his name and
descent down to the reign of Queen Maxy.
The grandfather of the first proprietor of Pennycuik, of the
name of Clerk, was possessor of the lands of fjllrantly, ih
Badenoch, Inverness-shire, but having attached himself to
the party of Mary, queen of Scots, in opposition to his Supe-
rior, the earl of Huntly, he was obliged to leave that part oi
the country in 1568.
His son, William, a merchant in Montrose, died in 1*»?0.
A son or brother, Richard Clerk, vice-admiral of the fleet,
who served under Gustavus Adolphus, gifted a large bmp oi
ehandeUer to the parish church of Montrose.
John Clerk, William's son, bom at Montrose in 1611, was
also bred a merchant He removed to France in 1684, and
settled in Paris, in 1647 be returned to Scotland, with a
considerable fortune, and purchased the lands of Pennycuik
(Gaelic, Bern na Cuackaig, the *Hill of the Cuckoo,*) Mid
Lothian, which have ever since remained in possession of his
descendants. He married a daughter of Sir William Gray
of Pittendrum, ancestor of Lord Gray, by whom he had five
sons and five daughters.
He was succeeded in 1674 oy his son John, who was cre-
ated the first baronet of Pennycmk, by a royal patent fnnn
Charles the Second, dated 24th March 1679. In 1700 he
acquired the lands of Lasswade, in the same county. He
died m 1722. He was twice married, first, to Elizabeth
daughter of Henry Henderson, Esq. of Elvington, by whom
he had three sons and three daughters, and secondly to
Christian, daughter of the Rev. James Kurkpatrick, and had
four other sons and four daughters Of his eldest son, John,
second baronet, a notice follows.
Sir James Clerk, the third barooet, son of the second, mar-
ried Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. John Cleghom, but dying
in 1782 without issue, was sucoeeded by his brother Sir
George Clerk-MaxweU. fourth baronet, of whom also a notice
is subsequently given. He married Dorothea, daughter of his
unde William Clerk-Maxwell, Esq., by his wife Agnes Max-
well, heiress of Middleby in Dumfnes-shire, and had five sons
and four daughters. He died in 1784, and was succeeded by
his eldest son, Sir John Cleric, who died in 1798. He mar
ried Mary, daughter of Mr. Dacre of Kirklington in Cumber •
land, but had no issue.
His nephew, the Right Hon. Sir George Clerk, sixth baro-
net, succeeded. He was the son of James Clerk, third son
of the fourth baronet, by Janet, daughter of George Irving.
Esq. of Newton. He was bom in 1787, and married in 1810,
the daughter of Ewan Law, Esq., and nieoe of the first Laid
Elleuborough. He was a lord of the admiralty from 1819 to
1880, except for a short interval ; secretary of the treasury
from November 1884 to April 1885, and again from Septem-
ber 1841 to February 1815. In the Utter year he was sworn
a member of the privy coundL He became master of the
imnt, and vice-president of the board of trade in Febraaiy
1845, and continued so till July 1846. He represented the
county of Edinbui^h in several parliaments previous to 1832,
but had no seat from that time till 1835, when he was again
returned for that county. He sat for Stamford from 1838 to
1847, when he was elected for Dover. He is a depu^ lien-
tenant of the county of Edinburgh*
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CLERK,
653
SIR JOHN.
On 'be mtry of Charles the First into Edinburgh, I5th
June, 1683, Sir Alexanaer ClerK. lord provost, was bj bis
majesty dabbed a might m honour of the occasion. A de-
scendant of his, Mr. Rooert ClerK, wno oiea m 1810, was for
many years a bookseller ana publisher m the Parliament
Square, Edinburgh, an account of whom is given m the
second volume of Rfty*s Edinburgh Portraits, page 29.
The Clerks of Brae-Letham were free barons, and had con-
siderable possessions in Argyleshire, as far back as the reign
of James the Second. There were also several families of
this name in the connty of Fife, who had large possessions,
such as the Clerks of BalUimie, of Pittzoucher, and of
Luthrie, &c. The clan Chattan and some other Highland
families also claim a connection with the Clerks as descended
from them.
The family of Listonshiels m Mid Lotman was a branch of
the Pennycnik family. Robert Clerk, bom in 1664, a physi-
cian in Edinburgh, and an intimate friend of the ce.eorated
Dr. Pitcaim, was the fifth and youngest son of John Clerk,
the first proprietor of Pennycnik. His eldest son John, bom
in 1689, also studied medicine, and for above thirty years
was the first physician in Scotland. At the institution of
the Philosophical Society in. Edinburgh m 1739, he was
chosen one of their two vice-presidents, an office which he en-
joyed as long as he lived. In 1740 he was elected president
of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh, and continued
president for four years. He purchased the lands of Liston-
shiels and Spittal in Mid Lothian, and got a charter under
the great seaL He died in 1757. He had married in 1720,
Margaret, eldest daughter of Thomas Rattray, Esq. of Craig-
hall Rattray in Perthshire, by whom he had several children.
Robert, the second son, was a colonel in the army. David,
the third, was physician to the Royal Infirmary in Edin-
burgh. He died in 1768. By his wife Helen, daughter of
James DuS^ Esq. of Craigston, Aberdeenshire, he had two
sons, James and Robert James Clerk, the eldest son, be-
came, in right of his grandmother, proprietor of Craighall
Rattray, and assumed the sumame of Rattray in addition to
his own. He distinguished himself at the Scottish bar as an
advocate, and was constituted a baron of the Exchequer in
Scotland. He married in January 1791, Jane, daughter of
Admiral Duff of Fetteresso, and dying 29th August 1831,
left, with one daughter, Jane, a son and successor, Robert
Cierk-Rattray, Esq. of Craighall Rattray. [See Rattray,
surname of.]
CLERK, Sir John, second baronet of "Penny-
cnik, author of the hnmoroas Scotch song, *0
merry may the maid be that marries the Miller,*
(with the exception of the first stanza, which be-
longs to an older song,) and one of the barons of
exchequer in Scotland for nearly half a century,
was the son of the first baronet, by his first wife,
Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Henderson, Esq. of
Elvington, and was bom about 1684. He was
one of the commissioners for the Union, and was
appointed a baron on the constitution of the ex-
chequer court 18th May 1708. He succeeded his
, father in his title and estates in 1722. He pos-
I sessed great learning and accomplishments, and
I was generally acknowledged to be one of the most
enlightened men of his time. Along with Baron
Scrope, in 1726, he drew up an * Historical View
of the Forms and Powers of the Court of Exche-
quer in Scotland,' which was printed at the ex-
pense of the barons of Exchequer for private cir-
culation : Edinburgh 1820, large quarto. Besides
two papers in the * Philosophical Transactions,'
(one an * Account of the Stylus of the Ancients and
their different soi-ts of Paper,' printed in 1731,
and the other *0n the effects of Thunder on
Trees,' and ' Of a large Deer's Horns found in
the heart of an Oak,' printed in 1739,) he was the
author of a tract entitled *• Dissertatio de quibusdam
Monnmentis Romanis,' &c., written in 1780 and
printed in 1750, quarto. For upwards of twenty
years he also carried on a learned correspondence
with Roger Gale, the English antiquary, which
forms a portion of the 'Reliquiae Galeanas,' in
Nichols' 'Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica,'
1782.
Sir John Clerk was one of the friends and pa-
trons of Allan Ramsay. He '' admired his genius
and knew his worth." During his latter years
much of the poet's time was spent at Pennycnik-
house, and at his death, Sir John erected at his
family seat an obelisk to Ramsay's memory.
To Sir John Clerk are ascribed some amatory
lines sent to Susanna, daughter of Sir Archibald
Kennedy of Culzean, baronet (ancestor of the
marquis of Ailsa) whom he courted unsuccessfully,
as she became the third wife of Alexander, ninth
earl of Eglinton. They were thus entitled: —
'' Verses sent anonymously, with a flute, to Miss
Susanna Kennedy, afterwards Countess of Eglin-
toune, by Sir John Clerk of Pennycook, Baronet."
On attempting to blow the fiute it would not
sound, and, on unscrewing it, the lady found the
following : —
" Harmonious pipe, how I envye thy bliss.
When pressed to Sylphia*s lips with gentle kiss I
And when her tender fingers romid thee move
In soft embrace, I listen and approve
Those melting notes, which soothe my sonl to lore.
Embalm*d with odours from her breath that flow,
Yon yield your music when she's pleased to blow;
And thus at once the charming lovely fair
Delights with sounds, with sweets perfumes the air.
Co happy pipe, and ever mindful be
To court the charming Sylphia for me;
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CLERK,
654
JOHN.
Teil all I feel-^jou cannot toQ too iMich —
Repeat my love at each soft melting touch ;
Since I to her mj liberty resign.
Take then the care to tone her heart to mine."
It was to this ladj that Allan Ramsay, in 1726,
dedicated his * Gentle Shepherd.'
Sir John Clerk held the office of one of the
barons of exchequer till his death, which took
place at Pennyctiik on the 4tli of October 1766.
He was twice married ; first, February 23, 1701,
to Lady Margaret Stewai't, eldest daughter of
Alexander, third earl of Galloway. She died De-
cember 26th, the same year, in childbed of a son,
John, who died unmarried in 1722. On the death
of this young man Allan Ramsay addressed some
elegiac verses to his father, Sir John, which are
preserved in his works. He married, secondly,
Janet, daughter of Sir Jolm Inglis, of Cramond,
by whom he had seven sons and six daughters.
CLERK-MAXWELL, Sir George, of Pen-
nycnik, baronet, distinguished for his spirited
efforts to advance the commercial interests of
his native country, second son of the pre-
ceding, was bom at Edinburgh in October 1716,
and studied at the universities of Ekiinburgh and
Leyden. He established, at considerable expense,
a linen manufactory at Dumfries, and set on foot
many different projects for working lead and cop-
per mines. In 1766 he addressed two letters to
the trustees for fisheries, manufactories, and im-
provements in Scotland, containing observations
on the common mode of treating wool in this
country, and suggesting a more judicious scheme
of management. These were published by direc-
tion of that board in 1766. He likewise wrote a
paper on the advantages of shallow ploughing,
which was read to the Philosophical Society, and
is published in the third volume of their Essays.
In 1761 he was appointed king's remembrancer in
the exchequer, and, in 1763, commissioner of the
customs in Scotland. He was likewise a trustee
for the Improvement of the fisheries and manufac-
tures of Scotland. In 1782 he succeeded his elder
brother, Sir James Clerk, in the baronetcy. As
already stated, on marrying his cousin, he assumed
his wife's name of Maxwell, in addition to his
own. He died in January 1784.
CLERK, John, of Eldin, inventor of the mo-
dem Brititth system of naval tactics, was the sixth
son of Sir John Clerk of Pennycuik, baronet,
and a youngei- brother of the pi*eceding. In early
life he inherited from his father the estate of El-
din, in the county of Edinburgh, and married Su-
sannah Adam, the sister of the two celebrated
architects of that name. Although the longest
sail he ever enjoyed was no farther than to the
island of Arran, in the frith of Clyde, he had fror.
his boyhood a strong passion for nautical affairs,
and devoted much of his attention to the theory
and practice of naval tactics. In 1779 he com-
municated to some of his fi'iends his new system
of breaking the enemy's line. In 1780 he visited
London, and had some conferences with men con-
nected with the navy, among whom have been
mentioned Mr. Richard Atkinson, the particular
friend of Sir (Jeorge, afterwards Lord, Rodney,
and Sir Charles Douglas. The latter was Rod-
ney's ** captain of the fleet,*^ in the memorable
action of April 12, 1782, when the experiment
was tried foi the first time, and Rodney gained a
decisive victory over the French, under De Grasse,
between Dominica and Les Saintes, in the West
Indies. Since that time the principle has been
adopted by all the British admirals, and Howe,
St. Vincent, Duncan, and Nelson, owe to Clerk's
manoeuvre their most signal victories. In the be-
ginning of 1782, Mr. Clerk, who was a Fellow of
the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, and also ol
the Royal Society of Edinburgh, piinted fifty co-
pies of his * Essay on Naval Tactics,' which were
privately distributed amoug his friends. This va-
luable essay was reprinted and published in 1790;
the second, thirds and fourth parts were added in
1797, and the work was republished entire in
1804, with a preface explaining the origin of his
discoveries. Although Lord Rodney, as appears
by a fragmentary life of Clerk, written by Profes-
sor Play fair, published in the Transactions of the
Royal Society of Edinbm-gh, never concealed in
conversation his obligations to Mr. Clerk as the
author of the system, yet the faipily of that dis-
tinguished admiral, in his memoirs, maintain that
no communication of Mr. Clerk's plan was ever
made to their relative. Sir Howard Douglas, too,
has come forward in various publications to claim
the merit of the manoeuvre for his father, the late
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CLERK.
655
COCHRAN.
Admiral Sir Cbarles Douglas. The honoar of the
suggestion, however, appears to rest indispatably
with Mr. Clerk, who died May 10, 1812, at aa
advanced age.
CLEBEL, John, Lokd Eldin, a distingnished
lawyer, the son of the preceding, was bora ia
April 1757, and in 1775 was bound appmtfce to
a writer to the signet. His origfaMi destination
had been the civil service ht India, and an ap-
pointment in that department had been promised
him ; but, some political changes occurring before
it was completed, the views of his friends were
disappohrted, and he turned his attention to the
law. At firat he intended to practise as a writer
and accountant; but he soon abandoned, that
branch of the profession, and in 1785 was ad-
mitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates.
As a lawyer, Mr. Clerk was remarkable for great
clearness of perception, never -failing readiness
and fertility of resource, admirable powers of rea-
soning, and a quaint sarcastic humour that gave a
zest and flavour to all he uttered. For many
years he had the largest practice at the Scottish
bar. In private life he was distinguished for bis
social qualities, his varied accomplishments, his
exquisite taste in the fine arts, and his eccentric
manners. He had a large collection of paintings,
and at one period he published a volume of etch-
ings by himself^ He was raised to the bench in
1823, when he assumed the title of Lord Eldin,
and died at Edinburgh in June 1832, aged 74.
Clunib, a samame derived from the parish of that name
in the district of Stonnont, Perthshune. It is the modern or-
tliogi-aphy of the old Celtic word Ckimne^ which signifies " a
green pasture between woods.**
CLUNIE, the Rev. John, author of the well-
known Scots song, * I lo'e na a laddie but ane,^
was bom about 1757. He was educated for the
Church of Scotland, and after being licensed to
preach the gospel, he became schoolmaster at
Markinch in Fife, and having an excellent voice,
he also acted as precentor. He was afterwards,
about 1790, ordained minister of the parish of
Borthwick, in Mid Lothian. Burns, in one of his
letters to Mr. Thomson, dated in September 1794,
thus celebrates him for his vocal skill: ^*I am
flattered at your adopting ' Ca* the yowes to the
knowes,* as it was owing to me that it saw the
light. About seven yeai*3 ago I was well ac-
quainted with a worthy littte UHism of a clergy-
man, a Mr. Chmie, who wmg it charmingly, and
at my i-equest Ifer. Clarke (Stephen Clarke the
composer) took it down from his singing. Mr.
Ctmie died at Greenend, near Edinburgh, 13tli
April, 1819.
Clyde, Baron of the United Kingdom, a title conferred in
1858 on General Sir Colin Campbell. See Supplbmbnt.
Cltdrsdalb, marquis of, a title of the duke of Hamilton ,
see Hamilton) duke of.
Clydesdale is also a surname. Mr. George Clydesdale,
minister of the parish of Giassford, Lanarkshire, died in tlie
month of Januaxy 1627. In the Inventoiy of the effects of
George Cleland of Glenhoof, Monkland, who " deoeist in the
moneth of Marche, 1647,** it is stated that being an aged
man living in company and household with his son, he ** had
no guds nor geir, at the time of his deoeis, except allanerlie
the sowme of ffourtie punds Sootts money of jeirlie yauti
maill, awand to him be Richard Cliddisdaill and George Neil-
sone, weii&ris (weavers), for the maill of twa jairds in Dry-
gait, Gksgow.**
CocnBAN. or Cochrane, an ancient samame in Sootland,
derived from the barony of Cochrane, in the county of Ren-
frew, and the family name of the earls of Dundonald. In
the reign of Alexander the Third, Waldenus de Coveran or
Cochran, was a witness to the charter given by Dnngal (Duff-
Gallus,) the son of Swayne, to Walter Camming, eari of
Monteitb, of the lands of Sklpness and others in Cantyre, in
the year 1262. WilKam de Cochran was one of the Scots
barons who swore fealty to Edward the First of EngUnd in
1296.
In the reign of David the Second lived Gosiline de Coch-
ran, father of William Cochran of that ilk, and from him was
lineally descended William Cochran of that ilk, who obtamed
a charter of confirmation irom Queen Mary, of the lands of
Cochran in 1576, and having erected the ancient seat of Coch-
rane, he ornamented it with extensive plantations. July 3,
1584, he was with John Whiteford of that ilk, and seven
others, "delated** of art and psrt of the cruel slaughter ot
Patrick Maxwell of Stanley, committed in the previous Jan-
uary ; but the laird of Whiteford was the only one put upon
trisJ, and he was acquitted of the charge. By his wife Mar-
garet, daughter of Sir Robert Montgomery of Skelmorly, in
the county of Ayr, William Cochrane of Cochrane had a
daughter, Elizabeth, his sole heiress, and in 1593, he made a
settlement of his estate in her favour. She married Alexan-
der Blair, a younger son of John Blair of Blair, in Ayishin},
when, in terms of her father's settlement, the latter assnmed
the name of Cochrane. Of this nurriage there were seven
sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Sir John Coch-
rane, was a colonel in the army of Charles the First, by whom
he wss sent to solicit the assistance of foreign princes, and
was afterwards despatched by Charies the Second on an em-
bassy into PoUnd in 1660. He died, without issue, before
the Restoration, and was succeeded by his brother. Sir Wil-
liam Cochrane of Cowdon, knight, a distingnished loya'list,
created, in December 1647, Lord Cochrane of Ochiltree, and in
May 1669, earl of Dimdonald. [See Dundonald, earl of.]
COCHRAN, Robert, an eminent architect ot
the fifteenth centuiy, was born in Scotland, and
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COCHRAN.
656
WILLIAM
educated at Padua in Italy, where he spent sev-
eral yeara in the study of the fine arts, particularly
architecture. On his return he was employed by
James the Third to erect several noble structures.
He first became known to that monarch by his
conduct in a duel, and he was afterwards his prin-
cipal adviser. The king, forsaking his nobility,
made architects and musicians his principal com-
panions. These the haughty barons of Scotland
termed masons and fiddlers. Cochran, Rogers, a
musician, Leonard, a smith, Hommel, a tailor,
and Torphichen, a fencing master, were his coun-
selloi's and familiars. James created Cochran
earl of Mar, the title borne by the king's own
brother, whom, at the suggestion of his unworthy
favourites, he had caused to be put to death. All
the petitions to the king had to pass through
Cochran's hands, and as he received bribes to give
his countenance and support he soon amassed
great wealth. He caused the silver coin of the
realm to be mixed with brass and lead, thereby
decreasing its real value, while a proclamation
was issued that the people were to take it at the
same rat^ as if it were composed of pure silver.
The people refused to sell their corn and other
commodities for this debased coin, which intro-
duced great distress, confusion, and scarcity.
Some one told Cochran that this money should be
called in, and good coin issued in its stead; but he
was so confident of the currency of the Cochran
placks, as they were called, that he said, — ** The
day I am hanged they may be called in; not
sooner." This speech, which he made in jest, be-
came, in no long time thereafter, sad reality.
While the king with an army of fifty thousand
men lay encamped in the neighbourhood of
Lauder, many of the nobility, determined to get
rid of the king's favourites, held a secret coun-
cil in the church of Lauder for the pui*pose,
and when thus engaged a loud knocking was
heard at the door. This was Cochran himself,
attended by a guard of three hundred men, all
gaily dressed in his livery of white, with black
facings, and armed with partisans. He himself
was attired in a riding suit of black velvet, and
had round his neck a fine chain of gold, whilst a
buglehom, tipped and mounted with gold, hung
by his side. Havings: learnt that there was some
consultation holding among the nobility, be came
to ascertain its object. Sir Robert Douglas, of
Lochleven, who had the charge of the door, when
he heard the knocking, demanded who was there.
Cochran answered, " The earl of Mar," on which
he was allowed to enter, when Archibald, earl of
Angus, met him, and rudely palled the gold chain
from his neck, saying, '* a halter would better be-
come him." Sir Robert Douglas, at the same
time, snatched away his buglehom, saying, '*Thou
hast been a hunter of mischief too long." "Is
this jest or earnest, my lords?" said Cochran, as-
tonished rather than alarmed at thb mde recep-
tion. " It is sad earnest," said they, " and that
thou and thy accomplices shall feel ; for you have
abased the king's favour towards you, and now
you shall have your reward according to your de-
serts." Cochran, who was naturally a man of
great courage, offered no resistance, and a party
of the nobility having gone to the king's pavilion,
they seized in his presence Leonard, Hommel,
Torphichen, and the rest, with Preston, one of the
only two gentlemen amongst King James' min-
ions, and condemned them to instant death, as
having misled the king and misgoverned the king-
dom. Cochran vainly requested that his bands
might not be tied with a hempen rope, but with a
silk cord, at the same time offering to furnish it from
the cords of his pavilion, which, with the pavilion
itself, were of silk instead of the ordinary materials
He was told he was but a false knave, and should
die with all manner of shame, and his enemies
were at pains to procure a hair-tether or halter, as
still more ignominious than a rope of hemp. W^ith
this they hanged Cochran over the centre of the
bridge of Lauder, long since demolished, in the
middle of his companions, who were suspended on
each side of him. This took place in July 1484.
COCHRAN, William, an artist of considera^
ble reputation in his time, was bom at Strathaven
in Lanarkshire, December 12, 1738. At the age
of 28 he went to Italy, and studied at Rome under
his countryman, Gavin Hamilton. On his return
he settled as a portmt painter in Glasgow, whei-fe
he soon realized a respectable independence. Be-
sides portraits, he painted occasionally historical
pieces, two of which, * Daedalus' and ^Endymion,'
rank high in the opinion of connoisseurs. He
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COCHRANE,
667
COCKBURN.
died at Glasgow, October 23, 1786, and lies buried
in the catliedral there.
COCHRANE, Akchibald, ninth earl of Dun-
donald, a nobleman distinguished for scientific
attainments. See Dundonald, earl of.
COCHRANE, Sir Alexander Forrester
Inqlis, a distinguished naval officer. See Dun-
donald, earl oT.
COCHRANE, Captain John Dundas, R.N.,
an eccentric traveller. See Dundonald, eail of.
COCHRANE, Thomas, tenth eail of Dun-
donald, known better as Lord Cochrane, a distin-
guished naval officer, in various services. See
Dundonald, eai'l of.
CocKBUKNt a surname of old standing in Scotland, sup-
posed to be a corruption of Colbrand. In tfao Ragman Roll
of those who swore fealty to Edward I. in 1296, occur the
names of Piers de Cockbam and Thomas de Gockbuni, great
ancestors of the Cockbums of Langton, Ormiston, and Clerk-
ington, very ancient vassals of the earls of March, from whom
all the Cockbums in Scotland are dencended.
The principal family of the name are the Cockbums of
Langton. Their immediate ancestor. Sir Alexander de Cock-
bum, obtained the barony of Carriden, in IJnlithgowshire,
from Dayid the Second in 1358, which barony had been for-
feited to the crown, by what in the law of Scotland is deno-
minated recognition, or a vaasal disponing of his property
without the consent of his superior. This Sir Alexander de
Cockbum was twice married, first to Maiy, daughter of Sh*
William de Veteriponte, or Vipont, proprietor of Langton in
Berwickshire, who fell a^ Bannockbum in 1814, and in her
right he obtained the lands and barony of Langton; and,
secondly, to Margaret, daughter and h^i^M of Sur John
Monfode of Braidwood in Lanarkshire. By his first wife he
had two sons, Sir Alexander de Cockbum, knight, keeper of
the great seal between 1889 and 1896, and created by Robert
the Second hereditary ostiariua parliamenHy an office annexed
to the barony of Langton, by charter of James the Fourth,
February 20, 1504. John, the second son, married Jean,
daughter and heiress of John Lindsay of Ormiston in East
Lothian, and from him descended the Cockbums of Ormis-
ton, of whom afterwards. This John Cockbum of Ormiston,
or his son, was constable of Haddington, an office hereditary
for a long time in the family. By his second wife. Sir Alex-
iuider Cockbum, the father, had Edward, ancestor of the
Cockbums of Skirling, long since extinct In March 1567
Sir William Cockbum of Skirling was appointed by Queen
Mary keeper of the castle of Edinburgh, an oMoe which he
retained till the following April, when he was succeeded by
Sir James Balfour of Pittendriech. In 1568 Sir John Cock-
oura of Skirling was one of the commissioners to England for
Mary queen of Scots.
From Sir Alexander the son, descended Sir William Cock-
bum of Langton, knight, who in 1595 obtained a grant of
the lands and barony of Langton, with the office of principal
usher, and its fees and casualties, to himself and his heirs
male whatsoever, bearing the arms and sumame of Cockbum.
He married Helen, daughter of Alexander fourth Lord £1-
phmstone, and was succeeded by his son, William Cockbum,
who was created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1627. In 1641
he was commissioner to the Scots parliament for Berwick-
shire, and on 13th Auguat of that year he presented a peti-
tion to the house ooncemmg the office of great usher, mlier-
ited from his ancestors, against John earl of Wigton, who bad
assumed the office ; when a committee was appointed to con-
sider the complaint and report. On the 17th of the same
month, while the question was still in dependence, on his
migesty, Charles the First's entry into the house. Sir Wil-
liam, with a baton in his hand, " too rashly,** as Baillie iu
his Letters says, went before his majesty as principal usher,
and " offered to make civil intermption for maintenance of
his right against the earl of Wigton." [Balfowr'a AtmaU^
vol. iii. p. 140.] The king, offended at his presumption, im-
mediately signed a warrant for his committal to the castle of
Edinburgh as a prisoner. The same day, the house inter-
ceded with his ms^esty on his behalf, and after much entreaty
the king altered the warrant to confinement in his own cham-
ber till next day. On the 18th, bis majesty declared in par-
liament that when he signed the warrant he did not know
that Sir William was a member of the house, and he there
promised for himself, his heirs and successors, not to oomn 't
any member of parliament during session, without the advice
and consent of the house, and ordained that declaration and
promise to be recorded in the books of parliament. The con-
duct of Sir William in this matter thus led to the recognition
of a great constitutional privilege. He subsequently alienated
one half of the ushership, and became joint usher with Colonel
Cunningham.
His only son. Sir Archibald Cockbum, second baronet of
Langton, was, in 1657, retumed heir to his father in the
office of principal usher, held jointly with Colonel Cunning-
ham, and also in the barony of Langton and other property.
In 1664, having purchased Cuningham*s liferent, he obtained
a new gnmt of the office, with a salary of two hundred and
fifty pounds, and other emoluments, for ever. Like the
Humes of Polwarth and Bedbraes, and the Kerrs of Nisbet,
this distinguished family was eminent for piety, and suffered
in the cause of civil and religious liberty. In 1679 they
established a meeting in one of the houses attached to Lang-
ton castle, where they had regularly preaching from Mr. Luke
Ogle, Mr. John Veitoh of Westrather, and Mr. Daniel DougUs.
Sir Archibald married Lady Mary Campbell, daughter of
the earl of Breadalbane, and died in 1705. His eldest son,
Sur Archibald Cockbum, third baronet, died without issue,
and was succeeded by his brother, Sir Alexander Cockbum,
fourth baronet, who was killed at the battle of Fontenoy.
He was succeeded by his grandson. Sir Alexander Cockbum,
fifth baronet, on whose decease the title devolved on his
oousm, Sir James, sixth baronet, member of parliament for
Peebles-shire in 1762. He married, first, the daughter of
r^ouglas of Murth, by whom he had three daughters; and,
secondly, Miss Ay^ugh, daughter of the dean of Bristol and
niece of George Lord Lyttleton, by whom he had five sons
and a daughter. He died 26th July 1804.
His eldest son. Sir James Cockbum, the seventh baronet,
and knight grand cross of Hanover, was in 1806 one of the
under secretaries of state ; in 1807 govemor and commander-
in-chief at Curacoa; and in 1811 govemor of the Bermudas.
He married in 1801 the Hon. Marianna Devereux, eldest
daughter of the thirteenth Viscount Hereford ; issue, an only
daughter, Marianna Augusta, married in 1834, to Sir James
John Hamilton, baronet, of Woodbrook, county Tyrone, Ire-
land. Sir James Cockbum died 26th Feb. 1852, and was
succeeded by his brother. Admiral Sir George Cockbum.
The estate of Langton was in 1758 sold to David Gavin,
Esq., and through his daughter, who married the first
2t
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COCKBURN.
658
OF ORMISTON.
inHrquU of Breadalbaoe, it passed into the Breadalbane
family.
The second son, the Right Hon. Sir George Cockborn,
G.G B., admiral of the fleet, and major-general of marines,
sacoeeded his brother as 8th baronet. Bom in London 22d
April 1772, be entered the navy in 1787, and served at
the battle of St. Vincent, the reduction of Martinique, and
in the expedition to the Scheldt. In 1810 he commanded at
the siege of Gadis, and in 1814 and following year his daring
achievements, on the coast of the United States, mainly con-
tributed to the termination of the war with America. In
1815 he was appointed oommander-in-chief at the Gape and
at St Helena, to whieb island he conveyed the emperor Na-
poleon. In 1818 he was created a military knight grand
cross of the Bath, and in 1827 was sworn a privy councillor.
In November 1841 he became an admiral of the red, and in
1847 rear-admiral of the United Kingdom. He was senior
lord of the admiralty from September 1841 to July 1846.
He represented Portsmouth in the parliament of 1818, and
Weobley in that of 1820, and sat for Ripon from Gctober
1841 to July 1847. He died August 19, 1853, leaving a
daughter, the wife of a naval officer.
His next brother, the Rev. William Gockbnm, dean of York,
succeeded as ninth baronet, and died April 30, 1858. He
was succeeded by his nephew. Sir Alexander James-Edmond
Gockbum, tenth baronet; knighted 1850; chief justice of the
common pleas in England 1856; a privy councillor 1857;
son of Alexander Gockbnm, 4th son of sixth baronet, minister
plenipotentiary to Golumbia, (died 1852.)
Sir Francis Gockbum, the fifth son of Sir James Gock-
Dum, the sixth baronet, was major-general in the army, and
in 1837 governor and commander-in^hief of the Bahama
islands. He was knighted by patent in 1841. He served in
Ganada, and was governor at Honduras.
The Gockburas of that ilk and Ryshind, also in Berwick-
shire, are a branch of the same faniily, then: immediate an-
cestor being Sir William Gockbum, of Langton, knight, who
fell at the battle of Flodden Field, 9th September, 1518.
By his wife, Anna Home, daughter of Lord Home, he bad
three sons, namely, Alexander, who was killed fighting by
his side at Flodden; John, and Ghristopher. John, the
elder of these two, was sacoeeded by his eldest son, Alexander
Gockbora, to whom succeeded bis eldest son, William Gock-
bnm, designed of Gockbum and Bysland. He married Mai^-
ret daughter of John Spottiswood of that ilk, in the same
county, and his only son, John Gockbum of Gockbum and Rys-
land, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1628. He married
Maxy, daughter of William Scott of Harden, Roxburghshire,
and had three sons. The eldest, Sur James, second baronet,
married Jane, daughter of Alexander Swinton of Swinton,
Berwickshire. His only son, Sir William, third baronet, was
SQCoeeded by his eldest son Sir James, fourth baronet. His
second son, William Gockbom, was physician-general to the
forces under the great duke of Marlborough. The fonrth
l)aronet died without issue, when the title devolved upon his
kinsman, Sir William Gockbum, great-grandson of Dr. Wil-
liam Gockbnm, who had been succeeded by his second son.
Dr. James Gockbum. This bitter had two sons, William
Gockbum, doctor in divinity, vicar-general and archdeacon of
Gssory in Ireland ; and James Gockbum, a colonel in the
army and quarter-master, who was father of Sir William the
fifth baronet, by Letitia little, heiress of the andcnt houses
of Rossiter and Devereux in Ireland. Sir William was a
lieutenant-general in the army. He married, Ist January
1791. Elizabeth Anne, daughter of Golonel Frederick Greut-
ser, of Manheim in Germany, an <^ioer in the royal bone-
guards, and descended, through her mother, the grand-daugh-
ter of Elizabeth Brydges, sister of the first duke of Ghandos,
from the royal house of Plantagenet. He died in March,
1835, leaving a son and a daughter. The son, Sir William
Sarsfield Rossiter Gockbnm, ^I.A., is the sixth baronet. Bj
his wife, Anne, eldest daughter of the Rev. Francis Goke of
Lower Moor, Herefordshire, he has several children. His
eldest son, Devereux Plantagenet Gockbum, was bom in
1828.
The Ormiston braach was for teveni generations distin
guished as lawyers and statesmen. On the marriage, as
already stated, in 1368, of John, second son of Sir Alexan-
der Gockbum, knight, withf the only daughter of Sir Alexan-
der Lindsay of Omiiston in Haddingtonshire, be obtained
firom his father-in-law a grant of these lands, which was con-
firmed by a diarter of King David the Second the same year.
Patrick Gockbum of Ormiston kept the castle of Dalkeith for
King James the Second against the ninth ear) of Dooglas,
then in rebellion, on account of the murder of his brother the
eighth eari. Having obtained the command of the town, be
put himself at the head of the king's troops, defeated the
rebels, though his amiy was inferior to theirs, and obliged
them to retire. In 1508, King James the Fourth granted a
charterof the lands of Ormiston, on the resignation of John Gock-
bum in favour of his son John Gockbnm younger of Ormiston,
and his spouse, Margaret Hepburn. On SOth October 1535,
Ghristopher Armstrong, Thomas Armstrong of Mangerton,
brother of the celebrated Johnny Armstrong and chief of the
clan, with several others, were denounced rebels for not under-
lying the law for art and part carrying ofi*, under silence of
night, on the preceding 27th July, seventy draught oxen and
thirty cows fcom John Gockbum of Ormiston, with three
men their keepers.
Alexander, son of Sir Alexander Gockbum, bora in 1535,
having travelled some yean for the improvement of his mind,
was cut off at the eariy age of twenty-«ight. He was a young
man of great promise, and was for some time, with two of
the sons of the laird of Longniddry, under the charge of John
Knox, who, in his History, speaks of him as possessing great
accomplishments. He was also mnch esteemed by Buchanan
who wrote two elegies on his death.
The old house of Ormiston, the seat of the Gocfcbums, is
associated with the memory of George Wishiul, the martyr.
In January 1545, after preaching at Haddington, that emi-
nent reformer w«ht on foot with Gockbum of Ormiston and
two of his friends to the house of Ormiston, where the eari of
Bothwell made him prisoner, and delivered him to Gardinal
Bethune. On March 29, 1546, James Lawson of Higfariggs
and two others, found caution to underly the law for art and
part of the assistance afibrdcd to William Gockbum of Or-
miston and the young laird of Galder in breaking their ward
from the castle of Edinburgh. In 1547, John Gockbum of
Ormiston and Grichton of Brunston, on account of their fa-
vouring the reformed doctrines, were, by the regent Arran and
his brother, Archlnshop Hamilton of St. Andrews, banished
the kingdom, and their estates forfeited. On August 8,
1548, Ormiston found caution to underiy the law.
The fimiily of Ormiston for a long series of yean oocasion-
ally held the ofiioe of lord justice-derk. The first of them
who filled that ofiioe was Sir John Gockbum of Ormiston,
who succeeded to the estate in 1583. In July 1588, he was
admitted an extraordinary k)rd of sessbn in the room of Lord
Boyd, resigned, and on the death of Sir James Bellenden he
was knighted, and appointed lord-justice-derk He was ad-
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COCKBURN,
659
JOHN.
mittod an ofyintury lord of session 15th February 1593. At
the parliament held at Perth in Jaly 1604 he was chosen one
of the commissioners to go to England to treat of a project of
nnion then in contemplation. In 1621 he voted in parlia-
ment in favour of the five articles of PertL In 1623, he re-
signed the office of lord-justice- clerk, and died in June of
that year. A curious letter is extant, quoted in the appendix
to Pitcium*s Criminal Trials, vol. iii., from the Denmyhie
MSS. in the Advocators Library, addressed by Mr. Alexander
Colville, justice-depute, to Viscount Annand, a great favour-
ite at court, dated December 20, 1622, relative to the justice-
clerkship, in which it is stated that the laird of Ormiston, the
then justice-clerk, was " so afi^cted with extreme age, blindness,
and other infirmities that he is altogether disabled either from
walking abroad, or discharging the duties,*^ and advtring that
in the appointment of his successor it should be conadered
that " young men and men of great clans are most dangerous
for that place." Sir John Cockbum married Elizabeth, eld-
est daughter of Sir John Bellenden of Auchinoul, and widow
of James Lawson of Hxmibie.
The next of the family who filled the office was Adam
Cockbum of Ormiston, a younger son of John Cockbum of
Ormiston, by his wife Margaret Hepburn. He succeeded his
brother John, as heir-male in the family estate, 28th Decem-
ber 1671. He was commissioner for the county of Hadding-
ton at the convention of estates in the years 1678, 1681, and
1689, and in the Scots parliament for 1696. He was nomi-
nated one of the commissioners to treat of the union, 19th
April 1689. On 28th November 1692, he was appointed
lord justice clerk, in place of Sir George Campbell of Cess-
oock, and about the same time was sworn a privy cotrndUor.
On 28th May 1695, he was named one of the commissioners
to inquire into the massacre of Glenco, and about this period
he seems to have become unpopular, as in his letters to Mr.
Carstairs he complains of the " lies raised against him." In
one of these, dated 23d July 1695, he particularly complains
of the earl of Argyle, who, he observes, ** reflected on the
whole commission of Glenco." On his part, Argyle, in a let-
ter addressed to Carstairs, complains bitterly of the authority
given to the lord justice clerk, ** who," he says, " with Sir
Thomas Livingstone, has powers to seize persons, hortes, and
arms, without being obliged to be accountable to the council,
make close prisoners, or otherwise as they see fit." In
Febmary 1699 he was appomted treasurer depute, or chan-
cellor of the exchequer. There seems also at this time to
hive been an intention of making him an ordinary lord of
siission, which, however, was violently opposed by Argyle,
who addressed a strong letter of remonstrance to Mr. Car-
stairs, dated 31st January 1699. On the accession of Queen
Anne, he was dismissed from all his offices. In January
1705, howiri'er, he was again appointed lord justice clerk,
and made an ordinary lord of session. In 1710 he was super-
seded in his office of justice clerk by James Erskine of
Grange, but retained his place as a lord of session till his
death, 16th April 1735, in the seventy-ninth year of his age.
He was a man of a good understanding and of great applica-
tion to business, but of a hot and overbearing temper.
Macky, in his Memoirs, (p. 224) writing of him when he was
fifty years old, describes him as ** a bigot to a fault, and
hardly in common charity with any man out of the verge of
presbytery, but otherwise a very fine gentleman in his person
and manners, just in his dealings, with good sense, and of a
sanguine complexion." Dr. Houston, however, speaks most
unfavourably of him. He says, ** Of all the (whig) party.
Lord Ormiston was the most busy, and very zealous in sup-
pressing the rebellion (of 1715), and oppressing the rebels, so
that he became universally hated in Scotland, where they
called him the curse of Scotiand; and when ladies were at
cards, playing the nine of diamonds, commonly called * the
corse of ScoUand,* they called it * the Justice Clerk.' " He
married Lady Susan Hamilton, third daughter of the fourth
earl of Haddington, and had two sons, John and Patrick.
The latter, an advocate, married in 1781 Miss Alison Ruther-
ford of Fairaalee, authoress of one of the sets to the tune of
" The Flowers of the Forest" Of his son John, tl»e last but
one of the family, and the great promoter of modem agricul-
tural improvement in East Lothian, a notice is given imme-
diately under.
Cockbum of Henderland, the famous border freebooter,
resided at the old square tower of Blackhouse, once a strong-
hold of the Douglases on Douglas bum in Selkirkshire, cele-
brated in song, and his tombstone is still pointed out in that
locality. With Adam Scott of Tushielaw, he was hanged on
the 27th July 1529, by order of King James the Fifth, during
that monarch's progress for the suppression of disorders on
the borders.
A distinguished person of this Uame was Sir Richard Cock-
bum of Clerkington, lord privy seal in the reign of James
the Sixth. He was the son of Sir John Olickhura by Helen,
daughter of Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, and on 22d ,
April 1591, was appointed secretary of state, on the resgna-
kion of his uncle, Sir John Maitland. On November 11th
the same year he was admitted a lord of Session. He was
afterwards knighted, and in 1594 was sent by King James
to demand assistance from Queen £li2sabeth to pursue the
popish peers, and was absent about six months. On the ac-
cession of the Octavians to power, he was forced to exchange
with John Lindsay of Balcarres, his place of secretary for
that of lord privy seal In 1610, when a new privy council
was formed, he was continued a privy councillor, and at the
same time was appointed a member of the high 6ourt of com-
mission for church affiiirs then constituted. On 14th Febm-
ary 1626, he was removed from the bench, in consequence of
the resolution of Charles the First that neither nobleman nor
officer of state should remain in that judicatory. He died iu
the latter end of that year.
In 1451 Patrick Cockbum of Newbigging, lord provost oi
Edinbnrgh, was appointed governor of the castle, and named,
with other commissioners, after the deFeat of the English in
the battle of Sark, to treat for the renewal of a trace.
COCKBURN, Henry, Ix)rd Cockburn. See
Supplement.
COCKBURN, John, of Ormiston, in East Lo-
thian, tlie great improver of Scottish husbandry,
son of Adam Cockbum of Ormiston, lord-justice-
clerk after the Revolution, by his wife Lady Susan
Hamilton, was born about 1686. During his father's
life he was a member of the Scots parliament, and
gave his support to the union of the two kingdoms.
He afterwards repi-esented East Lothian, in the
parliament of Great Britain, from 1707 to 1741,
and at one period was a lord of the admiralty,
and also held scvci*al other public situations, but
he was chiefly distinguished by his patriotic ex-
ertions to promote the improvement of his native
country. He succeeded to the family estate in
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1714. At that time agriculture in Scotland was
in a very low state. Mr. Cockburn resolved to
endeavour not only to rouse up a spiiit among
the landed proprietor for promoting improve-
ments, but also, by every means of encourage-
ment, to animate the tenantry to conduct their
operations with energy and vigour. For this pur-
pose he determined to sacritice his own private
interests, and to grant long leases at such low
rents as would tempt the most indolent to exer-
cise proper management. An attempt was made
at one time to set aside these leases, but it did not
succeed. His entei-prisiug spirit did not rest con-
tent even with this. He brought down skilful agri-
culturists from England, who introduced the field
culture of turnips, and of red clover ; and at the
same time he sent up the sons of his tenants to
England to study husbandry in the best cultivated
counties of that kingdom. He also established at
Ormiston a society for promoting agricultural
improvements. His exertions, however, wei*e not
confined to husbandry alone. In 1726 he erected
a brewery and distillery at Ormiston. With a
view also to promote the growth of flax, he ob-
tained premiums from the board of trustees for
encouraging iXs culture. He established a linen
manufactory on his estate, and erected a bleach-
field for whitening linens, which was the second
in Scotland of the kind. It was conducted and
managed by pereons from Ireland ; and to this
Irish colony, it is said that Scotland is in a great
measure indebted for the introduction of the pota-
to, which was raised in the fields of Ormiston so
early as 1734. To disseminate a spirit for agri-
cultural improvement through the countiy, in 1736
he instituted a club or society composed of noble-
men, gentlemen, and farmers, who met monthly
for the purpose of discussing some appropriate
question in rural or political economy. It sub-
sisted above ten years. He also exerted himself
in making the public roads and keeping them in
repair. He married, first, in 1700, the Hon. Be-
atrix Carmichael, eldest daughter of the firat earl
of Hyndford, and secondly an English lady related
to the duchess of Gordon, by whom he had a son
named George. In 1748 Mr. Cockbuni was un-
der the necessity of disposing of his estate to the
carl of Hopetoun. He died at his son's house in
the navy office, Loudon, November 12, 1758
His son, George, who succeeded him, is no farther
deserving of notice than as being the last of that
distinguished family. He was appointed a cap-
tain in the navy in 1741, and one of the connuis-
sioners of the navy in 1766. He died at Brighton
in 1770. He married Caroline, baroness Forrester
in her own right, and had a daughter, Anna Ma-
ria Cockburn, also baroness Forrester in her own
right, who died in 1808 unman-ied.
COCKBURN, Alicia, or Alison, authoress of
the beautiful lyric, ' IVe seen the smiling of for-
tune beguiling,' which forms one of the popular
sets of the ' Flowera of the Forest,' was a daughter
of Robert Rutherford of Faimalee in Selkirkshire.
The exact year of her birth has not been ascer-
tained. It is supposed to have been about 1710
or 1712. We leai'n from Stenhouse's notes to
Johnson's ^ Scots Musical Museum,' that her writ-
ing of the song which has immortalized her name,
was occasioned by the following incident: "A
gentleman of her acquaintance, in passing through
a sequestered but romantic glen, observed a shep-
herd at some distance tending his flocks, and
amusing himself at intervals by playing on a
flute. The scene altogether was very interesting,
and being passionately fond of music, he drew
nearer the spot, and listened for some time unob-
served to the attn^ctive but artless strains of the
young shepherd. One of the airs in particular
appeared so exquisitely wild and pathetic, that he
could no longer refi'ain from discovering himself,
in order to obtain some information respecting it
from the rural performer. On inquiiy, he learned
that it was ' The Flowers of the Forest.' This
intelligence exciting his curiosity, he was deter-
mined, if possible, to obtain possession of the air.
He accoi-dingly prevailed on the young man to
play it over and over, until he picked up every
note, which he immediately committed to paper
on his return home. Delighted with this new dis-
covery, as he supposed, he lost no time in commu-
nicating it to Miss Rutherford, who not only re-
cognised the tune, but likewise repeated some de-
tached lines of the old ballad. Anxious, however,
to have a set of verses adapted to his favourite
melody, and well aware that few, if any, were
better qualified than Miss Rutherfoi*d, for such a
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ALICIA.
task, he took the liberty of begging this favonr at
her hand. She obligingly consented, and, in a
few days thereafter, he had the pleasure of receiv-
ing the stanzas from the fair author/*
In her youth Miss Rutherford must have been
very beautiful, for in a work by a Mr. Fairbaim,
styled "Professor of the French," published at
Edinburgh in 1727, entitled * L'Eloge d'Ecosse, et
des Dames Ecossoises,* in which all the rank and
beauty of the time are described in the most glow-
ing terms, we find her mentioned as among the
most charming ladies of that day, with Mademoi-
selles Peggie Campbell, Murray, Pringle, Drum-
mond, and nineteen others, her name, Alice Ruth-
eiford, as perhaps the youngest, being the last in
the list. She man-icd, in 1731, Patrick Cockburn,
advocate, youngest son of Adam Cockburn, of
Ormiston, lord justice clerk of Scotland, and
brother of the subject of the preceding notice.
Her husband " acted as commissioner," says Sir
Walter Scott, " for the duke of Hamilton of that
day; and being, as might be expected from his
family, a sincere friend to the Revolution and
protestant succession, he used bis interest with bis
principal to prevent him from joining in the in-
trigues which preceded the insurrection of 1746,
to which his grace [who was then only in his
twenty-second year], is supposed to have had a
strong inclination." Mr. Cockburn died at Mus-
selburgh, "after a tedious illness," 29th April,
1753. His widow survived him for more than
foi-ty years. She was distantly related to the
mother of Sir Walter Scott, who was the eldest
daughter of Dr. John Rutherford, professor of
medicine in the university of Edinburgh, a rela-
tion of Mr. Rutherford of Faimielee, and through
life she continued in habits of great intimacy with
Mrs. Scott.
Sir Walter's own personal recollections of this
highly gifted and accomplished woman are very
interesting. " A turret in the old house of Fair-
nalee," says be, "is still shown as the place where
the poem Q I have seen the smiling,' &c.) was
written. The occasion was a calamitous period
in Selkirkshire, or Ettrick Forest, when no fewer
than seven lairds or proprietors, men of ancient
family and inheritance, having been engaged in
some imprudent speculations, became insolvent in
one year." At the time of the rebellion of 1745
he describes Mrs. Cockburn as a keen whig, or
adherent of the government. She was the author-
ess of several parodies and little poetical pieces,
and Sir Walter mentions particularly a set of
toasts descriptive of some of her friends, and sent
to a company where most of them were assembled,
which were so accurately drawn that the originals
were at once recognised on their being read aloud.
One upon Sir Walter Scott's father, then a young
and remarkably handsome man, is given as a spe-
cimen :
To a thing thatV nncommon—
A youth of diflcretion,
' Who, though vastly handsome,
Despises flirtation :
To the friend in affliction,
The heart of affection,
Who may hear the last trump
Without dread of detection.
" My mother and Mrs. Cockburn were related,
says Sir Walter, " in what degree I know not, but
sufficiently near to induce Mrs. Cockburn to dis-
tinguish her in her will. Mrs. Cockbura had the
misfortune to lose an only son, Patrick Cockburn,
who had the rank of captain in the dragoons, sev-
eral years before her own death. She was one of
those persons whose talents for conversation made
a stronger impression on her contemporaries, than
her writings can be expected to produce. In per-
son and features she somewhat resembled Queen
Elizabeth; but the nose was rather more aquiline.
She was proud of her auburn hair, which remained
unbleached by time, even when she was upwards
of eighty years old. She maintained the rank in
the society of Edinburgh, which Frenchwomen of
talents usually do in that of Paris ; and in her lit-
tle parlour used to assemble a very distinguished
and accomplished circle, among whom David
Hume, John Home, Lord Monboddo, and many
other men of name were frequently to be found.
Her evening parties wore very frequent, and in-
cluded society distinguished both for condition and
talents. The petit souper^ which always concluded
the evening, was like that of Stella, which she used
to quote on the occasion • —
A supper like her mighty self.
Four nothings on four plates of delf
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PATRICK.
But tliey passed off more gaily than many costlier
entertainments. She spoke both wittily and well,
and maintained an extensive coiTespondence,
which, if it continues to exist, must contain man}'
things highly curious and interesting. My recol-
lection is, that her conversation brought her much
nearer to a Frenchwoman than to a native of
England ; and, as I have the same impression
with respect to ladies of the same period and the
same rank in society, I am apt to think that the
vieiUe cour of Edinburgh rather resembled that of
Paris than that of St. Jameses ; and particularly,
that the Scotch imitated the Parisians in laying
aside much of the expense and form of these little
parties, in which wit and good humour were al-
lowed to supersede all ocx^asion of display. The
lodging where Mrs. Cockbum received the best
society of her time, would not now afford accom-
modation to a very inferior person."
In the notes to the fii-st volume of Johnson's
Scots Musical Museum, Stenhouse^s edition, two
songs by Mrs. Cockbum are inserted, which were
communicated by Mr. Earkpatrick Sharpe, who
has added marginal notes explanatory of the
allusions to the persons described in them. The
one is entitled * A Copy of Verses wrote by Mrs.
Cockbum on the back of a picture of Sir Hew
Dalrymple,' to the tune of * All yoo ladies now at
Land ;' the other is a lively drinking piece begin-
ning *A11 health be round Balcari-as' board,' to
the same tune, which seems to have been a
favourite with her. Sir Walter Scott mistook her
first name, and called her Catherine instead of
Alice. In the entry of her marriage in the parish
registers of Ormiston, under date 12th March
1731, she is styled Alison Ruthefford. She died
at Edinburgh on the 22d of November 1794, when
she was above eighty. " Even at an age," says
Sir Walter Scott, (in his * Minstrelsy of the Scot-
tish Border,' vol. iii. page 888, edition 1833,)
" advanced beyond the usual bounds of humanity,
she retained a play of imagination, and an activity
of intellect, which must have been attractive and
delightful in youth, but were almost preternatural
at her period of life. Her active benevolence,
keeping pace with her genius, rendered her equally
^n object of love and admiration. The editor,
who knew her well, takes this opportunity of doing
justice to his own feelings ; and they are in unison
with those of all who knew his regretted friend."
The following exti*act of a letter from a lady to
Charles K. Sharpe, Esq., in reference to Mrs.
Cockbum, is iuseited among Mr. David Laing's
illustrative notes to Stenhonse's edition of John-
sou's Musical Museum: — ^^She had a pleasing
countenance and piqued herself upon always dress-
ing according to her own taste, and not according
to the dictate^ of fashion. Her brown hair never
grew grey ; and she wore it combed up upon a
toupee — ^no cap — a lace hood tied under her chin,
and her sleeves puffed out in the fashion of Queen
Elizabeth, which is not uncommon now, but at that
time was quite peouliar to herself." She left pro-
perty to the amount of £8,800, the bulk of which
went to two nieces, Anne Pringle and Mrs. Simpson
Her last will and testament, in which Mark Pringle,
Esq. of Clifton, and Alexander Keith, W.S., are
named executors, was confirmed 23d January 1795.
The bequest to Sur Walter Scott's mother is thus
mentioned : " I promised Mrs. Walker (a mistake
for Walter) Scott my emerald ring; with it she
has my prayers for her and hers. Much attention
she and her worthy husband paid me in my hours
of deepest distress, when my son was dying." She
mentions some of her poorer relations in affection-
ate terras, and leaves them small annuities ; and
frequently alludes to her son, who died in 1780.
A lock of her hair was enclosed for two hair-rings
for her ^'earliest and most constant and affection-
ate friends, Mrs. Keith of Raveistone, and her
brother, William Swinton." Also a ring with Sh
Hugh Dalrymple's hair, intended for Mrs. Dal-
rymple, " is now to be given to her son Sir Hugh
D., for whom Mrs. C. has great affection." She
desii-es that her sister Faimillie, if she outlives
her, "may have twenty pounds for mourning,
besides the ring already mentioned ; and also, I
leave her the charge of my favourite cat." She
gives some directions about her funeral, and seems
to have written an epitaph for herself, as she add^
"Shorten or correct the epitaph to your taste."
COCKBURN, Patrick, a learned professor of
the oriental languages, was a son of Cockbnra
of Langton in the Merse, and educated at the
university of St. Andrews. After taking holy
orders, he went to the university of Paris, where
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668
COLQUHOUN.
lie tanght the oriental languages for several years.
Ill 1551 and 1552 he published at Paris two reli-
gious works which brought him under the suspi-
cion of heresy, and compelled him to quit Paris.
On his return to Scotland he embraced the doc-
trines of the Reformation. He taught the lan-
guages for some yeai-s at St. Andrews; and in
1555 published there some pious meditations on
the Ijord's Pi-ayer. He was afterwards chosen
minister of Haddington, being the firat protestant
preacher in that place. He died far advanced in
years, in 1559. He left several manuscripts on
subjects of divinity, and some lettei*s and ora-
tions, of which a treatise on the ' Apostles' Ci-eed '
was published at London, 1561, 4to. His pub-
lished works are :
Oratio de Utilitatc et Exoellentia Verbi Dei. Par. 1551,
8vo.
De Vulgari Sacrse Scriptnrs Phrasi. Par. 1652, 8vo.
In Orationem Dominicam, pia Meditatio. St. Andrews,
1555, 12mo.
In Symbolum Apostolionni, Comment. Lond. 1561, 4 to.
GOLDEN, Gadwallader, an eminent physi-
cian and botanist, the son of the Rev. Alexander
Golden of Dunse, was bom February 17, 1688.
He studied at the university of Edinburgh, and in
medicine and mathematics especially made great
proficiency. In 1708 he emigrated to Pennsyl-
vania, wliere he practised as a physician for some
years. In 1715 he returaed to Britain, and while
in London acquired considerable reputation by a
paper on Animal Secretions. He afterwards went
to Scotland, but the rebellion which had broken
out there induced him to recross the Atlantic in
1716. He settled a second time in Pennsylvania,
but in 1718 removed to New York. After a
i*esidence of a year in that city, he was appointed
the fii-st surveyor -general of the lands of tin
colony, and at the same time master in chancery.
In 1720 he obtained a seat in the king's council,
under Governor Burnet. For some time previous
to this, he had resided on a tract of land about
nine miles from Newburgh, on Hudson river, for
which he had received a patent, and which he
employed himself in bringing into a state of
cultivation, though much exposed to the attacks
of the Indians. In 1761 he was chosen lieuten-
ant-governor of New York. During the absence
of Grovemor Try on he displayed his ability in the
management of affairs, and formed several benev-
olent establishments. After the retuni of Gover-
nor Tryon in 1775, Golden retired to a seat on
Long Island, where he died, September 28, 1776,
in the eighty-ninth year of his age, a few houi-s
before nearly one-fourth part of the city of New
York was reduced to ashes. Governor Golden
was distinguished for his acquaintance with bota-
ny. His descriptions of between three and four
hundred American plants were published in the
*Acta Upsaliensia.' He paid attention also to
the climate, and left a long course of diurnal ob-
servations on the thermometer, barometer, and
winds. He sent a great many American plants
to Linnseus, with whom he corresponded, and who
gave to a new gemis of plants the appellation ot
Goldenia. His works are :
The History of the Five Indias Nations of Canada. 2d
edition, London, 1701, 8vo. The same, 1747, 1750, 8vo.
And 1755, 2 vols. 12mo.
The Histoiy of the Five Indian Nations depending npon
New York. New York, 1727, 8vo. Lond. 1780, 8va.
The Principle of Action in Matter, the Gravitation in
Bodies, and the Motion of the Planets, explained from their,
principles. New York, 1745, 8vo. Lond. 1752, 4to.
PlantsB GoldenghomisB in provinda Noveboracensi Americes
sponte cresoentes. Act Sodet Upeal. 1743, p. 81, &a
Letter ccnoeming the Throat Distemper. Med. Obs. and
Inq. i. p. 211. 1755. Epidemic Malignant Sore Throat.
CoLQUHOUN, an ancient somame in Scotland, borne by a
dan whose territory is in Dnmbartonshire, and whose badge
b the hazd. The prindpal fanulies of the name are Col-
quhonn of Colqnbonn and Loss, the chief of the dan, a baro-
net of Scotland and Nova Scotia, created in 1704, and of
Great Britain in 1786 ; Golqnhonn of Killermont and Gars-
cadden ; Ck>Iquhoan of Ardenconndl, and Col^hoon of Glen-
mallan. There was likewise Colqnhoon of Tilliqnhonn, a
baronet of Scotknd and Nova Scotia (1625), but this family
is extinct.
The origin of the name is territorial. One tradition de-
duces the descent of the first possessor from a yonnger son of
the old earls of Lennox, because of the similitude of their ar-
morial bearings. It is certain that they were andently vas-
sals of that potent honse.
The immediate ancestor of the family of Luss was Hum-
phry de Kilpatrick, who, in the reign of Alexander the Se-
cond, obtained a grant of the lands and barony of Colquhoun,
pro servitio vniut mUiH»^ &c., and in consequence assumed
the name of Colquhoun, instead of his own.
His son, Ingelram de Colquhoun, lived in the rdgn of Alex-
ander the Third. In a charter of Malcolm, fourth earl of
Lennox, in favour of Malcolm, son and hdr of Sur John de
Luss, of the lands of Luss, in 1280, Ingelram de Colquhoun
is a witness. His son, Himiphry de Colquhoun, is witness in
a charter of Malcolm, fifth earl of Lennox, in favour of Sir
John de Luss, which was confirmed by Robert the First in
1316. The following remarkable reference to the construction
of a house for the Cvlqulumonim, by order of King Robert
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COLQUHOUN.
664
COLQUHOUN.
Bruce, is extracted from tlie Compotum Cotutabuiarii de
Cardrosi^ vol. i., in the accounts of the Great Chamberlains
of Scotland, under date 30th Julj 1329, as quoted by Mr.
T3rtler in the appendix to the second volume of his History of
8(Sotland : " Item, in oonstruoaone cujusdam domus ad opus
Culquhanorwn Domini Regis ibidem, 10 solidi." Mr. Tytler
in a note says tliat Culquhanorum is *' an obsctu^ word, which
occurs nowhere else— conjectured by a learned friend to be
* keepers of the dogs,* from the Gaelic root GiUen-au-con —
abbreviated, GiUecon^ Culquhoun.**
Sir Robert de Colquhoun, the son of the last mentioned
Humphry, in the reign of David Bruce, married the daughter
and sole heiress of Humphry de Lnss, lord of Luss, head or
chief of an ancient family of that name, whose extensive pos-
sessions lay in the mountainous but beautiixil and picturesque
district on the margin of Loch Lomond, and the sixth or
seventh in a direct male line from Malduin, dean of Lennox,
who^ in the beginning of the twelfth century, received from
Alwyn, second earl of Lennox, a charter of the lands of Lnss.
Sir Robert was afterwards designed dominus de Colquhoun
and de Luss, in a charter dated in 1868 ; since which time
the family have borne the designation of Colquhoun of Col-
quhoun and Luss. He is also witness in a charter of the
lands of Auchmar by Walter of Faalane, lord of Lennox, to
Walter de Buchanan in 1873. He had three sons, namely
Sir Humphry, his heir; Robert, first of the family of Cam-
straddan, from whom several other families of the name of
Colquhoun in Dumbartonshire are descended; and Patrick,
who is mentioned in a charter frx)m his brother Sir Humphry
to his other brother Robert.
The eldest son, Sur Humphry, is a witness in two charters
by Duncan earl of Lennox in the years 1390, 1894, and 1395.
He had two sons and two daughters. Patrick, his younger
son, was ancestor of the Colquhonns of Glennis, frt>m whom
the Colquhonns of Barrowfidd, Piemont, and others were
descended. The eldest son. Sir John Colquhoun, was ap-
pointed governor of the castle of Dumbarton in the minority
of King James the Second. From his activity in punishing
the depredations of the Highlanders, who often committed
great outrages in the low country of Dumbartonshire, he ren-
dered himself obnoxious to them, and a plot was formed for
his destruction. He received a civil message from some of
their chiefs, desiring a friendly conference, in order to accom-
modate all their difierences. Suspecting no treachery he
went out to meet them but slightly attended, and was imme-
diately attacked by a numerous body of Islanders, under two
noted robber- chiefi^ Lachlan Maclean and Murdoch Gibson,
and slain in Inchmurren, on Loch Lomond, in 1440. By his
wife, Jean, daughter of Robert Lord Erskine, he had a son,
Malcolm, a youth of great promise, who was one of the hostages
for the ransom of King James the First He died before his
father, leaving a son. Sir John, who succeeded his grandfa-
ther in 1440. This Sir John Colquhoun was one of the most
distinguished men of his age in Scotland, and highly esteemed
by King James the third, from whom he got a charter, under
the great seal, of several lands in 1462, and in 1463 he had
the honour of knighthood conferred upon him. The same
year he was appomted clerk register for Scotland. From
1465 to 1469 he held the high office of comptroller of the
Exchequer. He was subseqnentiy appointed sheriff principal
of Dumbartonshire. In 1465 he got a grant of the lands of
Kilmardinny, and in 1472 and in 1473, of Roseneath, Strone,
jbc. In 1474 he was appointed lord high chamberlain of Scot-
land, and immediately thereafter was nominated one of the
ambassadors extraordinary to the court of Enghuid, to nego-
oiflte a marriage between the pnnce royal of ScoUand, and
the princess Cicily, daughter of King Edward the Fourth.
By a royal charter dated 17th September 1477 he was con-
stituted governor of the casUe of Dumbarton for life. He
was killed by a cannon-ball, in defending that fortress against
besiegers 1st May 1478. By his wife, daughter of Thomas
Lord Boyd, he had two sons and one daughter. His secoad
son, Robert, was bred to the church, and was first rector of
Kippen and Luss, and afterwards bishop of Argyle from 1478
to 1499. The daughter, Margaret, married Sir William Mur-
ray, seventh baron of Tullibardine (ancestor of the dukes of
Athol), and bore to him seventeen sons. His eldest son. Sir
Humphry Colquhoun, died in 1493, and was succeeded by
his son. Sir John Colquhoun, who received the honour of
knightiiood from King James the Fourth, and obtamed a
charter under the great seal of sundry lands and baronies in
Dumbartonshire, dated 4th December 1506. On 11th July
1526 he and Patrick Colquhoun his son received a respite iur
assisting John eari of Lennox in treasonably besieging, tak-
ing, and holding the castie of Dumbarton. On 20th July
1535, Patrick Colquhoun and Adam his brother, with twenty-
five others, found security to underiy the law for interoom-
muning with and assisting Humphry Galbndth and his ac-
complices, rebels and ** at the horn," for the slaughter of
Stirling of Glorat. Sir John Colquhoun himself would also
have been prosecuted for the same, but that he was ** proved
to be sick,** and he died soon after, as on 16th August 1536
one Walter Macfarlane found caution that he would ap-
pear at the next justice-air at Dumbarton and take his trial,
for convocation of the li^es in warlike manner, and besetting
the way of the widow of Sir John Colquhoun and David
Famely of Colmiston, being for the time in her company, for
their slaughter. By his first wife, Margaret Stewart, daugh-
ter of John, earl of Lennox, ancestor of the royal family, Sir
John Colquhoun had two sons and four daughters ; and by
hu second wife, Margaret, daughter of William Cunningham
of Craigends, he had two sons. His eldest son, Sir Humpfaiy
Colquhoun, married Lady Catherine Graham, daughter of
William first eari of Montrose, and died in 1537. His son.
Sir John Colquhoun, married Agnes, daughter of the fourth
Lord Boyd, ancestor of the earls of Kihnamock, by whom,
with two daughters, he had three sons, namely, Humphir,
John, and Alexander. He died before 1588. His eldest
son, Humphiy, acquired the heritable coronership of the
county of Dumbarton, from Robert Graham of KnockdoIIian,
which was ratified and confirmed by a charter under the great
seal in 1583. In July 1592 some of the Mac^^regors and
Macfarlanes came down upon the low oonntiy of Dumbarton-
shire, and committed vast ravages, especially upon the tenri-
toiy of the Colquhonns. At the head of his vassals, and ac-
companied by several of the gentlemen of the neighbourhood.
Sir Humphry Colquhoun attacked the invaders, and after a
bloody confiict, which was only put an end to at nightfall,
and in which he was worsted, he retired to his strong castle
of Bannachrea, but was doeely pursued by a party of the
Macfarlanes, who broke into his castle and found him in a
vault, where they put him to death under drcumstauces of
extreme atrocity. His next brother, John, seems to have
been implicated in this cruel morder, as he was beheaded at
Edinburgh for the crime on the last day of November 1592.
Sur Humphry married first Lady Jean Cunningham, daughter
of Alexander^ fifth earl of Glencahn, widow of the eari of
Ai^le, by whom he had no children, and, secondly, Jean,
daughter of John Lord Hamilton, by whom he had a daugh-
ter. Having no male issue he was succeeded by his younger
brother, Alexander.
This Alexander Colquhoun, third son of Sir John Col-
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quhoon, got a charter under the great seal of the lands of
WolcouDf Auchindouarie, &c, in Dnrnfries-shiref dated 5th
Febroary 1697. In his time occurred the bloody dan conflict
of Glenfiruin, between the Colqnhouns and Macgregors, in
February 1603, regarding which the popular accounts are so
much at variance with the historical facts. The Colquhouns
had taken part in the execution of the letters of lire and
sword issued by the crown against the Macgr^rs some years
before, and the feud between them had been greatly aggra-
vated by various acts of violence and a^iiression on both
sides. One of these, tradition, mistaking the name of the
chief of the Colquhouns, namely, Alexander, foi* his brother
Sir Humphry, murdered eleven years previously in his castle
of Bannachrea, relates as follows. Two of the dan-Gregor
were said to have been benighted in the territory of .the Col-
quhouns, and apphed at the house of a dependent of the laird
of Luss for food and shelter, which were denied them. Re-
tiring to an outhouse they killed a sheep, for which, after
they had partaken of it, they offered payment, but instead of
its being accepted, they were seized and carried before the
chief of the Colquhouns, who ordered them to be instantly
executed. To revenge their death the chief of the dan-Gre-
gor, Allester Macgregor of Glenstrae, assembled a force of
about four hundred men, and marched towards Luss. The
chief of the Colquhouns hastily mustered his retainers, and
being joined by the Buchanans and other friendly septs, and
by a body of the dtizens of Dumbarton, under the command
of Tobias Smollett, a magistrate of that town, and an ances-
tor of the author of Roderick Random, his forces soon
amounted to double the number of the Macgregors. Logan,
in his History of the Gael, follows the tradition in naming
the chief of the Colquhouns Sir Humphry, and Smibert, in
his History of the Highland dans, not only adopts this mis-
take, but goes still farther wrong in making Sir Humphi7*s
murder take place sometime after the conflict at Glenfiruin,
and then at the instigation of a man of power whom the laird
of Luss had offended, rather than from private motives of en-
mity on the part of the Macfarlanes, as already narrated.
If there is any truth in the stoiy of the execution of the two
Macgregors, it must have been done by order of Alexander
Colquboun. But m the dying declaration of Allester Mac-
gregor, who was hanged at Edinburgh with some of the cUn,
there is nothing said respecting the execution of these two
men as the cause of the conflict. The invasion of the I^en-
nox by the Macgregors was but the result of the lasting feud
which subsisted between the two clans. The Macgregors
and Colquhouns met at Glenfimin, a short distance from
Luss, on the day named, and after a fierce contest, the latter
were defeated, with one hundred and forty men slain. The
laird of Luss escaped only by the fleetness of his horse. The
Mac^T^gors carried off six hundred head of cattle, eight hun-
dred sheep and goats, two hundred and eighty horses, with
the ** haill plenishing, goods and geir of Luss." The fatal
field was ever after called by the Highlanders, the vale of Sor-
row or Ijunentation. After the battle, many of the widows
of the slam Colqnhouns appeared in deep mourning, before
King James the Sixth at Stirling, and exhibiting on spears
eleven score bloody shirts belonging to their deceased hu»^
bands, demanded vengeance on the Macgregors. The device
succeeded. The whole Ma<^regor race was proscribed and
their very name prohibited, and it was not till the year 1774
that the severe penal enactments against them were finally
repealed. A curious letter from Alexander Colquhoun, the
laird of Colquhoun and Luss, to James the Sixth, has been
preserved. It bears date 1606, and shows that Alexander
had proceeded actively against the Macfarlanes for their mur-
der of his brother, as well as for many other aUeged injuries,
induding " slaughters, murthers, hariships, thefts, reivings,
and oppressions, fire-raising, demolisihing of houses, cutting
and destroying woods and plantings.** For merely dvil com-
pensation the courts had decreed to him sixty-two thousand
pounds Soots, a laige sum in those days, but the laird of
Lu88 refers his whole injuries, cinl and criminal, to the royal
consideration. By his wife Helen, daughter of Sir George
Buchanan of that ilk, he had five sons and a daughter.
The eldest son, Sir John, in his father's Ufetime, got a
charter under the great seal of the ten pound land of Dunner-
buck, dated 20th February 1602. He was by Ring Charies
the Fuvt created a baronet of Nova Scotia by patent dated
the last day of August 1625. He adhered firmly to the royal
cause during all the time of the dvil wars, on whidi account
he suffered many hardships, and, in 1654, was by Cromwell
fined two thousand pounds sterling. He married Lady Lillias
Graham, daughter of the fourth eari of Montrose, brother of
the great marquis, by whom he had three sons and two daugh-
ters. His two ddest sons succeeded to the baronetcy. From
Alexander, the third son, the Colquhouns of Tillyquhoun were
descended.
Sir John, the second baronet of Luss, married Margaret,
daughter and sole heiress of Su- Gideon Baillie of Lochend, in
the county of Haddington, and had one son, John, who died
unmarried, and four daughters. He was succeeded, in 1676,
by his brother, Sir James, third baronet of Luss, who married
Penuel, daughter of William Cunningham of Balleichan in
Ireland. He had, with one daughter, a son. Sir Humphry,
fourth baronet. The latter was ^ member of the last Scotti^
parliament, and strenuously opposed and voted against every
artide of the treaty of union. By his wife Margaret, daugh-
ter of Sir Patrick Houston of that ilk, baronet, he had an
only daughter, Anne Colquhoun, his sole heiress, who, in
1702, married James Grant of Pluscardine, second son of
Ludovick Grant of Grant, immediate younger brother of Bri-
gadier Alexander Grant, heir apparent of the said Ludovick.
Having no male issue. Sir Humphry, with the design that his
daughter and her husband should succeed him in his whole
estate and honours, in 1704 resigned his baronetcy into the
hands of her majesty Queen Anne, for a new patent to him-
self in lifei'ent, and his son-in-law and his heirs therein named
in fee, but with this express limitation that he and his heirs so
succeeding to that estate and title should be obliged to bear the
name and arms of Colquhocm of Luss, &c It was also spe-
cially provided that the estates of Grant and Luss should not
be conjoined. Sir Humphry died in 1718, and was succeeded
in his estate and honours by James Grant his son-in-law,
under the name and designation of Sir James Colquhoun of
Luss. He er^oyed that estate and title tiU the death of his
elder brother, Brigadier Alexander Grant, in 1719, when,
succeeding to the estate of Grant, he relinqnished the name
and title of Colquhoun of Luss, and resumed his own, retaiu-
ing the baronetcy, it being by the last patent vested in his per-
son. He died in 1747. By the said Anne, his wife, he had
a numerous family. His eldest son, Humphry ^Colquhoun,
subsequently Humphry Grant of Grant, died unhiarried in
1732. The second son, Ludovick, became Sur Ludovick
Grant of Grant, baronet, [see Grant of Grant, and Ska-
FiKLD, Earl of]; while the third son James succeeded as
Su* James Colquhoun of Luss. He is the amiable and very
polite gentlemen described by Smollett m his mimitable novel
of Humphry Clinker, under the name of " Su* George Colqu-
houn, a colonel in the Dutch service.** He married Lady Helen
Sutherland, daughter of William Lord Strathnaver, son of the
nineteenth earl of Sutheriand, and by her he had three sons and
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COLQUHOUN.
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COLQUHOUN.
five daughters. In 1777 he founded the town of Helensburgh
on the frith of Clyde, and named it after his wife. To put
an end to some dilutes which had arisen with regard to the
destination of the old patent of the Nova Scotia baronet<^,
(John Colqnhoun of Tillyqnhoun, as the eldest cadet, having,
on the death of his cousin-german, Sir Humphry Golquhoun,
m 1718, assumed the title as heir male of bis grandfather, the
natentee,) Sir James was, in 1786, created a baronet of Great
Britain. His second youngest daughter, Margaret, married
William Baillie, a lord of session under the title of Lord Pol-
kemmet. and was the mother of Sir William Baillie, baronet
Sir James died iti November 1786.
His eldest son. Sir James Colqulioun, 2d hart., sheriff-de-
pute of Dumbartonshire, was one of the principal clerks of
session. By his wife, Jane, daughter and co-heir of James
Falconer, Esq. of Monktown, he had five sons and four daugh-
ters. He died in 1805. His eldest son, Sir James, third
baronet, was, for some time, M.P. for Dumbartonshire. He
married, on 13th June 1799, his cousin Janet, daughter of Sir
John Sinclair, baronet, and had three sons and two daughters.
Of this lady, who died October 21, 1846, and who was dis-
tinguished for her virtues, piety, and benevolence, a memoir
by the Rev. James Hamilton. D. D , Tx>ndon, was published
in 1 R49 from which the followmg portnut is taken :
Laay Ooiquhonn was the authoress of the following religi-
ous works :
Hope and Despair, a Narrative founded on fact. 1822.
Thoughts on the Religious Profession and Defective Prac-
tice of the Higher CUsses in Scotland. By a Lady. 1823.
Impressions of the Heart, relative to the Nature and Ex-
cellence of Genuine Religion. 1825.
The Kingdom of God, containing a brief account of its
Properties, Trials, Pririleges, and Duration. 1836.
The World's Religion as contrasted with Geimine Cbnsti-
anity. 1839.
The eldest son. Sir James Colqohoun, the fourili baronet ol
the new creation, and the eighth of the old patent, succeed
ed on his father's death, 8d Feb. 1836; chief of the Cdquhoana
of Luss; Lord-lieutenant of Dumbartonshire, and M.P. for
that county from 1887 to 1841. He married in Jnne 1843,
Jane, daughter of Sir Robert Abercromby of Birkenbog. She
died 3d May 1844, leaving one son, James, bom in 1844.
llie family mansion, Ross-dhu, is situated on a beautiful
peninsula, as the name indicates. As the family possessiona
all lie between an arm of the sea and an inland lake— I>ocfa
Gare and Loch Lomond — ^the name of Colquhonn, in Soot-
land pronounced Go-whoon (whence the surname Cowan),
or as humorously adverted to by Smollett in his Hurophrr
Clinker, Coon is, among other conjectures, supposed to
be derived from Col, in old French, a hill, or rather an ele-
vated neck connecting two mountains or detached peaks, and
quhon, quoin, or qukom, (pronounced cune or whoon, in mo-
dem Spanish,) an angular wedge, which would correctly de-
scribe the nature of the property, being the high wedge-shaped
land extending between two mountains at the angle where
Loch Gare issues firom the Clyde. These possessions may
therefore have been so called from the Normans who api)ear
to have accompanied David when, as count, he governed the
southern portion of Scotland, or Cumbria, during the reign of
Alexander the First, and^ as we learn by a curious inquest
held in the reign of Alexander the Second, resided in the
neighbourhood of Dumbarton. To the possessions of the
family of Colquhoun was added in 1852 the estate of Ardin-
cnple, purchased from the duchess dowager of Argyle.
Robert, a younger son of Sir Robert Colquhonn of that ilk,
who married tlie heiress of Luss, was the first of the Colqu-
houns of Camstrodden, which estate, with the lands of Acliir-
gahan, he obtained by charter, dated 4th July 1895, from his
brother Sir Humphry. Sir James Colquhoun, 2d baronet,
purchased that estate from the hereditary proprietor, and re-
uimexed it to the estate of Luss.
The Killermont line, originally of Garscadden, is m sdon of
the Camstrodden branch. The lands of Garscadden were ac-
quired about the middle of the seventeenth oentuiy, and those
of Killermoot in the beginning of the eighteenth, being then
purchased by Lawrence Colquhoun. Walter Dalsiel Colqu-
houn of Garscadden married the youngest daughter of Sir
lUy Campbell, baronet, lord president of the court of session.
John Coates Campbell, Esq., of Killermont the grandfather
of the present representative, had, with four daughters, a son,
Arohibald Campbell of Clathick, who, on succeeding to the
estate of Killermont took the name of Colquhoun. He be-
came a member of the Scottish bar in 1768. In 1807 he
was appointed lord advocate, and in 1816 lord clerk regii>ter
of Scotland. He married, in 1796, Mary Anne, daughter of
the Rev. William Erskine, Episcopalian clergyman at Muthil,
Perthshire, and sister of William Erskine, lord Kinnedder,
and had two sons and two daughters. He died on the 8th
of September 1820. His elder son, John Campbell Colquhonn
of Killermont and Garscadden, bom 23d January 1803, was
returned to pariiament in 1832 for the county of Dumbarton,
and afterwards sat for the Kilmarnock district of burgfasi
He married, 1827, Hon. Henrietta Maria. Powys, eldest daugh-
ter of 2d Lord Lilford ; issue, two sons. His brother, William
Lawrence Colquhoun, is designed of CUthick, Pertlishire.
The estate of Tilliequhon (or as now written Tilliechewan),
once belonging to the eldest branch of the Colquhouns, became
tlie property of William Campbell, Esq., merchant, Glaa^w
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COLQUHOUN,
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JOHN.
COLQUHOUN, Patrick, a metropolitan ma-
gistrate, and well-known writer on statistics and
criminal jurispnideace, descended from an ancient
family, was bom at Dumbarton, March 14, 1745.
His father, who held the office of registrar of the
records of the county of Dumbarton, was nearly
related to Sir James Colquhonn of Lnss, baronet.
He was a class-fellow of Smollett, and died at the
early age of forty-four. His son, the subject of
this notice, before he had attained his sixteenth
year went to Virginia to engage in commercial
pursuits. In 1766 he returned home, and settled
in Glasgow, where, in 1775, he married a lady of
his own name. In January 1782 he was elected
Lord Provost of Glasgow ; and having devised a
plan for a chamber of commerce and manufactures
in that city, he obtained a royal charter for it, and
became its chairman. He filled several other
civic offices with great credit and reputation.
In November 1789 he removed to London with
his family ; and having composed several popular
treatises on the subject of the Police, he was, in
1792, when seven public offices were established,
appointed to one of them, through the influence of
his friend Mr. Henry Dnndas, afterwards Viscount
Melville; and as a police magistrate, he distin-
guished himself by his activity and application.
In 1795 he published a ' Treatise on the Police of
the Metropolis,^ which passed through six large
editions. This work procured him, in 1797, the
degree of LL.D. from the university of Glasgow. He
was also appointed, by the legislature of the Virgin
Islands, in the West Indies, agent for the colony
in Great Britain. In 1800 appeared his * Treatise
on the Police of the River Thames,' containing an
historical account of tlie trade of the port of Lon-
don, and suggesting means for the protection of
property on the river and in the adjacent parts of
the metropolis. His plan was afterwards adopted,
and a new police-office erected at Wapping. As
some acknowledgment of the success of his endea-
vours to promote the safe navigation of the river
Tliames, it may be stated that the West India
merchants presented him with the sum of five
hundred pounds ; while the Russia Company vot-
ed him a piece of plate to the value of one hun-
dred guineas. Mr. Colquhonn died April 25,
1820, aged seventy-five, having resigned his offi-
cial situation about two years previous to his
decease. By his will he left the sum of two hun-
dred pounds sterling to the ministers and elders
of the parish of Dumbarton, the interest of which
to be divided yearly among poor people of the
name of Colquhonn, in the parishes of Dumbar-
ton, Cardross, Bonhill, and Old Ellpatrick, not
receiving parochial aid. His works are :
Observations on the State of the Cotton Manufacture.
1783. Two other Pamphlets on the same subject 1788.
Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis, containing a De-
tail of the various Crimes and Misdemeanors by which Public
and Private Property and Security are at present injured and
endangered, and suggesting Remedies for their Prevention.
Loud. 1796, 8vo. 6th edit. 1800, 8vo. 8th ediL corrected
and enlarged, 1806, 8vo.
Observations on the Office of a Constable. 1799, 8vo.
Treatise on the Conmfieroe and Police of the River Thames;
containing an Historical View of the Trade of the Port of
London, and suggesting means for preventing the depredations
therein, by a Legislative System of River Police, with an Ao-
oount of the Functions of th' various Magistrates and Cor-
porations exercising JurisdiCb.i>n on the River, and a General
View of the Penal and Remedial Statutes connected with the
Subject Lond. 180J, 8vo.
Tract upon the Abuse of Public Houses. 1800.
Treatise on Indigence; exhibiting a General Vieiw of ttis
National Resources of Productive Labour, with Propo«tions
for ameliorating the Condition of the Poor, and improving
the Moral Habits and increaang the Comforts of the Labour-
ing People, particularly the Rimng Generation. Lond. 1806,
8vo.
A New and Effectual System of Education for the Labour-
ing People, eloddated and explained according to the Plan
which has been established for the Religious and Moral In-
struction of Children admits into the Free School, Orchard
Street, Westminster. Lond. 1806, 8vo.
A Treatise on the Wealth, Power, and Resources of the
British Empire in every quarter of the Worid, including the
East Indies ; the Rise and Progress of the Funding System
explained, with Observations on the National Resources for
the beneficial employment of a Redundant Population, and
for rewarding the Military and Naval Officers, Soldiers, and
Seamen for their S«!rvioes. Illustrated by copious Statistical
Tables on a new plan, and exhibiting a collected view of the
different subjects discussed in this work. 2d edit, improved,
1815, 4to.
COLQUHOUN, John, D.D., an eminent min-
ister of the Chnrch of Scotland, was the son of a
small fanner on the estate of Sir James Colqn-
houn of Lnss, baronet, in Dumbartonshire, where
he was bom on New Year's day, 1748. In his
boyhood he herded sheep on the Mnlea hill, and
till thirty years of age plied the shuttle of a hand-
loom weaver. He received the rudiments of edu-
cation at a neighbouring school under the Society
for Propagating Christian Knowledge in Scotland,
and as an instance of his early desire for religious
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COLQUHOUN,
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JOHN
iiiforination, it is related that a perusal of Bostou^s
Foaifold State having been recommended to him
by his teacher, he travelled to Glasgow, (a distance
of nearly fifty miles in going and returning,) in
order to procure a copy of the work. "With tlie
view of studying for the church, he became a stu-
dent at the university of Glasgow about the year
1768, and remained there for the greater part of
ten years. After attending a session at the uni-
versity of Edinburgh, he was licensed at Glasgow
to preach the gospel in August 1780. He soon
received a call to the new cliurch, or chapel of
ease (now St. John^s church). South Leith, and
was ordained its pastor March 22, 1781. From
that period, for nearly half-a-century, he conti-
nued to discharge the duties of his ministry at
Leith with distinguished zeal, his time being ex-
clusively devoted to study and his pastoral office.
Not the least interesting and salutary portion of
his laboui*s were the weekly conversations held on
the Friday evenings at his own house. AH who
chose to come were welcome, and many students
were in the habit of attending to pi-ofit by his in-
structions, and to obtain his advice, ever readily
extended, as to the prosecution of their studies.
Towards the close of his life, an unhappy mis-
understanding took place with his congi-egation
respecting the appointment of an assistant. For
several years he had been unable to preach regu-
larly, and appeared for the last time in the pulpit
on the forenoon of the 18th November 1826.
His death, however, did not take place tiH the
27th November 1827. He was inteired in the
churchyard of South Leith, and his funeral seimon
was preached by Dr. Jones of Lady Glenorchy's
chapel, Edinburgh.
The Rev. Dr. James Hamilton of the National
Scottish Church, Regent Square, London, In his
Memoir of Lady Colquhoun, (pp. 143-144) pays
the following well-desei*ved and appropriate tri-
bute to Dr. Colquhoun 's memory : — " For nearly
fifty years he was minister of the New Kirk, Leith ;
and to his solid and systematic expositions of
scripture, hearers resorted not only from the
city of Edinburgh but from places as remote as
Dalkeith and Newbattle. Besides Boston and the
Erskines, his theological models were Witsius and
Maastricht, Voetins and Cloppenburg, and his own
mind had all the system and precision of a Dutch
divine. No modem better merited the title so
often bestowed on the Puritans, — 'a painful
preacher of the holy gospel.^ His expositions
were ready-made commentaries, and every sermon
was a chapter in a forthcoming treatise, whih^t
his deliberate enunciation, like an audible typo-
graphy, rendered ample justice to every Italic, dot,
and hyphen. It would, however, be a great mis-
take to fancy that he was a mere systematlst
Much as they valued his methodical arrangement
and exhaustive copiousness, the best of his hearers
prized still more his affectionate applications of the
truth, and the singular judgment with which he
handled questions of conscience. And in the
midst of his mild catholicity, to many there was a
peculiar charm in his covenanting fervour. Some
of them can still remember (this was WTitteu in
1849) with what pathos he used to pray that the
Most High * would revive the credit of a cove-
nanted work of i*eformation, that he would repair
the carved work of the sanctuary, which had been
broken down, and build up the breaches of Zion,
which are wide as the sea;* and they can tell
how, in concluding an exposition of the Psalms
which had lasted seventeen years, he remarked,
^ I have much reason to bless the Lord that I
have never, like many of my brethren, been so fai
left to myself as to use in the public worship of
God hymns of human composition." Dr. Hamil-
ton describes him as having a *' fair, soft counte-
nance, surmounted by its sleek, yeUow wig." A
portrait of Dr. Colquhoun, taken in 1793, will be
found In Kay^s Edinburgh Portraits. He was twice
married, but had no childi*en. His works are :
A Treatise on Spiritual Comfort. Edin 1818.
On the Law and tlie Gospel. Edm. 1815.
On the Covenant of Grace. Edin. 1818.
A Catechism for the Instmction and Direction of Young
Communicants. Edin. 1821.
On the Covenant of Worka. Edin. 1822.
A View of Saving Faith, from the Sacred Beoorda. Edin.
1824.
A Collection of the Promioes of the Gospel, arranged under
their proper heads, with Reflections and Exhortations deduced
from them. Edin. 1825.
A View of Evangelical Repentance, from the Sac7«d Re-
cords. Edin. 1826.
A small posthumous volume of ' Sermons, cbieflj on Doc-
trinal Subjects,' with a Memoir of the Author, was poblidied
by J. and D. Collie, in 1886.
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Colt, a surname originally French, introduced into Scot-
land by Blaia-Coult, who fled from France during the perse-
cution of th) Huguenots, and repairing to St. Andrews,
became a professor in the college there. He was the ancestor
of the Colts of Anldhame in Haddingtonshire, and Gartsber-
rie in Lanarkshire. His son, Oliver Colt, was a lawyer in
the time of Mary queen of Scots, and Oliver's son, Adam
Colt, was educated for the church, and became minister of
Inveresk, being the second after the Reformation. He dis-
tinguished himself among those ministers who opposed the
arbitmry proceedings of Ring James the Sixth in his disputes
with the General Assembly. In 1601, when the king was
headstrong to have the ministers of Edinburgh transported,
he opposed the king face to face in the Assembly on theur be-
half. The king's chief argument was that he himself, who
was a principal parishioner in his chief city, could not be
edified by them. Mr. Adam Colt answered that by that
reason, when he is angry at any minister in the country, he
may, if he will, have him transported, the preparative where-
of had already passed in St. Andrews, which was very dan-
gerous. The king called him a seditious knave, and arked,
"Why he supposed such a thing ?^ **I suppose," he add-
ed, "Mr. Adam Colt would steal neate; then he should- be
hanged." \CdUUrwood» History, vol. vi. p. 120.] In 1606
he was one of eight ministers sent for to court, by a letter
from the king, under the pretext of conferring as to the state
of the church, but the real object was to have them out of
the way, until the king had got his designs more matured
with regard to the establishment of episeopacy, under colour
of a national assembly. With Messrs. Andrew and James
Melville, and the others, he took part in the conferences with
the king held at Hampton Court in September of that year.
Finding that the intention was to detain them in England,
the eight ministers used means for their licrase to return, and
on March 8, 1607, gave in a supplication to the privy coun-
dl for that purpose. On the 1st of May they received orders
to depart, but to restrict themselves to various places, princi-
pally to their own parishes. Mr. Colt was minister at Inver-
esk for upwards of fifty years.
His son, Oliver Colt, succeeded him, and was mmister of
Inveresk till 1679. The latter's son. Sir Robert Colt, was
an eminent lawyer, and solicitor to James the Seventh. He
was the father of Adam Colt, an advocate and dean of facul-
ty. Adam's son, Oliver Colt, Esq. of Auldhame, in Had-
dingtonshire, and Inveresk, county of Edinburgh, married
the Hon. Helen Stuart, daughter of Robert seventh Lord
Blantyre, and had two sons and four daughters. The elder
son, Robert Colt, Esq. of Auldhame and Gartsherrie, bom in
1766, married in 1778, Grace, daughter of the Right Hon.
Robert Dundas of Amiston, lord prudent of the court of
session, and by her he had nine children. He died in 1797.
His only surviving son, John-Hamilton-Colt, Esq. of Inver-
esk and Gartsherrie, bom 12th May 1789, by his wife, Sarah,
youngest daughter of Joseph Mannering, Esq., had three sons
and five daughters. He died 10th September 1840. His
eldest son, John-Uamilton-Colt, Esq., designed of Gartsher-
rie, was bora 19th August 1811, and married, ISth May
1834, Jane, second daughter of George Cole Baiiibridge, Esq.
of Gattonside House, Roxburghshire; issue, tliree sons and
two dkughters.
de ColviUe, or Colvyle, accompanied William the Conqueror,
when he came over to England, and he and his descendnnts
acquired various possesions in that country. An account of
the Englisli Colvilles is given by Dugdale in his Baronage,
vol. i. page 626. He does not, however, mention the ori^n
of the family. The first noticed by him is Philip de Oolville,
in the reign'of King Stephen. About that time a branch of
them settled in Scotland, and founded a house which produced
the two noble lines of Colville of Culross and Colville of Ochil-
tree, both barons in the peerage of Scotland. The latter title,
however, has been dormant since the death of David, the
fourth lord, in 1782.
OoLViLLB, a surname derived from Colvilo, a castle on a
hill, col in old French meaning hill, and viie a castle. A
town m Normandy, whence the race originally sprang, is still
called Colville.
The ongmal ancestor of the Colvilles, Gilbert de Colavilla,
CoLVTLi* OF Culross, lord, in the peerage of Scotland,
a title possessed by a family, the first of whom in North Bri-
tain was Philip de Colville in the twelfth century. Along
with Robert, bishop of St. Andrews and others, he was wit-
ness to a general confirmation by King Malcolm the Fourth
of all donations made by his predecessors to the monastery of
Dunfermline before 1169, in which year Robert died; also,
another by the same monarch of several donations to the
priory of St. Andrews in 1160. He was one of the hostages
for the release of King William the Lion from captivity in
1174. The first possessions which he obtained in Scotland
were Heton and Oxenhame (now Oxnam) in the county oi
Roxburgh. He also acquired lands in various parts of the
country, particularly in Ayrshire.
His son, Thomas de Colville, is witness to several charters
of King William the lion betwixt 1189 and 1199. In 1210,
being unjustly suspected of a conspiracy against that monarch,
he was imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh, but was liber-
ated after six months' confinement and received again into
favour. On the 28th April 1214, a discharge was granted by
King John to William de Harcourt of several hostages put
into his majesty's hands, among others Thomas de Colville
and Gervase Avenel, obsides regis ScoticB. He died in 1219.
By Amabilis his wife he had a son, William de Colville, who
granted to the monks of Newbattle, the lands which belonged
to his father "super le Ness." He settled at Morham under
William the lion. He was proprietor of the barony of Kin-
naird in Stirlingshire, as appears from a lease granted by him
of part of these lands to the abbot and convent of Holyrood-
honse, confirmed by King Alexander the Second, 16th Sep-
tember 1228. Eustace, the heiress of Sir William Colville of
Oxnam, who possessed also the lands of Ochiltree in Ayrshire,
married Sir Re^nald Chene of Inveragie, who died soon after
1291, an aged man. She survived her husband, and having
swora fealty to Edward the First in 1296, she had livery ot
her lands in the shires of Aberdeen, Ayr, Banff, Forfar,
Inverness and Kincardine. This lady, according to the Re-
marks on the Ragman Roll, in 'Nisbet's Heraldry,' {Appendix^
vol. iL page 27) was the heiress of the principal house ot
Colville.
In the reign of Alexander the Third Sir John Colville was
proprietor of Oxnam and Ochiltree. In 1296 Thomas de
Colville swore fealty to King Edward the First, as did also
Adam de Colville. During the reign of Robert the First,
Eustace de Colville granted to the monks of Melrose the
church of Ochiltree with all its pertinents, a grant which was
confirmed by a charter from Robert de Colville, dominus de
Oxnam, designed also Baro baronim de OchiUree, in 1824.
[^Great Chartuiary of Mebrote.'] This Robert, who is also
witness to a donation to the monastery of Kelso in 1360, had
a charter of the barony of Ochiltree in Ajnrshire from King
David the Second. Among the chHrtors of that monarch are
two to Duncan Wallace and Malcolm Wallace of the lands ot
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OzeDhamf and lands in the countj of Domiriefly forfeited by
Robert ColvilL The family, however, retained the title of
Oznam till tbe reign of King James the First, when they as-
sumed the designation of Ochiltree, and were among the
greatest barons below the degree of lords of paiiiament in the
kingdom.
Robert Ck>lville of Oxenham, probably the son of the above
Robert, is witness to a charter of John TurubuU of Myntou
(Minto), to Sir William Stewart of Jedworth (Jedbmgh), his
grandson, of the lands of Myntou, 8th December 1890, which
was also witnessed by his son, Thomas Colville of Oxenham.
This Thomas had been witness to a charter of Margaret coun-
tess of Douglas and Mar in 1384, and in the reign of King
Robert the Third granted a charter to Henry Preston of his
part of Fromert^ (Formartyn) in Aberdeenshire, with the
castle and tolls of the burgh of Fyvie. He was one of the
numerous train of knights and esquires who in 1486 attended
Mai^garet of Scotland into France, on her marriage with Louis
the Dauphin.
Robert do Colville of Oxenham was one of the hostages for
King James the First, in room of Robert Stewart, allowed to
return home, 22d June 1482. In the year 1449, Sir Richard
Colville, knight, iicu)rding to Balfour, (a mistake evidently for
Sir Robert Colville,) set upon John Auchinleck, a familiar
friend of the earl of DougUis, and slew him with several of
his friends, on account of certain wrongs and injuries done to
him by the former, which had remained unredressed, althou^
reparation had frequently been required from him for the
same. To avenge Auchinleck's fate, Douglas collected his
retainers, and after pillaging aU the lands belonging to Col-
ville, besieged and took his castle and put him and all that
were with him to the sword. Robert Colville married Mar-
garet Colville, by whom he had a sdn. Sir Robert de Colville,
who had a charter of the barony of Uchiltree, 36th May,
1441, on his father's resignation, and another to himself and
Christina de Crichton, daughter of Sir Robert Crichton of
Sanquhar, knight, of the barony of Uchiltree, 16th February
1450-1. He and Andrew Ker of Auldtounbum entered into
an indenture binding themselves to stand by, assist, and de-
fend one another against all mortals, the king and the earl of
Douglas excepted, dated at Jedburgh 10th June 1458. He
gave in a complaint to the lords auditors concerning the
wrongous occupation of the lands of Maxtoun, belonging to
him, and got a decree in his favour, 17th October 1467. As
heir of his father, he was pursued before the lords auditors by
Sir John Achilike (Auchinleck) of that ilk, knight, for with-
holdihg from him nxty-five marks, oontained in an obliga-
tion of his father, for himself and his heirs, to the deceased
James Auchinleck, father of Sir John, and decreet was given
against him, 19th July 1476. He was succeeded by his son.
Sir William Colville of Ochiltree, knight. Chahners, in bis
Caledonia, mentions, " that, as early as the year 1498 there
had been a feud between Hugh Campbell of Loudoun, the
sheriff of Ayr, and Sir William Colville of Uchletree, knight,"
when the king granted an exemption to Sir William Colville
and his tenants and senrants from the jurisdiction of Hugh
Campbell and his deputies, ^'oecanse it was notoriously
known that there is a deadly feud betwixt them." Su* Wil-
liam died in 1508-9, leaving two daughters his coheiresses,
Elizabeth, who married Robert Colville, son and heir of Wil-
liam Colville of Ravenscraig, without issue ; and Margaret,
said to have been married to Patrick Colquhoun of Drum-
skeath, nephew of the laird of Luss. The names of the
daughters seem by some mistake to have been exchanged,
for in tbe public registers there are two charters to Patrick
CoJquhoun of Drumskeath and Elizabeth (not Maigaret)
Colville his wife, of date 12th July 1527 and 8tb Februaiy
1531-2. They had an only daughter and heiress, Frances ot
Franoesca, married to Robert Colville of Cleish, ancestor d
the Lords Colville of Ochiltree, of whom ailerwards.
Robert Colville of Hilton, the heir-male of the family, had
the office of steward to Margaret, queen of James the Third,
and had a charter from that monarch to himself aenescaUo
Margaretie ReginsB, and Margaret Logan his wife, of the
lands of Hilton, in the barony of Tillicoultry, in the county
of Clackmannan, 10th October 1483. He appears to have
joined actively the party of King James the Fourth against
his father, as six days after his accession to the throne the
office of director of the chancery was conferred on him by
royal charter 17th June 1488. He obtained charters of vari-
ous lands in Ayrshire, Clackmannanshire, and Roxboigh-
shire, from August 1502 to April 1508; and 10th April
1509 he had a charter of half of the lands and barony d
Ochiltree, with the castle, Barnwell and Symontoun, and
thereafter was styled of Ochiltree. He fell with his royal
master at the battle of Flodden 9th September 1513. In his
Caledonia, Chahners says, '^ After the disastrous battle of
Flodden, many violent acts were committed in Scotland, par-
ticularly in the south. In Ayrshire, the strong houses of
Cumnock and Uchletree were both violently taken poesessioo
of; their owners having fallen on Flodden Field." This
Robert Colville was twice married: first to Margaret
Logan ; and, secondly, to Elizabeth, daughter and ooheire«s
of Walter Amot of Balbarton, and had two sons, James and
Robert
Sir James Colville of Ochiltree, the elder son, was ap-
pointed to the office of comptroller before 1527. In that
year he granted an annual rent of ten pounds for thei support
of a chaplain, to officiate at St Mary's altar in the church of
Ochiltree, and the grant was confirmed by the king in 1527-8.
In 1530, he exchanged the lands of Ochiltree with Sir James
Hamilton of Finnart, a natural son of James first earl of Ar-
ran, for the barony of East Wemyss and Lochorahyre in FiSty
and obtained a charter of the same in December of that year.
In 1528 he had been appointed a director of the chancery.
He was one of the commissioners of parliament on the 24th
April and 13th May 1531, 15th December 1535, and 29th
April 1536. He was nominated lord of the articles on 13th
May 1582 and 7th June 1535, and on the same day was
chosen by the barons one of their commissioners for the taxa-
tion of six thousand pounds, granted by the three estates to
King James the Sixth on his approadiing marriage.
At the first institution of the college of justice, 25th May
1532, Sir James Colville of Easter Wemyss, as he was now
designed, was appointed one of the judges on the temporal
side of the bench. He was one of the commissionen at tbe
truce of Newcastle, on the 1st October 1533, shortly previous
to which date he had been knighted, and in the fiJUowing
year he was again sent to Enghind to treat of peace. He
lost the king's favour and brought on his own ruin, by ading
with the Douglases.
In 1538 the comptroller's place was taken from him and
conferred on David Wood of Craig, and on 30th May 1539, a
summons of treason was executed against him, charging him
with having, on the 14th of July 1528, when comptroller,
director of the chancery, and a privy councillor, made a pre-
tended assignation of the ward, relief, and marriage of John
Kennedy of Culzean, to certain individuals, for the benefit of
Archied Douglas of Kilspindy, although he knew that a
summons of treason against the latter had bera at that time
executed ; and further, with having afforded treasonable as-
sistance and counsel to the eari of Angus, and keeping a
•I i
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COLVILLE.
treasonable convocation with his brother George Douglas at
Newcastle. He appeared personally in parliament 18th July
1589, to answer the sonimons, and the king's advocate hav-
ing passed from the latter charges, he snbmitted himself, as
to the former, ** to the king's will,** as the phrase was in
those days of arbitrary power. On the 2l8t Aogost he was
ordered to enter himself in ward in the castle of Blackness.
This order he disobeyed, and retiring to England, associated
with ** Archibald snm tyme earl of Angniss, and George
Dou^ce, his broder-german, his grace's rebellis, and trai-
towis, traitand with yame ye destructioane of his grace, his
lieges and realme." This rash and treasonable prooeedmg,
however, he did not long sorvive, having died previoos to the
lOtb of Jannary 1541, on which day a summons was exe-
cuted against his widow and children, to see and hear that
'* the sud deceased James Colville, while hd lived, had in-
corred the crime of lese-miyesty, for his disobedience to enter
himself in ward, as just mentioned." He was accordingly
forfeited on the 15th March 1541. His estate was annexed
to the crown, but was afterwards given to Norman Leslie of
the family of Rothes. The forfeiture was rescinded in par-
liament on 12th December 1548, under the direction of Car-
dinal Bethune, which so offended the Leslies that, according
to Father Hay, it was the proximate cause of his murder by
Norman Leslie. {Hay'B Memoir$^ MS.^ vol. il. p. IO8.3 Sir
James Colville married, first, Alison, eldest daughter of Sir
David Bruce of Clackmannan ; secondly, Margaret Forrester,
who survived him. Besides other children, he had a son,
James, and two daughters; Margaret, married to James
Lindsay of Dowhill, Kinross-shire, and Alison, mentioned in
the records of parliament, 1540. He had likewise two natu-
ral sons, specified in the charter of Easter Wemyss, dated ic.
1580-1 ; namely, Robert, ancestor of the Lords ColvOle of
Ochiltree, and James, who had a charter of the lands of
Crummy, 8l8t May 1565.
Sir James Colville, his legitimate son, was only eight years
of age at his father's death. His Other's forfeiture, as al-
ready stated, was rescinded by parliament 12th December
l543 in his favour, and he had a charter (^the lands of Eas-
ter Wemyss in 1554. He died in 1580. By his wife, Janet,
second daughter of Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven, sister of
William, sixth earl of Morton, he had two sons; Sir James,
and Alexander, ooomiendator of Culross and a lord of session,
who carried on the line of the family, of whom afterwards.
Sir James Colville of Easter Wemyss, the elder son, first
Lord Colville of Cnbross, served with much reputation in the
French wars, under Henry of Navarre, afterwards Henry the
Fourth of France. On Friday 27th July 1582, he returned
to Scotland in company of Francis Stewart, earl of Bothwell,
bringing letters from the king of Navarre and prince of Conde
to King James. He was one of those who were engaged in
the raid of Ruthven, on the 22d August following, and his
name appears among others in the sentence of forfeiture after-
wards passed agunst the members of the raid. They subse-
quently got a remission from the king, which was confirmed
by the estates. He had a charter of the manor of Culross,
Valleyfield, ftc, erected into the temporal barony of Culross,
20th June 1589, but was not designed Lord Culross. Having
obtained a grant of the landed property of the Cistertian ab-
bey of Culross, on the resignation of his nephew, John, they
were erected into a temporal lordship, and Sir James Colville
was created a peer, by the title of Lord Colville of Culross,
to him and the heirs male of his body, which failing, to his
heirs male whatsoever, 20th January 1609. In Carmichaers
Tracts the date of his creation is fixed at 25th April 1604,
and Lord Colvil of Culroese is, in the list of the nobility set-
tled by the decreet of ranking, 5th May 1606, placed btfore
the Lord Scoon.
According to the Old Statistical Account of Scotland, (vol.
XV. page 212), after his return from France, he resided at
Tilliecoultry, in Clackmannanshire, that estate b«nng in the
Colvill family from 1483 to 1634, when it was sole to William
Alexander of Menstrie, afterwards earl of Stirling, the distin-
guished poet In his old age. Lord Colville revisited the
French court As he appeared in the old-fashioned military
dress, which he had formerly worn in the wars, the courtiers
were all amazed when he entered the royal presence. But
no sooner did King Heniy observe the old warrior than he
clasped him in his arms, and embraced him with the great-
est affection, to the utter astonishment of all present In his
latter years Lord Colville spent much of his time at Tlllie-
ooultry. He was particularly fond of walking on a beautiful
terrace, at the north end of the Kirkhill, and of reposing him-
sell under, a thorn- tree, the venerable trunk of which still re-
nudns. It unfortunately happened that standing one day on
a stone, and looking up to the thorn-tree, describing his bat-
tles, he fell down the sloping bank of the terrace, and it is
said was killed on the spot in the year 1620. His lordship
was twice married, first, to Isabel, second daughter of Patrick,
Lord Ruthven, sister of William, first earl of Gowrie, and
secondly to Helen Shaw, relict of Robert Moubray, younger
of ^ambougle. By his first wife only he had issue ; namely,
two sons, James and Robert, who both died before their fa-
ther; and a daughter, Jane, married to Sir James Campbell
of Lawers, and the mother of John, earl of Loudoun, lord
high chancellor of Scotland.
Robert, master of Colville, the second son, had charters of
the barony of Easter Wemyss in 1598, and on his death in
1615, he left a son, James, second Lord Colville of Culross,
who succeeded his grandfather, the first lord, in 1620, and
died, without issue, in 1640. His cousm, John Colville of
Westercumbrie, son of Alexander Colville commendator of Cul-
ross, younger brother of the first Lord Colville, fell heir to tlie
title, but did not assume it, and it remained dormant till May
1723, when it was taken up by his descendant as after men-
tioned. About the period of the death of James second Lord
Colville the lands of Easter Weroyits were purchased by John
first earl of Wemyss, and joined to the barony of Wemyss,
after a separation of two hundred years.
We now revert to Alexander Colville, abbot or ooomienda-
tor of Cuhx>s8, who was the second son of Sir James Colville
of Easter Wemyss, above mentioned. He had a charter for
all the days of his life, of the abbey of Culroes, 4th February
1566-7, and it was declared by act of secret council, 20th
January 1574, that five hundred marks only should be paid
by him for the thirds of this benefice. He adhered to the
party of King James the Sixth, in the dvil wars in Scotland
of the sixteenth centniy, and during the regency of the earl
of Morton was appointed one of the judges of *the coiurt of
session, before the 20th October 1575. On the 15th July
1578, a commission was appointed by parliament to '* visit,
sycht, and consider" the laws, of which he was named a
member ; and he was at the same time constituted one of the
parliamentary arbiters to stanch a deadly feud then existing
between the great families of Gordon and Forbes, to the de-
cision of which the ordinary judicatories were deemed une-
qual. On 11th November 1579, he was named a privy
cooncillor by act of parliament, and was also appointed a
lord of the articles, and a commissioner for settling the juris-
diction of the church. He was present at Holyrood House
on the 19th October 1582, when James was forced to emit a
declaration approving of the raid of Ruthven, but he does not
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LORD.
appear to have taken any very promment share in that enter-
prize. In 1585» after the return of Hamilton, Angus, and
the other baniahed lords, he was again chosen a privy conn-
cillor with advice of parliament. In the end of May 1587,
on aoooont of ilhiess he resigned his seat on the bench, and
on the first of June, his nephew, John Colnlle, precentor or
chanter of Glasgow, was appointed in his place. This trans-
action appears to have been only a family arrangement, as on
the 2l8t of the same month of Jnne, the uncle, having in
the meantime recovered his health, made his appearance in
court, with his nephew, when the latter dutifully resigned
his seat on the bench, which he had held only nineteen davs,
and the former was re-appointed. In 1592, the commission
for reformation of hospitals was revived, the commendator of
Culroas being again appointed a member. He died in 1597,
it is supposed in ilay, as his successor was appointed on the
24th of that month. Lord CuhtMs collected the decisions of
the court of session from 1570 to 1584. By his wife, Nico-
las, daughter of Alexander Dnndas of Fingask, he had, with
two daughtors, two sons, John of Wester Cumbrie, and Alex-
ander, professor of divinity in the university of St. Andrews,
and appointed justice depute 2d June 1607. Of John Col-
ville, chanter of Glasgow, above mentioned, an account is
given below.
John Colville of Wester Cumbrie, elder son of Alexander
Colville, commendator of Culross, became of right, on the
death of his cousin in 1640, third baron, but he did not as-
sume the title ; and he died shortly afterwards. By his wife
Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Melville of Hallhill, he had
three sons. His eldest son, Alexander Colville of Kincar-
dine, of right fourth Lord Colville of Culross, like his father,
did not assume the title. He was professor of divinity at
Sedan in France, and by his wife, Ann le Blanc, had two
sons. The elder, John Colville of Kincardine, who also de-
clined to assume the title of Lord Colville, married Mary,
second daughter of Sir George Preston of Vallejfield, baronet,
by whom he had two sons, and was succeeded by the elder,
Alexander, by right nxth baron, who likewise declined the
title. By his wife, Mary, daughter of the Hon. Sir Charles
Erskine of Cambo, baronet, lord lyon king at arms, a younger
brother of the second and third earls of Kellie, he had five
sons and tax daughters.
John Colv^le, the eldest son, of right seventh Ix)rd Col-
ville of Cnlross, was an ensign at the battle of Malplaquet in
1709. On 8d April 1722 he was served heir to John second
Ix>rd Colville of Culross ; and at the general election on the
2 1st of that month, he requested to be added to the roll of
peers, but was refused on the ground that the peerage was
not upon the roll at the time of the Union. Next year he
presented a petition to the king, under the designation of
" John Lord Colville of Culross," claiming the peerage. Be-
ing referred to the Honse of Lords, 27th May 1723, the claim
was determined in his favour, and his lordship was accord-
ingly placed on the roll, after Lord Cardross and before Lord
Cranstoun. In 1727 Lord Colville was an officer in the 26th
regiment of foot or Cameronians, at the siege of Gibraltar,
and the same year was promoted to a company of the 25th
foot. In 1739, when war was declared agamst Spam, his
lordship was appointed, with the rank of lientenuit-oolonel,
to the command of a battalion in Colonel Gooch*s American
regiment, and in 1741 proceeded to Cartllagena, where he
fell a victim to the epidemic disease so fatal to thousands, on
board a transport in the harbour, in April 1741, in the 52d
year of his age. When in Ireland in 1716, his lordship mar-
ried a Miss Johnston, by whom he had six sons and three
duughters.
His next brother, the Hon. Charles Cohdlle, bom in 1691,
was a distinguished officer in the army, and oommerKsed bis
military career as a cadet at the battle of Malplaquet in 1709.
In the following year he had an ensign's conuniaaion in the
26th or Cameronian regiment of foot, in which also his elder
brother was an officer. In 1715 he was wounded at the at-
tack on the rebels at Preston, in Lancashire. In 1727 he
served at Gibraltar during the si^ of that fortress, and was
tliere in 1735, when he was promoted to a company in the
same regiment. In 1741 he was appointed ra^or to the 21st
regiment of foot, or Royal North British fusileers, which be
accompanied to Flanders. At the battle of Dettingen in
1743, his horse was shot under him, and he received three
cuts in the arm. In 1745 he commanded his regiment at
the battle of Fontenoy, in which three of the fingers of his
left hand were shot off, and besides other slighter hurts, be
received a severe wound in his foot. The same year he was,
with the fusileers, at Ostend, when it was besieged by the
French, and in 1746 he commanded his regiment at the bat-
tle of Culloden. The following jear he was ordered back to
Flanders, and commanded the regiment at the battle of L»-
feldt, in 1747. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-general in
1770, and died at Edinburgh, unmarried, 29th August, 1775.
in his 85th year. The Hon. Alexander Colville, the next
brother, entered the royal navy in 1710, but on the redaction
of the naval force at the peace he retired from the serrioe,
and was appointed collector of the customs at Dundee, whence
he was, in 1735, removed to Invemen, where he died, un-
married, 20th April 1765.
Alexander, dghtb baron (but the fourth who assumed the
title), eldest son of the seventh baron Ccdville of Culross, dis-
tinguished himself as a naval officer. He was bom 24tb
Febraary 1717, and entered the navy in 1781. On the
breaking out of the war in 1739, he was appointed lieutenant
of a bomb vessel, and sailed to the West Indies under Ad-
miral Vernon. He was employed in the bombardment and
destraction of Fort Chagre, and then proceeded to the ex{M-
dition against Carthagena, where, in 1741, he performed the
mournful office of closing the eyes of his father. He soon
afterwards returned to England, lieutenant in the Hampton
Court, and then, sailing to the Mediterranean, joined the
fleet under Admiral Matthews, who appointed him master
and commander, and, 6th March 1744, promoted him to tht
rank of post-captain with the command of the Leopard of 50
gims. After the peace in 1749, his lordship returned co
England, and was appointed to the Success frigate, destined
for the Boston station. He subsequently got the command
of the Northumberland, a guardship at Plymouth, on board
of which he went to America under Admiral Boscawen in
1755. Two years afterwards he accompanied Admin] Hol-
burae in the ineffectual expedition against Loubbnig, and
was left at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, in command of the ships
on that station, with a commodore's broad pendant, in the
winter of 1757-8. In the latter year he served under Ad-
miral Boscawen at the reduction of Lonisborg, and was again
left in command of the ships in North America. When
Quebec was besieged by the French in the winter of 1759-60
Lord Colville received directions to proceed with a squadron
to the relief of that place, as soon as the navigation of the St.
Lawrence was open. He arrived at Quebec, \8th May 1760,
at a period of the year earlier than it was ever known ihat a
ship of war, far less a squadron, had ever gone so high up the
river. On receiving notice of his approach, the French raised
the siege, and made a precipitate retreat two days previoDS
to his arrival. After an expedition from Halifkx to drive tht
French out of Newfoundland, which they had got posseaaior
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of by snrprisef and recovering that^important island, his lord-
ship returned to England, and was promoted to the rank of
rear-admiral of the white, 2l8t October 1762. The prelimi-
naries of peace at this time only prevented him from obtain-
ing the chief command in the Mediterranean. He continued
with bis flag flying at Spithead, and doing the dnty of port-
admiral at Portsmouth, till peace was concluded, when he was
appointed to the same station at Pljrmouth. At the e&mest
request of Ix)rd Sandwich, then first lord of the admiralty,
he consented to resume the command in North America, and
hoisting his flag on board the Komney of 60 guns, proceeded
to Halifax, in order to protect the coast of North America,
and the new conquests in the gulf and river of St. Law-
rence. There ho remained till 1766, when he retired from
the service. In 1768 he fijced his residence in Scotland,
and in 1769 was promoted to the rank of vice-admiral. He
died, without legitimate issue, at Drumsheugh, near Edin-
botgh, 21st May 1770, in the 54th year of his age. He mar-
ried, Ist October 1768, \jidy Elisabeth Erskine, eldest daugh-
ter of the sixth earl of Kellie, widow of Walter MacFarhme
of MacFarlane, the eminent antiquary. He was succeeded
by a younger brother, John, fifth (properly ninth) Lord
Colville of Gulross. His next brother, Charles, died an infant
George, the third brother, an officer in the army, was nomi-
nated in 1789 one of the thirty lieutenants sent out to North
America, to disciplme Colonel Gooch^s new raised regiment,
destined for the Carthagena expedition, but died of a fever at
New York, in his twentieth year. Another brother, also
named Charles, bom April 21, 1726, was an officer in the same
regiment as his uncle, the Royal North British fusileers, and
first served as a cadet at the battle of Dettingen. At the
battle of Fontenoy he was shot through the cheek. He was
subsequently at Ostend, then besieged by the French, and
afterwards, under the duke of Cumberland, pursned the rebels
into Scotland. In 1747 he was at the battle of Lafeldt, and
in 1/51 accompanied his regiment to Gibraltar. Being or-
dered, with a detachment of that garrison, on board the fleet
commanded by Admiral Byng, he was present in the action
with the French off Minorca, for which that unfortunate
naval commander waS tried and executed. Captain Colville
returned to England with his regiment in 1759, and in 1761
was in the expedition agunst Belleisle. He died at Newcas-
tle, on his march with the 21st into Scotland, 15th March
1763, in the 87th year of his age, unmarried. The Hon.
James Colville, the seventh and youngest son, entei-ed the
royal navy in 1744, and sailed to the East Indies with Admi-
ral Watson. He commanded the Newcastle in the engage-
ment betwixt Admirals Pooock and D'Ache, 8d August 1758,
when the French were defeated. He had the rank of captain
in the royal navy 17tb October of the same year, and com-
manded the same ship in the engagement between the same
admirals, 10th August 1759, when, afler a very severe action,
the French were obliged to retreat. Subsequently he was
promoted to the command of the Sunderland of 60 guns, one
of Admiral Stevens^ squadron employed in the blockade of
Pondicheny, and from his spirit and ardour to carry on the
important service in which he was engaged, he would not put
to sea on the approach of a dreadful hurricane, because no
signal to that effect was made by the admiral ; in consequence
of which the Sunderland, with other ships of that squadron,
foundered on the 21st of January 1761, and Captain Colville
perished, with all his ship*8 company, except two black sail-
makers, in the 27th year of his age, unmarried.
John, the fifth who assumed the title of Lord Colville, was
bom at Dundee 24th January 1724, old style, and entering
the army in Januarv 1741, served in the West Indies, under
General Wentworth. His regiment being disbandtNi, he re-
turned to England early in 1748, and in the following June,
became first lieutenant in the 2l8t foot, or Royal North Brit-
ish fusileers, in which also his brother and uncle held com-
missions. He was at the battle of Fontenoy; in Ostend,
when besi^ed the same year ; served under the duke of Cum-
berland, at the taking of Carlisle that winter; at the battle
of Culloden, and at the action of Lafeldt. In 1761 he ac-
companied his regiment to Belleisle, in the Bay of Biscay,
which was reduced after the capture of the citadel of Palais,
the capital of the island. In 1764 he reUred from the army,
after a service of twenty-four years, and had the office ot
inspector-general of the outposts m Scotland. He succeeded
to the title, on the death of his brother, in 1770. He mar-
ried at Gibraltar, 18th July 1758, Miss Webber, by whom he
had eight sons and four daughters. His lordship died in
1811, and was succeeded by his fourth son, the Hon. John
Colville ; his two eldest bom having died while infants, and
his third son, the Hon. James John Colville, a naval officer,
having died, unmarried, 18tb February, 1786, in. the 23d
year of his age.
John, sixth Lord Colville of Oulross who assumed the title,
but the tenth baron, bom 15th March 1768, entered the navy
in 1780, and was present in Ix>rd Rodney's action with Count
de Grasse, 12th April 1782. He served at the capture of the
West India Islands in 1794. He attained the rank of; post-
captain 6th December 1796, and was in command of the Am-
buscade frigate of 36 guns, when the peace of Amiens took
place, March 27, 1802. On the renewal of hostilities he was
appointed to the Romney of 50 gnns, which was wreidced on
the coast of Holland, 25th November 1804, but was ^ved
and sent home, with his officers, by the humane Dutch
admunl, Kerkert He commanded L'HercnIe in the expedi-
tion to Copenhagen in 1807, and attained the rank of admiral
of the white in Febroary 1847. He was one of the represen-
tative peers of Scotland and an extra lord of the bed-chamber
to Prince Albert. Bis lordship married first, at Weeford, in
Staffordshire, 14th October 1790, Elizabeth, third daughter
of Francis Ford of the island of Barbadoea, sister of Sir Fron-
ds Ford, baronet, M.P., by whom he had a daughter, who
died an infant Lady Colville died in 1889, and his lordsliip
married secondly, 15th October 1841, the Hon. Anne Law,
third daughter of the first Lord EUenborough, but by her
had no issue. His lordship died in December 1849. His
next brother and his youngest brother, belh died infants.
The Hon. Sir Charles Colville, the sixth son of the fifth (pro-
perly ninth) Lord Colville, bora in 1770, was^an officer in the
army, and in 1796 became lieutenant-oobnel of the 18tli re-
^ment of foot, which he commanded in the memorable cam-
paign in Egypt in 1801, and in the various active services in
which that regiment was subsequently employed. He had
the rank of colonel in the army, 1st January 1805, was aftei-
wards a brigadier-general in the West India staff, and com-
manded a brigade at the capture of Martinique in 1809. Ho
was 0. C. B., G. C. H. and K. T. S., a general in the army,
and colonel in the 5th loot, and distmguished himself in the
late war. He married ui 1818, Jane, ddest daughter of Wil-
iiam Mure, Esq. of Caldwell in Ayrshire, by whom he had
two sons and three daughters, and died 27th Mardi^ 1843.
On the 2lBt of May, scarcely two months after his death, his
widow. Lady Colville, expired at her residence, Rosslyn
House, Haropstead, from the effects of ii^juries she receivod
from her dress taking fire. His next brother, the Hon
George Colville, was a lieutenant in the 41st regiment of foot,
and after havmg survived all the dangers and fatigues of a
most active (ligbt infantry) service, at the siege of Fort Bour-
2. u
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COLVILLE,
674
JOHN.
bon, and in the redaction of the three islands under Sir
Cliarles Grey, fell a victim to the pestilential fever at St Do-
mingo on 24th June 1794, in the 24th year of his age.
The tenth baron was succeeded by his nephew Charles
John Colville, eleventh baron and seventh Lord Colville of
OulroHs. eldest son of the Hon. General Sir Charles Colville.
G.C.B. He WHS bom at Edinburgh in 1818, succeeded his ,
uncle in Dec 1849. and was at one period a captain in the
eleventh hussnrs. He was elected a representative peer of
Scotland in August 1861; for some time chief equerry and
clerk marshal to hermHJesty. He married in 1853 the eldest
daughter of second Lord Carriagton; issue, a son, Hon.
Charles Robert, master of Culross, bom 1854, and a daughter.
Colville of Ochiltree, Lord, a title in the peerage of
Scotland, first conferred on 4th January 1651, on Robert
I Colville of Cleish, great-grandson of Robert Colville, natural
son of Sir James Colville of Easter Wemyss, above mentioned,
who granted to his said son and Francesca Colquhoim his
wife (by whom he had a son and three danghters) a charter
of the barony of Cleish, in Kinross-shire, loth July 1537,
confirmed on the 21st of the same month. This Robert Col-
ville, the first styled of Cleish, was forfeited by parliament,
10th December 1540, for treason, having, like his father,
favoured the Douglases; but his forfeiture was rescinded, I2th
December 1543. He held the office of master of the house-
nold to Lord James Stewart, afterwards the regent Murray,
and was a hearty promoter of the Reformation. He joined
the lords of the Congregation, and in June 1559, when Knox
had announced his intention of preaching in the Cathedral
church of St Andrews, Archbishop Hamilton denred him to
tell the lords that in case John Knox presented himself to the
preaching place in his town and cathedral church he should
be saluted with a dozen of hacquebuts. Knox set the proud
prelate's threats at defiance, and preached in spite of him.
He was in their army in the attack upon the French at
Leith, 7th May 1560, when he received a shot m the thigh,
and died two hours afterwards. Knot describes him as ** a
modest, stout, and wise man."
Robert, first Lord Colville of Ochiltree, was the elder of
two sons of Robert Colville of Cleish, grandson of the above,
6y his wife Beatrix, daughter of John Haldane of Gleneagles.
He was served heir to his father, 12th September 1643, and
^as knighted by Charles the First On the 4th January
1651, as already stated, he was created a peer by Charles the
Second, by the title of Lord Colville of Ochiltree, by patent,
to him and his heirs male. He married Janet, second daugh-
ter of Sir John Wemyss of Wemyss, sister of the first earl of
Wemyss, but had no issue. He died at Crombie, 25th
August 1662, and was succeeded by his nephew Robert, the
son of his brother David.
Robert, second Lord Colville of Ochiltree, married Marga-
ret, daughter of David Wemyss of Fingask, by whom he had,
with two daughters, (the elder, Margaret, wife of Sir John
Ayton of Ayton, and the younger married to the Rev. Mr.
Logan, minister of Tony,) a son, Robert Colville, third Lord
Colville of Ochiltree, who died without issue. Robert Ayton,
his grandnephew, his heir of line, took the name of Colville,
and was designated Robert Ayton Colville of Craigfiower.
The titie was assumed by David Colville, son of William
Colville, tenant at Balcormie Mill in Fife, but he never voted
at the elections of Scots representative peers. He held the
rank of major, and died unmarried in London 8th Februaiy
1782, when his pretensions to the peerage descended to his
cousin, Robert Colville, whose vote, registered at the election
of 1788, was subsequently disallowed by the house of Lords.
The Colvills of Clontarf house, county Dublin, Ireland,
are descended from James Colvill (stated to be a broUier
of John, third Lord Colvill^ of Culroes, and of the Rev
Alexander Colville, D.D., professor of divinity at St An
drews, Fife, and afterwards surrogate of Down, father of Sir
Robert Colvill, and great-grandfather of the first countesa
of Mountcashell), who went to Ireland in 1630, and settled
in the north.
COLVILLE, John, a controvereial writer, of a
turbulent and restless disposition, of the family of
Colville of Easter Wemyss, was some time min-
ister of Kilbride and chanter or precentor of
Glasgow. In 1578, for nonresidence at his
chorch, he was ordered by the General As-
sembly " to be taken order withal by the synod
of Glasgow, for deserting of his ministry ;" and
having obtained an introduction to Court, he
was appointed, in 1579, Master of Reqaeste. He
was soon after engaged in the treasonable conspi-
racy of the raid of Ruthven, and was on that oc-
casion sent by the conspirators as their represen-
tative to Queen Elizabeth, who had favoured the
enterprise. When the king recovered his liberty,
Colville was ordered to enter in ward, but in-
stead of doing so, he retired to England, and Au-
gust 22, 1584, forfeited in parliament. He was
soon, however, restored to favour ; and on June
2d, 1587, he was appointed by the king a lord of
session in the room of his uncle, Alexander Col-
ville, commendator of Culross, who had resigned
from illness. This ofilce, hoi^ver, he did not
hold long, for, on the 21st of the same month,
his uncle having recovered his health, resumed
his seat on the bench, and the nephew, who,
about the same time, represented the burgh of
Stirling in parliament, seems to have been after-
wards appointed collector of the taxation granted
for King James' marriage expenses.
Being disappointed in his expectations at court,
Colville joined the turbulent earl of Bothwell, and
was with him when he made his attack npon the
king on the night of the 27th December 1591, for
which he was again forfeited in parliament. On
the 24th July 1593, he again accompanied Both-
well to Holyroodhouse, when they both went on
their knees and craved pardon for then* former
attacks, to the great alarm of James, and the dis-
turbance of the court and city. On Bothwell's
flight, Colville obtained his pardon, by betraying
his associates. He had treacherously given assnr.
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COLVILLE.
675
COMBE.
auce of his life to BothwelFs nataral brother,
Hercules Stewart, who, nevertheless, was hanged
in 1595. Finding, in consequence, that he had
fallen into disgrace and discredit in his own conn-
try, he went to France. Subsequently he made
several attempts to obtain his recall, but in vain.
He then became a Roman Catholic, and wrote
bitterly against the protestants. In 1600, a trea-
tise by him was published at Edinburgh, entitled,
*The Palinode,' which he represented to be a
refutation of a former work of his own against
James* title to the English crown. This was
merely a manoeuvre to ingratiate himself with
that monarch, as no such work had he ever
written. He died while on a pilgrimage to Rome
in 1607. — His works are:
The Palinode. Edin., 1600, 8vo.
Panenesis ad Ministroe Sootos super sua oonversatione, or
Admonition of John Colville (lately retumit to the Catholic
Roman Religion, in whilk he was baptesit and brocht np till
he bad full 14 years of age) to his oonntrymen ; which was
translated and poblished at Paris in 1602, 8vo.
He was also the antbor of ^ Capita Gontiroversa," and * De
Causa Comitis Botbwellii.*
Charters, in his Uvea of Scotch Writers, (MSS,, in Advo-
cates* Library) adds to Colville's works, *Oratio fiinebris
Exequis Elizabeth destinata.*
The author of the History of Sutherland speaks of a MS.
relating to the af&irs of Scotland, by Mr. John Colvin, as the
name Colville was sometimes spelled in Scotland.
COLVILLE, sometimes called Colwil, Alex-
ander, a Scottish episcopalian divine, of right
fourth lord Colville of Culross, was bora near St.
Andrews, in Fifeshire, in 1620. He was educated
at tiie university of Edinburgh, where he took his
degree of D.D., and was settled minister at
Dysart. In early life he had been professor of
theology in the university of Sedan in France,
' under the patronage of the Reformed churches in
that country. Besides delivering lectures on
theology, he also taught Hebrew in that seminary,
— the revival of the study of which language was
much attended to by protestants on the continent.
He wrote several pieces against the presbyterians,
all of which are now forgotten, except a humorous
poem, entitled ' The Scotch Hudibras,' written in
the manner of Butler. He died at Edinburgh In
1676. There seems to have been another Colvil,
who also wrote an imitation of Butler; as, in 1681,
one Samuel Colvil published at London, *The
Mock Poem, or the Whig's Supplication,' 12mo.
This Alexander Colville is often confounded
with a Mr. William Colville, who was elected
principal of the univei-sity of Edinburgh, on the
death of Principal Adamson in 1652. He was at
this time minister of the English church at Utrecht.
He accepted the invitation, but owing to some ob-
struction, it is thought, on the part of Cromwell's
goverament, he did not at that time take posses-
sion of the office, and it was declared vacant on
17th January 1658. As he had given in his de-
mission to his church and left HoUand, he was
allowed a year's stipend for his trouble and ex-
pense; and Dr. Leighton, afterwards bishop of
Dunblane, was elected principal. On the promo-
tion of Dr. leighton to the sec of Dunblane in
1662, Mr. William Colville was admitted principal
of the university of Edinburgh. Although a mem-
ber of the General Assembly, he had espoused the
episcopal doctrines of divine right and absolute
obedience as early as' 1648, and he even went so
far as to attempt forming a party, between the
presbyterians and episcopalians. On this account
he had been, along with Mr. Andrew Ramsay,
suspended from the office of the ministiy, by the
Assembly, which sentence was revoked in 1655.
The episcopalian party, says Bower in his History
of the Univei-sity of Edinburgh, (vol. i. p. 276,)
represented him as a man of a very moderate
temper, and alleged that he had been offered sev-
eral Scottish bbhoprics, but he would never accept
of preferment. He was the author of a work en-
titled * Ethica Christiana,' which was in consider-
able repute in those days. His sermons on the
' Righteous Branch ' discover a great vein of piety,
as well as show that his religious opinions corre-
sponded with the doctrines of the Westminster
Confession of Faith.
CoLYEAR, evidently the same as, and derived from, Collier,
a snmame assumed by Sir Alexander Robertson, of the family
of Strowan, created a baronet 20th Febmaiy 1677, and the
ancestor of the earls of Portmore, a title now extinct — See
PoRTMORB, earl of.
COMBE, Andrew, M.D., an eminent physio-
logical writer, was the fifteenth child and seventh
son of George Comb or Combe, brewer at Living-
ston's Yards, (a small property lying under the
south-west angle of Edinburgh castle) and Marion
Newton, of the Newtons of CurriehiU, his wife,
and was born there on 27th October 1797. He
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COMBE.
676
CONGALTON.
received the elementary part of his education un-
der a Mr. Brown, one of the town's teachers, who
kept a school in Fi*ederick street, and afterwards
went to the high school. In October 1810 he en-
tered the university of Edinburgh, and attended
the Greek and Latin classes for the next two col-
lege sessions. In 181 2 he was bound apprentice
to Mr. Henry Johnston, surgeon in Edinburgh,
and after attending the medical classes passed
surgeon in 1817. He subsequently pursued his
studies at Paris, and, after a visit to Switzerland
and Lombardy, returned to Edinburgh, where, on
22d February 1820, he was one of the four indivi-
duals who founded the Phrenological Society, his
brother, George Combe, being another. He sub-
sequently, on account of his health, went to Italy,
and there and in France remained for about two
years. He returned to Edinburgh in the summer
of 1822, and soon after entered upon practice.
The first of his printed essays was one *^ on the
effects of injuries of the brain upon the manifesta-
tions of the mind," which was read before the
Phrenological Society, and subseqi^ently published
in their Transactions. Subsequently he contri-
buted several essays to the Phrenological Journal,
as well as to the British and Foreign Medical Re-
view. Having become a member of the Royal
Medical Society of Edinburgh, an essay on phren-
ology written by him, was read before that society,
in November 1823, and gave rise to some unplea-
sant discussion at the time, the opposition to that
science being very strongly shown by the membei's
on the occasion. In 1825 he took the degree of
M.D. In reply to an able and eloquent article of
Mr. Jeffrey in the Edinburgh Review against
phrenology. Dr. Combe in the following year fur-
nished an essay ** on Size as a measure of power"
to the Phrenological Journal. In 1831 he pub-
lished a work on mental derangement, which re-
ceived the approbation of the profession and had
a rapid sale. In the same year, in consequence of
a second attack of pulmonary disease, he proceed-
ed to Paris, and thence by Mai-seilles to Naples,
and after visiting Rome, he returned to Edin-
burgh and resumed practice. In 1834 appeared
his principal work, 'On Ph3'siology applied to
health and education.' In January 1886, on the
recommendation of Dr. (afterwards Sir James)
Clark, he was appointed physician to the king of
the Belgians, but in a few months was obliged to
resign his appointment from bad health. He ded-
icated his work on Physiology to his majesty
King I^opold, and in March 1838, he was ap-
pointed one of the physicians extraordinary for
the queen in Scotland, an office of honour, but
without duties or emolument. Owing to increased
bad health he subsequently made two voyages to
Madeira, where he resided for some time. In
April 1847 he sailed for New York, and after vis-
iting Philadelphia he returned home in the subse-
quent June, and died at Gorgie Mill, near Edin-
burgh, 9th August of that year. His Life and
Correspondence by his brother, George Combe, was
published at Edinbui-gh in 1850, with a portrait.
Dr. Combe's works are :
The Principles of Physiology applied to the preservation of
health, and to the improvement of physical and mental edu-
cation. Edin. 1834. 18th edition, 1850, poet 8ro.
The Physiology of Digestion considered with relation to the
principles of Dietetics. Edm. 1886. Ninth edition ; edited
and adapted to the present state of physiotogical and chemi-
cal science by James Coxe, M.D., crown 8vo, 1850.
A Treatise on the Physiological and Moral Management of
Infancy; being a practical exposition of the principles of in>
fant training. Edin. 1839. 7tli edition, erown 8vo, 1850.
Experiments and Obsenrations on the Gastric Juice and
Physioiopy of Digestion ; by William Beaumont, M.D., Sur-
geon to the United States army. Reprinted with Notes by
Andrew Combe, M.D., 1 vol. post 8vo. Edin.
Phrenology; its Nutare and Uses. An Add rras to the Stu-
dents of Anderson's University, at the opening of Dr. W«r*8
first course of Lectures on Phrenology in tliat Institutiim, 8vq.
COMBE, Gkorgk. See Supplement.
GoMRiB, a surname derived from lands of that name in
Perthshire, now a parish and vilUge. The word has its origin
in a Gaelic term meaning confluence.
CoMTN. See Gumming.
C!oNOALTON, an andent surname in Scotland, dorived from
the barony of Congalton in the parish of Dirleton in East
Lothian. The family of Congalton of Congalton subsisted
for twenty generations in the male line. The first on reocvd
was Robert de Congaltoun, who witnessed a charter of Richard
de Moreville, constable of Scotland, without date, but granted
about 1162, engraved in *Ander8on*s Diplomata.' In the
Ragman Roll, occurs the name of Walter de Congleton, sup-
posed by Nisbet to be one of this family The name occurs
again in a charter by Patrick eari of March of the lands <A
Stonypnth in 181G. " On 8th May 1509, a ro}'al chart«- was
granted by King James the Fourth to Heniy Congalton d
Congalton, of the king's island and lands of Fetheray, along
with the hill of the castle (Monte-Castri) of the same called
Tarbet; also all and whole the king's island and lands of
Craigleith, with the pertinents of the same, lying within the
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CONSTABLE,
677
ARCHIBALD.
nl
Frith of Forth, oountj of Edinburgh and constabiUarj of
Haddington, creating, uniting, annexing, and incorporating
all these islands, lands, and hill of the castle aforesaid, with
the pertinents of the same, in one whole and free barony, to
be called the barony of Tarbet, to be held of the king, paying
one penny of Scots money, at the said hill of the castle of
Tarbet, in name of blench farm if required, along with the
marriage of the said heirs of Henry Congalton when it shall
happen.** IGreat Seal Register^ Book xv., No. 115.]
The elder branch of the family succeeding through heiresses
to the estates of Hepburn of Keith in East Lothian, and
liickart of Rickartoun, in the county of Kincardine, assumed
the names of Rickart and Hepburn. [See Bickakt, and
HuPBUiiN, surnames of.*]
Robert Hepburn Coa^ton of Keith and €k>ngalton, the
eighteenth generatioa of the family, sold Congalton to his
brother, Charles, whose son, William Congalton of Congalton,
married Mary, daughter of David Bethime of Balfour in Fife.
His son, Charles Congalton of Congalton, succeeding to the
estate of that ancient and distinguished family, of whom was
Cardinal Bethnne, took the name and arms of Bethune of
Balfour, and sold Congalton, which was afterwards purchased
by the heir male, Colonel Robert Rickart Hepburn, of Keith
and Rickartonn, member of parliament for the county of Kin-
cardhie, who dying in 1804, was buried with his ancestors in
the church of Golyn. Congalton was sold to a gentleman of
the name of Grant, in whose family it remains.
CoKSTABLB, a sunuune derived from the ancient high and
honourable office of comu stabuH, count of the stable. Under
the French kings the person who held this office was the first
dignitary uf the crown, the commander-in-chief of the armies,
and the highest judge in military affairs. In England there
was at one time a lord high constable of the kingdom, an
officer of the crown of the highest dignity. The earl of Errol
is hereditary grand constable of Scotland. Constable was
the family name of the viscounts of Dunbar, a title dormant
since 1721. See Dunbas, Viscount.
CONSTABLE, Archibald, one of the most
enterprising publishers that Scotland has produced,
was born February 24, 1775, at Kellie, parish
of Cambee, county of Fife. He was the son of
Thomas Constable, ovei-seer or laud-steward on
the estate of the earl of Kellie. He received all
the education he ever got at the school of Carnbee.
In 1788, he was apprenticed to Mr. Peter Hill,
bookseller in Edinburgh, the friend and corre-
spondent of Bums. While ho remained with Mr.
Hill, he assiduously devoted himself to acquiring
a knowledge of old and scarce books, and particu-
larty of the early and rare productions of the Scot-
tish press. On the expiration of his apprenticeship
he married the daughter of Mr. David Willison, a
respectable printer in Edinburgh, who assisted
him shortly after his commencing business, which
he did in 1795, in a small shop on the north side
of the High street of that city.
Mr. Constable's obliging manners, professional
intelligence, personal activity, and prompt atten-
tion to the wishes of his visitoi's, recommended
him to all who came in contact with him. Amongst
the first of his publications of any importance
were Campbeirs 'History of Scottish Poetry,*
Dalyell's * Fragments of Scottish History,' and
Ley den's edition of the * Complaint of Scotland/
In 1800 he commenced a quarterly work, entitled
the * Farmer's Magazine,' which, under the man-
agement of Mr. Robert Brown of Markle, ob-
tained a considerable circulation among agricultu-
rists. In 1801 he became proprietor of the Scots
Magazine, a curious i-epository of the history, anti-
quities, and traditions of Scotland, begun in 1739.
Mr. Constable's reputation as a publisher may
be said to have commenced with the appearance, in
October 1802, of the first number of the Edinburgh
Keview. His conduct towards the conductors and
contributora of that celebrated Quarterly was at
once discreet and liberal ; and to his business tact
and straightforward deportment, next to the ge-
nius and talent of its projectors, may be attributed
much of its subsequent success. In 1804 he ad-
mitted as a partner Mr. Alexander Gibson Hun-
ter of Blackness, after which the business was
carried on under the firm of Archibald Constable
and Co. In December 1808 he and his partner
joined with Mr. Charles Hunter and Mr. Johr
Park in commencing a general bookselling busi-
ness in London, under the name of Constable,
Hunter, Park and Hunter; but this undertaking
not succeeding, it was relinquished in 181 1 . On the
retirement of lir. A. G. Hunter from the Edin-
burgh firm in the early part of the latter year,
Ml'. Robert Cathcart of Dinim, writer to the sig-
net, and Mr. Robert Cadell, then in Mr. Consta-
ble's shop, were admitted partners. Mr. Cath-
cart having died in November 1812, Mi*. Cadell
remained his sole partner. In 1805 he commenced
the * Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal,' a
work projected in concert with the late Dr. An-
drew Duncan. In the same year, in conjunction
with Longman and Co. of London, he published
the * Lay of the Last Minstrel,' the first of that
long series of original and romantic publications,
in poetry and prose, which has immortalized the
name of Walter Scott. In 1806 Mr. Constable
brought out, in five volumes, a beautiful edition of
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the works of Mr. Scott, comprising the Lay of the
Last Minstrel, the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Bor-
der, Sir Tristrem, and a series of lyrical pieces.
In 1807 he purchased the copyright of Marmion,
before a line of it was written, ftt)m Mr. Scott, for
£1,000. Before it was published, he admitted
Mr. Miller of Albemarle Street, and Mr. Murray,
then of Fleet Sti*eet, to a share in the copyright,
each of these gentlemen having purchased a fourth.
Amongst other works of importance published
by him may be mentioned here Mr. J. P. Wood's
edition of Douglas* Scottish Peerage, Mr. George
ChalmciV Caledonia, and the Edinburgh Gazet-
teer in 6 vols. In 1808 a serious disagreement
took place between Mr. Scott and Constable and
Co., owing, it is understood, to some intemperate
expression of Mr. Constable's partner, Mr. Hunter,
which was not removed till 1813. In 1812 Mr.
Constable purchased the copyright and stock of
the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' When he be-
came the proprietor, the fifth edition was too fai*
advanced at press to admit of any material im-
provements being introduced into it; but as he
saw that these were largely required, he originated
the plan of the Supplement to the later editions,
which has enhanced to such an extent the value,
the usefulness, and the celebrity of the work. In
1814 he brought out the firet of the * Waverley
Novels;' and as that wonderful series of romantic
tales proceeded, he had not unfrequently the meiit
of suggesting subjects to their distinguished author,
and of finding titles for more than one of these
memorable works; such, for example, was the case
with ' Rob Roy.' In the same year he published
Mr. Scott's edition of 'Swift's Works.' Besides
these publications, he brought out the Philosophical
Works of Mr. Dugald Stewart. He himself added
something to the stock of Scottish historical litera-
ture. In 1810 he published, from au original
manuscript, a quarto volume, edited by himself,
entitled the 'Chronicle of Fife, being the Diary of
John Lament of Newton, from 1649 to 1672;'
and, in 1822, he wrote and published a ' Memoir
of George Heriot, Jeweller to King James, con-
taining an Account of the Hospital founded by
him at Edinburgh,' suggested by the introduction
of Heriot into the ' Fortunes of Nigel,' which was
published during the spring of that year. He also
published a compilation of the ' Poetry contained
in the Waverley Novels.' His first wife having
died in 1814, Mr. Constable married, in 1818,
Miss Charlotte Neale, who survived him.
In the autumn of 1821, in consequence of bad
health, he had gone to i-eside in the neighbourhood
of Ix>ndon, and his absence from Edinburgh and
its cause are feelingly alluded to in the intro-
ductory epistle to the ' Fortunes of Nigel,' where
Mr. Constable is commended as one "whose
vigorous intellect and liberal ideas had not only
rendered his native country the mart of her own
literature, but established thero a court of letters,
which commanded respect even from those most
inclined to dissent from many of its canons.'*
Indeed, his readiness in appreciating literary
merit, his liberality in rewarding it, and the
sagacity he displayed in placing it in the most
favourable manner before the public, were uni-
versally acknowledged.
In the summer of 1822 Mr. Constable returned
to Edinburgh, and in 1823 he removed his estab-
lishment to more splendid and commodious pre-
mises in Prince's Street, which he had acquired by
purchase from the connections of his second mar-
riage. In that year he was included by the
government in a list of justices of the peace for
the city of Edinburgh.
In January 1826 the public was astonished by
the annoimcement of the bankruptcy of his house,
when his liabilities were understood to exceed
£250,000.
The year 1826 was rendered remarkable in
Great Britain by an unusual rage for speculation,
and the emplo^inent of capital in various schemes
and projects, under the name of joint-stock com*
panics.
At this period the House of which the late Mr.
Constable was the leading partner, was engaged
extensively in various literary undertakings, on
some of which large profits had already been
realized, while the money embarked in others,
though so far successful, was stUl to be redeemed.
Messrs. Hurst, Robinson, and Co., the London
agents of Constable's house, who were also large
wholesale purchasei-s of the various publications
which issued from the latter, had previously to
this period acquired a great addition of capital and
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stability, as well as experience in the publishing
department, by the accession of Mr. Thomas Hnrst,
formerly of the house of Messrs. Longman, Hurst,
Rees, Orme, and Brown, as a partner. But the
altogether unprecedented state of the times, the
general demolition of credit, and the utter absence
of all mercantile confidence, brought Messi-s. Hurst,
Robinson, and Co. to a pause, and rendered it
necessary to suspend payment of their engagements
early in January 1826.
Their insolvency necessarDy led to that of Messrs.
Constable and Co., who, without having been
engaged in any speculations extraneous to their
own business, were thus involved in the com-
mercial distress which everywhere surrounded
them.
The liberal character of the late Mr. Constable
in his dealings with literary men, as well as with
his brethren in ti'ade, is well known. His extensive
undertakings, durlug the period in which he was
engaged in business, tended much to raise the price
of literary labour, not merely in Scotland, but
throughout Great Britain. " To Archibald Con-
stable," says Lord Cockbum, " the literature of
Scotland has been more indebted than to any
other publisher. Ten, even twenty guineas a
sheet for a review, £2,000 or £3.000 for a single
poem, and £1,000 each for two philosophical dis-
sertations (by Stewart and Flayfair), made Edin-
burgh a literary mart, famous with strangers, and
the pride of its own citizens.*' In the department of
commercial enterprise, to which he was particu-
larly devoted, and whidi, perhaps, no man more
thoroughly understood, his life had been one uni-
form career of unceasing and meritorious exer-
tion. In its progress and general results, (how-
ever melancholy the conclusion,) we believe it will
be found, that it proved more beneficial to those
who were connected with him in his literary un-
dertakings, or to those among whom he lived,
than productive of advantage to himself or to his
family. In the course of his business, also, he had
some considerable drawbacks to contend with.
His partner, the late Mr. Hunter of Blackness, on
succeeding to his paternal estate, retired from bus-
iness, and the amount of his share of the profits of
the concern, subsequently paid over to his repre-
sentatives, had been calculated on a liberal and
perhaps over-sanguine estimate. The relieving
the Messrs. Ballantyne of their heavy stock, in
order to assist Sir Walter Scott in the difficulties
of 1813, must also have been felt as a considerable
drag on the profits of the business. In the impor-
tant consideration as to how far Messrs. Constable
and Co. ought to have gone in reference to their
pecuniary engagements with Messrs. Ballantyne,
there are some essential considerations to be kept
in view. Sir Walter's power of imagination, great
rapidity of composition, the altogether unparal-
leled success of his writings as a favourite with the
public, and his confidence in his own powers, were
elements which exceeded the ordinary limits of
calculation or control in such matters, and appear .
to have drawn his publishers farther into these
engagements (certainly more rapidly) than they
ought to have gone. Yet, with these and other
disadvantages, great profits were undoubtedly re-
alized, and had not such an extraordinary crisis
as that of 1825-6 occurred, the concern, in a few
years, would have been better prepared to encoun-
ter such a state of money matters as then prevail-
ed in every department of trade. The disastrous
circumstances of the time, and the overbearing
demands of others, for the means of meeting and
sustaining an extravagant system of expenditure,
contributed to drag the concern to its ruin, rather
than the impetuous and speculative genius of its
leading partner.
Mr. Constable was naturally benevolent, gen-
erous, and sanguine. At a glance, he could see
from the beginning to the end of a literary project,
more clearly than he could always impart his own
views to others; but his deliberate and matured
opinion upon such subjects, among those who
knew him, was sufficient to justify the feasibility
or ultimate success of any undertaking which he
approved. In the latter part of his cai-eer, his sit-
uation as the most prominent individual in Scot-
land in the publishing world, as well as his exten-
sive connection with literary men in both ends of
the island, together with an increasing family^ led
him into greater expense than was consistent with
his own moderate habits, but not greater than that
scale of living, to which he had raised himself, en-
titled hhn, and in some measure compelled him to
maintain. It is also ceitain that he did not sera-
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pulously weigh his pui*se, when sympathy with the
necessities or misfortunes of others called upou
him to open it. In his own case, the fraits of a
life of activity, industiy, and exertion, were sacri-
ficed in the prevailing wreck of commercial ci*edit
w^hich overtook him in the midst of his literary
undei-takings, by which he was one of the most
remai'kable sufFerere, and, according to received
notions of worldly wisdom, little deserved to be
the victim.
At the time his bankruptcy took place, Mr.
Constable was meditating a series of publications,
which afterwards appeared under the title of ^ Con-
stable's Miscellany of Original and Selected Works,
in Literature, Art, and Science,* — the precui-sor of
that now almost univei'sal system of cheap pub-
lishing, which renders the present an ei*a of com-
pilation and reprint, rather than of original pro-
duction. The Miscellany was his last project.
Soon after its commencement he was attacked
with his former disease, a dropsical complaint;
and he died, July IJl, 1827, in the fifty-third year
of his age. He left several children by both his
mamagcs. His fi'ame was bulky and corpulent,
nnil his countenance was remarkably pleasing and
intelligent. The portrait painted by the late Sir
Henry Raeburn is a most successful likeness of
him. The preceding woodcut is taken from it.
His mannei-s were friendly and conciliating, al-
though he was subject to occasionul bursts of
anger. He is understood to have left memorials
of the gi*eat literary and scientific men of his day.
COOEL, George, D.D., an eminent minister of
the church of Scotland, was the second son of the
Rev. John Cook, professor of moral philosophy in
the univeraity of St. Andrews, who succeeded to
the estate of Newburn in the county of Fife, and
of Janet Hill, daughter of the Rev. John Hill, min-
ister of St. Andrews, Fife, and sister of Principal
Hill. He was born in December 1772, and at an
early age became a student at the united college
of St. Salvator's and St. Leonard's, St. Andrews.
Devoting himself to the ministry, after attending
the divinity hall of St. Mary's in that university,
he was licensed to preach the gospel on the SOth
of April 1795. About three months after, he was
pi-esented to the living of Laurencekirk, in the gift
of St. Mary's college, and was ordained and set-
tled there on the 3d of September in that year.
He remained at Laurencekirk till 1829. During
his whole life Dr. Cook was distinguished by gi*eat
energy and activity of mind. To his pastoral
duties he devoted himself with great assiduity.
Unaffected and kindly in manner, and singularly
easy of access, his people regarded him with much
affection and respect. His leisure time he early
devoted to studies congenial to the duties in which
he was engaged, and he published in 1808 a trea-
tise in one vol. octavo, under the title of ^ An Illus-
tration of the General Evidence establishing the
Reality of Christ's Resurrection,' which was at
the time very favourably received. He had early
begun to take a prominent pait in the deliberations
of church com-ts, and was led to a careful investi-
gation of the history of the church, wlilch had not
then attracted the amount of attention which, m
consequence of his labours and those of Dr. M*Crie
and others, it subsequently received. The result
of his investigations, carried on under considerable
disadvantage from his distance from public libra-
ries, but with great industry and much research,
was the appearance of his ' History of the Refor-
mation in Scotland,' in 1811, in 3 vols, octavo, em-
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GEORGE, D.D.
bracmg the period from the beginning of tlie Re-
formation to the appointment of the eai'l of Mar-
ray to the regency in 1667. This was followed
by the * History of the Church of Scotland,* which
appeared in 1815, in 3 vols, octavo, continuing
the narrative from the regency of Murray down
to the Revolution. The two works form a full
and interesting ecclesiastical history of a peiiod
.out of which momentous consequences to Scotland
resulted. Tlicy are written with great calmness
and impartiality, and the researches of later his-
torians have in no particular of the least impor-
tance affected their accuracy. A third important
work was published in 8 vols. 8vo, in 1822, entitled
a ' General and Historical View of Christianity.*
In addition to these larger works. Dr. Cook
published in 1820 a life of his uncle. Principal
Hill, who had long du'ected the counsels of the
General Assembly, in which much important in-
formation as to the ecclesiastical proceedings of
that venerable body during the period is conveyed.
In July 1826 a commission was issued by the
crown for the visitation of the universities of Scot-
land, of which Dr. Cook was a member. To the
duties of that commission he devoted himself with
his usual mental activity, and on him a large
portion of its important work was devolved. He
drew up for the commissioners elaborate reports
of the history and present state of the universities
of Edihburgh and Aberdeen, and the draft of the
general Report — services which were acknow-
ledged in a special communication to Dr. Cook
made by the earl of Rosebery, the chairman of
the commission. These services were continued
till near the conclusion of the year 1830 ; and as
a gratifying mark of the estimation in which his
character as a clerg}'man was held, he was ap-
pointed dean of the Order of the Thistle in June
that year, the highest honour that the Crown has
to confer on a minister of the Church of Scotland.
In the course of the summer of 1828 Dr. Cook
received the intimation that he was to be appoint-
ed professor of moral philosophy in the university
of St. Andrews, and he accordingly entered on the
duties of the chair in the following college session.
To his regular course, of 115 lectures, on moral
philosophy, he added in the ensuing year a shorter
course, of 49 lectures, on political economy.
From an early period of life Dr. Cook took a
deep interest in the deliberations of the General
Assembly, and soon distinguished himself in de-
bate by his knowledge of the constitution and his-
tory of the church. He was attached, by a
deep conviction of their soundness, to those
principles maintained by what was called the
moderate party in the church — ^pnnciples which
might seem hereditary to his family, for they were
those so poweifully advocated by his uncle Prin-
cipal Hill, and by his father's kinsman Principal
Robertson, and which had been maintained by a
long line of clerical ancestors. But Dr. Cook was
too independent to tie himself down to party, or
to allow others to determine for him what were
the principles which, as a member of a party, he
should in consistency entertain. In the year 1813
he differed with those with whom he had till
then acted, as to the important question of plu-
ralities and non-residence. To non- residence he
was strongly opposed, — ^his views on this subject
will be found expressed in a pamphlet entitled,
^ Substance of a speech delivei*ed in the General
Assembly, 22d May 1816, containing an Inquiry
into the Law and Constitution of the Church of
Scotland, respecting Residence and Pluralities,*
&c., 8vo. The subject excited for a time a
strong feeling against Dr. Cook on the part of the
leading men of the moderate party, and in con-
sequence he was opposed by them in the General
Assemblies of 1821 and 1822, when brought for-
ward as a candidate for the moderator's chair.
On the latter occasion he addressed the Assembly
in a speech, subsequently publbhed, in which he
vindicated, with great judgment and temper, the
course he had followed. In 1825, however, he was
unanimously chosen moderator, and fi*om that pe-
riod unquestionably held the leading position in
the counsels of the pai-ty to which he was attached.
In all the debates which led to the disruption of
the Church of Scotland in May 1843, he took a
prominent part on the moderate side, and his
name was a "tower of strength** to his party.
His views on the Veto Act, and on the different
questions which wei-c originated by it, as expressed
in the Assembly, are fully stated in a pamphlet
entitled, ' A few Plain Observations on the Enact-
ments of the General Assembly of 1834, relating to
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COOK.
COPLAND.
Patronage and Calls,* published in that year, and in
several speeches pablished since. The daties of the
Assembly of 1844 were very heavy, and although
Dr. Cook appeared to be in his usual health, he
was attacked almost immediately after with sudden
illness, supposed to be connected with disease of
the heart. The attack was of short duration, but
it occasionally recurred. On the 13th of May 1845,
in passing down to the Bank in St. Andrews, he
was observed to fall heavily on the street, and
when taken up it was found that life had fled. To
Dr. Cook's character and usefulness the following
tribute was borne by the Assembly that met in
1345^ — *» The General Assembly desire to record
the deep feelings of regret with which they re-
gard the loss which this court and the church at
large have recently sustained, in the death of one
of its most distinguished members — the Rev. Dr.
George Cook, whose eminent abilities and profound
knowledge of the principles and practical constitu-
tion of our church, while they highly qualified him
for becoming her historian, no less enabled him, in
combination with that sound wisdom, clear reason-
ing, and mauly eloquence, which were equally
characteristic of his mind, to afford the most valu-
able aid in conducting the deliberations of the As-
sembly. The cool judgment, enlarged views, and
unweaiied pei-severance of Dr. Cook the Assembly
regard as having been, under providence, instru-
mental in no ordinaiy degree to the safety of the
church during the perils with which she was lately
surrounded — and the valuable counsels so promptly
and kindly afforded by him, as often as inferior ju-
dicatories or individual clergymen applied in cases
of perplexity for his aid, will be long and gratefully
remembered through the church."
Dr. Cook married, 23d Febru-»ry, 1801, Diana,
eldest daughter of the Kc\. Alexander Shank,
sometime minister at St. Cyrus. Of seven chil-
dren, ^ve survived him, namely, the Rev. Dr.
John Cook, minister of Haddington ; Mrs. Mar-
joribanks, wife of the Rev. Thomas Maijoribauks,
Stenton ; Alexander Shank Cook, Esq., advocate ;
the Rev. George Cook, chaplain at Bombay ; and
Henry David Cook, a civil servant of the East
India Company at Madras. Dr. Cook's eldest
brother, John Cook, D.D., pix>fessor of divinity at
8r. Andrews, was the author of a valuable ^ In-
quiry into tlie Authenticity of the Books of the
New Testament,* published in 1821. He died in
1824. His son, Dr. John Cook, is minister of
St. Leonards, St. Andrews; another, the Rev.
George Cook, of Kincardine O^Neil. A younger
brother of Dr. George Cook is Mr. Walter Cook,
W. S. The youngest of the family is the Rev
Henry David Cook, minister of KilmaiT/.
Cooper, Cowfkr, or Couprb, a surnanv dvived from
the parish of Cupar in Fife. In ancient docu jients the name
ia varionsly spelled, and appears under the several forms of
Capir, Culpyre, Cypre, Cypnun, Cowpar, Mid Coapar. The
etymology of the name is nncertain, but the word is appa-
rently Celtic and probably bore reference to the ancient castle
or the rising ground on which it was situated.
A family of this name, styled of Gogar, possessed a baron-
etcy of Nova Scotia, conferred in 1638, on John Cooper, Esq.,
who married Christian, daughter of Robert Skene, Esq. of
Halliards. Among those who were killed with the eari of
Haddington, at the blowing up of the castle of Douglas, 30th
August 1640, was John Couper of Gogar. In 1640, John
Cooper, probably his son, was one of the oommissionere of tbe
Soots parliament who approved of the treaty of Bipon. The
first baronet was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir John Cooper
at whose death, towards the close of the seventeenth century,
without male issue, the title became dormant, bat was re-
vived by his great-grandnephew, 1st August 1775, Sir Grey
Cooper, who represented Rochester in parliament in 1765,
and was an energetic supporter of the marquis of Rocking-
ham, under whose administration, as well as under thoee of
the duke of Grafton and Lord North, he was secretary to tbe
treasury. In 1783 he was appointed one of the commission-
ers of the treasury, and in April 1796, sworn a member of
the privy council. On the death of the seventh baronet, Sir
Frederick Cooper, munarried, in 1850, the title became
extinct.
A family of the name of Cowper have occupied tbe same
farm on the Abercrombie estate in Fife for more than three
hundred years, and it is thought that it is of this fiamily that
Cowper the poet of Olney thus writes to Mrs. Couitenay, one
of his friends : ** While Pitcaime whistles for bis family estate
in Fifeshire, he will do well if he will sound a few notes for
me. I am originally of the same shire, and a family of my
name is still there.** ^Ntw SialitHcal AcoaoU <if SeoUamd,
voL ijc, page 344, iVbte, article Abicbcrombib.J
Copland, a surname originally English, and signifying
a headland, from caput, a head. At the battle of KeviUe*s
Cross in 1346, King David the Second of Scotland was dis-
armed and taken prisoner by John Copeland, a gentleman of
Northumberland, who was governor of Roxba.gii Castle,
although not without having knocked out two of Copelaod*s
teeth with his gauntlet, in the struggle to free himself.
Copeland conveyed tbe wounded and Dleeding monarch off the
field, and on refusing to deliver him up to tbe queen, w1m>
had remained at Newcastle during the battle. King Edward,
then at Calais, sent for him, when he excused his refusal so
handsomely that the king bestowed on hun a reward of five
hundred a-year in lands near Wooler, which still bear the
name of Copland, and made him a kni^t banneret. Frtm
this Sir John Copeland descended the Coplands of Collic«toa.
in DunifHcs-shire, as well as others of the name in Scotland
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CORBET.
COPLAND, I'ATRiCK, LL.D., professor of
natural philosophy at Aberdeen, son of the minis-
ter of Fintray, in Aberdeenshire, was bom at the
manse of that p irish in January 1749. Having
obtained a bnrairy by competition, he received
his edncation at Marischal college and university
of Aberdeen; a^id, on March 28, 1775, he was
elected professor of natural philosophy in that
institution. In April 1779 he was transferred to
the chair of mathematics in the same university,
which he filled till July 9, 1817, when he again
became professor of the natural philosophy tlass.
He taught with great reputation and success, for
upwards of forty years, and, on June 27, 1817, his
colleagues conferred on him the honorary degi*ee
of LL.D. in acknowledgment of his eminent ser-
vices. His course of /natural philosophy was illus-
trated by one of the most extensive and complete
sets of apparatus in the kingdom, mostly the work
of his own hands, or made by workmen under his
superintendence. As a lecturer, he was distin-
guished by his clear method and impressive man-
ner of communicating knowledge, and fixing the
attention of his hearers. He was the first in the
north of Scotland who gave a regular series of
popular lectures on natural philosophy, divesting
that science of its most abstruse calculations, and
suiting the subject to the mechanic and operative
tradesman. His attention was also successfully
directed to other sciences. In Mx\ Samuel Park's
' Chemical and Philosophical Essays,' due credit is
given to Dr. Copland for having introduced into
this country an expeditious method of bleaching
by oxymuriatic acid, which had been shown to
him merely as a'curious chemical experiment by
the celebrated Professor De Saussure, while at
Geneva with the dake of Goi-doii, in 1787. Mr.
Thomas Thomson, however, ju the article Bleach-
ing in the Encyclopedia Britannica, denies that
Dr. Copland had any claim to the first introduc-
tion of the new process into Great Britain, ascrib-
ing the merit of it to the celebrated James Watt.
During his long and useful life. Dr. Copland was
in frequent correspondence with Watt, Telford,
Maskelyne, Leslie, Olinthus Gregory, M. Blot,
Dr. Hutton, and other distinguished literary and
scientific men. In 1782 he was elected a corre-
sponding member of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland, and, in 1807, an associate of the Lin-
nsan Society of London. Declining health caused
him, in September 1822, to resign his professor-
ship, and he died November 10th of that year, in
the 73d year of his age. He mamed Elizabeth,
daughter of D#. David Ogilvy, surgeon, R.N., by
whom he had tliree sons and one daughter.
Corbet (iroro Corbeau^ a raven), the samame of a family,
whoee anoeetor, Roger Corbet, came over firoro Normandy,
with William the Conqneror, and obtained eztenaiTe grants of
landa in Shropshire and on the marches of Wales. In Eng-
land this family held many hi^ offices in the state, and not
less than nineteen of them are m the rolls, of those who
served at Aginconrt, the sacking of Cadiz, the wars against
the Welsh, Scots, French, &c Between 1192 and 1625, sev-
enty-one were made knights, and one a banneret, and sinct
that tmie two of the Corbets of Shropshire have been created
barohets.
A branch of the family seem early to have settled in Soot-
land, and to have obtjuned possesnon of the lands of Macker-
stonn in Roxbmifi^iishire. Walter Corbet, ^^dominns de >lack-
erstoon in Teviotia,** is witness with others to a charter of
Malcolm the Fourth preserved in Anderson's Diplomata.
This Walter was the son of Robert Corbet, who is witness in
the inqnisition made by David prince of Cmnberland of the
lands belonging to the church of Glasgow, and also in other
deeds of that prince, when king of Scots. In the Chartulaiy
of Melrose, Walter de Corbet is mentioned as a donor of the
church of Mackerstoun to the abbacy of Kelso. Avicia de
Corbet of this family was the wife of Richard Morville, higb
constable of Scotland, who died in 1191. In the charters ot
Alexander the Second, Nicolas Corbet is frequently mentioned
as a witness. Among those who swore fealty to Edward the
First in 1296, occur the names of Roger Corbet and Adam
Corbet, the former of Mackerstoun and the latter supposed to
be of Uardgray in Annandale. The barony of Mackeretoun
was afterwards possessed by the Frasers of Drummelzier, and
in the reign of David the Second, was inherited by an heiress,
Margaret Eraser, who married Dougall Maodougall; and is
now in possesion of General Sir Thomas Macdongall- Bris-
bane, baronet, who received it on his marriage, in 1819, with
the eldest daughter and heiress of Sir Henry Hay Maodougall,
baronet, the descendant of the above Dougall MaodougaU.
The Corbets of Hardgray in Dumfries-shire, resided latterly
in Clydesdale. A charter by Thomas de Corbet, dommus de
Uardgray, Joanni de Corbet, filio suo, of the lands of Lime-
kilns in Annandale in 1405, was confirmed by the earl ot
Douglas. The Corbets of Hardgray became extinct in the
male Ime in the early part of the eighteenth century. Mr.
Hugh Corbet of Hardgray, the last proprietor. <ett two daugh-
ters, coheiresses of his estate, the elder mamed, first, to John
Douglas of Mains, and secondly, to Sir Mungo Stirling of
Glorat ; and the younger to James Douglas of Mains.
A John Corbet, who is styled minister of Benhill, (Bon-
hill?) published at Dublin in 1639, a quarto work, enti-
tled * The Ungirding of the Scottish Armour ; in answer tc
the information for Defensive Arms against the King's Ma-
jesty, which were drawn up by the Covenanters at Edinburgh.'
He also published at London, in 1646, * A Vindication of the
Magistrates and Ministers of the city of Gloucester,* 4to
Another John Corbet, also a Scotsman, beheaded in the Irish
rebellion in 1641, was the author of *The Epbtle Congratu-
latorie of Lysimachus Nicanor to the Covenanters in Scotland.
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CORMACK
684
CORSAN.
GoKMACK, John, D.D., an «niinent divine of the Chorch
of SoMtUnd, was bom in 1776. At an early period of his life
he distinguished himself by his superior atbiinments in divi-
nity; and when a student at the Hall, he carried off the
prize then annually awarded, for the best essay on a given
subject in theology. In 1807 he was ordained minister
of ^tow, in the presbytery of Lauder and county of Edin-
burgh, and in this parish he officiated with great acceptance
for nearly ^4 years. On every subject connected with theo-
logical literature Dr. Cormack had amassed a large stock of
sound and valuable information, and the fruits of his re-
searches appeared in various little works, original and trans-
lated, with which, from time to time, he favoured the public.
Dr. Cormaok died suddenly in his own church, on Sunday,
December 20, 1840, in his 64th year. — His woHca are:
Lives of the Ancient Philosophers, from the French of
Fenelon. London, 1803, 2 vols. 12mo.
Account of the Abolishment of Female Infanticide in Gue-
zerat, with considerations on the question of promoting the
Gospel in India. 1816, 8vo.
A Sermon. Edin. 1810.
Banillai the Gileadite, a work abounding in most useful
and important considerations on old age.
Illustrations of Faith, a series of papers originally written
for the Scottish Christian Herald, subsequently published in
one small volume.
Cornwall, a surname derived from the county of that
name in England, the first in Scotland of this surname hav-
ing come from that district Among those who were slain
with King James IV. at Flodden was John Cornwall of Bon-
hard. His son Peter, then a minor, was infeft in these lands,
in obedience to a brief durected from the chancery, mention-
ing that his father was killed in that disastrous battle.
On 27th April, 1601, a town-officer of Edinburgh, named
Archibald Cornwall, was hanged in that city, for no other
offence than having, at the sale of some sequestrated goods at
the cross, driven a nail into the gibbet standing close by, in-
tending to suspend on it a portrait of the king on a board
that was among them, for the purpose of its being better seen,
but was dissuaded from doing so by those present. In the
same reign one Robert Cornwall was minister of Linlithgow,
and in 1610 he was a member of the General Assembly which
was held at> Glasgow on the 8th of June of that year.
CoRRiB, a surname derived from a Gaelic word signifying
a narrow glen. It is tlie name of an old parish, (conjoined
in 1609 with Hutton), and of a river and lochlet in the dis-
trict of Annandale, Dumfries-shire. The lands of Corrie,
forming the southern division of the united parish of Hutton
and Corrie, were, in the twelfth century, held by a family,
vassals of Robert de Bruce, who, from them, took the sur-
name ef Corrie. In the Ragman Boll is the name of Walter
Corrie of this family.
In the 83d year of David II., a grant was made to Robert
de Corry (and his spouse), son and heir of the late Thome de
Toithorwald, *' our kinsman who died at the battle of Dur-
ham,"* of the lands of Coulyn and Ruchane. He had another
grant of lands from the same monarch in the 40th year of
his reign. In the RotuU ScoHa^ is recorded in 1867-68, a
safe conduct granted by Edward III. to ** Robertus Corry de
Valle AnnandisB de Scot cum sex equitibus.**
Adam de Corry is a witness to a charter ot Confirmation
by Robert, duke of Albany in 1411.
The Corries of that ilk and of Newby in Dumfries-shire are
frequently mentioned in the Public Records of the 15th and
16th centuries. In the reign of James V., one of the John-
stones of Annandule acquired the estate by marriage with the
daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Come.
A branch of the same family possessed the lands of Kel-
wood, in Dumfries-shupe, until the end of the 16th century,
when they passed to the Charteris family. In 1572, at the
meeting of parliament at Edinburgh, George Corry de Kel-
wood was one of the barons present
Although the ancient possessions of the family passed into
other hands, the name did not become extinct in Dumfries-
shire. Early in last century, James Corrie, Esq. of Spe«!-
doch, provost of Dumfries, son of .lohn Corrie by his wife
Jean Paterson, sister of William Paterson, who planned the
Darien scheme, married Janet, daughter of Mr. Goldie of
Craigmuir, Kirkcudbright-shire, and left numerous descend-
ants. Thomas Corrie, Esq. of Shielston and Newton- A irds,
for many years manager of the British Linen Co. Bank, was
his male representative.
James Corrie's brother, Joseph Corrie, Esq., proprietor of
various lands in Dumfries-sliire, married a daughter of Judge
Phipps, and his only daughter, Sophia Corrie, married William
Hope Weir, Esq. of Craigie HalL
From their half brother, William Corrie of Bedbank, are
descended families of the name, occupying a prominent rank
among the citizens of London and LiverpooL
Their sister married the Rev. Mr. Ewart of Troqueer. One
of her sons, Joseph, was ambassador from the British Court
at Berlin, and died at the early age of 33. Another son, Wil-
liam, a merchant in LiverpooK was the father of William
Ewart Esq., M.P. for the Dumfries district of Burghs. (See
Ewart, surname of, voL ii. p. 182.)
CoRSAK, (now CoTfOfi,) the surname of a family which
once possessed the estate of Meikleknox in Durafries-shire.
The first of their ancestors in Scotland was an Italian gentle-
man of the CbrskU family, who came to this country ^ith an
abbot of New Abbey, or Dulce Cor^ in Galloway, about the
year 1280. Sir Alexander Corsane was witness to a diarter
by Arcliibald the Grim, earl of Douglas, superior of Galloway,
to Sir John Stewart laird of Gryton, of the lands of Calie.
The charter is without a date, but it must have been before
1400, as the earl died in that year. The principal family of
Corsan was designed of Glen, which, in the reign of James
IV., passed with Mai ion, daughter and only child of Sir Robert
Corsan of Glen, hy marriage to Sir Robert Gordon, who there-
upon styled himself of Glen, and on the death of his elder bro-
ther at the battle of Flodden was afterwards designed of Ix>ch-
invar. Of that lady descended lineally the barons of Lochinvar
and viscounts of Kenmure. [See Kknmurk, viscounts of.]
Sir John Corsane, an early cadet and next heir male of this
family of Glen, settled at Dumfries, and had a lineal succes-
sion of heirs male for 18 generations, all of the name of John.
Some of their brethren were ecclesiastics, particularly Domunis
Thomas Conamu, designed perpetual vicar of Dumfries, in a
charter granted by him for some church-lands in Duinfrie»
dated in 1408.
In the reign of King James VI., John Corsan, 13th in de-
scent from the said Sir John Corsan, was provost of Dumfries,
as appears from an inscriptdon on his fhneral monument erected
by his son. He was commissioner in pariiament for that buigh
in 1621, when the five articles of the Perth assembly received
the sanction of law. He was provost of Dumfries 45 years,
and died in 1629, aged 75| years, and was buried with eleven
of his grandfathers. He m. Janet Maxwell, one of I.oni
Maxwell*s family, who bore him several cliildren. One of his
daughters, Marion, was married to Stephen Laurie of Max-
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COUPAR.
685
COUPER.
welton, ancestor of the Lauries, baronets, of Maxwelton. His
eldest son, John Corsan, advocate, married Margaret Max-
well, one of the daughters and coheiresses of Robert Maxwell
of Dinwoodjf a branch of the family of Maxwell, hj whom
he had John his heir, who predeceased him, leaving a son,
who succeeded his grandfather ; Helen, and several others.
With his wife he got the lands of Bamdennoch, and in con-
sequence was sometimes designed of that place. He died in
1671. He was provost of Dumfries about the time of the
civil wars ; and when that burgh was attacked by the royai-
iiits, he was, with others, a considerable loser. It is siud that
a third part of the burgh of Dumfries belonged to him, and
there were at one time many old houses in the town which
bore the arms of the family, some of them quartered with
those of the families into which be and his predecessors had
married. The family ended, in February 1721, in a daugh-
ter, Agnes CorsaUf the wife of Mr. Peter Rae, minbter at
Kilbride. Her mother was of the family of Maxwell of Tln-
wald. Mrs. Rae had twelve children. Her eldest son, Ro-
pert Rae, assumed the name and arms of Ck>rsan, on succeed-
ing to the estate of Meikleknox. The Corsans of Dalwhat,
m the parish of Gleneaim, belonged to an elder branch of
the same family. The name, which has been corrupted into
Carson, is very prevalent in Dumfries-shire. Of the learned
Dr. Carson, rector of the High School, Edinburgh, a native
of that county, a notice is given otiie, p. 599.
CouPAR, Lord, a title in the peerage of Scotland (attainted
in 1746) conferred in 1607, on the Hon. James Elphinston,
second son of James first Lord Balmerinoch, by his second
wife Marjory, daughter of Hugh Maxwell of Tealing. On the
distribution made by James the Sixth of the lands which fell
to the crown on the dissolution of the religious houses, after
the Reformation, his migesty erected the Cistertian abbey of
Coupar in Angus into a temporal lordship in his favour, by
the title of Lord Coupar, and the heirs male of his body,
which failing, to his father and his heirs male and entail, by
royal charter, dated 20th^ December 1607. His name after
this often occurs in the rolls of parliament the influence and
superior talents of his elder brother. Lord Balmerinoch, having
forced him into notice. In January 1645 he was one of the
committee of four of each of the three estates sent by the par-
liament to Perth to assist General Baillie in opposing the
progress of the marquis of Montrose, and on the subsequent
29th November, he was one of the commissioners appointed
to be judges of the processes of all delinquents cited by the
estates, with power to examine witnesses, &c On 7tb June
1649, his lordship was constituted one of the extraordinary
lords of session, in room of his brother, Lord Balmerinoch,
deceased. Speaking of this appointment. Sir James Balfour
says: **The I>ord Balmerinodi's extraordinary place of the
session they have bestowed on his brother, the Lord Coupar,
whose head will not fill his brother's hat.** lAnnaUy vol. iii.
page 390.] The following epitaph, quoted in Brunton and
Haig*s Lives of the Senators of the College of Justice, from
the Balfour MS., A. 7. 84, in the Advocates' Library, is to
the same efiect :
" Fy upon death.
He's worse than a trooper.
That took from us, Balmerinoch,
And lea that howlet Coupar."
In 1650 Lord Conpar was appointed a colonel of one of the
regiments of foot for the county of Perth, raised to resist
Cromwell, and for his loyalty a fine of three thousand pounds
was imposed upon him by that personage, 12th April 1654.
He nuuried, first, Margaret, daughter of Sir James Halybur-
ton of Pitcur; secondly, l^idy Marion Ogiivy, eldest daughter
of James, second eari of ^^irlie, who afterwards became the
wife of John, third Lord Lindores; but had no issue by either
wife. He died in 1669.
A curious decision of the court of session, in a case in
which his lordship was concerned, preserved by Lord Stair,
and quoted by DougUs, in bis Peentge (vol. i. p. 863, note.
Wood's edition^ was given 8d July 1662. Lord Coupar,
sitting in parliament, taking out his watdi, handed it to
Lord Pitsligo, wha refusing to restore it, an action was
brought for the value. Lord Pitsligo said that Lord Conpar
having put his watch in his hand to see what hour it was.
Lord Sinclair puttuig forth his hand for a sight of the watch.
Lord Pitsligo put it into Lord Sinclair's hand, in the pre-
sence of Lord Coupar, without contradiction, which must
necessarily import his consent Lord Coupar answered, that
they being then sitting in parliament, his silence could not
import a consent The Lords repelled Lord Pitsligo's defence,
and found him Kahle in the value of the watch.
The title and estates of the first Lord Coupar devolved
upon his nephew, John, third Lord Balmerinoch, whose
grandson, John, fifth Lord Balmerinoch, on being appointed
a lord of session, 5th June 1714, assumed the title of Lord
Coupar. The titles were forfeited by his half-brother, Ar-
thur, fourth Lord Coupar and sixth Lord Balmerinoch, in
1746.— See Bai^ikkino, Baron, ante, p. 228, and Elfhin-
8TUN, Arthur.
COUPER, William, a learned prelate, the son
of a merchant at Edinburgh, 'was bom in that
city iu 1566, and studied at the university of St.
Andrews. Groing young to England, he was en-
gaged for about a year as an assistant teacher to
a Mr. Guthrie, who kept a school at Hoddesden,
iu Hertfordshire. He subsequently visited Lon-
don, where he was hospitably received by the
famous Hugh Broughton, who assisted -him in his
theological studies. At the age of nineteen he
returned to Edinburgh, was licensed to preach in
1586, and in 1587 was ordained minister of the
parish of Bothkennar in Stirlingshire. In 1592
he was removed to Perth, where he continued for
nineteen years. In 1608, he was appointed by
the General Assembly one of the commissionei-s
to go to Ix>ndon to give advice to his majesty re-
garding the suppression of papistical superstition,
and while at court was sent by the king to deal
with Mr. Andrew Melville, then a prisoner in
the Tower, but he failed in making any impres-
sion on that champion of prcsbyterianism. He
was at one time much opposed to episcopacy, and
in 1606 he wrote a letter to the bishop of Dun-
blane against the coarse he had taken in accepting
a bishopric. Nevertheless his views changed, and
in 1613, he was appointed bistiop of Galloway, and
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COUPER.
686
courrs.
I I
deau of the Chapel-RoyaT, by James the Sixth.
He died at liis residence in the Canongate of Ed-
inburgh, February 15, 1619. His body was in-
terred in tlie Gre^'friars' churchyard of Edinburgh.
His character, not in his favour, but much the
reyei*se, is drawn at length by Calderwood in
his History of the Kirk of Scotland (vol. vii. page
849). His works are:
The Anatomy of a Christian man. Lend. 1611, 4to.
Three Treatises concernmg Christ Lend. 1612, 8vo.
The Holy Alphabet of Zion's Scholars ; by way of 0>m-
mentary on the cxix. Psalm. Lond. 1613, fol.
Good News from Canaan ; or, An Exposition of Darid's
Penitential Psalm, after he bad gone in unto Bathsheba.
Lond. 1613, 8vo.
A Mirror of Mercy; or, The Prodigal's Conversion ex-
pounded. Lond. 1614, 8vo.
Dikailogie ; containing a just defence of hb former apologj-
against David Hume. I^nd. 1614, 4to«
Sermon on Titus il 7, 8. Lond. 1616, 8vo.
Two Sermons on Psalm cxxi. 8. and Psalm Ixxxvin. 17.
Lond. 1618, 4to.
The Triumph of the Christian ; in three treatises. Edin.
1632, 12mo.
Works ; to which is added, A Commentary on the Revela-
tions, never before published. Lond. 1628, 1629, 1726, fbl
COUPER, Robert, M.1>., a minor poet of
some merit, was born at the fai-m-house of Balsier
(of which his father was tenant), paiish of Sorbie,
Wigtonshire, 22d September, 1760. In 1769 he
entered as a student at the iinivei*sity of Glasgow,
and stndied at -fii-st for the Chnixh of Scotland,
but his parents having died, and left him little or
nothing, he accepted of an ofSce as tutor in a fam-
ily in the state of Virginia, America. On the
breaking out of the American revolution he re-
tumed to Scotland in 1776. He now studied
medicine at the college of Glasgow, and on
passing as surgeon, he began to practise at
Newton-Stewart, in his native county. On the
recommendation of Dr. Hamilton, professor of
midwifery, Glasgow, to the duke of Gordon, he
settled in Fochabera in Banffshire, in 1788, as phy-
sician to his grace. He obtained the degree of
M.D. from the college of Glasgow, and was a fel-
low of the Royal S«xjiety of Edinburgh. In 1804
he published at Inverness two volumes of ' Poetry,
chiefly in the Scot* ish language,' which he dedi-
cated to Jane, ducness of Gordon. He was the
author of a very beautiful song, » Red gleams the
sun,' inserted in his works under the title of * Kin-
rara,' tune, Niel Gow, He wrote some other
lyiical pieces ; one of which, written '' to a beau-
tiful old Highland air," called ' Geordy again,' is in-
seited in Campbell's *• Albyn's Anthology, vol. il.
p. 23. The author states that he wrote this song
at the request of Lady Greorgiana Gordon, after-
wards duchess of Bedford, and that it alludes ^^ to
her noble brother (the marquis of Huntly), then
with his regiment in Holland." Dr. Couper left
Fochabers in 1806, and died at Wigton, on the
18tli January 1818. Dr. Thomas Mun-ay, the
author of the * Literary History of Galloway,' com-
municated a short notice of Dr. Couper to Mr.
David Laing for his Illustrative Notes to Sten-
house's Johnson's ^ Scots Musical Museum,' to
which we have been indebted for these particulars.
CouTTS, the surname of a family celebrated as bankers.
Their most remote traceable ancestor was William Cuutts,
said to have been a Contts of Aoohintonl, a vassal of the
family of Maodonald, settled in Montrose, at tlie close of the
16th centuij, who became prorost of the town. His gmnd-
son, Patrick, was a tradesman in Edinburgh. At the death
of the latter in 1704, he lefV jE2,600 to his wife and three
children. John Contts, the eldest of bis family, the head of
the firm of John Coutts & Co., general merchants, Edin-
burgh, became lord provost of that city. Havbg gone to
Italy on aooormt of his health, he died at Nola near Naples,
in his 52d year. A few days before bis leaving Seothmd, be
had executed a new deed of- copartnery, in which he, his eld-
est son Patrick, and Mr. Trotter, were partners. The entire
stock of this firm was only £4,000 sterling. "Th«r busi-
ness was dealing in com, buying and selling goods on com-
mission, the negotiation of bills of ezdiange on London, Hol-
land, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal,** that is, merchants
and bankers. Provost Contts left four sona, of whom Tho-
mas, the youngest, was the survivor. Separating himself
entirely from the firm of John Coutts & Co., of Edinburgh,
(which, some years subsequently, changed its title to that of
W. Forbes, J. Hunter & Co., and in 1830 became the Union
Bank of ScotUnd,) he went to London, and originated the
bank of Coutts & Co. in the Strand. A memoir of him fol-
lows.
COUTTS, Thomas, a wealthy metropolitan
banker, fourth and youngest son of John Coutts,
general merchant in Edinburgh, was bora in Scot-
land about 1731. His brother James had become
a partner in a banking-house in St. Mary Axe,
London, and afterwards went into partnership
with the subject of this notice in a bank in the
Strand. On the death of James, in 1778, Thomns
became the sole manager, and becoming the
banker of George the Third, and of many of the
principal of the aristocracy, with habits of great
economy he soon amassed an immense fortune.
He died Febniary 24, 1822. He was twice mar-
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COWAN.
687
CRATG.
ricd; first to Susan Starkie, a female servant
of his brother, by whom he had three daughters :
Susan, married, in 1796, to George Augustus,
third earl of Guildford ; Frances, married, in 1800,
to John, first marquis of Bute ; and Sophia, mar-
ried, in 1793, to Sir Francis Burdett, baronet. In
1815 his first wife died, and, within three months,
he took for his second wife Harriet Mellon, an
actress, to whom, at his death, he bequeathed all
his property, and who was aftei*wards married to
the duke of S^ Albans. Miss Burdett Coutts,
his grand-daughter, inherited the greater pait of
his wealth.
CowAJi, a samame derived from the Scottish method of
pronouncing the name of Colquhonn, which see.
Craig, a surname derived from a Scottish word meaning
a crag or steep rocky cliff, and often prefixed to the names of
places in hilly or mountainous districts in various parts of
Scotland. The name seems to belong particularly to the
north of Scotland, whUe the surname of Craigie is derived
from an estate in Linlithgowshire. See Gbaioik, surname of.
In 1885, when the castle of Kildmmmy, in Aberdeen-
shire, was bemeged by the followers of Edward Baliol, Sir
Andrew Moray of Bothwell, William Douglas of Liddes-
dale, and the earl of March advanced to its relief with eight
hundred men, natives of the Lothians and the Merse. They
were joined by three hundred men from the territory of Kil-
dmmmy, under the command of John Craig. Surprising
the army of Baliol, under the eari of Athol, in the forest of
Kilblean, they signally defeated them, Athol then: leader,
bdng among the slain. Some writers assert that this John
Craig was captain oTthe garrison at Kildmmmy, but Lord
Hailes, with more probability, thinks that the reinforcement
which he brought to the patriot army were the vassals of the
earldom of Mar, whereof Kildmmmy was the capital mes-
suage, and not a detachment from the garris(m of the castle.
Fordun calls the commander qtddam Johannes Cfxig^ which
plainly ahows that he did not mean to speak of Jckn Crabbe
the Fleming, whom he had previously mentioned; yet later
authors suppose them to have been the same. \_Dalrymple^t
Annab of Scotland, vol il p. 185, note.]
Of the name, the Craigs of Riccarton were the most con-
spicuous family. The first of it was the distinguished feudal
lawyer, Sir Thomas Craig of Riccarton, of whom a notice is
given below. James Craig, the fourth son of his great grand-
son, was professor of civil kw m the university of Edmburgh,
to which chair he was appointed October 18, 1710. He died
in 1732. By his wi'e, a daughter of Robert Dundas of
Amiston, one of the senators of the college of justice, he had
two sons, Thomas, ustally styled " the laird,** and Robert.
The two brothers for nuoiy years resided together, and neither
ever married. Though very wealthy, they were men of pri-
mitive and simple habits. On the death of the elder brother,
Thomas, 22d January, 1814, m the eighty-fifth year of his
age, his younger brothei, Robert, succeeded him. The latter,
who had passed advocate m 1754, was, about the year 1776,
appointed one of the judges of the commissary court, which
office he resigned in 1791. He was a liberal m politics, and
in 1795 he published anonymously at Edmburgh, a pamphlet
entitled, * An Inquiry into the Justice and Necessity of the
present War with France,* 8vo, of which a second and improved
edition was published the following year. Its object was to
demonstrate the right which every nation has to remodel its
own institutions and choose its own form of government; re-
ferring, by way of precedent, to the various revolutions which
have taken place in Great Britain, without producing any at-
tempt at interference on the part of other states. He died on
13th March 1823, at the advanced age of ninety- three. Pur-
suant to a deed of entail, Mr. James Gibson, writer to the
signet, (afterwards Su: James Gib^n Craig, baronet, the
baronetcy being conferred m 1881) succeeded to the estate of
Riccarton, when he assumed the name and arms of Craig.
(Fur notice of, see page 692.) At h\» death in 1850, his son
Sir William, became second baronet.
Another family of the name were the Craigs of Dalnair
and Costerton, Mid-Lothian, who became connected by mar-
riage with the Tytiers of Woodhonselee, Anne Craig, daugh-
ter of Jnmes Craig, Esq. of Costerton, writer to the signet,
having, in 1745, married the eminent antiquarian writer,
William Tytler of Woodhonselee. She was the mother of
Alexander Eraser Tytler, nsually styled Lord Woodhonselee.
Her sister. Miss Craig of Dalnair, married Mr. , Alexander
Kerr, a wine merchant at Bordeaux, father of James Kerr,
Esq. of Biacksbiels. The last of the Dalnair family, Sir
James Henry Craig, K.B., governor-general of British North
America, died in 1812.'
CRAIG, Sir Thomas, of Riccarton, a distin-
guished lawyer and wiiter on the fendal law, was
bom at Edinburgh about 1538. It is uncertain
whether his father was Robert Craig, a merchant
in Edinburgh, or William Craig of Craigfintry,
afterwards Craigston in Aberdeenshii-e. In 1552
he was entered a student of St. Leonardos college,
in the university of St. Andrews, which he quitted
in 1555, after receiving his degree as bachelor of
arts. He then proceeded to the univei-sity of
Paris, where he studied the civil and canon laws.
He returned to Scotland about 1561, was called to
the bar in February 1563, and, in 1564, was made
justice-depute. In 1566, when Prince James was
bom, Craig wrote a Latin hexameter poem of
some length on the event, entitled ^ Grenethliacon
Jacob! Principis Scotorum,' which is highly spoken
of by Mr. Tytler in his Life of Sir Thomas Craig.
This, and his ' Parieneticon,' a poem written on
the departure of King James for England, are
inserted in the ^Deliti® Poetarum Scotorum.*
Craig soon acquired an extensive practice at the
bar, which he enjoyed for upwards of forty years.
He was a convert to the pro^estant religion, and
appears to have kept himslf apart from the
political intrigues and comm' rions of those dis-
tracted times, devoting himself to his professional
duties, and, in his hours of relaxation, cultivating
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CRAIG,
688
JOHN.
a taste for classical llteratui*e. His piinclpal work
is liis learned treatise on the feudal law, entitled
^ Jus Feudale/ wliich is held in such high estima-
tion, that it has often been quoted both by histo-
rians and iawyei-s. It was completed in 1608, but
not published till forty-seven years after his death.
In January 1603 he wi'ote a Latin treatise on the
right of James to the crown of England, an Eng-
lish translation of which was, by Dr. Gatherer,
published in 1703. He was present at King
James* entry into London, as well as at his cor-
onation, which events he commemorated in a
Latin hexameter poem. Having repeatedly de-
clined the honour of knighthood, King James
ordered that he should nevertheless enjoy the style
and title. In 160-i he was one of the Scots com-
missioners nominated by his majesty to confer
with others on the part of England, regarding the
probability of a union between the two countries,
a favourite project with King James. Sir Thomas
wrote a work on this snbject, which still remains
in manuscript. He also wrote a treatise on the
independent sovereignty of Scotland, entitled ' De
Hominlo,' which was translated into bad English
by Mr. George Ridpath, and published in 1695.
In the latter part of his life he became advocate
for the church. Sir Thomas Craig died at Edin-
burgh, February 26, 1608. His portrait is given
in the preceding column.
He had married Helen, daughter of Heriot of
Trabrown, in East Lothian, by whom he had four
sons and three daughters. His eldest son, Sir
Lewis Craig, born in 1569, was educated at the
university of Edinburgh, under the eye of his fa-
ther, and took his degree of master of arts on 30tb
July 1597. He afterwards studied the civil law
for two years at Poitiers, and on his return to his
native country was admitted an advocate, 11th
June 1600. He was knighted and appointed a
lord of session sometime between the 24th Feb-
ruary 1604 and 19th June 1605. He sat as a
lord of session, under the title of Lord Wrights-
houses, while his father was still a pleader at the
bar. The judges at that time wore their hats ou
the bench, but, "whenever," saj's Mr. Tytler,
" his father appeared before him, Sir Lewis, aa
became a pious son, uncovered, and listened to his
parent with the utmost revercnce." U^ifc by Mr.
P. F. Tytler."] Sir I^wis died before 6lh June
1622. — Sir Thomas Craig's works are :
PnemnU. Edin. 160B, 4to.
Serenissimi et invictiiisiini Priricipis .Taoobi Britiinnianiin
et Galliaram Regis ZTE«AN04>0PIA. Rob. Cbartens.
1603, 4to. This poem nnd his Panenetioon are reprinted in-
ter Delit. Poet. Scotor. Amst 1687.
Jos Feudale, tribas I.ibrin comprehenttiin. Edin. 1656. fol.
Idem ex Editione Jrc Baillie. Edin. 1782. fol. A work of
authority over all Europe. Another edition, Upsisp, 1716, 4ti'.
Scotlnnd's Sovereignty asserted, being a dispute ooooeming
homage against those who maintain that Scotland is a feo of
England. Translated from the I^itin, with a Preface, b?
George Ridpath. London, 1695, 8vo. 1698, 8to.
The right of Succession to the Kingdom of England, in two
books, agninst Parsons, the Jesuit, who endeaYoored to over-
throw not only the right of Succession, but also the sacred
antbority of Kings themselves. Written above 100 years
since, and trnnslsted out of the Latin, by James Gatherer.
London, 1703, 8vo. .
CRAIG, John, an eminent preacher of the Re-
formation, and colleague of John Knox, was bom
in 1512, and soon after lost his father in the dis-
astrous battle of Flodden. He received his edu-
cation at the university of St. Andrews, and going
afterwai'ds to England, became tutor to the family
of Lord Dacre. In consequence of the war which
broke out between England and Scotland, he re-
turned to his native country, and became a friai
of the Dominican order. Falling under the sus-
-J,
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CRAIG,
JOHN.
picioD of heresy, lie was thrown into prison, but
was soon liberated. In 1537 he left Scotland, and
after in vain attempting to procare a place at
Cambridge, proceeded to France, and thence to
Italy. At the recommendation of Cai'dinal Pole
he was admitted among the Dominicans at Bolog-
na, and snch was his merit, that he was soon
raised to the rectorate of that body. Finding a
copy of Calvin's Institutions in the libi'ary of the
Inqnisition, he was induced to read that work,,
when he became a convert to the protestant doc-
trines. Making no secret of his change of senti-
ments, he was exposed to considerable danger,
but was advised by an old monk, a countryman of
his own, to obtain his discharge, and depart from
the monastery. He now entered as tutor into the
family of a neighbouring nobleman who had em-
braced protestant principles ; but both he and his
patron being accused of heresy, were seized and
seut to Rome, whei*e he was brought to trial, and,
with some others, condemned to be burnt on the
20th of August 1659. Luckily for him, the pope,
Paul the Fourth, died on the evening before the
day appointed for his execution, and the populace
having excited a tumult in the city, the prison
doors were thrown open, and Cnug and his fellow
captives effected their escape, and took refuge in
a house beyond the suburbs. They were pm'sued
by a company of soldiers, and on entering the
house, their leader looked Crsdg eagerly in the
face, and, taking him aside, asked if he recollected
of once relieving a poor wonnded soldier whilst
walking in the fields in the vicinity of Bologna.
Craig replied that he did not remember the cir-
cumstance. "But I remember it,'* replied the
grateful soldier ; " I am the man whom yon re-
lieved, and Providence has now put it in my power
to return the kindness which yon showed to a
distressed stranger. You are at liberty; lyour
companions I must take along with me, but, for
your sake, shall show them every favour in my
power." He then supplied him with money, and
allowed him to depart.
Craig soon found his way back to Bologna, but
afraid of being denounced to the Inqnisition, he
left that city, and avoiding all the public roads,
endeavoured to reach Milan; his money failing
him on the road, he laid himself down by the side
of a wood to ruminate on his sad condition, when,
to his surprise, a strange dog came fawning up to
him with a pnrse in its mouth. Viewing this as
*' a singular testimony of God's care of him," he
now prosecnte^his journey with renewed strength.
Having reached Vienna, and announced himself a
Dominican monk, he was employed to preach
before the archduke of Austria, afterwards the
Emperor Maximilian the Second, with whom he
became a favourite. But the new pontiff applying
to have him sent back to Rome as a condemned
heretic, the archduke dismissed him with a safe
conduct. In 1560 be arrived in England, and be-
ing informed of the establishment of the Reformed
religion in his native country, he hastened to Ed-
inbnrgh, and was admitted to the ministry. Hav.
ing, during an absence of twenty-four years,
nearly forgotten his native* language, he preached
for a shoii; time in Latin to some of the learned
in Magdalene chapel, in the Cowgate. He was
afterwards appointed minister of the Canongate,
where he had not officiated long till he was elected,
m 1562, colleague to John Knox, in the parish
chnrch of Edinburgh, where he continued for nine
years. In 1564, in one of his sermons he inveigh-
ed against the hypocrisy of the times with so
much truth and point that many of the courtiers
were highly offended, and in particular Maitland
of Lethington, secretary to the queen, who soon
after, in the famous conference between the court
lords and the leading members of the Assem-
bly, carried on the cUscussion singly with John
Knox. In the following year he and his colleague
Knox were ordained by the Assembly to prepare
the form of the exercise to be nsed at a public fast,
and to cause it to be printed. This treatise of fast-
ing was long preserved in the Psalm-books. In the
memorable year 1567 he proclaimed the banns of
marriage between the queen and Bothwell, de-
clai'ing at the same time that the marriage was
odious and scandalous to the world; for which
he was called before the council. In the Gren-
eral Assembly of July 1568, with six other min-
isters he was appointed to revise the form and
order of excommunication which had been pre-
pared by Knox; and in that of July 1569, he and
Knox, with Mr. David Lindsay and the superin-
t^ndant of Lothian, received commission to revise
2 X
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CRAIG,
690
JOHN.
tlie acts of the General Assemblies. Of the As-
sembly which met at Edinburgh on 1st March
1570 he was chosen moderator. He was re-elect-
ed to the same office in the meeting of the General
Assembly 24th October 1576, and was a third
time elected moderator on 17th October 1581.
About 1572 Craig was sent by the General As-
sembly to preach at Montrose, and two years
afterwai'ds he was appointed minister at Aber-
deen. In 1579 he was appointed one of the chap-
lains to James the Sixth, and thereupon returned
to Edinburgh, and took a leading part in the
General Assemblies of the Chm*ch. He assisted
in compiling the Second Book of Discipline, and
was the writer of the National Covenant which
was signed in 1580 by the king and his household,
and from this was called the king^s covenant or
Confession of Faith. On the 19th September
1582, he rebuked the king from the pulpit for
issuing a proclamation in which the ministers of
the church were severely reflected upon, for their
conduct in excommunicating Robert Montgomery,
archbishop of Glasgow ; whereat, it is said, the
king wept, saying that he might have told him
privately. Mr. Craig had taken great pains in
collecting the acts of Assembly, which were ap-
proved of by the Assembly of 1583. In the fol-
lowing year he and several ministers were sum-
moned before the council for their bold speeches,
and their opposing such acts of parliament as they
thought contrary to the liberties of the church ; on
which occasion the earl of Arran, the king's fav-
ourite, started to his feet, and said they were too.
pert ; he should shave their heads, pare their nails,
and make them an example to all who should re-
bel against king and council. They were charged
to compear before the king and council at Falk-
land on the 4th September. They obeyed, when
some warm discussion took place between Mr.
Craig and the bishop of St. Andrews, and An'an
endeavoured to browbeat him and those with him.
Mr. Craig was discharged from preaching, and he
and the other accused ministers were commanded
to compear again before the council the 16 th of
November. He afterwards subscribed the bond
of obedience. He officiated at the coronation of
the queen in 1590, and on her subsequent entry
into Edinburgh, his son, ** a young boy, made a
short oration to her." In 1591 he prepared, by
order of the General Assembly, the form of an
examination before the Communion, which was
ordei-ed to be printed, and taught in schools and
families, in place of the catechism. On 29th De-
cember in that year, he again rebuked the king
from the pulpit for not doing justice to his people,
to the great wrath of his majesty. In 1595, from
the infirmities of age, he resigned his office of
minister to the king, and retired from public life.
He died December 4, 1600, aged 88.
CRAIG, Alexander, a poet, of whom little is
known. His amorous songs, sonnets, and elegies,
were published in London in 1606.
CRAIG, John, a learned mathematician and
divine, was a native of Scotland, but the place and
date of his birth are unknown. He settled at
Cambridge in the latter part of the seventeenth
century, and distinguished himself as a mathema-
cal writer by a number of papers on Fluxions, and
other subjects, in the Philosophical Transactions,
and in the Acta Eruditorum. He had a contro-
versy with John Bernoulli on the quadrature of
curved lines and curvilinear figures, in which
Leibnitz took the part of Craig. But his most
extraordmary work is a pamphlet of thirty-six
pages 4to, entitled * Theologis Christians Princi-
pia Mathematica,^ published at London in 1699
The object of this curious tract is to calculate the
duration of moral evidence and the authority of
historical facts. He establishes, as bis fundamen-
tal proposition, that whatever we believe npon
the testimony of men, inspired or uninspired, is
nothing more than probable. He then proceeds
to suppose that the probability diminishes in pro-
portion as the distance of time from this testimony
increases; and by means of algebraical calcula-
tions, he arrives at length at the condnsion, that
the probability is, that the Christian religion will
last only fourteen hundred and fifty-four years
from the date of his book! His tract was repub-
lished at Leipsic in 1755, by J. D. Titius of Wit-
temberg, with a refutation of his arguments. The
Abbe Houteville also combated his learned but
absurd reveries. The date of Craig's death is not
known. The following Ust of his writings is from
Watt*s Bibliotheca Britannica, in which it is stated
he was sometime vicar of Gillingham, Dorsetshire.
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CRAIG,
691
WILUAM.
Methodus fignrarum, liiieis rectis et ciirvis oompreheDsamm :
qaadrataras detenninaodL LondoUf 1685, 4to.
Tractatofl mathemnticus, de figuraram curvilinearnm quad-
ratnriSf et locia geometrids. London, 1692, 1693, 4to.
Theologue Ghristianie Prindpia Mathematica. London,
1699, 4to. Reprinted, Leipsic, 1755.
De calculo flaentium, lib. iL et de optica analytica, lib. ii.
London, 1718, 4to.
The Qoadrature of the Logarithmic Cnrve; translated
from the I^tin. Phil. Trans. Abr. iv. 318. 1698.
Quadrature of Figures Geometrically Irrational. lb. 202.
1697.
Letter, containing Solutions of two problems: 1. on the
Solid of Least Resistance; 2. The Curve of Quickest Descent,
lb. 642. 1700-1.
Spedmen of determining the Quadrature of figures. lb. v.
24. 1708.
Solution of BemouilFs Problem. lb. 90. 1704.
Of the Length of Curve Lines. lb. 406. 1708.
Method of Making Logarithms, lb. 609. 1710.
Description of the Head of a monstrous Calf. lb. 668
1712.
CRAIG, James, a very ])opalar preacher in his
day, was born at Glffbrd, in East Lothian, in
1682. He was educated in the university of Ed-
inburgh, where he took his degree of M.A., and
was ordained minister at Tester. During the
time he remained there, he wrote a volume of
^ Divine Poems,' which passed through two edi-
tions. He afterwards became minister at Had-
dled in 1784, in the 75th year of his age. His
sermons were much admired for their eloquence.
His works are :
An Essay on the Life of Jesus Christ Edin. 1767, 12mo.
Twenty Discourses on various subjects. Edin. 1775, 8
vols. l2mo. New edition, with several additional iSermons,
and a life of the Author. 1808, 2 vols. 8vo.
CRAIG, William, Lord Craig, an eminent
judge, son of the pi*ecediug, was born in 1745.
He studied at the university of Glasgow, and was
admitted advocate in 1768. In 1787 he became
sheriff-depute of Ayrshire; and in 1792, on the
death of Lord Hailes, was i*aised to the Bench,
when he assumed the title of Lord Craig. In 1795
he succeeded Lord Henderland as a judge of the
court of justiciary, which situation he held till
1812, when he resigned it on account of infiim
health. While still an advocate, he was one of
the chief contributors to ^ The Mirror,* a celebrated
periodical published at Edinburgh, the jobit pro-
duction of a society of gentlemen, all connected
with the bar, except Mr. Henry Maclcenzie, author
of *The Man of Feeling.* This society was at
first termed the * Tabernacle,* and usually met in
a tavern for the purpose of reading their essays.
dington; and, in 1732, was translated to Edin- 1 When the publication of these was resolved upou^
burgh, where he died in 1744, aged 62. His
sermons, in three volumes 8vo, chiefly on the
heads of Christianity, published at Edinburgh in
1732, were at one time much esteemed, but they
are now become scai'ce.
CRAIG, William, D.D., an eminent divine,
was the son of a merchant in Glasgow, where he
was bom in February 1709. At college he dis-
guished himself by his uncommon proficiency in
classical learning. He was licensed to preach in
1734; and in 1737, having received a presentation
from Mr. I>ockhart of Cambusnethan, he was
ordained minister of that parish. He afterwards
accepted of a presentation to Glasgow, and became
minister of St Andrew*8 church in that city. He
married the daughter of Afr. Anderson, a con-
siderable merchant in Glasgow, by whom he had
several children, two of whom, William, an eminent
lawyer, afterwards Lord Craig, and John, a mer-
chant, survived their father. His wife died in
1758, and he subsequently married the daughter of
Gilbert Kennedy, Esq. of Auchtifardel. Dr. Craig . ' .-^.vr^rfw^rnW^r^'^'^'^^*^
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CRAIG,
692
SIR JAMES GIBSON-.
tUe idea of which originated with Mr. Craig, the
name was changed to that of the * Mirror Club.'
The Mirror was commenced January 23, 1779,
and finished with the 110th number, May 27, 1780.
The whole was afterwards republished in 3 vols.
8vo. Mr. Craig's contributions, next to those of
Mr. Mackenzie, were the most numerous. The
thirty-sixth number, written by him, " contributed
in no inconsiderable degree," says Dr. Anderson,
in his Lives of the Poets, " to rescue from oblivion
the name and writings of the ingenious and ami-
able young poet, Michael Bruce." Mr. Craig also
wrote many excellent papers for ' The Lounger,'
which was staited some years after by the same
club. His lordship, who was the cousin of Mrs.
M'Lehose, the celebrated Clarinda of Bums, died
July 8, 1813. From a portrait of Mr. Craig by
Kay the woodcut on the preceding page has been
taken.
CRAIG, James, an eminent architect of the
eighteenth century, was the son of William
Craig, merchant in Edinburgh, and Mary, young-
est sister of James Thomson, the author of the
Seasons. His plan for the new town of Edin-
burgh, published in 1768, and dedicated to George
the Third, first brought him into notice. It was
altered by Craig himself in 1774. Various other
changes were efiected on the plan, ere it assumed
a permanent shape even on paper. It was selected
as the best from a great number of competing de-
signs. On publishing it, he appended to it the
following quotation from his uncle's Seasons :
*' Augost, around, what pnblio works I see !
Lo ! stately streets, lo ! squares that court the breeze.
See long canals, and deep^*d rivers join
Each part with each, and with the circling main,
The whole entwined Island.**
A part of Craig's design was to preserve and ex-
tend the North Loch, at the back of Edinburgh
Castle, in the form of a long canal. It is now
turned to much better use, after being drained, as
the site of that portion of the Edinburgh and
Glasgow Railway which runs into the Edinburgh
terminus. Craig was presented with a gold
medal bearing the city arms and a suitable inscrip-
tion, and received along with it the freedom of the
city of Edinburgh in a silver box. The Physi-
cian's Hall, a chaste Grecian edifice, designed by
him, which stood on the south side of George street,
but removed in 1845, seems to have been his best
work. The foundation stone of it was laid in
1774 by the celebrated Dr. Cnllen; but that
building was removed in 1845, and the Com-
mercial Bank pf Scotland, remarkable for its lofty
and magnificent portico, now occupies its site. In
1786 Craig issued a quarto pamphlet, illustrated
with engravings, containing a scheme for remodel-
ling the old town, but its suggestions were not
adopted. His professional skill was for a long
time alnMSt entirely exercised on the private
dwellings of the new town, and these generally
are so elegantly designed, and the streets so uni-
form as to have acquired for the new town of
Edinburgh, the proud title of " the city of palaces.**
He died at Edinburgh, on the 23d June, 1795.
CRAIG, Sir Jabces Gibson-, an eminent citi-
zen of Edinbui*gh, and one of the leading local
politicians of his time, was bom on the 11th Oc-
tober, 1765, and belonged to the ancient family of
Gibson, of Duiie, one of whom married the daugh-
ter of Sir Thomas Craig, of Riccarton, the learned
author of the * Treatise on the Feudal Law,* and
in consequence the subject of this notice, on the
extinction of the male line, succeeded as heir of
entail to the Riccarton estate. His father, Wil-
liam Gibson, Esq., a merchant in Edinburgh, died
in 1807. By his wife, Mary Cecilia, a daughter
of James Balfour, Esq., of Pilrig, he had nine
sons and a daughter. Sir James, the second son,
was educated at the High School of his native
city, and in 1786 was admitted a member of the
Society of Writers to the Signet. Latteriy he was
at the head of the list of that body. From his
earliest years he entertdned a zealous attachment
to the principles of civil and religious liberty, and
throughout his long life had always been regarded
as one of the most able and active of the liberals
of Scotland. On the breaking out of the French
Revolution of 1789, he was one of those who came
prominently forward to agitate for pariiamentary
reform ; and by his purse, his pen, his influence,
and professional counsel, undismayed by the fix)wii8
of those in power, he aided the liberal cause, and
proved himself the friend of the friends of liberty,
when more cautions and less zealons supporters of
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CRAIG,
693
SIR JAMES GIBSON-
liberal opinions shrunk from the hazards and dan-
gers which then attended snch a bold and honest
coui*se as was adopted by him and a few others
holding similai' sentiments. At a later period,
when Harry Erskine; John Clerk of Eldin ; Adam
Gillies, afterwards Lord Gillies ; David Cathcart,
afterwards Lord AUoway ; and others of the Ed-
inburgh Whigs, were joined by Cranstoun, Jef-
frey, Moncrieff, Cockbnm, and Murray, James
Gibson was still the active and indomitable agent
in conducting the policy of the party. " In fact,"
says a writer in a local journal, " the presence
and counsel of Sir James were always deemed in-
dispensable when a movement was to be made,
for he was one of the main springs when specula-
tion gave way to action. During that period of
excitement which followed a few years after the
peace, when men, nndistracted by 'the shock of
contending hosts, had time to revert to political
reform, we find Sir James receiving his full share
of the abuse then lavished by the ^Beacon* on the
leaders of the Whig party. One charge made by
that journal involved his professional reputation
and personal honour, and he sought recourse in
the jury court, when, after an elaborate trial, dur-
ing which the most satisfactory testimony was
borne to his high character and honour, by cer-
tain of the most eminent of his professional bre-
thren, although on the opposite side of politics,
he triumphantly established his case, and the juiy
returned a verdict for him with £600 damages."
He was on terms of intimacy with Fox and most
of the leaders of the old whig school, and figures
prominently in the sarcastic ballad against the
Whigs written by Sir Alexander Boswell in 1822,
which led to the fatal duel with Mr. Stuart of
Duneam, in which Boswell was shot.
During the Reform agitation of 1880-31, and 32,
his unimpaired energies and undying zeal in the
cause, enabled him, though then verging on his
seventieth year, to discharge, with admirable skill,
courage, and boldness, the duties of that leader-
ship to which he was called by his services and
character. His tall and commanding figure might
be seen at all the public meetings of that stormy
period, with his characteristic top-boots ; and, al-
though no orator, he could express his sentiments
in public, in a style which, from its brevity and
force, told powerfully on his audience. Shrewd
common sense, a practical knowledge of the sub-
ject, and a business-like way of handling the ques-
tion, were his principal characteristics on these
occasions. He attended and took part in the
King's Park demonstrations in favour of reform,
and all the other meetings in Edinburgh, and they
were numerous, of that exciting period, and was
one of the foremost at the Jubilee of 1832, in cel-
ebrating the triumpli of the liberal party. To the
last he retained his interest in public and political
matters, yet, though for many years known to be
the confidential adviser and agent of the leaders
of the liberal party in Scotland, few citizens of
Edinburgh have ever been more genei-ally respect-
ed, or their name been more truly honoured, not
only in that city, but throughout Scotland. This
he owed to the strength, ardour, and firmness of
his mind, his judgment and resolution, and parti-
cularly to his honesty of purpose, and straightfor-
ward honourable course of conduct.
In 1831, during the ministry of Earl Grey, as a
reward for his political services to his party, he
was created a baronet of the united kingdom.
The whig patronage for Scotland was supposed to
have been vested for a considerable period in his
hands ; but he was never known to use his influ-
ence unfairly to promote his own interests, or those
of his party. He had no personal ambition but
to serve and promote the liberal cause. Though
he was understood, from his influential position
and the services he had rendered them, to have a
large claim on the whig party, he never solicited
any office for himself. In 1806, when the Whigs
obtained a brief tenure of the ministiy, he was ap-
pointed solicitor of stamps, an office which he did
not long continue to hold.
Up to a short period of his death he regularly
attended at the chambers of the eminent firm of
which he was the head — ^Messrs. Gibson-Craigs,
Wardlaw, and Dalziel, writers to the signet —
taking an active part in the professional business,
and also in that of the banks and public companies
with which he was officially connected as a director.
It was on the motion of Sir James Gibson -Craig,
that, at the meeting of Sir Walter Scott's creditors
and trustees on the 17th December, 1830, after
the failure of the latter. Sir Walter was reqneste<l
T
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CRAIGIE.
694
CRAIK.
to accept of his furniture, plate, liuens, paintings,
iibraiy, and curiosities at Abbotsford, as the best
means they had of expressing their very high
sense of his most honourable conduct, and in
grateful acknowledgment of his exertions on their
behalf.
He married, in ^September 1796, a daughter of
James Thomson, Esq., of Edinburgh. He as-
sumed the additional surname and arms of Craig,
in 1818, on succeeding Robert Craig, Esq. of Ric-
carton, in virtue of the provisions of an entail
made by his predecessor He died 6th March
1850, and was succeeded in the baronetcy, and
estates of Ingliston and Riccarton, by his eldest
son, William Gibson-Craig, Esq., sometime mem-
ber of parliament for Edinburgh.
CRAionc, a surname originallj Creagack, a Cdtic word
signifying a craggy ridge, and derired from the lands of
Craigie in the parish of Dalmeny, Linlithgowshire, now called
Craigiehall. They formeriy belonged to a family who took
their name from them. Joannes de Craigin, or Craigie, was
one of the witnesses to the original charter of Dundas of
Dundas, the Superior, in the reign of Darid the First In the
Ragman Roll (1296) is the name of John de Craigy, supposed
on good grounds to belong to this family. In 1867, John de
Craigy of that ilk is made mention of in the Chartnlaiy of
St Giles. He got the lands and barony of Braidwood in
Lanarkshire by his marriage with Margaret, daughter and
heiress of Sir John de Monfode, by whom he had an only
daughter, Margaret, called domma de Craigy, heiress of
Craigy and Braidwood, who, in 1887, married Sir John
Stewart, a younger son of Sir Robert Stewart of Durrisdeer.
Of this marriage came the Stewarts of CraigiebaU, who pos-
sessed the estate for about two hundred and fifty years, and
ultimately sold it in 1648, to John Fairholm, treasurer of the
dty of Edinburgh. Mr. Fairholm*s grand-Klanghter married
the first marquis of Annandale, who in her right obtained
Craigiehall. Their only surriving child, Henrietta, on her
marriage with the first eari of Hopetoun, carried the estate
into that family, and it is now possessed by Mr. Hope Vere,
their descendant, the additional name of Vere or Weir having
been assumed on the marriage of the Hon. Charles Hope,
second son of the said earl of Hopetoun, with the hdrees of
Blackwood, in Lanarkshire, whose name was Vere.
Another principal family of the name were the Craigies of
Kilgraston, in the parish of thunbamie, Perthshire, two of
whom were eminent judges. Robert Craigy of Glendoick, in
the parish of Kinfauns, in that county, lord president of the
court of session, bom in 1685, was the son of Lawrence
Craigie of Kilgraston. Admitted advocate 8d January 1710,
he was, on 4th March 1742, appointed lord advocate. On the
death of Robert Dundas of Amiston, he was promoted lord
president and took his seat on the bench 2d Februaiy 1754.
On 18th June 1755 he was named by patent one of the com-
missioners for improving the fisheries and manufactures of
Scotland. He dM 10th March 1760. Lord Woodhouselee,
in his Life of Lord Kames, 0* ^1) has preserved his character
both as a judge and a hiwyer. Another Robert Craigie, of
the same family, bom in 1754, second son of John Craigie of
Kilgraston was also on the bench, under the title of Lord
Craigie. He passed advocate 18th July 1776, was appointed
sheriff-depute of Orkney, November 1786, and of Duroines
shire 3d December 1791, on which occasion he was presented
with the freedom of the bnr;^ of Dumfiies, and was elevated
to the bench 18th November 1811. He died in 1834| and
was buried in the old churchyard of Dnmbamie. He was
considered an excellent fsudal lawyer. The estate of Kilgras-
ton was purchaaed m 1784 by John Grant Ksq., chief justice
in the island of Jamaica, who died in 1793, and was suc-
ceeded by his brother Francis, in whose family it remaina. —
See SuppLKimcT for additional information.
The Craigies of Dtmibaraie, in the parish of that name, are
a branch of the family who formeriy possessed KilgrastoiL
'^They were remarkable," says the New Statistical Account
*' for the elegant improvements they made on their estates; and
it u to their public spirit that the community is indebted for
several avenues of trees which adom the roads in the parish."
Half a mile south firom Perth there is a village of the name
of Craigie. lliere is also a parish in Ayiahire of the name.
Craioinoblt, a surname derived from lands of that name
in Stirlingshhe. In November 1555, Mr. Alexander Living-
ston, and three others of the same name, with three of their
servants, found surety to underiy the law for art and part of
the mutilation of John Craigingelt of that ilk and Robert his
son of their left arms, committed withm the buigfa of Stirling
on the preceding 21st of August In 1614, Thomas Craigin-
gelt of that ilk was one of the assize on the trial of Helen
Erskine, Imbel Erskine and Annas Erskine, sisters of Ro-
bert Erskine, brother of the laird of Dun, for poisoning their
nephew, John Erskine, hdr- apparent of David Erskine,
their eldest brother, and his brother, Alexander Erskine.
They were found guilty, and two of them executed; the
third, Helen, being banished the kingdom. In 1600, Geoi^
Craigingelt one of the earl of Gowrie*s attendants, was tried
for his share in the Gowrie oonspiracyT and being found
guilty was, on the 22d August, hanged with two others of his
lordship's retainers who were condemned for the same crime,
at the market-cross of Perth. It does not appear that be
had any direct hand in the conspiracy, but he was seen keep-
ing the back gate, with a drawn double-handed sword in his
hand, during the time of the fray. He had previously been
ill in bed, but on hearing the noise he rose and ran up the
dose, and cried with the rest of the town there convened,
*' Give us our provost or the king's green coats shall pay for
it** His deposition will be found inserted at length in the
second volume of Pitcaim*s Criminal Trials, pages 157, 158.
Craik, an old surname found in the Ragman RolL Nis-
bet remarks that it seems to be a south oountiy name. In
the stewartxy of Kirkcudbright there is a fiunily of the sur-
name of Craik who possess the estate of ArbigUnd, bought
in 1722 by the ancestor of the present proprietor, from the
earl of Southesk, for twenty-two thousand merks. The see
of the first Craik of Arbigland died in 1785, and his son,
William Craik, Esq., was one of the most successful agricul-
turists of his day. In his younger years he employed his time
in the grazing of cattle, and was the first who uadertook to
improve the soil in the south of Sootiand. Axbigland was
then in its natural state, veiy much covered with whins and
brooms, and yielding little rent heing only about three thou-
sand merks a-year (eighteen merks make one pound steriing).
The estate is in the parish of Kirkbean, the church of which
was built in 1776, aooordmg to a phm of William Craik, Esq.
then of Arbiglano.
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CRAIL.
695
CRANSTON.
Mr. George L. Cnik, M.A., for a long time connected with
Mr. Charles Knight, the ^ndon pablisher, as editor of some
of his publications, and elected in 1849 professor of History
and English literature in Qneen*s College, Belfast, a native
of Dumfries-shire, may be of the same family.
Crail, a somame derived from lands near "the East
Nenk" of Fife, and the name of a parish there. In the
twelfth oentory there was a family of some consequence, who
adopted the name of Crail as their sorname. Adam Cnul or
Karail, who died in 1227, vfas one of the derid regii^ and
bishop of Aberdeen.
Cramond, a surname supposed to be derrred from what is
now the parish of that name in the counties of Linlithgow
and E^nbui^h. There was an old family Cramond of Auld-
bar in Forfarshire. In a charter of John de Strathem, 1278,
William de Cramond is designed dericus de Warderoba do-
mmi reffB, In the fifteenth century Catherine Cramond,
daughter of the proprietor of Auldbar, married Sir Thomas
Manle, ancestor of the Panmure £unily. This lady was his
second wife. In 1576, James Cramond, the then laird, sold
the barony to Lord Glammis, in whose famOy it continued
till 1670, when Patrick, first earl of Strathmore, sold it to
Sir James Sinclair, who again sold it to Peter and James
Young. In 1758, it was puidiased by William Chahners of
Hazlehead, the ancestor of the family of Cbabners of Auld-
bar.
Cramond, a barony in the peerage of Scotland (now sup-
posed extinct), one of the very flow which has been held by
natives of England, having no connexion whatever, dther of
blood, Imth, or estate, with North Britain. It was conferred,
on the last day of 16^8, by Charles the Hrst, on Elizabeth,
the second wife of Sir Thomas Richardson, knight, lord chief
iustice of the court of king's bench, the only instance, as re-
mained by Crawford in his Peerage, of any female creation
in the Scottish RolL Lady Cramond was the daughter of Sir
Thomas Beaumont, knight^ of Stoughton Grange, Leicester-
shire, and had previously been married to Sir John Ashbnm-
ham of Ashbumham in Sussex, knight, and by him, who
died 29th June 1620, aged twenty-nine, had several children.
Her eldest son, John, was the ancestor of the earls of Ash-
bumham. Her second husband, Sir Thomas Richardson, the
B0.1 of Dr. Thomas Richardson, was bom at Hardwick in
Suffolk, 8d July 1569, and died 4th Febmaiy 1684. The
peerage of Cramond was conferred on his wife for her life,
with remainder, as she had no issue of her own, to the son of
Sir Thomas, by his first wife, (Ursula, daughter of John
Southwell, of Barham Hall, Suffolk, by whom he had one
son and four daughters) and his heirs male ; which failing to
the heirs male of his father. Collins, in Ms Baronetage (ed.
1771, vol. ii page 164) says, probably the reason why the
title was not granted to Sir Thomas himself was on account
of his being a judge, it being in those days unusual. Lady
Cramond died 16th April 1651. Her second husband. Sir
Thomas Richardson, distinguished himself as an opponent of
Laud, having issued an oider against the ancient custom of
wakes, and directed eveiy minister in England to read it in
his church. This was considered an encroachment on the
ecclesiastical authority by Laud, then bishop of Bath and
Wells, and Richardson was brought before the council, and so
severely reprimanded that he came out complaining that he
had been aJmost choked by a pair of lawn sleeves. This step
was tne means of the^Book of Sports, which afterwards proved
so fatal to that mtolerant prelate.
, Sir Thomas' son, also named Sir Thomas Richardson, died
in 1642, aged forty-five. He was twice married. By his
first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Hewett, knight,
he had, with other children, a son, Thomas, Lord Cramond,
who succeeded his stepmother in the title. He had also a
fiuiily by his second wife, Mary, widow of Sir Miles Sandys,
knight The son, Thomas Richardson, Lord Cramond, elect-
ed member of parliament for the county of Norfolk in 1660,
married Anne, daughter of Sir Richard Gomey, knight, lord
mayor of London, and died 16th May 1674. His eldest son,
Heniy Richardson, Lord Cramond, bom in 1650, married
Frances, daughter of Sir John Napier, baronet, of Luton Hoo,
widow of Sir Edward Barkham of Southacre in Norfolk. On
his death, 5th Januaiy 1701, he was succeeded by his brother
William Richardson, Lord Cramond, bom 2d August 1654,
married, first, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Edward
Barkham, Esq., of Southacre, and secondly, Elizabeth, daugh-
ter and heiress of James Daniel of Norwich, goldsmith.
The former had no issue, but by the latter his lordship had a
son and a daughter; William his heir; and Elizabeth, heiress
of her brother, married in 1785 to William Jermy, Esq., of
Bayfield in Norfolk. They sold Southacre Hall, the last re-
mains of the great Cramond property in Norfolk, to Sir An-
drew Fountatne, knight. Lord Cramond died 7th March
1719, and was succeeded by his sen WUliam Richardson,
Lord Cramond, bom in 1714. He died, unmarried, 28th
JtUy 1785, when the peerage is supposed to have become ex*
tinct.
On this peerage the lords of session, in their retum to an
order of the House of Lords, dated 12th June 1789, remark
that it does not appear that any person ever sat or voted as
Lord Cramond, or that any one offered to vote at any election
since the Union under that title, but as the descendants of Sir
Thomas Richardson, if any were, had probably their residence
in En^and, their not having claimed hitherto can be no objec-
tion to their title if they can verify their right to it.
Cranston, a surname derived fix)m the lands of Cranston
in the counties of Edinbui^ and Roxburgh, anciently pos-
sessed by the ancestcxi of the noble funUy of that name. A
parish on the eastem veige of Edinburghshire now bears the
name of Cranston. In the charters of the twelfth century it
was written Craneetone, the Anglo-Saxon Craenston,— signi-
fying the territory or resort of the crane, a bird whidi, when
armorially carried, as by all families of the name of Cran-
ston, is the emblem of piety and charity. Their motto,
however, seems to be the reverse of this, as it is, " Thou shalt
want ere I want" In a charter of King William the lion to
the abbacy of Holyroodhonse, Elfnc de Cranston is witness.
He is also witness to a convention betwixt Roger de Quincy
and the abbot and convent of Newbottle in 1170. In the
reign of Alexander the Second, Thomas de Cranston made a
donation to the monastery of Soltray, of some lands lying
near Paiston in East Lothian, for the welfare of his own soul,
and those of his ancestors and successors; and in that of
Alexander the Third, Andrew de Cranston is witness to a
charter of Hugo de Riddel, — knight, the proprietor of the
district from whom one portion of it acquired the name of
Cranston-Riddel — to the abbacy of Newbottle. Hugh de
Cranston was one of the Scottish barons who swore fealty to
King Edward the First in 1296. Radolphus de Cranston,
dominns de New Cranston, son and heir of Andrew, lord of
Cranston, made a donation to the abbacy of Newbottle 27th
May, 1888, and confirmed to the monastery of Soltray, totam
illam terram in territorio meo de Cranston, quern habui ab
antecessonbus meis, betwixt 1380 and 1340; in which con-
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firmation his son, John de Cnnston, is particolarlj named.
From King David the Second, Thomas de Cranston got a
charter of the lands of Cranston.
In the year 1582 Thomas Cranstonn of Morristonn, or Mn-
rieston, descended from Cranstonn of that ilk, was one of the
jniy on the trial of George Hnme of Spott, indicted for being
concerned in the murder of Lord Damlej, when Hnme was
acquitted. In 1591, John Cranstonn of Morristoun granted,
with his wife, Barbara, a reyersion of the lands of Toderick.
In the following year Thomas Cranstonn, younger of Mories-
tonn, and his brother John Cranstonn were amongst the per-
sons summoned on a charge of treason, and forfeited, for
assisting the turbulent earl of Bothwell in his nocturnal at-
tack on the palace of Holyroodhouae, and Thomas Cranstoun
was denounced rebel for not appearing to answer for the
same. William Cranstonn, the son of the above Thomas
Cranstoun and Barbara his wife, married Sarah, daughter and
heiress of Sir John Cranstoun of that ilk, the first Lord Cran-
stoun, afterwards noticed. On June 11, 1600, Sir John and
his son William were indicted for the reset of the said Tho-
mas Cranstoun, a declared traitor, and on 19th June they
produced the king*s warrant that proceedings should be stay-
ed against them, when they were commanded to their lodg-
ings. John Cranstonn did not reodve a remission of his
forfeiture till 1611.
Another family of the name, the Oanstouns of Corsbie in
Berwickshu^ were at one period of some conaderation on
the borders. In 1580, Jasper Cranstonn of Corsbie was one
of the Berwickshire barons who were proceeded against for
neglecting to fulfil their bonds **to keep good rule within their
respective bounds,** as was also John Cranstoun of that ilk.
They found surety to stand their trial, when required, and
also submitted themselves to * the king*s wilL' On June 20,
1548, Cuthbert Cranston of Dodds found Geoige Lord Hume
security for himself and fifteen others to underlie the law for
treasonable assistance afforded to " our old enemies*' of Eng-
land, and on 9th October following Cuthbert Cranston of
Mains found caution to answer for the same crime. Cuth-
bert Cranstoun of Thirlestanemains and Thomas Cranstoun
of that ilk were among thirty-two border barons who sub-
scribed a bond at Kelso, 6th April 1569, for preserving the
peace of the borders, against the thieves of liddesdale, Esk-
dale, Euesdale, and Annandale, the Armstrongs, Johnstones,
ElHotts, &c On November 9, 1570, Sir William Cranstoun
of Dodds, commissary of Lander, found security to underlie
the law for the slaughter of James Brownlee. In Birrell*s
Diary, under date October 20, 1596, there is the follonring
entiy: "Gilbert Lawder slam at Linlithgow by the Cnh-
stouns.** In March 1612, Alexander French of Thomiedykes
and James Wight, his nephew, were found guilty of the
slaughter of John Cranstoun, brother of Patrick Cranstoun
of Corsbie, and beheaded on the Castlehill of Edinburgh; and
on 8d September 1618, Gilbert Cranstoun, uncle of the said
Patrick, was tried and found guilty of stealing a gray stal-
lion from the stables of his nephew, and of various other acts
of theft, and of shooting George Home of Bassendean in the
thigh, committed in September 1609 and hanged for the
same on the Castlehill of Edinbui^h.
Of this name were several ministers eminent m their day.
The first minister of the parish of liberton, Mid Lothian,
after the Reformation was Mr. Thomas Cranstoun, who had
previously been minister of Borthwick. He entered to his
stipend, (which only amounted to two hundred merks, or
eleven pounds two shillings and twopence,) at Lammas 1569,
and was transUted to Peebles at Whitsunday 1570. Mr.
John Cranstoun was minister of Liberton from 1625 to 1627.
In August 1568, a serious disturbance took place at Edui«
burgh, in consequence of the queen*s domestics at Holyrood,
during her absence at Stirling, being found attending mass at
the chapel there. Patrick Cranstonn, " a zealous brother,**
as Knox styles him, entered the chiq>el, and finding the altar
covered, and a priest ready to celebrate mass, he demanded
of them how they dared thus openly to break the laws of the
land ? The magistrates were summoned, and peace restored
with difficulty.
In the reign of James the Sixth, Mr. Michael Cranstoun
was minister of Cramond. Calderwood characterizes him
as a timeserver, but he seems to have been decided in his op-
position to the measures of the court regarding the chuidL
With other ministers he was ordered to be apprehended for
the treasonable and seditious stining up of the tumult and
uproar in Edinburgh, on the 17th December 1596, his share
in that memorable afiair being that he read the histoiy of
Haman and Mordeoai to the people assembled m the little
Kirk, while certain conmiissioners appointed by them went
to King James, who was then sitting in the Tolbooth admin-
istering justke; in consequence of which he entered in ward,
but did not long continue in it, as his migesty*8 fury was chiefly
directed against Mr. Robert Bruce, and the other ministerB of
Edinburgh.
In the same reign, Mr. ^Hlliam Cranstoun was minister of
Kettle in Fife, of whom Calderwood relates that on the 18th
August 1607, on the meeting of the Synod of Fife, when the
king sent four commissioners to force Archbishop Gladstanes
on the synod as moderator, Mr. William Cranstoun, modera-
tor of the previous synod, walking in the session hoase, which
was within the kiric^ at his meditation, and finding himself
troubled at the closeness of the air, went up to the pulpit, not
knowing that any other was appointed by the commissioners
to preach, and while sitting in the pulpit, a messenger came
to him with a letter, which he put in his pocket without
reading it A littie while after another messenger was sent, in
the lords commissioners* name, to bid him come down. He
answered that he came to that place in the name of a greater
Lord, whose message he had not yet discharged, and with
that named a psalm to be sung, because be saw the people
somewhat amazed. Then one of the bailies vrant and whis-
pered to him that he was commanded by the lords to dcsirs
him to come down. He replied, " And I command you in
the name of God, to sit down in your own seat, and hear
what God wHl say to you by me.** The bailie obeyed. At
last, when he was commencing his prayer, the conservator of
the privUeges of the merchants in tiie low countries, being a
counciUor, went to him, and desired him to desist, for the
lords had appointed another to preach. " But the Lord,** said
Mr. Cranstoun, " and his kiik have appointed me, therefore,
beware how ye trouble this work ;** and immediately proceeded
with his prayer and preachmg. [Ca/idienpoo<f» History^ voL
vi page 674.] For his conduct on this occasion he was after-
wards put to the horn. On the 10th of May 1620, Jdm
Spottiswood, archbishop of St. Andrews, held a court of high
commission in that dty, when he deprived this sged and wor-
thy minister of his charge.
CRAirsTOUir, Lord, a titie m the peerage of Scotland, pos-
sessed by a family of the same name, descended from Thomas
de Cranyston who, in the reign of King David the Second,
had a charter from the eari of Mar, of the barony of Stobbs,
within that of Cavers, in the shire of Roxburgh. His sup-
posed grandson, Thomas de Cranstoun, taUifsr rtgU, was a
personage ot considerable influence in the reign of James the
Second. Along with Sir William Crichtoo, the cfaamberiaio,
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CKANSTOUN,
697
LORD.
and William Fowles, keeper of the privy seal, he was in Maj
1426f sent ambassador to £ric, kinf^ of Demnark, Norway and
Swedoif to a^jnst the debt due to him for the relinqoishment of
the Hebrides to King Alexander the Thirds which they ami-
cably settled. He was afterwards much employed in negoci-
ations with England. He had letters of safe oondact, with
Lord Crichton, chancellor, and others, commissioners for
treating of peace, 8d April 1448 ; again in 1449, 1460, and
1451. In the latter year he was one of the conservators of
the truce with England, and in 1458 he and William de
Granstoon, his son, were conservators of the trace ; again in
1457 and 1459 ; and in the latter year Thomas de Granstoon
was one of the wardens of the marches. He died about 1470.
On a pillar on the north side of where the altar stood in the
church of St Giles, Edinburgh, are his armorial bearings.
He had two sons, the younger of whom was ancestor of the
Granstouns of Glen.
William de Granstoun, the elder son, is designed of Grail-
ing in a charter to William Lord Grichton, 7th April 1450, m
his father's lifetime. On 2d March, 1451-2, he had a char-
tor to William Granstdun of Gndyn. He appears among
the barons in parliament, 18th March 1481-2. He died in
1515. William de Granstoun had two sons, John and Tho-
mas. John, the elder son, married Janet Scott, and died in
1552. His eldest son. Sir William Granstoun, had a charter
to himself and Elizabeth Johnstone his wife, and John Gran-
stoun, their son, of the lands of New Granstoun, in the coun-
ty of Edinburgh, SOth May 1553. On the 25th June 1557,
dame Janet Bethune, Lady Bnocleuch, and several persons of
the name of Scott were accused of going to the kirk of St
Mary of the Lowes, to the number of two hundred, * bodin in
feire of war,* (that is, arrayed in armour,) and breaking open
the doors of the said kirk, in order to apprehend the laird of
Granstoun, for his destruction, and for the slaughter of Sir Peter
Granstoun. On July 14, 1563, William Granstoun of that
ilk, James his brother, and another, found caution to under-
lie the law at the next court at Selkirk, for art and part going
to the steading of Williamshope, belonging to Alexander
Hoppringill of Graigleith, and hamstringing and slaying three
of his cattle. By lus wife, who was the daughter of Andrew
Johnstone of Elphinstone, Sir William Granstoun had two
•ons, John and lliomas, and two daughters. The elder son,
John, married Margaret, eldest daughter of George Ramsay
of Dalhousie, by whom he had a son, also named John, who
seems to have died without succeeding to the estate, and
seven daughters.
On the 23d August 1600, Mr. Thomas Granstoun, one of
the earl of Gowrie*8 attendants, was, with two others of his
retainers, executed at Perth, for drawing swords in the time
of the tumult during the mysterious transactions of the Cow-
rie conspiracy. He was the brother of Sir John Granstoun
of Granstoun, a zealous professor of religion, with whom Mr.
Robert Bruce the celebrated Edinburgh minister passed some
time in retirement at Granstoun in 1603, when persecuted by
theoourt
Sarah, the eldest of the seven daughters of the aoove John
Granstoun, married William Granstoun, first Lord Granstoun.
He was the son of John Granstoun of MorriestoUn, and cap-
tain of the guard to King James the Sixth, by whom he was
knighted. He was raised to the peerage by the title of Lora
Granstoun, by patent, dated 17th November 1609, to him
and his heirs mide bearing the name and arms of Granstoun.
On the 20th August 1617, his lordship, with the lords San-
quhar and Bucdeuch, William Douglas of Gavers, sheriff of
Teviot^Ude, and three others, the landlords of the east and
west marches, compeared personally before the lords of conn-
cil, and bound themselves to make then: whole men, tenants
and servants, answerable and obedient to justice, and that
they should satisfy and redress parties wronged, conform to
the laws and acts of parliament, and general bond made in
1602, which was the strictest ever made on the borders.
The first Lord Granstoun died in June 1627, having had four
sons and one daughter. James, the second son, was in 1610
brought before the council for sending a challenge to the
son of Sir Gideon Murray, and committed to BUckness castle,
while the latter for concealing the same, with the intention of
meeting his opponent, was warded in Edinburgh castle.
James Granstoun, for repeating the offence, was afterwards
banished forth of his mi^esty's dominions. The fathers at
the same time were bound for all of their sons come to man's
age, under the pain of ten thousand merks, that they should
keep the peace with each other.
John, the eldest son, second Lord Granstoun, married first,
Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Walter first Lord Scott of
Bucdeuch ; secondly, Helen, youngest daughter of James,
seventh Lord Lindsay of Byres, but had no issue by either.
He was succeeded by his nephew, William, son of James,
master of Granstoun, above mentioned, the second son of the
first lord. This gentleman was twice married ; first, to Mar-
garet, only daughter of David Macgill of Granstoun-Riddell,
by whom he had a daughter Margaret, who became the wife
of Thomas Graig of Riccartoun, in the county of Edinburgh ;
and, secondly, to Lady Elizabeth Stewart, eldest daughter of
Francis earl of Bothwell, and had a son, William, third Lord
Granstoun, and three daughters.
William, third Lord Granstoun, marched into England
with King Gharles the Second in 1651, and being taken at
the battle of Worcester, was committed prisoner to the Tower.
He was particularly excepted out of Gromwell's act of grace
and pardon, April 1654, by which his estates were seques-
trated, but a portion of the lands, of the yearly value of two
hundred pounds, were settled on his wife and children. He
married Lady Mary Leslie, third daughter of Alexander, first
earl of Leven, and had a son, JamM, fourth Lord Granstoun,
who married Aime, daughter of Sir Alexander Don of Newton,
in the county of Roxburgh, baronet, and had two sons, Wil-
liam, fifth Lord Granstoun, and the Hon. Alexander Gran-
stoun, who died at Darien, without issue.
William, fifth Lord Granstoun, the elder son, supported the
treaty of union in the last Scots parliament He died 27th
January 1727. By his wife. Lady Jane Ker, eldest daughter
of William, second marquis of Lothian, who survived him
forty-one years, he had seven sons and five daughters.
About the history of the Hon. William Henry Granstoun,
the fifth son, bom in 1714, there is something very uncommon.
He was a captain in the army, and married at Edinburgh on
the 22d of May 1744, Anne, daughter of Mr. David Murray,
merchant in Leith, who was the son of Sir Da\ia Murray of
Stanhope, bart The marriage was a private one, on pretence
that its bemg known might prevent his preferment in the army,
as she was a Roman Gatholio. No witness was present but a
single woman. The dergyman was brought by Gaptain
Granstoun, ano was not known to Miss Murray or the other
woman. They lived together, in a private manner, till some-
time in July thereafter. Then the lady went to an uncle's
house in the country, while the captain staid among his own
relations till November, and then proceeded to London. A
dose correspondence was kept up between them as husband
and wife. Before he left she acquainted him of her being m
the way of becoming a mother, and he, in consequence, in
his absence wrote very afiectionatdy both to herself and her
uncle, acknowledging her to have been his wife from the nvd-
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CRANSTOUN,
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LORD.
die of the preceding May, but still insisted on the marriiige
being kept secret. He afterwards informed all his relations
of it, and they visited and corresponded with her as his wife.
At her confinement she was attended bj one of his sisters.
A daughter was bom at Edinburgh, on Febrnary 19th, 1745,
and was baptized by a minister of the established church, in
presence of several of the relations on both sides. The child
was held up to baptism by one of the captain^s brothers, and
named after his mother, by express orders fh)m himself.
Notwithstanding all this, Captain Granstonn disowned his
marriage in 1746, alleging that they were never married; that
he had only promised to marry her in case she should turn
protestant; that double the time agreed for her changing her
religion was now elapsed, without her doing so; that what he
had said to his friends was only to amuse them and save her
honour; and that now he would never marry her, but was
willing to support her to the utmost of his power. The lady
raised a declarator of her own marriage, and of her daugh-
ter's Intimacy, before the commissaries of Edinburgh, the
summons of which was executed in October 1746. In the
process, a great number of letters written by the captain and
the lady were produced, and after a tedious litigation the
commissaries, on the Ist March 1748, decreed them to be
married persons, and the child to be their lawful daughter;
on the 7th of April following, they decerned the captain to
pay the lady an annuity of forty pounds sterling for herself,
and ten pounds for their daughter so long as she should be
alimented by her, both to commence from the date of cita-
tion, and on the 11th of May, they ordained him to pay her
forty pounds of costs, and nearly sixty pounds for extracting
the decreet. Captain Cranstoun advocated the case to the
court of session, but he was equally unsuccessful there. It
seems that during the proceedings he courted a young lady
in Leicestershire, but all hopes of a union with her were put
a stop to, when the match was nearly concluded, on the Iady*8
friends hearing that he was already married. About the year
1746. having gone to Henley to recruit. Miss Mary Blandy,
the daughter of a retired attorney at Reading, possessing,
according to report, ten thousand pounds, fell in love with
him, and as her father disapproved ^ the captain's addresses,
on account of his having a wife alive in his native country,
she poisoned him on the 5th of August 1751, with some pow-
der which Capt Cranstoun had sent her from Scotland, in a
packet containing Scots pebbles, and labelled " to dean pebbles
with,** having mixed it in his grueL For this heinous crime
she was tried at Oxford in February 1752, and being fbnnd
guilty she was hanged on the Castle green of that dty, on the
6th of April thereafter. In Miss Blandy's statement after
her condemnation, she alleged that the powders were sent to
her by her lover to be given to her father as love-potions, to
make him kind to them both, and induce him to consent to
their marriage, and that he had written to her that he had
consulted a Mrs. Morgan, " a cunning woman ** in Scotland,
who had assdred him that they would have that eflfect, which
she thoroughly believed. There does not appear to have
been any grounds for supponng that the captain was in any
way accessary to the nlurder. He cUed 2d December 1752,
a few months after Miss Blandy*8 execution.
His younger brother, the Hon. George Cranstoun of Long-
warton, the seventh son of the fifth Lord Cranstoun, mar-
ried Maria, daughter of Thomas Brisbane of Brisbane, in
Ayrshire, and had by her, two sons and three, daughters.
He died at Edinburgh 30th December 1788. The second
sen, George Cranstoun, was an eminent judge of the court of
sesfiion, under the judicial title of Lord Corehouse. He was
originally designed for the army, but studied the law. He
passed advocate, 2d February 1798, was appointed one of the
depute advocates in 1805, and sheriff depute of the county of
Sutherland in 1806. He was chosen dean of the fibcoltj of
advocates, 15th November 1828, and elevated to the beach,
on tiie death of Lord Hermand in 1826, fit>m which he re-
tired in 1889. His title was taken from his seat near the
celebrated fall of Corra linn in Clydesdale, one of the most
beautiful and romantic places in Lanarkshire, where he was
visited by Sir Walter Scott in 1827. His acqnaintaoce with
the author of Waveriey began in the winter of 1788, when
they were both students of dvil law in the university of Ed-
inburgh, and their intimacy lasted during life. When prac-
tising at the bar, Mr. Cranstoun was the author of the cele-
brated jeu detprity entitled the ** Diamond Beetle Case,"
(inserted in Eay*s Edinburgh Portraits, vol. L pp. 3S4 — 387,)
in which the judicial rtyle and peculiar manner of several
of the judges, in delivering their opinions, are most happily
imitated. He was a superior Greek scholar, idiicfa ren-
dered him a great favourite with Lord Monboddo, who used
to declare that Cranstoun was the only scholar in all Soot-
land. Lord Corehouse was an excellent judge and a fiist-
rate lawyer, espedally in all feudal questions.
His eldest sister, Margaret Nicolson, married, 25th Februa-
ry 1780, William Cuninghame of Lainshaw, in Ayrdme.
The second, Jane Anne, afterwards countess of Porgytall,
was an early confident and correspondent of Sir Walter Scott
She was the first person to whom, in April 1796, he read the
manuscript of his first published piece, the translation of
Burger*s Lenore, and she early predicted his poetical ex-
cellence ; writing to a friend in the country at that period,
she said, ^ Walter Scott is gomg to turn out a poet — some-
thing ot a cross, I think, between Bums and Gray." On the
23d June 1797 she married Godfirey Winceslaos, count of
Pnrgstall, a German nobleman who had been some time re-
siding in Edinburgh. He was a count of the Holy Roman
empire, of noble and ancient descent, and possessed large
estates in the province of Styria. " This lady," says Lock-
hart in his Life of Scott (under date 1821), ** had undergone
domestic afflictions more than suffident to have crushed
almost any spirit but her own. Her husband, the count
Purgstall, had dUed some years before this time, leaving her
an only son, a youth of the most amiable dispoaitioii, and
possessing abilities which, had he lived to develop them,
must have secured for him a high station in the annals of ge-
nius. This hope of her eyes, the last heir of an illustrious
lineage, followed his fiither to the tomb in the nineteenth
year of his age. The desolate countess was urged by her
family in Scotland to return, after this bereavement, to her
native country, but she had vowed to her son on his death-
bed, that one day her dust should be mingled with his, and
no argument could induce her to depart from the resolutioo
of remaining in solitaiy Styria. By her desire, a valued
friend of the house of Purgstall, who had been bom and bred
up on their estates, the celebrated orientalist Jos^ Von
Hammer, compiled a little memoir of ' The two last Counts
of Purgstall,* which he put fbrth in Jannaiy 1821, under the
title of * Denkmahl,* or Monument" The copy of a letter of
acknowledgment of the receipt of this work by Box Walter
Scott to the countess, but which by some inadvertence was
never sent, will be found in Lockhart^s life of Scott An
account of a Visit to the Countess de PurgstaU during the
last months of her life by Captain Basil Hall, has been pub-
lished. See his 8dilo88 HamfekL Of Helen D*Arcy, Lotd
Corehouse^s youngest aster, the wifis of Professor Dngald
Stewart, a notice follows.
Jvnes, dxth Lord Cranstoun, succeeded his father in 1727
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CRANSTOUN.
CRAWFORD.
and died at London 4th Jnlj 1778. He married Sophia,
danghter of Jeremiah Brown of Abecoort in Snrrej, with
whom he obtained twelve thousand pomids, and she aftei^
wards sacoeeded to a larger fortune. She had an estate in
the West Indies, and a jointure of seven hundred pounds.
Her ladjship remained only four months a widow, as she
took for her second husband, on 10th November, 1778, Mi-
chael Lade, Esq., councillor at law, and £ed 26th October
1799. By this ladj, Lord Cranstoun had five sons and two
daughters. The eldest, William, and the third, James, suoces-
sivelj enjoyed the title. The Hon. George Cranstoun, the fifth
son, bom in 1761, was captain of an independent company of
foot in Africa, which was reduced in 1783. In 1795 he be-
came captain in the ISlst foot, was appointed mi^or of a
West India regiment in 1796, and the same year was pro-
moted to the lieutenant-oolonelcj of that corps. In 1801 he
was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 64th regiment of
foot, which regiment he commanded at the capture of Suri-
nam in May 1804, when he was wounded. He had the rank
of colonel in the army Ist January 1805, and died at Suri-
nam, 8th March 1806, in his 45th year, unmarried.
Mllliam, seventh Lord Cranstoun, the eldest son, bom at
Crailing, 8d September, 1749, succeeded his father in 1773,
and died unmarried at London, Ist August 1778, aged 29.
His brother James, the third son, eighth Lord Cranstoun,
was a distinguished naval officer. He was bom in 1755, and
had the rank of lieutenant in the royal navy, 19th October
1776, and of captain, Slst January 1780. He commanded
the Bellequieux, of 64 guns, in the engagements between
Sir Samuel Hood and the Count de Grasse, off St Christo-
phers, 25th and 26th January, 1782. After the victory over
De Grasse gained by Admiral Lord Rodney, 12th April 1782,
he was sent home with the despatches announcing it, in
which his lordship declared that Lord Cranstoun had acted
as one of the captains of the Formidable during both actions,
and that he was much indebted to his gallant behaviour, on
both occanons. He commanded the Bellerophon in Admiral
Comwallb* squadron, 17th June 1795, when, with five ships
of the line and two frigates, he sustained an attack of the
French fleet, of thirteen ships of the line, seven frigates, seven
rasees and two brigs, and obliged them to give over, after a
running fight of twelve hours, wherein eight ships of the line
were so shattered that they could not engage any longer.
In his despatches the admiral stated that he considered the
Bellerophon as a treasure in store, having heard of her former
achievements, and observing the spirit manifested by all on
board, joined to the activity and zeal showed by Lord Crans-
toim during the whole cmise. The thanks of parliament
were, on 17th November 1795, voted to the admiral, cap-
tmns, &C., '* for the skill, judgment, and determined bravery
displayed on this occurrence, which reflected as much credit
as the achievement of a victory.*' In 1796 his lordship was
appointed govemor of Grenada and vice-admiral of that island,
but before he could set out to his govemment, he died at
Bbhop*s Waltham in Hampshire, 22d September 1796, in
the forty-second year of his age. His death was occasioned
by drintnng cyder impregnated with sugar of lead, from be-
Hig made in a leaden cistern. He was buried in the garrison
chapel at Portsmouth. His character, both as a roan' and a
naval officer, was most honourable. The contemporary jour-
nals said that ^ his death would be felt as a public loss by
those who knew his professional merits, and will be long and
deeply lamented by all who were acquainted with his exem-
plary worth in private life." He married at Damhall, 19th
August 1792, Elisabeth, youngest daughter of Lientenant-
<x>loneI Lewis Charles Montolieu, sister of Lady Elibank, but
had no issue by her. She died at Bath, 27th August, 1797,
aged twenty-seven. His lordship was succeeded by his ne-
phew, James Edward, ninth Lord Cranstoun, the son of the
Hon. Charles Cranstoun, (who died in November 1790,)
fourth son of the sixth lord by his wife, Elizabeth Turner, of
the county of Worcester.
James Edward, the ninth lord, married at the Retreat in
St. Christophers, 25th August, 1807, Anne Linnington, eld-
est daughter of John Macnamara^ Esq. of that island, by
whom he had two sons and two daughters, and died 5th
September 1818.
His elder son, also named James Edward, tenth Lord
Cranstoun, bom 12th August, 1809, is unmarried. His bro-
ther, the Hon. Charies Frederick Cranstoun, bom in 1813, is
the heir presumptive.
CRANSTOUN, Hblbn D'Arct, anthoress of
the beautifal and pathetic song of ' The tears I
shed mnst ever fall,' was the third daughter d
the Hon. George Cranstoun, youngest son of Wil-
liam, fifth Lord Cranstoun, and was bom in 1765.
On the 26th of July 1790 she became the second
wife of Dugald Stewart, of Catrine, Ayrshire, pro-
fessor of moral philosophy in the university of
Edinburgh, and died at Warriston House, in the
neighbourhood of Edinburgh, 28th July 1888. A
copy of verses, attributed to her, beginning " Re-
turning spring, with gladsome ray," which breathe
the same strain of tender feeling as her justly ad-
mired song, * The tears I shed,' is inserted among
the Notes to JohnsotCs Musical Museum^ last edi-
tion.
Craw, (the same as Crow,) the sumame of an old familj
in the Merse, stjled of Auchincraw, which became extinct
about the beginning of the eighteenth century. The branches
of that familj in Berwickshire, such as the Craws of East
Beston, Nether Byer, and Heugbhead, had for crest a crow
proper. On September 26, 1528, George Craw of Reston,
and three others were amerdated for not appearing to under-
lie the law, for their riding with their friends, tenants, and
servants, and assisting Archibald, formerly earl of Angus,
and his accomplices, in raising the si^ of the castle of New-
aric, contrary to the king's proclamation, &c [PUcmrrCt
Criminal Trials, vol. L p. 139.] In 1481, one Paul Craw, a
Bohemian, was bumt at St Andrews, for teaching the doc-
trine of John Huss and Wicliff, one of the earliest martyrs
for the reformed faith m Scotland.
Crawford, Craufurd, or Crauford, a sumame de-
rived from the barony of Crawford in Lanarkshire, of which
the origin is unknown.
The family of Crawford is of undoubted Norman origin.
The site of the ruins of Crawford castle is still called Nor-
man Gill, and the eariy names of this family are all pure
Norman. The account of their descent from an Anglo-Dan-
ish chief, as ^ven by George Crawfurd, and adopted by
Robertson in his Ayr^iire Families, is ^together erroneous.
Burke, [History of Ae Commoners, vols. ii. and iiL,] conjec-
tures that they are descended from that old and distinguished
race, the earlier earls of Kchmond, with whose armcrial bear-
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CRAWFORD.
700
CRAWFORD.
iiif;8 thein nearly oorrespond, being OuUiy a fuse ennine in
the former, and a bend in the latter. According to his hy-
potbesia, Reginald, youngest son of Alan, fourth earl of Rich-
mond, who died in 1146, and great-grandson of Galfridos,
duke of Brittany, who died hi 1008, obtained large grants
of land from King David the First m Clydesdale, being one
of the thousand Norman knights whom he established in
his dominions. These grants may hare originated in his
(Reginald's) connection with the royal family of Scotland,
as his brot er Conan le Petit, fifth earl of Richmond, nuu*-
ried a grand-daughter of David, namely, Margaret, daugh-
ter of Prince Henry, and sister of King William. In con-
nection with this relationship and settlement of Reginald in
Scotland, Theobaldus the Fleming, the reput«d ancestor
of the Douglases, who held lands in Yorkshire under tlie
•arls of Richmond, appears to have followed his fortimes
into that kingdom, as also Baldwin of Biggar, formerly of
Multon in Yorkshire, under that family, who afterwards mar-
ried the widow of Reginald. He u presumed to be the party
who assumed the surname of Crawford, according to the pno-
tice of that age, from his barony of Crawford in Clydesdale.
He is alluded to, in a charter of William do Lindsey, afterward
confirmed by King William, early in that prince's reign,
wherein mention is made of Johannis de Craufiird, filius Re-
ginalds In 1127 there were two brothers of this name,
knights, sons most probably of this Repaid, namely, Sir
John Crawford and Sir Gregan Crawford, both in the service
of King David the First. On the foundation of the abbey of
Holyrood by that monarch, Sir Gregan's arms were placed
therein, as he was instrumental in sa\'ing his majesty's life
^m a stag that had unhorsed him whilst hunting on that
spot on Holyrood day, in 1127. [NitbeVt Sytkm of Heraldry^
vol. i. p. 834.] The old stones on which his arms were em-
blazoned, taken from the ruins of Holyrood Abbey, were built
over the lintebi of the Canongate church porch ; this church
having been a dependency of the Abbey. He carried in his
armorial bearings, artrent, a stag's head erazed, with a cross
cmsslet, between his attires, gules, laying aside his paternal
bearing ; gules, a fesse ermine, carried by some branches of
the Crawfords. On the abbey of Holyrood are the arms of
Archibald Crawford, treasurer to James IV., and brother of
Crawford of Henning, as shown in the subjoined cut, viz., a
fesse ermine with a star in chief, and the shield adorned on the
top with a mitre. Sir Gregan had a grant of lands from King
David in Galloway, called after him, Dalmagregan. This ap-
pellation is most probably a corruption of *' De la Mag Gregan.*'
and implies *^ the lands of the chief Gregan," and is an in-
stance of the adoption of the prefix Mac in connection with the
Romanesque Dal, as well as in reference to a Norman knigfat.
Galfridus, styled Dominus Galfridus de Crawford, fr^
quently occurs among the magnatet Scotia, as a witness to
Uie charters of King William inter 1170 et 1190. He mar-
ried the sister of John le Scot, eari of Chester, and niece of
the king. She was the daughter of David eazl of Hunting-
don, second son of David the First of Scotland by his queen
Maud. He is termed kinsman by John le Soot eari of Ches-
ter, nephew of tiie king, in a charter quoted by George Craw-
ford, along with John le Scot's two natural brothers, where
they are all styled Jratribu»^ in aooordanoe with the practice
of that age in the use of this term.
Reginald de Crawford, probably the son of Galfridus above
mentioned, is witness in 1228, to a charter ot Richard le
Bard (the original of the name of Baird) to the monastery of
Kelso. Re^nald was succeeded by his second son, Sir John
de Crawford, designed dominus de eodem, miles, in several
donations to the monasteries of Kelso and Kewbottle. He
died, without male issue, in 1248, and was buried in Melnee
Abbey. He is said to have had two daughters, the elder \i
whom, Margaret, married Archibald de Douglas, ancestor of
the dukes of Douglas, and the younger became, about 1230,
the wife of David de Lindsay of Wauchopedale, ancestor of
the earls of Crawford. There is, however, no proof of this
latter marriage, and William de Lindsay of Ercildun poeseaMd
the barony of Crawford long before the date assigned to it
(See Lindsay, name of.) The Lindsays held it till the year
1488, when David duke of Montrose was deprived of it, and it
was given to Archibald Bell the Cat, earl of Angus. Others
say that the duke exchanged it with Earl Archibald for lands
in Forfarshire.
Contemporary with the above Galfridus de Crawford was
Gualterus de Crawford, witness to a charter of Roger, bishop
of St. Andrews, sometime between 1189 and 1202. From
him came Sir Reginald de Crawford, who, about 1200, mar-
ried Margaret de Loudoun, the heiress of the extensive barony
of Loudoun in Ayrshire. He was the first vice-oomce or
high sheriff' of the county of Ayr, an office hereditary in his
family. In consequence of this marriage he quartered the
arms of Loudoun with his own. He witnessed a donation of
David de Lindsay to the monastery of Newbottle, confirmed
by Alexander the Second in 1220. It was under this Sir
Reginald, as hereditary sheriff principal of Ajrrahire, that the
three baiUwicks of Carrick, Kyle, and Cunningham were first
formed mto a county, in 1221. [See Chalmen^ Caledonia,
vol iiL p. 452.]
His son, Hugh Crawford of Loudoun, sheiiff of Ayr, in a
charter of Walter, son of Alan, high steward of Scotland, of
a donation to the monaster of Paisley, of the lands of Dal-
mullin (De la Mouline) in 1226, is designed Hugo, filius Re-
genaldi. 3y a grant of Allan, son of Roland of Galloway, he
had, pro homagio tt tervUio suo^ tne lands of Monoch, which
IS ratified by a charter of King Alexander the Second, at
Cadihou (Cadzow) the last day of March, 1226. He had
another charter from the great constable his superior, de Ma
terra de Crosby, afterwards enjoyed by his descendants the
Crawfords of Auchinames. He was one of the moffitatei et
barones JScotitB, who put themselves into the protection of the
king of England, in the oonmiotions that hi^pened in 1256.
He died m the end of the reign of Alexander the Seocnd.
His son Sir Hugh Crawford, sheriff of Ayr, had a letter of
safe-conduct to go to England in the year last mentioned.
He settled a contest with the abbot of Kelso, cum nnncwjii
AUciespotumaucB, He had two sona and a daughter : the lat-
I
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CRAWFORD
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OF ORAUFURDLAND.
t«p, Margaret, married Sir Malcolm Wallace, of Elderslie,
knight, and became the mother of Sir William WaDaoe, the
hero of Scotland. As old Wintonn saji .
** Hif fkther was a manly knisrht,
Hlf mother was a lady bright**
Sir Hugh was snooeeded Ij his son, Sir Reginald Crawford of
Londonn, sheriff of Ayr, who, in 1288, witnessed a charter
of donation of James, high steward of Scotland, to the mon-
astery of Paisley. In 1292, he was one of the nommees on
the part of Robert Bmce in his competition for the crown of
Scotland with Baliol; and in 1296, with many others, he
swore fealty to King Edward the First of England, when he
overmn Scotland with his armies. In the Ragman Roll oo-
cnrs the name of Radolphos de Grawforde (^Nitbefs Heraldry^
App. Yol. ii. p. 10. ed. 1742), on whidi Nisbet remarks,
** This is the same person with Regiaaldns de Crawford, in
the same record entitled yice-comes de Air.** Believing that
the oath to Edward, as it had been exacted by force, was not
binding on him, he Coined with the first of the Scottish pa-
triots who rose in arms against Edward. He, with other
Scottish knights, is described by Blind Harry as having lost
his life at the mysterions transaction called the conference of
Ayr in 1297, a deed avenged shortly afterward by his nephew
Sir William Wallace. By Cecilia his wife he had a son, Six
Reginald or Raynanld (otherwise Ronald) Crawford, of Lon-
donn, sheriff of Ayr, who was among the first of the Scottish
barons to join Wallace his connn, and was with him in all
his stm^es and dangers. He was also among the first to
j<nn Robert the Bmce. In 1306, he accompanied Thomas
and Alexander, the brothers of Brace, in their descent on
Galloway, with seven hundred men ; when, being attacked
on their landing at Loch Rjran by Duncan M^Dowal, or Mao-
Doogall (Magnus du Gall, or chief of the Gall or Wallense),
a powerAil chieftain, thdr little army was totally defeated,
9th February 1806-7, and the two brothers, with Sir Regi-
nald Crawford, were grievously wounded and made prisoners.
M*Dowall carried them to the English king at Carlisle, where
they were ordered to instant execution, their heads bemg
placed on the csstlo and gates of that town. He left an only
child, Susanna Crawford of Loudoun, his sole heuress, who
married Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochawe, ancestor of the
earls of Loudoun (see Loudoun, earl of).
In the Ragman Roll the surname of Crawford occurs no
less than eight times as that of Scottish barons who swore
fealty to Edward the First in 1292, 1296, 1297, &c. Nisbet
remarks tiiat this surname was then so frequent that it is
di£9oaIt to distingnish them from one another.
The Crawfords of Kene in the district of Kyle, Ayrshire,
a branch of the Crawfords of Loudoun, ultimately became the
representatives of the Dalmagregan Crawfords, and, in con-
sequence, carried -in their armorial bearings a stag's head, as
did also the Crawfords of Drumsoy and the Crawfords of
Comlarg. The first of the Kerse family was Reginald, son of
Hugh Crawford of Loudoun. He got a grant of the lands
from his brother Hugh in the reign of King Alexander the
Third. Notices of various individuals of this family occur in
the reigns of James the First and Fourth, Esplin being at
that period a favourite Christian name with them. In 1508,
David Crawford of Kerse, David his son, John Crawford,
*proctour,* Esplane Crawford, and seven others, came in the
^g*s will, for hindering the sitting of the bailliaiy court of
Ca^ck, when the laird of Kerse was amerciated in five
pounds^ and each of the others in forty shillings. This case
arose out of one of the numerous feuds for which the district
of Carrick was at one time notorious. On October 6th, 1627,
Bartholomew Crawford of Kerse; David and Duncan hit
brothers ; George Crawford of Lochnorris, and William his
brother ; John Crawford of Drongan, John and William his
sons, with a great number of others, found caution to under-
lie the law for assisting Hugh Campbell of Loudoun, sheriff
of Ayr, in the cruel slaughter of Gilbert earl of Cassillis.
The grandson of this Bartholomew, David Crawford of Kerse,
in consequence of having only female issue, entailed the estate
in 1586, and on his death in 1600, he was succeeded by Al-
exander Crawford of Balgregan m Galloway, the next remain-
ing heir male, descended from a son of David, the brother of
Bartholomew, and designed of Culnorris and Balgregan. Tne
original lands of Kerse appear subsequently to have gone to
the next heir of entail, who seems to have been of the Com-
larg family. In 1680, Alexander Crawford of Kerse is infeft
in the lands of Nether Skeldon, as heir of his father Alexan-
der Crawford of Kerse. This Alexander Crawford appears
to have been the last male proprietor of Kerse of the name of
Crawford. His only daughter, Christian Crawford of Kerse,
married Mr. Moodie of Melcester, and having no succession,
she disponed the lands of Kerse to William Ross of Shand-
wick, writer in Edinburgh, who was, soon after, drowned on
his passage to Orkney, when the estate of Kerse devolved on
his heirs; who afterwards sold it to Mr. Oswald of Anchen-
cnuve, in whose family it still remains.
The Crawfords of Kerse were famed for their fends with
the Kennedies, and a characteristic poem, called * Skeldon
Haughs, or the Sow is Flitted,* by the late Sir Alexander
Boswell of Auohinleck, baronet, one of whose ancestors mar-
ried a danghter of the laird of Kerse, founded on a traditional
story current in Carrick, and the date of which Sir Alexan-
der assigns to the fifteenth century, was printed at the cele-
brated Auchinleck press, and will be found in the appendix
to the Account of the Kennedies. Edin. 1880, 4to.
The Craufurdland branch of the Craufurds, one of the
oldest of the name, descend firom Sir Reginald de Crawford,
sheriff of Ayr, who married the heiress of Loudoun. His
third son, John, obtained from him several lands m Clydes-
dale, and in right of his wife, Alicia de Dalsalloch, became
chief proprietor of that barony. This John conferred Ar-
dooh, to which he gave the name of Craufurdland, in Ayr-
shire, upon his second son, John Craufurd, who lived in the
time of Alexander the Second. His grandson, James Crau-
furd of Craufurdland, fought under his oonnn. Sir William
Wallace, and a descendant of his, John Craufurd of Gifibrd-
land, living in 1480, was ancestor of the Crawfords of Birk-
heid.
Sir William Craufurd of Craufurdland, of this family, one
of the bravest warriors of his day, was knighted by James the
First. He was one of the Scottish auxiliaries in the service
of Charles the Seventh of France, and in 1428 he received a
severe wound at the siege of Crevelt in Burgundy, where a
bloody battle was fought between the French and Scots and
the English, when the Scots, under James Stewart, Lord
Damley, being basely deserted by the French, were defeated,
with a loss of three thousand killed, and two thousand taken
prisoners. Douglas (in his Baronage, p. 432) states that
Cranfiird was among the slain, but this is a mistake, as in
the foUowing year, he was amongst the prisoners released,
with James the First.
Robert Craufurd, the youngest son of Robert Craufbrd of
Anchencaim, a son of the laird of Craufurdland, died in 1487,
of a wound received at the Wylielee in Ayrshire, in defending
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CRAWFORD.
702
OF CRAWFORDLAND.
James Bojd, earl of Arran, when that nobleman was at-
tacked and slain bj the earl of Eglinton, with whom he was
atfeod. His father, Archibald Graofurd of Graufurdland,
had two other sons, namelj, Thomas, ancestor of the Crau>
fhrds of Classlogie and Powmill in Cnross-shire, and WiU
Ham, secretary to the earl of Morton, and progenitor of the
Craoibrds who settled in Tweeddale. Betwixt the lairds of
Cranfordland and the lairds of Rowallan, the snperiors of the
lands of Ardoch, there had been a long feud, in the course of
which the title deeds of both families were destroyed. In
1476, in a justice-eyre, holden at Ayr, by John Lord Car-
lyle, chief justice of Scotland, on the south side of the Forth,
Robert Mnir of Rowallan and John Mnir his son, and diverse
others their accomplices, were indicted for breaking the king*s
peace against Archibald Graufhrd of Craufurdland. By
means of the sister of the second wife of the latter, dame
Margaret Boyd, who had been mistress to King James the
Fourth, and married Muir of Rowallan, this feud was at
length extinguished, and a new charter, upon resignation,
granted to the laird of Craufurdland of the lands of Ardoch.
His grandson, John Graufurd of Craulurdland, by his pru-
dent conduct, reconciled the Boyds and Montgomeries, and
obtained in marriage Janet Montgomeiy, daughter of the
laird of GiflSn, and with a daughter, Renee, had two sons,
John his successor, and Archibjdd, bom after his father's
death.
This Archibald Craufurd was bred to the church, and be-
came parson of Eaglesham, in the dure of Renfrew, and as
such had a manse in the Drygate of Glasgow, which he con-
veyed, in free property, to his chief the laird of Craufurdland.
He was secretary and almoner to Queen Mary of Guise, re-
gent of Scotland, with whose corpse he was sent to France in
1560, to see it deposited in the Benedictine monastery of St.
Peter at Rheims, where his own sister Renee was then ab-
bess. When in France, he got a commission from the unfor-
tunate Mary queen of Scots, renewing to him his office of
secretary and almoner, and expresmve of her obligations for
his great services rendered to her late mother, which oom-
misrion was dated at Joinville in France, 17th April 1661.
After Mary's return to Scotland, in consequence of the at-
tacks that were Sometimes made on the chapel of Hdyrood-
bouse, where the popish worship was allowed to be performed
for the queen's household, and the danger of its being pil-
laged at any time when she might be absent firom Edinbni^,
the queen, on January 11, 1561-2, directed Sir James Pater-
son, the sacristan or keeper of the sacred utenrils, to deliver
to her valet de cfaambre, Servais de Conde, the furniture of
her chapel to be kept by her almoner, Mr. Archibald Crau-
furd, in the wardrobe of her palace at Edinburgh, from
whence it could easily be conveyed as often as was necessary.
On the restoration of the jurisdiction of the archbishop of
St Andrews in 1568, Mr. Archibald Craufurd was one of the
judges deputed by that prelate to exercise it In March of
that year, he was dted before the justice court, for odebrat-
mg mass, but the result is not stated. [Pftonrn's Criminal
Trials, voL i. p. 29.] He was appointed by Queen Mary, a
lord of seesioo on the spiritual side, on the death of the bishop
of Bnchin, and took his seat on 26th April 1566. After the
queen had been sent a prisoner to Lodileven, in June 1567,
an inventoiy was taken (^ all her plate, jewels, &&, at Holy-
roodhouse, and the specie thereof was, by the confederated
lords, melted and converted into coin. It appears, however,
that her migesty found means to put into tiie hands of Ifr.
Archibald Craufurd, her almoner, certain pieces of plate, for
the service of her table, which he faithfully kept in his pos-
i till the following Kovamber, at which time they wero
demanded from him by the treasurer, Mr. Robert Richardson,
and, on the 18th of that month, were delivered by the said
treasurer to the regent Murray, who granted his acquittance
for the same to Mr. Archibald Craufurd. On June 2d, 1568,
his place on the bench of the court of sesBMi was given to
the prior of Coldinghame, ** as being vacand through his in-
habilitie, and divera offences committed be him, quhilk merit
Us deprivatioun." His attachment to the queen was most
likely his principal offence. Among other public acts, be
erected the west church of Glasgow, and built the bridge oi
Eaglesham.
His elder brother, John Craufurd of Craufurdland, accom-
panied James the Fourth to the fatal field of Flodden, where
he fell in the flower of his age. The eldest son of the said
John, also John Craufurd of Craufurdland, in his father's
lifetime, got from Mary queen of Soots, a gift of the ward of
the lands of Redhall in Annandale. The deed of gift, having
the queen's signature, b dated at Edinbui^h 26th Decemhor
1561. Hugh, his second son, portioner of Buthoig^en, had
several sons, who all went to Germany, and settled there.
John Craufurd of Craufurdlani^ who died in 1686, had sev-
eral sons. Of these, John, the eldest who succeeded him,
was imprisoned in 1684, on suspicion of being conoenied in
the rising of Bothwell Bridge ; Alexander, the second son,
was designed of Fergushill; and William, the third, a mer-
chant and burgess of Glasgow, was the father of Matthew
Craufurd, designed of Sootstoun, author of the Ecclesiastical
History deposited in the Advocates* Library, Edinborgfa, in
manuscript The grandson of John, also named John Cran-
furd of Craufurdland, succeeded, on his father's death in
1744. He was twice married, and in right of his first wife, a
daughter and heiress of John WaUdnshaw of Walkinshaw,
assumed the additional surname and arms of that family.
His son, John Craufurd of Craufurdland, entered the army
at an eariy age, and attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
He was present at the victory of Dettingen, and distinguished
himself in the hard-fought field of Fontenoy. He was the
intimate and faithful friend of the ill-fated eari of Kilmar-
nock, who was beheaded on Towerhill for his share in the
rebellion of 1745, and attended that unhappy nobleman to the
scaffold ; for which act of trying fiiend^p his name, it is
said, was placed at the bottom of the army list Nevertho-
less, in 1761 he was appointed falooner to the king for Soot-
land. Colonel Crauftard died at Edinbuigh, unmarried, in
February 1793, aged seventy-twA. He settled his estate, by
deed made on his deathbed, on Thomas Coutta, Esq., tike
eminent London banker. This deed wss, however, disputed
by his aunt and next heir, Elisabeth Craufurd, and after
a protracted litigation, carried on by herself and her soe-
cessor, it was eventually reduced by a decree of the
House of Lords in 1806, and the ancient estates came back
to the rightful heir. This Elisabeth Cranfurd was twice
married : first to William Fairiie of that ilk, by whom die
had one daughter, who died in infancy ; and, secondly, on Sd
June, 1744, to John Howison, Esq. of Braehead, in the parish
of Cramond, Mid Lothian. She died in 1802, aged ninety-
seven, and was succeeded by her (mly surviving child, Eliza-
beth Howison-Cranfnrd of Braehead and Craufurdland. This
lady married, in 1777, the Rev. James Moodie, who assumed
the additional surnames of Howison and Craufurd. He died
in 183L On the death of his wife, 1st April 1823, she wss
succeeded by her only surviving son, William Howison-Crau-
furd of Craufurdland and Braehead, bom 29th November
1781, manied 14th June 1808, Jane Esther, only daughter
of James Whyte, Esq. of Newmains, by his wife, Esther.
Craufurd, with ia
J
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CRAWFURD.
708
OF AUCHINAMES.
The Howisons poweased Braehead in Mid Lothian ainoe
the reign of James the First According to a tradition,
which is embodied in the popular drama of * Gramond Brig/
part of the estate was conferred by James the Second or
Third, as a reward to one of thor ancestors for having gone
to the rescue of the king, then wandering about in disgnise,
when attacked bj a gang of gipsies, and with no other wea-
pon than his flail, with which he had been thrashing com in
his bam, delivering him from his assailants. The tenure by
which this land is held, is the presenting of a basm of water
and a napkin to the king of Scotland, to wash his hands, King
James, on entering Howison's cottage, before partaking of
refr^hment, having asked for water and a doth to wipe the
marks of the scuffle from his clothes. This service was per-
formed by Mr. Howison-Crawfurd, then younger of Crawfard-
land, in right of the lairdship of Braehead, to King Geoige
the Fourth, at the banquet given to his majesty by the dty of
Edinburgh, 24th August, 1822, when he was at^ded by
masters Charies and Walter Scott, the one a son, the other a
nephew of the author of Waveriey, as pages, attired in splen-
did dresses of scarlet and white satin. The rose-water then
used has ever nnce been hermetically sealed up, and the towel
which dried the hands of his migesty ou that occasion has
never been used for any other purpose. All the documents
mentioned as granted to the above-named Archibald Crau-
furd. almoner to Queen Maiy, are likewise carefufly preserved
by the Craufurdland family.
The Crawibrds of Drumsoy, in Ayrshire, are descended
from Duncan Crawford of Comlarg, who lived in the reign of
James the Fourth, and was the third son of David Crawford
of Kerse. His daughter, Margaret, married John Crawford
of Drongan, and their youngest son, William, became the
founder of this branch of the family. John Crawford of
Comlai^ having a feud with the Kennedys, was, on the last
day of July 1564, attacked in the sheriff-court of Ayr, while
the court was sitting, by Barnard Feigusson of Kilkerran,
and fifty-three others, of the Kennedy faction, and defended
by this William Crawford of * Drummishoy,* David his bro-
ther, David Crawford of Kerse, and several others. For this
•ffenoe both parties were subsequently tried. [See PUcavm*s
Crimmal Triait, under date December 12, 14, and 15, 1564.]
His grandson. Sir Robert Crawford, in his father's lifetime,
married Agnes, only daughter of David Fairlie of that ilk,
and in consequence assumed the additional surname of Fair-
lie. His eldest daughter Agnes, heiress of Drumsoy, married
her cousin, Robert Crawford, a desoendant of whom, in the
fourth generation, was David Crawford of Drumsoy, historio-
grapher to Queen Anne, a biographical notice of whom is
given below in its pUce. On his death in 1710, he left an
only daughter, Emilia Crawford of Drumsoy, who died, un-
married, in 1781. At her instance the estate was sold, when
it was purchased by her grand-unde, Patrick Crawford, mer-
chant in Edinburgh, third son of David Crawford, sixth laird
of Drumsoy. He had previously become the proprietor of the
estate of Auchinames at a judicial sale, 25tb February, 1715.
This Patrick Crawford was twice married ; first to a daugh-
ter of Gordon of Tumberry, by whom he had two sons.
Thomas, the elder, after being secretary to the embassy of
the earl of Stair to the French court, became himself envoy
extraordinary to the same court, and died in Paris in 1724.
Robert, the poet, usually but erroneously designed of Auch-
inames, was the younger. He is also sometimes called Wil-
liam instead of Robert. He was author of the beautiful
pastoral ballad of * Tweedside,' ^ The Bush aboon Traqnair,'
and other popular Scottish songs, first contributed to Ram-
say's 'Tea-Table Miscellany.' He resided long in France.
He died, or according to the information obtained by Bums
was drowned on his return to Scotland in 1788. A notioe m
a manuscript obituaiy kept by Charles Mackie, professor of
dvil history in the university of Edinbutgh, states the time
of his death to have been in May 1738, in which month and
year his father also died. Robert's body appears to have
been recovered, and brought to Scotland for interment He
was never married. According to Sir Walter Scott, the lady
celebrated in Crawford's song of 'Tweedside' was a Miss
Mary lillias Scott, one of the daughters of Walter Scott, Esq.
of Harden, an estate delightfully situated on the north side
of the Tweed, about four miles bdow Melrose. She was the
descendant of another cdebrated beauty, Mary Scott, daugh-
ter of Mr. Scott of Dryhope, in Selkirkshire, known by the
name of * The Flower of Yarrow.*
By his second wife, Jean, daughter of Archibald Crawford
of Auchinames in Renfrewshire, Patrick Crawford had as his
ddest son, Patrick, who succeeded his mother on her death in
1740, in the estate of Auchinames. He was M.P. for Ajrr-
shire from 1741 till 1754, and for Renfrewshire from 1761 till
1768. He died 10th Januaiy 1778. The second son, George,
was lieutenant-colonel of the 58d regiment, and died in 1758.
Patrick Crawford, M.P., above mentioned, had two sons ;
John, his heir,>nd James, oolond in the guards, one of the
equeries to Queen Charlotte, and governor of Bermuda, who
died in 1811. The dder son, John Crawford of Drumsoy,
Audiinames, &a, was the associate and friend of Charles
James Fox; member for Old Sarum in* the parliauMut of
1768, and afterwards for the county of Renfrew. He died,
unmarried, in 1814, when he was succeeded by his cousin,
John Crawford, grandson of Colond Crawford, third son of
the above mentioned Patrick Crawford, who purchased the
estates of Drumsoy and Auchinames. He is designed of
Auchinames and Crosby. Bom 4th January 1780, he mar-
ried, 16th August 1814, Sophia Marianna, daughter of Ma-
jor-general Horace Churchill, and great-granddaughter of
Sir Robert Walpole.
The laird of Auchinames is the sole representative of
the family of Drumsoy, and therefore the designation of
Drumsoy is still retained, as is also that of Kerse, the origi-
nal property. He is also considered the sole ropresentative
of the Dalmagregan Crawfords, as those of Comlaig, Balgre-
gan, Drongan, &o., all merged in the house of Drumsoy.
The estate of Ardndl (or Amde) is of modern acquisition,
having been purchased in 1746 by Patrick Craufurd of Auch-
inames from the Boyds of Kilmarnock, to whom it was
granted by King Robert the Bruce. Many royal charters aro
dated from ArdneiL
The Crawfurds of Auchinames wero descended from Hugh
Crawfurd, second son of Sir Reginald Crawford of Loudoun,
sheriff of Ayr in 1296. This Hugh appears to have inherited
the lands of Monoch or Manook, and also Crosby near Kil-
bride in Ayrshire. His son, Reginald Crawfurd of Crosby,
in 1320 obtuned a grant of the Umds of Auchinames in Ren-
frewshire for his services to Robert the Bruce, as well as an
augmentation to his arms, of two lances in saltuv, commem-
orative of his exploits at the battle of Bannockbum. Auch-
inames, being the larger possession, became the designation
of the family, though in a different county and a less andent
estate. His grandson, Thomas Crawford of Auchinames,
mortified several lands to the church of Kilbarchan, in 1401,
for a monk to say mass for the salvation of his soul, and his
wife's, and his father's and mother's, and for the soul of Re-
ginald Crawford his grandfather. His son Archibald had
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CRAWFORD.
704
CRAUFURD OF ARDMILLAN.
two 80Q8 ; the yoongeTf Thomas, was ancestor of the Craw-
fords of Thirdpart, while the elder, Robert Crawibrd of
Aucfamaines, must have been a person of some consideration
in his daj, as he had for his first wife Isabel Donglas, young-
est daughter of George master of Angus, sister of Archibald,
sixth earl of Angus, who married the widowed queen of
James the Fourth. His son. who was also Robert Crawford
of Auchinamee, was slain at Flodden in 1513. A subsequent
laird, John Crawford of Auchinames, fell at the battle of
Pinkie in 1547. His graudniece Jane, on whom were settled
the lands of Crosby, married, about 1606, Patrick Crawfurd,
the then laird of Auchinames, and thus the ancient estates of
the family were again united. Their grandson, Archibald
Crawford, the sixteenth baron of this family, was the last
laird of Auchinames in a direct male line.
Robert Crawfiird of Nethermains, Ayrshure, third son of
Patrick Crawford of Auchinames and his spouse Jane Craw-
ford of Crosby, continued the representation of the original
family of Auchinames (see Crawfords of Drumsoy, p. 703). and
was the progenitoi^of the Crawfords of Newfield. His eldest
son, Robert Crawfhrd, M. D. of Nethermains, married a
daughter of the Rev. George Crawford, minister of West
Kilbride a\>out 1640, of whom the following characteristic
anecdote is preserved in Crawfurd*s * Genealogical Collec-
tions,' in the Advocates' Library : '* Mr. George Crawfurd, a
son of Thirdpart, was minister at Kilbride. He was deposed
in the strick times of the Covenant for warldly-mindedness
and selling a horse on the Sabbath day, as old Portmcross
(Robert Boyd of Portinoross, who dyed very agea, near 100
years of age, in 1721) told me, who knew him minister of
^bryde, and was a witness against him at the presbytery."
Dr. Crawfurd's next brother, Patrick Crawfurd of Nether-
mains, had an only daughter, Agnes, who sold that estate. On
the death of her father without male issue, the representa-
tion devolved on his younger brother, Moses Crawftird, who
died in 1728. His grandson, Moses Crawford, went to In-
dia about 1765, and there attained the rank of major in the
niilitary service of the East India Company. He was second
in command at the capture of Beechigar, a strong hill fort on
the Ganges, and was left in command of that place with a
garrison of two thousand men. He returned home in 1783,
and purchased the estate of Newfield in Ayrshire. He died
in 1794, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert Craw-
furd, Esq. of Newfield, formeriy a captain in the 7tb Hussars,
with which r^ment he served in the Peninsula. A second
son, John, major of the 44th foot, was present at the battles
of Salamanca and Orthes, and was wounded and taken pri-
soner in the latter engagement. Robert Crawford, Esq. of
Newfield, an officer in the Rifle Brigade, the son of the last-
mentioned Robert, succeeded in 1843, and is the representative
of the original Crawfords of Crawford.
The first Craufurd mentioned as laird of FergushiU is Al-
exanaer Craufurd, whose name appears in the rOiis of the
Convention parliament among those of the commissioners for
ordering out the militia of Ayrshire. He was a commissioner
of supply for that county in 1695, and lastly in 1704. His
eldest son, John Crawford, married Anna, the younger sister
of Major Daniel Ker of Kersland, a celebrated covenanter,
who was killed in 1692, at the battle of Steinkirk, where
nearly the whole of his regiment, the Cameronians (now the
26th), was cut to pieces ; and by an arrangement with his
wife's eldest sister, Jean, he became proprietor of Kersland,
and assumed the name of Ker. He was the well-known Jonn
Ker of Kersland, woo wrote the ^Memours, oontammghb
«ecret transactions and negotiations in Scotland, England, the
courts of Vienna, Hanover, &c" (London, 1726, 8vo); and
was otherwise remarkable for his political tergiversations in
the reigns of King William and Queen Anne. The property
of Fergushill was alienated from the Craufurd family in 172&
Of the Giffordland Crawfords, the third laird was killed ti
the battle of Flodden, and the fifth fell at Pinkie. They were
both named John Crawford. The latter had three daugh-
ters, the youngest of whom, Margaret,^ married Thomas
Craufurd, a younger son of tlie laird of Cranfurdland, to
whom she had two daughters, Grizel and Isabel. The elder
married John Blair of Windyedge, and Giffordland became
inherited by their descendants, under the name of Blair.
The Craufdirds of Baidland, now of Ardmillan, in Ayr-
shire, are lineally descended from a yoonger brother (whose
name has not been preserved) of Sir Reginald Craufurd, she^
riff of Ayr in 1296. The name in the ancient Titles is spelled
sometimes Craufurd and sometimes Craufuird. By the mar-
riage of James Craufuird of Baidland, not many yean after
the Restoration, with a daughter of Hugh Kennedy of Ard-
millan, he iiltimately succeeded to that estate, which from
that time became the titie of the family. This gentleman
made a conspicuous figure on the government or persecuting
side, in the civil and religious troubles towards the end of the
reign of Charles the Second. On the 20th March 1683,
James Craufuird of Ardmillan was, by the privy coondl, ap-
pointed commissioner for the bailiiary of Carrick, and on the
28th July, tiie same year, he was induded in the rojal com-
mission for the county of Ayr, along witii John Boyle of
Kelbum, Colonel White, and Captain Inglis. According to
Wodrow (vol. iL p. 225), in the transfer of heritable jurisdic-
tion from many of the leading nobility which took place in
those unsettied times, Graham of Claverhouse and he woe
the only untitled persons on whom these honours woe con-
ferred, the regality of Tongland and sheriffdom of Wigton
being taken from the families of Kenmuir and Lochnaw, and
given to " the laird of Claverhouse,'* and the bailiiary of Car-
rick and regality of Crossraguel from the earl of CassiUis and
given to " the laud of Ardmillan.** He had a huge family,
some of whom settied in Ireland, where several branches stiO^
remain. His daughter became the wife of David Crawfiird ot
Drumsoy, and the mother of David Crawford, historiographer
to Queen Anne for Sootiand. His eldest son, William C^o-
fuird, was distinguished for hb defence of the for^ess of the
Bass, the prison of the Covenanters, against King William's
government in 1691. He predeceased his father, who, m
1698, executed a settlement in fiftvour of a yoonger son,
John, but it was set aside by the court of session, and ulti-
mately by the House of Lords, in 1712. This John settled
in England, and was tne ancestor of the Crawfords of Sussex.
Archibald Craufuird, eldest son of the above William Crau-
fuird, in consequence of the aoove aecision, succeeded to Ard-
millan, but the ongmai estate of Baidland had been sold to
Hugh Macbride, merchant m Glasgow. This Archibald
Craufuird was a seen Jacooite, and after the rebellion of
1745, was compelled to reside for some time under uuveS
lance in Edinburgh. He died in 1748. His elder son, Arch-
ibald Craufuird of Ardmillan, who dicrd in 1784, was deeply
involved m the unfortunate banking oopartneiy of Douglas,
Heron, and Co., in consequence of which the estate of Ard
millan was brought to a judicial sale, during the minority of
his son, Archibald Craufuird, writer to the signet, and booght
oy his uncle, Thomas Craufuird, who had been long in the
army, and having for his military services been rewarded
with a lucrative office under government at Bristol, he wr
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CRAUFURD
705
OF JORDANHILL.
thereby enabled to preserve the estate from going ont of the
family. He had a eon, Archibald-Clifford- Black well Crau-
furd, miyor in the army, a^ 1 two daughters, Margaret, mar-
ried to her coosin, Archibald Craufiird, writer to the signet,
above mentioned, and Anne, the wifeof MacMiken of Grange.
The said Archibald Craufurd, W. S., died 16th May 1824.
leaving, with other children, a son, Thomas MacMiken
Cranfard of Grange.
James Cranfhrd, a judge of the court of session by the title
of Lord Ardmillan, son of Major Archibald C. B. Crnufm^
of Ardmillan, bom at Havant, Hants, in 1805, was educated
at the Ayr Academy, and afterwards studied for the bar at
Glasgow college and at the university of Edinburgh. Passed
advocate in 1829, in February 1849 he was appointed sheriff
of Perthshire. In November 1853 he became solicitor-gen-
eral for Scotland. In January 1855 he was appointed a lord
of session, and in June of the same year a judge of the high
court of justiciary. Subjoined are the arms of the family.
The motto is, ** Durum Patientia Frango.**
A branch ot tbe Baidland family possessed the estate of
Haining in Stirlingshire. Archibald Craufurd, lord high
treasurer of Scotland, a younger son of William Craufurd of
Haining, was in 1457 nominated abbot of Holyrood, and ap-
pointed a lord of council in 1458. He was ambassador to
England, and negotiated, with others, a treaty of marriage
betwixt James III. and Edward IV. in 1482, in which it
was contracted that James duke of Rothesay, afterwards
James IV., should marry the princess Cicely, second daugh-
ter of Edward IV., and a great part of the portion was de-
livered, though the marriage did not take place. He died in
1483, and his armt were beantiiully cut on the fly buttresses
on the north side uf the nave of the abbey of Holyrood :— a
/eue ermine, with a star of five points in chief. Or, sur-
mounted with an abbot's mitre.
The immediate ancestor of the Crawfurds of Jordanhill in
Renfrewshire, was Lawrence Craufurd of Eilbumie in Ayr-
shire, progenitor of the viscounts of Ganiock (mei^ged in the
earldom of Crawford in 1749, see Crawford, eari of, be-
low), and the eleventh generation of that illustrious family in
a dh«ct male line. The lands of Kilbimie anciently belonged
to a branch of the potent family of Barclay. John Barclay
of Kilbimie, the last male heir of that house, died in 1470,
and his only daughter, Maijory, married Malcolm Crawftird
of Easter Greenock (which barony he possessed in right of
his mother, a GalbraiUi), a descendant of the house of Craw-
ftipd of Loudoun. The above Lawrence Craufbrd of Kilbur-
nie flourished in the reign of James the Fifth. He exchanged
the barony of Crawfordyohn, the ancient inheritance of hb
anoestors, with Sir James HamUton of Fynnart for the hmd^
of Dramry, in the county of Dumbarton, for which he got a
charter under the great seal, dated 5th April 1529. About
the year 1546, he endowed a chapel at Drumry, with the
lands of Jordanhill, for the support ol a chaplain, and died
4th June 1547. By his wife, Helen, daughter of Sir Hugh
Campbell, ancestor of the earls of Loudoun, he had six sons.
From the eldest, Hew, his successor, who fought on Queen
Mary's side at the battle of Langside, was lineally descended
Sir John Craufnrd of Kilbunie, created a baronet by Charles
the First in 1642, the grandfather of John Craufurd of Kil-
bimie, created by Queen Anne, in 1703, viscount of Garoock
(see Garnock, viscount of), the son of Maipunet, second
daughter of the said Sir John Craufurd, and her husband, the
Hon. Patrick Lindsay, (second son of John, the fifteenth
earl of Crawford and first earl of Lindsay,) on whose heirs,
male and female, he entailed his estate of Kilbimie, on their
assuming the sumame and arms of Cnufdrd.
The sixth son of the above Lawrence Craufurd of Kilbir-
nie was the celebrated Captain Thomas Cranfiird of Jordan-
hill, whose daring exploit of surprising and carrying by ,
escalade, in April 1571, the almost impregnable castle of
Dumbarton, which had long held out for Queen Maiy, is
familiar to every one acquiunted with the history of Scotland
during the minority of James the Sixth. Of this bold enter-
prize, an interesting account, written by himself to John
Knox, is inserted in Bannatyne's JoumaL He appears to
have commenced his military career at a very early age, as
he was taken prisoner at the disastrous battle of Pinkie in
1547, but after some time obtained his liberty by paying ran-
som. In 1550 he retired to France, and entered into tho
military service of Henry the Second, under the command of
James eari of Arran ; and in 1561, he retumed with Queen
Mary to Scotbnd. Previously to this, he had, with consent
of his eldest brother. Hew Craufuird of Kilbimie, received
from Sir Bartholomew Montgomeiy, chaplain of Dramry, the
lands of Jordanhill, which had been bestowed by his father
on that chaplainry, and the grant was confirmed by a charter
under the great seal, dated 8th March, 1565-6. He was long
attached to the liennox family, and was one of the gentlemen
of Lord Damley, the husband of the queen. On her unex-
pected visit, in January 1567, to her sick husband at Glas-
gow, Damley sent Craufurd to meet her majesty, with a
message excusing himself from waiting on her in person, on
account of his illness. After Mary had left him, Damley
called Cranfurd, and informing him fully of all that had
passed between the queen and himself, bade him communi-
cate it to his father the earl of Lennox. He then asked what
he thought of the queen's proposal to remove him to Craig-
millar. ^' She treats your miyesty," replied Craufbrd, *^ too
like a prisoner. Why should yon not be taken to one of your
own houses in Edinburgh ?" ** It straok me," said Darnley,
t* much in the same way, and I have fears enough, but may
God judge between us, I have her promise only to trust to."
On the murder of Damley, soon after, he joined in the asso-
ciation with the earls of Argyle, Morton, Athol, Glenoaim,
&c, for the defence of the young king*s person, and the bring-
ing the murderer to trial. He was examined on oath before
the commissioners at York, December 9, 1568, when he pro-
duced a paper which he had written immediately after the
conversations between himself, and the queen and Damley.
His deposition, indoned by Cedl, is quoted by Tytler, in his
Histoiy of Scotland (vol. viL p. 78). He afterwwds acoosed
Lfithington of participation in the king's murder.
For his capture of the castle of Dumbarton, Ci^tain Crau-
furd obtained firom James the Sixth, the lands of Black,
stone, Bams, Bbhopsmeadow, and others, in the neighbour-
2 Y
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CRAWFURD
706
OF CARTSBURN.
hood of Glasgow, with an Annuity of two hundred poonds
Soots, daring his lifb, payable oat of the prioiy of St. An-
drews. He commanded in several expeditions against the
qaeen*s party, and was oaptam of the king's forces all the
time of the calamitous dvil war which raged daring the re-
gencies of Lennox, Mar, and k^rton. In September 1571,
when a body of Kirkaldy's troops from the castle of Edin-
burgh, surprised the town of Stirling, and the regent Lennox
was killed. Captain Crawford, with the assistanoe of a party,
from Stirling castle and some of the dtixens, chased the at-
tacking faction out of the town. In the following year, he
had some skirmishes in the wood of Hamilton with the Ham-
iltons. Previous to the surrender of the castle of £dinbuiigb,
in 1573, the regent Morton appointed him and Captain Hume
to keep the trenches, and at the head of their respective
companies and a band of English, on the morning of the 26th
May, they advanced to storm the Spur, an outwork of the
castle of great strength, in the form of a half-moon. A dull
old ballad, entitled the * Sege of the Castell,' (Scots Poems of
the Sixteenth Century,) says:
" Thnt Hume and Craford to the lave were gydc,
With certain sojonrs of the garysoune,
Four captains followit at their back to byde,
SempblU and Hector, Ramsay and Robesoune.'
The attempt proved successful. After a desperate conflict
which lasted for three hours, the ravelin was stormed, and
the standard of James the Sixth immediately displayed upon
it The surrender of Edinburgh castle put an end to the
civil war, and during his latter years. Captain Crawfurd re-
sided at Kersland, in the parish of Daliy, Ayrshire, the heir-
ess of which, Janet Eer, was his second wife. On the 15th
September 1575, the king wrote him the following character-
istic letter: ** Captain Crawford, I have heard sic report of
your guid service done to me from the beginmng of the wairs
against my onfriends, as I shall sum day remember the sam,
God willing, to your greit contentment; in the mean quhyle
be of guid comfort, and reserve you to that time with pa-
tince, being assured of my favour. FareweeL Tour gold
friend, James Rex.** He afterwards got a charter under the
great seal ^^acras ierrarum ecdetiasticarum vkcaria pena^
murru de Dairy," &c., in Ayrshire, dated 20th March 1578;
Mid another charter to himself and Janet Ker his spouse, of
the lands of Blackstone, &c, in the shire of Renfrew, dated
24th October, 1581. The latest notice we have of him is in
the same year, when the king, by a gift, dated at Holyrood,
grants him a hundred pounds Scots, yearly, ** out of the su-
perflue of the third of the benefices not assignat to the main-
tenance of the ministrie." He died 3d January 1603, and
was buried in the old churchyard of Kilbiniie. On his mon-
ument, which was erected in his lifetime, in 1594, to himself
and his spouse, is inscribed '* God schaw the Bicht,** a motto
given him by Morton, in memoiy of his bravery in the fight
of the Gallowlae, between Leith and Edinburgh, in which,
however, he had been repulsed.
His eldest son, David, succeeded to his mother's estate of
Kersland, and assumed the name of Ker, but his male line
has long been extinct The second son. Hew, carried on the
Jordanhill family. This Hew had, with two daughters, five
sons; namely, 1. Cornelius, his heir, whose second son, Tho-
mas, was progenitor of the Crawfhrds of Cartsbum ; 2. Tho-
mas, a colond in the Russian service; 3. John, rector of
Halden in the county of Kent ; 4. Laurence, a major-general
in the Scots army, in the reign of Charles the First, killed at
the siege of Her^rd, in September 1645; and, 5. Daniel, a
lieutenant-general in the army of the czar of Muscovy, at one
time governor of Smolensko, and at his death in 1674 gover-
nor of Moscow.
Hew Crawfiu^ of Jordanhill, the seventh laird, only son of
Hew, the sixth laird, was on 19th July. 1765, served beii
male to the above-mentioned Sir John Crawford of KillHinie,
baronet, ancestor of the families of Kilbimie and Jordanhill
He married Robina, only cliild of Captain John PoUok ot
Balgray, tliird son of Sir Robert Pollok of Pollok, baronet,
and in her right became Sir Hew Crawfurd PolVtk. baro-
net He had a large family, several of whom died when
young. The eldest daughter, Mary, was married in 1775 to
General Fletcher of Saltoun (then Campbell of Boqnhan),
and afterwards to Colonel John Hamilton of Bardowie in
Stirlingshire; and the third, Lncken, to General John
Gordon Skene of Pithuig, Aberdeenshire, by whom she
had ten children. Another of his daughters, and one of his
sons, Captain Hew Crawford, form the subject of two carica-
tures by Kay, and some onrious notices of Uiem will be found
in Kay's Edinburgh Portraits. The eldest son. Sir Robert
Craw^rd Pollok, baronet, died, unmarried, in August 1845,
and was succeeded by his nephew. Sir Hew Crawfurd of Pol-
lok and Kilbimie, baronet, now the representativa of the
family. See vol. ii. p. 276.
The estate of Jordanhill continued in the possession of the
Crawfurds till 1750, when it was sold to Alexander Hourtoot
merchant in Glasgow, whose son, Andrew Houston, sold it,
in 1800, to Archibald Smith, youngest son of Andrew Smith
of Cralgend, in Stirlingshire, and it afterwards became the
property of his eldest son, James Smith, Esq. of JordanhilL
The funily of Oraufhrd of Kilbimey, StarUngshire, on whom
a baronetcy was conferred, 8 June 1781, are descended from
the Crawftuxls of Kilbimie in Ayrshire. The first baronet
was Sir Alexander Craufhrd, son of Quentin Craufurd, Esq.
of Newaik, in Ayrshire, one of his majesty's justaciary bail-
lies of the west seas of Scotland. Sir Alexander had three
sons, James, second baronet; Sir Charles, G.C.B., a Heuten-
ant-general in the army, and colonel of the second dragoon
guards, and Robert, the celebrated General Craufurd, who
was killed at Ciudad Rodrigo in 1812, and of whom a biogra-
phical notice is given at page 721. Sir JAmes, the second
baronet, bom 20th October 1762, succeeded in 1801, and in
1812 assumed the additional name of Gregan. His eldest
son, Thomas, was killed at Waterloo. His second son, Alex-
ander Charles, lieutenant-colonel in the army, died 12tfa
March 1838. On his own death in 1839 he was sooceeded
by his third son, the Rev. Sir Geoi^ William Craufurd, of
Kilbimey, Stirlingshire, and Burgh Hall, Lincolnshire, third
baronet Twice married ; issue, two sons by first wife.
The Crawfurds of Cartsbum, in Renfrewshire, are descended
from Thomas Crawford, second son, by his wife, Mary, daugh-
ter of Sir James Lockhart of Lee, of Cornelius Crawfurd, who
succeeded to the estate of Jordanhill in 1624. Cartsbum was
an ancient possession of the Kilbimie family. It was included
in the barony of Easter Greenock, which was acquired by
Crawfurd of Kilbimie through his mairiage with the heiresa,
about the end of the fourteenth century. In the reign oi
Queen Mary, it became the patrimony of a younger brother
of the KilUmie family. This branch ended in the peisoa ol
David Crawfurd, in the reign of Charies the First The
lands of Cartsbum next went to Malcolm Crawfurd of New-
ton, also a descendant of the house of Kilbimie, fnm whose
heirs they were acquired by Sir John Campbell of Kilbimie
in 1657. In 1669, Sir John's daughter and heiress, Marga-
ret wife of the Hon. Patrick Lindsay, conveyed tbese laad*
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CRAWFORD,
707
FIRST EARL OF.
to her coDslDf the said Thomas Craofard, second son of Cor-
nelius Crawfiird of JordanhilL His eldest son snoceeded to
Gartsbom. His second son was Hew Grawfhrd of Woodside,
a small but pleasant property in the vioinitj of Paislej,
which continued in his family till 1755,' when it was sold.
The third son, George, was the genealogist and historian;
anthor of the * Genealogical History of the Royal and Illns-
trions Family of the Stewarts, from the year 1034 to the
year 1710 ; to which are added, The Acts of Sederunt and
Articles of Begulation relating to them; to which is pre-
fixed, A General Description of the Shire of Renfrew/ Edin.
1710, folio; ^The Peerage of Scotiand, containing an Histo-
rical and Genealogical Account of the Nobility of that King-
dom,' Edin. 1716, foL ; ' Lives and Character of the Crown
Officers of Scotiand, from the Reign of King David I. to the
Union of the two Kngdoms, with an Appendix of original
papers. Ist. vol, all that was published ; Edin. 1726, fol. He
nuurried Margaret, daughter of James Anderson, the eminent
antiquary, compiler of the * Diplomata Sootis,' whose life is
given at page 125 of this work, by his wife, a daughter of
John Ellis of Ellisland, advocate in Edinburgh. Thomas
Crawfurd, the first of Cartsbum of this line, died in 1695.
In 1669, the year in which he acquired the property, he ob-
tained a crown charter in confirmation of one which had been
granted by Charles the First in 1688, whereby the knds of
Cartsbum were erected into a free burgh of barony. The
village which arose, called Craufurdsdyke or Cartsdyke, from a
dyke or quay he built there, adjoins the town of Greenock,
from which it is separated by the Cart's bum, and is included
within the parliamentary boundaries of that burgh.
Thomas Craufrurd, the sixth laird of Cartsbum, died in
1791, and was succeeded by his aunt. Christian Crawford,
great-granddaughter of the first Thomas. She married Mr.
Robert Arthur, and died in 1796. She had a son, Thomas,
who predeceased her, and a daughter. Christian Arthur Craw-
furd, who succeeded her in Cartsbum, and married Thomas
Macknight of Batho, son of Rev. William Macknight, who
died in 1750, minister of Irvine, and had a son, and two
daughters. The eldest daughter. Christian, married Rev.
Thomas Macknight, of Dalbeath, D.D., one of the minbters
«f Edinburgh. The son, William Macknight, assumed the
surname of Crawfurd under an entail, on succeeding to Carts-
bum. He married Jean, daughter of James Crawford of
Broadford.
Ckawford, earl of, a titie in the peerage of Scotland, first
conferred, in 1398, on Sir David Lindsay of Glenesk, whose
ancestor, William de Lindsay of Erdldon, in the reign of
Malcolm the Fourth, was the first of the family who possessed
the barony of Crawford in Clydesdale. That line terminated,
in 1249, in an heiress, Alice de Lindsay, the wife of Su:
Henry Pinkeney, a great baron of Northamptonshire, whose
grandson. Sir Robert Pinkeney, claimed the crown of Scot-
land at the competition in 1292, as descended from the prin-
cess Maijory through his grandmother Alice de Lindsay.
The barony of Crawford was afterwards forfeited, and be-
stowed on Sir Alexander Lindsay of Lufihess, the ancestor of
the more recent house of Crawford [see anie^ page 700, and
LiicDSAT, sumame of].
Sir David Lindsay, the first ear* of Crawford, is supposed
to have been bora in 1366. He succeeded his father. Sir
Alexander Lindsay, in Glenesk (which had belonged to his
mother, Catherine, daughter of Sir John^tirling of Glenesk),
in 1882, and his oousm Sir James Lindsay of Crawford in
1397. Having married the princess Catherine, fifth daugh-
ter of King Robert the Second, he received with her the bar-
ony of Strathnaim in Inveraess-shire. In his twenty-fifth
year, he proved the victor in the celebrated toumament with
John Lord Welles at London-bridge in May 1390. That no-
bleman had been sent ambassador to Scotland by Richard the
Second, and at a banquet with thtf Scottish nobles, where the
conversation tumed on deeds of arms, on Sir David Lindsay
extolling the prowess of his countrymen, Welles exclaimed,
"*• Let words have no place ; if you know not the chivalry and
valiant deeds of Englbhmen, assail ye me, day and place
where ye list, and ye shall soon have experience.** Then said
Sir David, " I will assail je ! ** Lord Welles naming London
Bridge for the place. Sir David appointed the festival of St
Geoige for the day of combat. For this toumey he obtained
a safe- conduct for himself and bis retinue of twenty-eight
persons, including two knights, squires, valets, &c He was
received with high honour by King Richard, and on the ap-
pointed day, in presence of the king and court, and after the
usual preliminary ceremonies, at the sound of the trampet
the two champions encountered each other, upon tiieir barbed
horses, with spears sharply ground. Beth spears were bro-
ken, but in this adventure the Scottish knight sat so strong
that although Lord Welles* spear was shivered to pieces upon
his helmet and visor, he stirred not, and the spectators cried
out that, contrary to the law of arms, he was bound to the
saddle ; whereupon he vaulted lightly ofi* his horse, and leapt
back again into his seat, without touching the stirmp. In
the third course he threw Lord Welles out of hb saddle to
the ground. He then dismounted, and a desperate foot com-
bat with their daggers ensued, when Sir David, fastening his
dagger between the joints of his antagonist*s armour, lifted
him off his feet, and hurled him to the ground, where he lay
at his mercy. Instead of putting an end to his life, as the
laws of these combats permitted, he raised his opponent, and
after presenting him to the queen, who gave him his liberty,
he supported him in the lists till assistance came, and after-
wards visited him every day till he recovered. A full descrip-
tion of this famous toumey is given in W3mtoun*s Crom/kU.
Two years after, Sur David neariy lost his life in an afiray
with some of the clan Donachie, who, with Duncan Stewart,
natural son of the Wolf of Badenoch, were ravaging Glenisla,
the north-west of Angus; and were encountered at Glenbre-
rith, about eleven miles north of Gaskdune, by the Lindsays
and Ogilvies. Armed at all points, and on horseback. Sir
David made great sUughter among the catarans, but having
pierced one of them with his lance, and pinned him to the
ground, the latter writhed his body upward on the spear,
and collecting all his force, with a hst dying efibrt, fetched a
sweeping blow with his broadsword, which cut through the
kn)ght*s stirmp-leather and steel boot
Three ply or four above the foot,
to the very bone, —
* That man na stra!k gave but that ane,
For there he deit; yet nevertheless
That gold Lord there wounded wea,
And had dcit there that day
Had not his men had him away,
Agano his will, out of that press.'*
[Wyntoun'M Cronjfka, torn. IL p. 867.J
On the 21st April 1398, Sir David Lindsay was, by King
Robert the Third, created earl of Crawford. The barony of
Crawford was at the same time regranted with a regality, con-
ferring privileges on him and his posterity, akin to those of
the earls palatme of England and the Continent He had
frequentlv safe -conducts granted hun to England, being
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CRAWFORD,
708
THIRD EARL OF.
charged with n^odations with the English court, and some-
times he sought for adventure and honour in foreign wars.
'' Between a visit to England in October 1398 and the 29th
of December 1404, — the date of his safe-conduct for entering
England with one hundred paw>n8, horse and foot, in his
train, and passing through to Scotland, (bei:.g then one of
the commissiouers to treat of peace witli England,) — ^his
name is not once mentioned in the HotuK Scotia, and it is
merely from foreign sources that we learn that he gave a let-
ter of service and homage, under his seal of arms, to Louis
duke of Orleans, on the Ist of January 1401-2, and that in
May that year he was hovering with a fleet on the coast of
Gorunna in Spain, probably as a partisan of France.** {^lAves
of the lAndaaySy vol. L p. 99.] In December 1406. he was
again and for the last time one of the ambassadors to the
English court to treat of peace. He died in February 1407
at his castle of Finhayen, and was buried in the family vault
in the Greyfriars church at Dundee. The following is the
seal of David, first earl of Crawford :
A letter in French from the first eari ot Crawford to Henry
the Fourth of England, in February 1405, inserted in the
first volume of the Lives of the Lindsays (p. 105), on the
occasion of a merchant-ship of St. Andrews having been
seized and confiscated by the English, in violation of the
trace, is interesting as showing that the merchants and town
of St Andrews were under his protection, and also that at
that period French or Latin was the language used by the
Scottish nobles in their intercourse with the court of Eng-
land, so much so that the celebrated earl of March, writing
to Henry five years before, apologizes for his letter being in
English, as it was '^ mare clere" to his understanding **than
Latyne or Fraunche.** With three sons, Alexander, second
earl ; David, of Newdosk, and Gerard ; he had turee daugh-
ters. Lady Margaret or Matilda, married to her cousin, Arch-
ibald, fifth earl of Douglas, duke of Touraine ; Lady Marjoiy,
to Su: William Douglas of Lochleven ; and Lady Elizabeth,
to Sir Robert Keith, great marishal of Scotland. Ingelram
Lindsay, bishop of Aberdeen from 1442 to 1458, is also said
to have been a son of the first earl of Crawford, but, says
Lord Lindsay, strict proof of his filiation is wanting.
Alexander, second earl, the year after his father*8 death, had
a safe-conduct to go to France. In 141 6, with the earis of Doug-
las and Mar, he had letters of safe-condnct to England, to ae-
godate the temporary release of the captive king, James the
First, on his leaving hostages for his return, but the n^oda-
tion was suddenly broken off. In 1421, however, it was re-
newed for the entire liberation of the king, when the earl was
again one of the oommissionern. On James' return in 1423,
Crawford was among the nobles who met him at Durham
and escorted him to Scone, where he was crowned on the last
day of May. After receiving the accolade of knighthood
from his majesty's hand, Crawford departed for England,
being one of the twenty-eight hostages pledged for his sover-
eign, hb kinsman. Sir John Lindsay of the Byres, being ano-
ther. In the trea^ for James' release, the annual income of
the hostages is stated — the eari of Crawford being rated at
one thousand merks, and Lindsay of the Byres at five hun-
dred. The latter obtained his liberty in 1425, but the earl
was detained in England till November 1427, when he had
leave to return on giving an equivalent He is said to have
been active in the capture of the assassins of James the First,
and died in 1438, the year after.
His son, David, third earl, entered into a league of associ-
ation and fiiendship with the powerful earl of Douglas, lieu-
tenant-general of the kingdom, with the object of drawing to
their party the other great feudal Aimilies, and, thus united,
to rule paramount in the state. [Zrioes of the lAndtai/t, voL
i. p. 126.'] On the discovery of tiiis league, Kennedy, bishop
of St Andrews and primate of Scotland, joined with Crichton,
the chancellor, to oppose their machinations. In resentment,
the earl of Crawford, assisted by his kinsman Alexander Ogil-
vie of Inverquharity, and other allies, invaded the bishop^s
lands in Fife, burning lus granges and tenements, and carry-
ing off an immense booty. After fruitlesaly remonstrating
against this outrage, Kennedy formally excommunicated the
earl, for a year, and before it expired he recaved his death-
wound in a desperate conflict at Arbroath on the IStii Janu-
aiy 1445-6, between the Lindsays and Ogilvies, which arose
from the following cause : The Benedictines of the abbey of
Arbroath had appointed his eldest son, Alexander, master of
Crawford, their chief justiciar, or supreme judge in cml af-
fairs throughout their regality; but he proved so expensive to
the monks, by his retinue of foUowers and manner of living,
that they formally deposed him, and appointed in his place
Alexander Ogilvy of Inverquharity, nephew of J(^ O^rj
of Airlie, who had a hereditary didm to the office. As, how-
ever, the master of Crawford had taken forcible possession of
the town and abbey, an appeal to the sword was rendered
necessary. Both parties assembled their forces. Douglas
sent one hundred Clydesdale men to tho aid of Lindsay, and
the Hamiltons also assisted him with some of their vassals.
The Ogilvies on their part found an unexpected auxiliary in
Sir Alexander Seton of Gordon, afterwards earl of Huntly,
who, as he returned from court, happened to arrive the night
before the battle at tiie castle of Ogilvy, on his road to Strath-
bogie ; and although in no way personally interested in the
dispute, found himself compelled to asnst the Ogilvies by a
rude law of ancient Scottish hospitality, which bound the guest
to tiJce part with his host, in any quarrel or danger, so long
as the food eaten under his roof remained in his stomach
With the small train of attendants and friends who accom-
panied him, he marched with the Ogilvies to Arbroath, where
they foond the Lindsays, in great force, drawn up in battle
array before the gaies. As the battle was about to com-
mence, the earl of Crawford, anxioos to avert bloodshed,
suddenly gallopped into the field from Dundee, where he bad
heard of the approaching conflict, but before he could inter-
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CRAWFORD,
709
FIFTH EARL OF
fere, one of the Ogilyies* men darted his spear throngh his
moafch and neck, and mortallj woanded him. The Lindsays
Instantly attacked the Ogilvies and their allies with great
fory, and they were driven firom the field with the loss of five
hundred men, while Cnat of the Lindsays did not exceed a
hundred. Earl David expired afler a week of lingering tor-
ture, and his body lay for four days unburied, until Bishop
Kennedy sent the prior of St. Andrews to take off the ex-
conmiunication. The superstitious feeling of the times did
not fail to notice that the battle of Arbroath was fought on
that day twelvemonth that the slain earl of Crawford had
ravaged "St Andrew's land" in Fife. \_Ihid, page 180.]
Ogilvy of Inverquharity, sorely wounded, was taken prisoner
and carried to the castle of Flnhaven, whore he died. Ac-
cording to the tradition of the district, the countess of Craw-
ford, who was his own oousin-german, in the agony of find-
ing that her husband had been mortally wounded in the
affi:ay, rushed to Inverquharity's chamber, and smothered
him with a down pillow. The Lindsays afterwards burnt
and wasted the lands and houses of the Ogilvies, and from
this time the feud between the two clans raged incessantly
until the accession of James the Sixth to the English throne.
By his wife, Maijory, daughter of Alexander Ogilvie of
Anchterhouse, hereditary sheriff of Angus, the earl had five
sons ; Alexander, fourth earl of Crawford ; Walter Lindsay
of Beaufort and Edzell ; William Lindsay of Lekoquhy, an-
cestor of the Lindsays of £vellck in Perthshire and their
various cadets ; Sir John Lindsay of Brechin and Pitcairlie,
killed at the battle of Brechin in 1452, ancestor of the house
of Pitcairlie in Forfarshire, and their junior branch of Cair-
nie; and James, who, accompanying the princess Eleanor,
daughter of James the First, to Germany, when she went to
be married to Sigismund of Austria, espoused an heiress near
Augsburg, where his descendants, the Crafters, were reported
to be residing in the last century.
Alexander, fourth earl, the victor at Arbroath, was styled
" the tiger," or " earl Beardie," from the ferocity of his char-
acter and the length of his beard, or rather, as one writer
suggests, from the little reverence in which he held the king's
courtiers, and his readiness to "beard the best of them."
^Lhes of the lAndaays^ voL L page 184.1 ^ 1^^^ he had
the office of heritable sheriff of Aberdeen, and besides being
justiciary of the abbey of Arbroath, as already mentioned,
was also justidaiy of tiie abbey of Scone. He was one of the
guarantees of a treaty of peace with England, one of the war-
dens of the marches, and ambassador to the English court in
1451. With the earl of Douglas and Maodonald of the Ltles,
titular earl of Ross, he entered into a league of mutual
alliance, offensive and defen»ve, against all men, not except-
ing the king himself; on hearing of which, the king— James
the Second, then in his seventeenth year- -sent for Douglas
to Stirling castle, and after vainly urging him to break it, on
his refusal, drew his dagger, and stabbed him to the heart
Crawford immediately flew to arms, and assembling all his
forces encamped at Brechin, with the intention of intercept-
ing the earl of Huntly, his old antagonist at Arbroath, now
appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom, who was hasten-
ing with an army to his sovereign's assistance. The contend-
ing parties met on the 18th May 1452, on a level moor,
about two miles north-east of Brechin. The forces of Huntly
far outnumbered those of Crawford, but the victory, which
had long remained doubtful, was at last inclining to the lat-
ter, when John Collaoe of Balnamoon, one of his most trusted
vassals, who commanded a division of three hundred men,
stationed in the left ^ing, deserted to Huntly. Before the
oattle he had requested Crawford that, in the event of their
victory, his son might be put in fee of the lands of Feme,
which lay near his house. " The time is short," replied the
earl, "stand bravely by me to-day, and prove yourself a
valiant man, and you shall have all and more than your de-
sire." His defection was fatal to the earl, whose troops,
weakened by the departure of Balnamoon's division, and fiui-
ously attacked by Huntly's forces, took to flight in every
direction. Among the slain were the earl's brother, and
nearly sixty gentlemen, with numerous persons of inferior
rank, while on Huntly's side the loss did not exceed five
barons, and a small number of yeomen, but he had to lament
the loss of two brothers. Earl Beardie fled to Finhaven, and
on alighting from his horse he called for a cup of wine, and
was heard to exclaim that he would " willingly pass seven
years in hell, to gain the honour of such a victory as had that
day fallen to HunUy." He ha^ already been denounced a
rebel, and his lands, life, and goods, were declared forfeited
to the state, his coat of arms being torn, and his bearings
abolished. The lordship of Bredun, with the hereditary
aherifiship of Aberdeenshire, was also taken from him, and
given to Huntiy, his victorious opponent His power, how-"
ever, was little weakened by this defeat, and as soon as he
had recruited his forces, he took a terrible revenge on all who
had either refused to join his banner, or, like Balnamoon,
had deserted him in the battle, ravaging their lands, and de-
stroying their castles and houses. But after the submission
of the Douglases, being abandoned by many of his allies, he
took an opportunity of the king passing throngh Forfarshire,
in April 1458, on his way to the north, to appear before his
majesty, in a mean habit, bareheaded and barefooted, and
witii tears in his eyes he made a speech, in which he acknow-
ledged his offence, and craved mercy for his adherents, being
more concerned for their safety than for his own. " When
the earl had endit," says Pitsoottie, " the noble and gentie
men of Angus, that came in his company to seek remission,
held up their hands to the king maist dolorously, dying,
'■ Mercy ! ' tiU their sobbing and sighing cUttit the words that
almaist their prayers could not be understood." At the in-
tercession of Huntly and Kennedy, bishop of St Andrews,
with whom he had been privately reconciled, and by whose
advice he had thus acted, he was pardoned, and afterwards
entertained James magnificently in his castle of Finhaven.
As, however, the king had sworn, in his wrath, " to make the
highest stone of Finhaven the lowest," his majesty went up
to the roof of the castie, and threw down to the ground a
stone which was lying loose on one of the battlements, thus
keeping his oath strictiy to the letter. Earl Beardie became
a loyal subject, but in six months afterwards, he was seized
with a fever, of which he died in 1454. By his wife, Eliza-
beth Dunbar, he had two sons, minors, David, fifth earl of
Crawford, created duke of Montrose, by James the Third,
and Sir Alexander Lindsay of Anchtermonzie, who long after
succeeded as seventh earl. He had also a daughter. Lady
Elizabeth Lindsay, wife c^ John, first Lord Drummond.
In the time of this earl a noble Spanish chestnut tree,
nearly forty-three feet in clreumference, ornamented the
court of the castle of Finhaven, and, according to tradition, a
gillie or messenger-lad having cut a walking-stick fimm it,
the earl was so enraged that he hanged him on one of its
branches, and from that moment the tree began to decay.
The ghost of the gillie, it is locally said, has ever since walked
between Finhaven and Carriston, under the name of Jock
Barefoot
David, fifth earl, appears, soon after his accession to the
title, to have been a prisoner to James earl of Douglas, on a
second rebellion oT that nobleman, speedily suppressed, in
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CRAWFORD,
710
FIFTH EARL OF.
March 1464, as in a charter, dated 27th February 1458-9,
he grants Herbert Johnstone of Dalibank, ancestor of the
house of Wcsterhall, the lands of Gleneybank, with the office
of bullie of the regality of Kirkmichael in Dumfries-shire,
" for his faithful service at the time when he was held a cap-
tive by the late James earl of Douglas, and chiefly for the
liberation and abduction of his person from captivity, and
from the hands of the said earl." [^Lives of the Lindsays,
vol. i. p. 146.] His lordship had a charter of the office of
sheriff of Forfar, 19th October 1466, on the resignation of
James Stewart, afterwards eari of Buchan. On the down-
fall of the Boyds, he rose daily in power and influence, and
for twenty years,— from 1465 to I486,— was employed in
.almost every embassy or public negociation with England.
On 9th March 1472-3 he obtained a grant from King James
the Third of the lordships of Brechin and Navar for life ; in
July 1473 he was appointed keeper of Berwick for three
years ; on the 26th October 1474, he appeared as procurator
for King James on toe betrothment of the princess Cecilia,
youngest daughter of Edward the Fourth of England, and the
prince royal of Scotland, which took place in presence of va-
rious English commissioners and gentlemen, in the Low
Greyfriars* church at Edinburgh, and a description of which
is given in Tytler's History of Scotland, vol. iv. p. 242 ; and
m May, 1476, he was constituted high admiral of Scotknd.
for the suppression of the rebellion of the earl of Ross, (Mac-
Donald of the Isles,) who, alarmed at the formidable prepa-
rations against him, speedily submitted.
In 1474, this earl made a new entail of the family estates,
settling them on his heirs-male for ever, a document which
regulated the succession for many generations afterwards.
In 1480, he was appointed master of the king's household,
and after the raid of Lauder in 1482, he became lord cham-
berlain. Although one of the purifiers of the royal council,
as they termed themselves, and present at the famous secret
meeting of the nobility, where Archibald earl of Angus ac-
quired the name of Bell-the-Cat, and wherein it was resolved
to put to death Cochrane and the other favourites of the
king, he would not be a party to the plot for deposing his
sovereign, and on being made aware of such a design, he
abandoned the factious nobles, and gave his whole support to
the throne. In 1487 he was appointed justiciary of the
north, along with the earl of Huntly. After the disbanding
of the royal forces at Blackness, and the hollow pacification
that then took place, the earl of Crawford was created duke
of Montrose, by royal charter, dated 18th May, 1488, to
himself and his heirs, being the first instance of the title of
duke having been conferred on a Scottish subject, not of the
royal family. The grant conveyed to his grace the castle and
borough of Montrose, with its customs and fisheries, and the
lordship of Kincleven in Perthshire, to be held in free regal-
ity for ever, with courts of justiciary, chamberlainship, &c,
on the tenure of rendering therefrom a red rose yearly on the
day of St John the Baptist. On this creation the duke
added to his arms an escutcheon argent^ charged with a rose,
gulesj which he carried by way of a surtout over his arms.
Subjoined is an engraving of his seal and his autograph, from
the first volume of Lord Lindsay's Lives of the Lindsays, A
new royal or public herald was also created on this occasion
under the name of » Montrose,' as appears by the Exchequer
Rolls. At the battle of Sauchiebum, soon after, (11th June
1488,) the duke eminently distinguished himself, on the side
ot his unfortunate sovereign, James the Third, but was se-
verely wounded, and being taken prisoner, was compelled to
ransom himself and his followers, and was deprived of all his
public offices. The act rescissory which, on the 17th October
y
following, was passed in the Estates, annulling all grants of
lands, and creations of dignities, conferred by the late king
since the 2d of February preceding, was conceived not to af-
fect the original patent of this ducal titie, as the young king,
James the Fourth, had previously directed a free pardon, by
letters patent, to be issued under his privy seal, to the duke
of Montrose, which he placed in the hands of Andrew Lord •
Gray, to remain in his possession until the duke should resign
to that nobleman the hereditary sheriffship of Forfarshire.
Yhls was accordingly done on the 6th November 1488, in
his grace's name by procurators appointed by him for the
purpose, he having previously protested against the whole
proceeding as illegal and unjust. On the 19th September
1489, he received a new patent or charter, under the great
seal, of the dukedom of Montrose, and in February following,
he was appointed a member of the secret council, but subse-
quently to the battle of Sauchiebum he took littie part in
public affairs. He died at Finliaven, at Christmas 1495, in
his fifty-fifth year.
The dukedom of Montrose, it has been decided by the
House of Peers, ended with him ; as having been by the re-
newed patent conferred for life only. In 1848, the eari oi
Crawford and Balcarres presented a petition to the queen,
claiming the title of duke of Montrose, on the ground of its
being vested in the heir male. This petition, in accordance
with the rule and practice in contested peerage cases, was
referred to the House of Lords, and the claim was opposed
both by the duke of Montrose, of the noble house of Graham,
and by the Crown. After a lapse of neariy five years the
House of Lords gave their decision on 6th August 1853, by
adopting a resolution to the effect that the eari of Crawford
and Balcarres had not made out Uis right to the dignity.
(See Montrose. Duke of, vol. ii. page 171.)
By his wife, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Jamea, firet
I^rd Hamilton, the duke had 2 sons, Alexander, Lord Lind-
say, and John, styled master of Crawford, who became 6th emi
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CRAWFORD,
711
NINTH EARL OF.
His elder son, Alexander, Lord Lindsay, when a mere strip-
ling, had revived an old feud with the Glammis fiunilj, and
that with such violence as to require the interference of par-
liament, March 6, 1478. On the 22d April 1479, he was
committed to the castle of Blackness for ehasing two monks.
In the autumn of 1489 he quarrelled and fought with his
younger brother John, bj whom he was wounoeo, ana oied
shortly after at his castle of Inverqueich. He had married
Lady Janet Gordon (afterwards the wife of Patrick, son of
Lord Gray), whom popular rumour accused of having smoth-
ered her first husband with a down pillow, while lying ill of
his wound.
John, the second son, became the sixth earl of Crawford.
In 1504, on the abortive rebellion of the Hebrideans and
Western Islanders, in support of Donald Dhu, grandson and
lieir of John, Lord of the Isles, he was appointed, conjointly
with Huntly, Axgyle, Marischal, Lord Lovat, and other pow-
erful barons, to lead the array of the whole kingdom north of
Forth and Clyde, against them. [^Oreffoty^i Ilittonf of the
Western HigMtmde, p. 98.] Lord Lindsay says that this earPs
extravagance was great Besides alienating lands held in
capite of the crown, and thus mcumng the displeasure of the
king, he was reduced to redgn the hereditaxy sheriffdom of
Aberdtenshire to William, earl of Errol, 10th February 1610,
and it was not regained for many years after his death.
ILives of the Lmdaojfe, vol i p. 180.] On 23d April, 1512,
twenty-three years after his brother's death, letters "to
search John, earl of Crawford, for the slaughter of Alexander,
his brother,** were issued by Lord Gray, sheriff of Angus,
ohaipng the earl, his cousins. Sir David and Alexander Lind-
say, and others their accomplices, to give surety to appear
.«fore the king*s justidaiy, on the third day of the next jas-
tioe-eyre at Dundee to " underlie the law*' fur the said crime;
and not appearing they were denounced rebels, 24th July
1518. Two months afterwards, the earl was killed at Flod-
den, where he had a chief command. His children all died
in infancy, but a natural son, John landsay of Downie, in
Forfarshuie, was father of Patrick Lindsay, archbishop of
Glasgow.
Alexander, seventh earl, the younger son of Earl Beardie,
and previously styled Sir Alexander Lindsay of Auohtermon-
zie(a barony inherited from his mother), succeeded his nephew,
as collateral heu: male. He was one of the four noblemen
appointed by parliament, 1st December 1513, continually to
remain with the queen-mother, to give her counsel and assist-
ance as regent of the kingdom. For the suppression of the
deadly feuds that then rajged both in the Highlands and on
the borders, he was appointed high-justiciary north of the
Forth, while Lord Home received the same office south of
that river. Crawford, however, died shortly afterwards, at a
great age, in May 1517. By his wife, Margaret, daughter of
Campbell of Ardkinglass, he had David, his successor, another
son, Alexander, of Rathillet, who died without issue, and a
daughter, married to Sir Archibald Douglas of Kijspindie,
high treasurer of Scotland.
David, eighth earl, took part with the queen -mother and
Angus agiunst the regent duke of Albany, and on the depar-
ture of the latter for France in 1524, he was one of the nobil-
ity who attended her raijesty when she brought the young
king, then only thirteen years of age, from Stirling to Edin-
buxgh, and, on 80th July of that year, made him assume the
government The earl was subsequently deprived by James
of large estates in the Lowlands, and of his lands in the He-
brides, which so incensed him against the king that it was
believed he might eauly have been induced to join the English
interest, but the unnatural conduct of his son (by his first
wife. Lady Marion Hay, only daughter of the third earl of
Errol), withdrew his attention from all but his domestic sor-
rows. This son, Alexander, called the *' evil *' or " wicked
master** of Crawford, had been put in fee of the earldom by
his father, as future earl, and the barony of Glenesk had been
assigned to him in consequence, by charter under the great
seal, 2d September 1527. Being, however, of an unruly and
turbulent disposition, he seized his father*s fortress of Dunbog
and, at the head of a oand of robbers and outlaws, pursued a
wild and lawless life, oppressing the lieges, tyrannizing over
the inferior dergy, and exacting * black mail ' from the whole
surrounding country. In 1526 his father had been obliged to
appeal to the crown for protection from " bodily harm," threat-
ened against himself, his second wife (Isabel, daughter of Lun-
dy of Lundy), and his friends, by his unnatural son, who, on
expressing his contrition, was, through the intervention of the
archbishop of St Andrews, and others, received into favour,
on condition of his banishing his evil associates, and relapsing
not into crime. In 1530, he was indicted for killing a servant
of Lord Glammis, and on the 16th February 1530-1, he was
arraigned at a justice-eyre held at Dundee, the king himself
presiding in person, for, among other crimes alleged against
him snd his accomplices, having besieged his father's castles,
with the intention of murdering him, surprising him at Fin-
haven, laying violent hands upon him, and imprisoning him
in his own dungeon for twelve weeks, and on another occasion
carrying hun by force to Brechin, and confining him for fif-
teen days; besides, breaking open his coffers, pillaging his
writs, and seizing his rents and revenues. He was found
guilty, but his life was spared. Both he and his issue had
forfeited their right to the succession, which opened in due
course of law to the next heir-male under the entail of 1474,
namely, David Lindsay of Edzell. A special charter of en-
tail thereafter passed the great seal, dated 16th October
1541, to the said David Lindsay, and the heirs male of his
body, whom failing, to others therein enumerated, and failing
them, to the earl's own nearest legitimate heirs male whatso-
ever, bearing the name and arms of Lindsay. Soon after,
**the wicked master** was ignominiously slain at Dundee,
having been stabbed by a cobbler **for taking a stoup of
drink from Mm.** Hb father, after a lingering illness, died
at the castle of Caimie in Fife, on the 27th or 28th Novem-
ber 1542.
David Lindsay of Edzell succeeded as ninth earl. Having
no issue by bis first wife, (the dowager Lady Lovat,) in his
.generosity he adopted David Lindsay, the son of **the wicked
'master,'* who had been secluded horn the succession by his
father's forfeiture, and in his favour resigned all the lands of
the earldom, with the exception of Glenesk and Feme, exe-
cuting the requisite diarters under the great seal 2d May,
1546, by which that youth was reinstated in his birthright,
and put in fee of the earldom as master of Crawford. By
hb second wife, Catherine, laughter of Sir John Campbell of
Lorn and Calder, whom he married in 1549, the ninth earl
had five sons : Sir David Lindsay of Edzell, whose male line
is extinct ; John, Lord Menmuir, ancestor of the earls of Bal-
carres (see ante^ p. 199) ; Sir Walter Lindsay of Balgawies,
a convert to popery, and the most zealous and daring ** con-
fessor ** of his time ; James, the protestant rector of Fetter-
cairn, who died young, 15th June 1580, while on a missioc
to Geneva ; (an elegy to his memory by the celebrated An-
drew Melville is inserted in the Deiioim Poeiartun Scotorum) ;
and Robert, of BalhalL The earl had also two daughters,
Margaret and Elizabeth, the wives vespectiveiy of John earl
of Athol, and Patrick thurd Lord Drummond. He died ib
September 1558.
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CRAWFORD,
712
TENTH EARL OF.
David, tenth earl, the son of ** the wicked master," proved
very ungratefiil to his benefactor, the ninth earL fle joined
the association for Qaeen Mary in 1568, and adhered steadily
to her interegt He had married, soon after his restoration
to the fiunilj saccession, Margaret, daughter of Cardinal
Bethune. In the contract dated at St. Andrews, 10th April
1546, the cardinal expressly called the bride his daughter,
and he gave her four thousand merks in dowry. The nup-
tials were solemnized at Finhaven with great pomp and mag-
nificence in presence of the cardinal, who was assassinated
the following month. The earl had four sons : David, elev-
enth earl ; Sir Henry of Kinfauns, thirteenth eari ; Sir John
Lindsay of Ballinsoho and Woodwray ; and Alexander first
Lord Spynie (see Sptnir, lord); and a daughter, Lady
Helen, mnrried to Sir David Lindsay of Edzell.
David, eleventh earl, is described in the family genealogies
as '' ane princely man,** but a sad spendthrift Soon after
his accession to the title, the old family feud with the house
of Glammis was revived through the following unfortunate
accident. On the evening of the I7th March 1577-8, the
earl and Lord Glammis, then chancellor, happened to meet,
at the head of their respective followers, in a narrow street,
called the School-house Wynd, in Stirling, as Crawford was
passing to the castle, and the chancellor returning to his
lodging, after making his report to the young king, James
the Sixth. They made way for each other, and called to
their attendants to do the same ; all obeyed, except the two
last, who, having jostled, drew their swords, and attacked
each other. In the uproar which ensued, Glammis received
a mortal wound in the head by a pistol-bullet, from whose
hand is uncertain, but the earl was unjustly blamed for it.
Thomas Lyon, uncle of the chancellor, and tutor or guardian
of his infant son, and usually styled master of Glammis, as
presumptive heir to that barony, to avenge his nephew*s
death, immediately carried fire and sword into the Lindsay*s
country, while the earl himself was imprisoned in Stirling,
but soon released. He was indicted for the crime, but his trial
it appears was postponed, as David Lindsay of Edzell and
Patrick Lord Lindsay of the Byres, his sureties, were fined
for his nonproduction to underlie the law, 5th March 1579.
IPitcairn's Criminal TriaU, voL i. part 2, p. 85.] The 8d
of November was appointed for hb subsequent appearance,
and it is presumed that he was then acquitted. From a cu-
rious circular addressed to his principal friends, and printed
in the appendix of the first volume of the Lives of the Lind-
says, the earl on this occasion seems to have had recourse to
the usual practice of the Scottisli barons of those days,
naroe.y, to appear at his trial with such a host of attendants
as was likely to overawe the judges. Not long afterwards he
and the earl of Huntly went to France, whence he proceeded
to Italy. He returned to Scotland by the last day of Octo-
ber, 1581, when he sat in the parliament then held in Edin-
burgh.
After the raid of Ruthven in 1582, he joined the associa-
tion formed to liberate the king, and on the escape of James
to St. Andrews, Crawford, Huntly, Argyle, and others of the
banded nobles, occupied the town, with their followers, while
Gowrie and the other insurgent lords made their submission.
The king then commanded two chief nobles of each faction,
Angus and Mar on the one side, and Crawford and Huntly on
the other, to withdraw from court for a season, to " prevent
the renewal of factious debates." Shortly after this, the
master of Crawford was appointed chief master stabler to
King James, who wrote to the magistrates of Dundee, "com-
manding them to elect and take Crawford to be their provost,
ilbeit ^ey had chosen their own provost" He was one of
the jniy on the trial of the eari of Gowrie, and in the confis-
cations that were subsequently carried on by Arran and his
friends, Crawford obtained the abbey lands of Scone, and the
church lands of Aberaethy. On the Ist of November 1585l
the banished lords, supported by Queen Elizabeth, entered
Scotland, with a large array, and marched unexpectedly on
the king at Stilting. No one was with him except Artan
and the earls of Crawford and Montrose, who garrisoned the
castle with their followers. Arran fied, but Crawford and
Montrose retired into the castle with the king. The oasUe
soon surrendered, and Crawford and Montrose were commit-
ted to the charge of Lord Hamilton.
The earl had been converted to the popish faith by 5ither
William Crichton, a well-known jesuit, and on the arrival of
the news of the decapitation of Mary queen of Soots at Fo-
theringay 7th Februaiy 1586-7, he and the other Catholic
lords, Huntly and Errol, entered into a correspondence with
Spain, then preparing the invincible armada for an attack
upon England. In the previous year they had assembled
their forces at the Bridge of Dee, when the king marched to
oppose th«n, and the simple fact of Arran, Hundy, Mon-
trose and Crawford having subsequently held a meeting at
the lodging of the latter, had created new sospiGion against
them. At the celebrated reconciliation banquet which took
place at Holyrood-house eariy in 1587, Crawford and Glam-
mis, and other hereditary enemies, walked together hand in
hand to the cross, where they drank to each other amid the
thunder of the castle guns, and the songs and shouts of
the citizens. But this reconciliation was but a boDow
one. Long standing feudal enmities could not be so easily
healed. In May of that year, Crawford, Huntly and Both-
well were accused of treasonable insurrection against the
king, but nothing was established against them. In their
correspondence with the prince of Parma, they undertook,
with the aid of six thousand men, to render the king of Spain
master of Scotland. This correspondence falling into the
hands of Elizabeth, was by her sent to James. In the mean-
time, a preliminary plot for seizing the king's penon, and
excluding from court the chancellor Biaitland and the master
of Glammis, high treasurer, the king's chief councillon, came
to Hght and on Huntly*s airival in Edinburgh he was ar-
rested ; when, news being brought of Crawford and EiroTs oav-
ing oome in arms to the North Ferry, the whole kingiom was
alarmed ; but the earis made then* submission. A few di^
after, Crawford and Huntly met at Perth, and at first designed
to fortify that town ; but hearing that the treasurer Glammis
had arrived in Angus, they waylaid him, and chased him to
the house of Kirkhill, which bemg set fire to, he was obliged
to surrender to his cousin the laird of Auchindown, who kept
him some weeks* prisoner in the north. In April 1589, the
three earis, Crawford, Huntly, and Errol, collected their fbtoes
in Aberdeen, whence they issued a rebellious proclamation, bat
the king advancing against them, their followers diq>erBed.
Crawford fied, and the treasurer, being released, interceded
with the king for him and Huntly. They ** ofiered to enter
their persons in ward, and submit themselves to the punish-
ment his migesty might be pleased to impose.** Crawford
went to Edinburgh on the 20th of May, and was warded in
his own lodging. On the 24th he was tried, with Huntly
and Bothwell, als implicated in the same rebellion, and aD
found guilty of repeated acts of treason. James, however,
would not allow any sentence to be pronounced against
them, but committed Crawford to Bkokness, BothweU to
Tantallon, and Huntly to his old quarters in Edinburgh cas-
tle, and after keeping them a few months in confinement he
took occasion, amidst the public rejoicings on the approadi of
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718
FOURTEENTH EARL OF.
bis marriagef to set them at liberty. A kej to his mtjeety's
conduct on this ooctsion is fiimished bj the fiict of his Iwving,
on the first news of his mother's ezecntion, connived at, if he
did not encourage, the treasonable correspondence with Spain,
and permitted Jesuits and other popish pnests to trarel un-
jiolested through the kingdom, and had himself instigated
the rebellion. Soon after the earl had a safe-conduct to pass
through England, on his way to France. He returned to
Scotland in 1601, after an absence of eleven jears, and died
22d November 1607. He was twice married. His first wife,
Lilias, daughter of David, second Lord Drummond, with
whom he received the then large tocher of ten thousand
merks, died young. This {«r] was of a suspicious and jealous
disposition, and an old north country ballad, entitled * Earl
Crawford,* (printed in Bftchan^i Ancient Ballads of the North
qfScothndj) relates that a merry jest of Lady Crawford as to
the father of her child (David, who died in infancy) was taken
by her husband in earnest
"*! tom*d me right and round aboat.
And aye the blythe blink in my e*e,—
It was ae word my merry moa* spake
That dnderit my guld lord and me.**
He sent her home to her family in disgrace, when her brother
of!ered to marry her to
-** as fine a knicht
That Is nine times as rich as he.**
She answered,
" Oh ! hand your tongue my brother dear.
And yell let a* your folly be,
Fd rather ae kiss o* Crawford's month.
Than a* his good and white monie.'*
She rode back to her hnsband*s castle to entreat his forgive-
ness and ** comfort," but he refused to listen to her. Soon
after he rode over to Stobhall the seat of the Drummonds,
to sue for pardon himself, but the lady returned him the same
answer he had given her:
"Indeed I wfnna come mysef
Nor send my waiting maid to thee, —
Sae take your idn words hamo again.
At Crawford castle ye tanld me."
The earVs second wife was Ijidy Griselda Stuart, daughter
of the earl of AthoL The followbg is the autograph of the
eleventh earl :
^^^CTa^C^
au^i
His eldest son, David the twelfth earl, was so reckless and
extravagant that he acquired the name of the " prodigal earl."
He had been sadly neglected by his father in his youth, and
while at the university of St Andrews, was often left without
clothes or food, but what his tutor, Mr. Peter Nairn, could
procure for him, "as his poverty and credit could serve."
\lAx>ti of the JJndsaySy vol. ii. p. 60.] He afterwards gath-
ered a band of broken Lindsays around him, and pursued
with tmrelenting fierceness his fendal and personal enemies.
On the 25th October 1605, he slew, " under assurance," be-
tween Brechin and the Place of I'^dzell, Lis kinsman Sir Wal-
ter Lindsay of Balgawies, brother of Lord £d2eU lPUcaim*s
Criminal Triab^ vol. iiL pp. 65 and 248], and the son of that
eaii to whose generosity his father owed his estates and hon-
ours. The relations of Sir Walter bitterly resented this in-
jury, and his nephews especially determined to be revenged.
On the 5th July 1607, between nine and ten o'clock at night,
the latter, with eight foUowera, six of them Lmdsays, at-
tacked, in the High Street of Edinburgh, the master of
Crawford, then without attendants, and accompanied only by
Lord Spynie, the undo of both parties, and who was anxious
for a reconciliation botween them, and Sir James Douglas of
Dmmlanrig. All three were wounded, the master severely,
and Lord Spynie mortally. Sir David Lindsay of Edzell, (styled
Lord Edzell, as a lord of session,) and Alexander Undsay
of Canterland, his second son. were subsequently, on the 6th
September 1609, indicted as suspected connivers at the death
of Lord Spyme, but no one appearing against them, on the
19th of that month they formally protested that no one
should at any futun time be allowed to call them to account
To prevent the continual alienations of the estates of the earl-
dom carried on by this earl, the family got him imprisoned
in Edinburgh castle, where he spent the kst years of his life
under turveilkmcej but acting in every respect otherwise as a
free agent In consequence he was sometimes stj^ed ' Comes
Incarceratus,* or the * captive eari.* He died in the castle in
February 1621, and was buried in the chapel of Holyrood-
house. He had been divorced from his wife. Lady Jean Ker,
of the Lothian family, and had only one child, a daughter,
Lady Jean Lindsay, who having run away with a common
** Jockey with the horn," or public herald, lived latterly by
begging. [LtMt of the Lind$ay9^ voL ii p. 51.] By a grant
under the privy seal, of date 4th June 1663, King Charles
the Second granted her a pension of one hundred a-year, " in
consideration of her eminent birth and necessitous condition."
The prodigal earl was succeeded by his undo, Sir Henry
Lindsay of Rinfanns, thirteenth earl of Crawford. He had
been master of the household to the queen (Anne of Den-
mark), and in his younger days he built the house of Carrald-
stone (now Carriston) in Forfarshire. On 2d September 1592,
David Cochrane of Pitfonr complained to the king and council
that he had raised letters agunst Harry Lindsay of Kinfauns
for having come to his house, at the head of a band of armed
men, forcibly expelled his wife *' with nyne young baimes,**
and taken violent possession of it Lindsay was accordingly
charged to deliver up the house, &&, and to answer before
the king and council for this act of oppression ; on which he
delivered up the house to its lawful possessor, and withdrew
his men from it. After he had succeeded to the title, it is
recorded of him that he gathered " all he could together of
the wraclqt estate of the earldom of Crawford." [2>ire« q/
the lAndaayM^ vol iL p. 52, noteJ^ He died in 1628. By his
wife, Beatrix, daughter and heiress of George Charteris of
Kinfauns, he had four sons : Sir John of Kinfauns, (invested
with the order of the Bath at the coronation of James the
First of England in 1603,) who died without issue; and
George, Alexander, and Lndovic, successively fourteenth, fif-
teenth, and sixteenth earls of Crawford.
George, fourteenth earl, succeeded to a dilapidated estate,
and having, in 1629, sold Finhaven to his kinsman, Lord
Spynie, he quitted Scotland, and served with distinction, as
colonel of a foot company of Dutch or Germans, under Gnsta-
vus Adolphus, but was basely killed in 1633, by a lieutenant
of his own regiment whom he had been provoked to hatoon.
A council of war (consisting of Germans) being held upon the
latter, he was acquitted of the slaughter, on account of its
being contrary to the Swedish discipline to cudgel any officer.
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CRAWFORD,
714
SIXTEENTH EARL OF.
Bat General Leslie (afterwards oommander-in-ohief of the
Coyenanters, and earl of Leven), being then goremor of Sta-
ten, where the earl was boried, caused his ronrderer to be
immediately apprehended and shot [Lives of the Limdaays^
ToL ii. p. 56.] The earl left an only child. Lady Maigaret
Lindsay, who died in 1655, in Caithness.
His brother, Alexander, fifteenth earl, who had attained
the rank of colonel in the Swedish service, became insane,
and was kept in confinement till his death in 1689.
His youigest brother, Lndovic, sixteenth earl, had entered
the Spanbh service, in which he rose to the rank ot' colonel.
In 1641, he returned t^ Scotland, to give his snpport to
Charles the First, whose canse he upheld with so mnch con-
stancy during the whole dvil wars, as to be distinguished by
the name of the ** loyal earl." The strange plot known in
history as " the Incident,^* was the joint concoction of hun
and Montrose. Its object was to seize the marquis of Ham-
ilton, his brother the earl of Lanark, and the marquis of Ar-
gyle, the most powerful of the covenanting nobles, and convey
them on board a vessel in Leith Roads, where they were to
be detained till the king should gain such an ascendancy in
Scotland, as would enable him to try them as traitors.
Crawford and his men were to seize Edinburgh the same
night, capture the castle, release Montrose, then a prisoner,
and deliver it into his hands as governor. On the disooveiy
of the plot, (through the information of a gentleman who was
invited to join in it,) Crawford was arrested, but liberated
without caution or security, in little more than a month after-
wards. While m prison the earl of Lindsay paid him a visit,
and proposed to save his life, on condition of his resigning the
earldom of Crawford in his favour. To this he is said to
have assented, and thereby, through lindsay^s interest, to
have escaped punishment Accordingly, on the 15th Janu-
ary, 1642, Crawford resigned his earldom into the king's
hands at Windsor, for new investiture to himself and the
heuv male of his body, whom failing, to John, eari of lindsay
and the heirs male of his body; whom failing, to his own hdrs
male collateral for ever. This transaction has been usually
but erroneously assigned to 1644.
On the raising of the royal standard at Nottingham, 25th
August 1642, the earl of Crawford joined Charies there im-
mediately, and was created commander of the volunteers.
At the head of his own regiment of horse, he fought gallantly
under Charles, at the unfortunate battle of Edgehill, on 23d
October following; and, at the battle of Lansdowne, on 5th
July 1643, he contributed greatly to the rout of the parlia-
mentary forces. Soon after, being sent for a supply of pow-
der, he was intercepted by Sir William Walla*, and defeated
with the loss of his ammunition, and a troop or two of his
regiment. Having subsequently received a rein^rcement of
cavalry from the king at Oxford, Crawford, commissary Wil-
mot, and Sir John Byron (ancestor of the noble poet of that
name), attacked and defeated Waller, killing six hundred of
his men, taking eight hundred prisoners, with seven pieces of
cannon, and all their colours. He fought at Newbury, 20th
September 1643, and at Reading. Five days after, he had a
narrow escape in an attempt to gain the town of Poole for
the king, through the treachery of Captain Sydenham, one of
the garrison, who for forty pounds and a promise of prefer-
ment, agreed to admit him and a force under him into the
town, but having previously acquainted the governor, no
sooner had a portion of them got in than they were unex-
pectedly attacked and neari^ all killed or taken prisoners.
The earl was one of the few who cut their way out Soon
after, in company with Sh- R-ph Uopeton, he invaded Sus-
sex, and took Arundel castle, but being attacked at Alton
near Famham, by Waller, he made his escape with a few
only of his troops, the rest, to the number of nine hundred,
being all taken, with twelve hundred arms.
With the marquis of Montrose, he marched into Scotland,
in the beginning of April 1644, vrhen Dumfriea was taken by
them, but they were soon oblige to retreat to Carlisle. For
this he was, on the 26th of the same month, excommunicated
by the commission of the General Aasembly. Sentence of
forfeiture was pronounced against him in absence by the
Scots parliament, on the 26th July thereafter, and on the
same day was passed a ratification in favour of the eari of
Lindsay of his right and patent as earl of Crawford, which
titie was conferred on him by pariiament, an-^ he was there-
after designated eari of Crawford-Lindsay.
Earl Ludovic had, in the meantime, rejoined the royalists,
and he acted as a general in Prince Rupert's anny, when it
was defeated at Marston-moor, 2d July 1644. He after-
wards, with Lord Reay and other Soots officers, threw him-
self into Newcastle, but that town bdng taken by storm by
the Scots army under General Leslie, in the following Octo-
ber, his lordship was made prisoner and sent to Scotland.
He arrived at Edinbuigh, 7th November, and was conducted
bareheaded, and with every nuuk of indignity, bx the Water-
gate of the Canongate to the Tolbooth. Soon after he was
tried and condemned to death as a traitor, mainly, according
to Wishart, through the influence of his cousin the eari of
Lindsay, who had usurped hb honours, and now thirsted for
his blood. It was debated whether he should be at once be-
headed, or his execution delayed for some days, that he might
suffer along with the other prisoners, and the last alternative
was carried. After the battie of Kilsyth, August 15, 1645,
the marquis of Montrose despatched the master of Napier
and Nathanael Gordon to release Lords Crawford and 0^-
vie and other imprisoned royalists. The humblest prayers
were now made to these two noblemen by the magistrates of
Edinburgh, for their interoesaon with tiie victorious Mon-
trose, which they cheerfully promised. His lordship was at
the battie of Philiphaugh, 18th September the same year,
where the royalists were totally defeated. He esci^ed,
however, and met Montrose the next day at a ford beyond
the Clyde, where they again separated, Montrose conducting
what remained of the foot to Inverness, and Crawford the
horse to the Meams. They then retired to the Highlands,
and in the various skirmishes, retreats, &&, that afterwards
took place, the earl figured conspicuously. In the b^inning
of 1646 he advanced into Buchan, and burnt the town of
Fraserbuigh. He then went to Banff; but was compelled to
retire hastily into Moray, with some loss, in February, by a
division of Middleton's army. He continued with Montrose
till the king delivered himself up to the Scottish army at
Newark, and sent them his commands to lay down their
arras. With Montrose and three others, he was specially
excepted from pardon by the articles of Westminster, 11th
July 1646, but by an agreement made betwixt General Mid-
dleton and Montirwe, be was permitted to retire unmolested
beyond the seas; on which he accompanied the Irish auxilia-
ries to Ireland, in order to consult with the marquis of An-
trim, as to a new scheme which he had organized with
Montrose for the king's rescue, and having obtained from
that nobleman a promise of two thousand men. he proceeded
to Paris, where he arrived on the Idth October, and commu-
nicated his plan to the queen, Henrietta Maria. Finding,
however, himself and his scheme n^ected and discounte-
nanced, he repaired to Spain, ** to crave arrears,** says Bishop
Guthry (Memoirs^ p. 180), " due to him by that king,** and
received the comroana of a regiment of Irish mfantiy in the
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CRAWFORD,
716
SEVENTEENTH EARL OF
Spanish service. In 1651 be vras again in Paris, as, in the
midst of the tnmults of the Fronde, he appeared as a parti-
san of Cardinal de Betz, guarding him in his atadel of Notre
Dame, with fifty Scottish officers, who had served nnder
Montrose. He is said to have died in France m 1652. This
chivalrons and loyal nobleman was the last of the old original
line of the earls of Crawford. He had married Lady Mai^-
ret Graham, second danghter of William earl of Strathem,
Menteith, and Airth, (dowager Ladj Gailies,) bnt had no
issue.
The male representation of the family of Crawford devolved
on George third Lord Spynie (see Sftnds, lord), at whose
death in 1671, John lindsay of Edzell, descended from David
ninth earl of Crawford, became heir male of the family, and
entitled in terms of the charters of 1546 and 1565, and the
act of parliament 1567, to the earldom of Crawford. He
preferred his claim thereto in the second parliament of James
the Seventh, but was not successfxiL
The title was taken up, as already mentioned, by the earl
of Lindsay, who under the name of Crawford-Lindsay became
seventeenth earl This was John, tenth Lord Lindsay of the
Byres, (see Lutdsat, lord,) bom about the year 1596, and
served heir to his father Ist October 1616. He was created
earl of Lindsay by patent, dated the 5th May 1688 ; but in
consequence (^joining Lords Balmerino and Rothes, and the
party who opposed the king in the act of uniformity, the pa-
tent was stopped at the dianoery. He continued to act a
conspicuous part on the side of the covenanters, and was con-
sidered one of the leaders of the party. Li November 1641,
he was appointed an extraordinary lord of session ; obtained
a patent as earl,«nth precedence from the date of the war-
rant ; and was also constituted one of the commissioners of
the Treasury then named. This commission expiring in
1G44, the estates, on the 28d July of that year, appointed
him lord treasmrer until the next triennial parliament The
office was confirmed to him in 1646 by King Charles, after
his surrender at Newark. In January 1645 he was chosen
president of the parliament in room of the earl of Lauderdale.
Possessing most of the principal offices of the state, it seems
beyond a doubt that it was by his instigation and infiuenoe
that the Scots parliament passed sentence of forfeiture against
Ludovick earl of Crawford in 1644, when he himself imme-
diately assumed the title. ICrawford Case, p. 26.] Be-
sides his various offices, he acquired also the revenues of five
bishoprics, those of Caithness, Ross, Moray, Dunkeld, and
Dunblane. He was one of the council of war that directed
the movements of General Baillie*s troops against Montrose,
and when Baillie in the north vainly attempted to bring the
latter to a battle, the earl was stationed at the castle of New*
tyle with an army of reserve, to prevent Montrose firom cross-
ing the Forth. His lordship had severely censured the cam-
paigns of Argyle, and insmuated that the result would have
been different had he poMeesed the command. The force
under him was newly raised, while he himself was without
military experience, and he was saved from disgrace and de-
feat only by the desertion of the Gordons fi*om Montrose,
when the army of the latter had arrived within seven miles
of his camp. In consequence of this event, Montrose retraced
his steps northward, in pursuit of Baillie, who, in the mean-
time, was encamped on Deeside, where he was joined by
Crawford-Lindsay, when, exchanging a thousand of his raw
recruits for a similar number of Baillie's veterans, the earl
returned with these and the remamder c^ his army, through
the Meams into Angus. Thereafter, he entered Athol, and
hi imitation of Argyle, plundered and burnt the country.
After the battle of Kilsyth, so disastnpus to the covenanters.
Crawford-Lindsay, with Argyle, Lanai^ and others, sought
refuge m Berwick, from the victorious army of Montrose ; but
the defeat of the latter at Philiphaugh. retrieved their aflbirs
again.
After the surrender of the king to the Scots array in 1646,
the earl was sent, with the duke of Hamilton and the eari of
Casullis, to ms majesty at Newcastle, to entreat him to ac-
cede to the Westminster propositions, but m vain. In De-
cember of that year, he ineffectually opposed the vote by
which the Scots parliament resolved to deliver up the king to
the English, and in his speech on that occasion appealed to
the national honour and generosity in his behalf. In signing
officially, as president of the parliament, the public warrant
of surrender, he recorded his solemn protest against it as an
individual ; and after the restoration he presented a psper to
the high oommisdoner and the parliament, explanatory of the
same, and requiring that its truth should be investigated by
witnesses, in order that be might be acquitted of all individ-
ual participation in the transaction. The inquiry was ac-
cordingly made, and the truth of his statement substantiated
tx> his satisfaction.
In 1647, when Charies was a prisoner at Cansbrook, Craw-
ford-Iindsay and his brother-in-law the duke of Hamilton,
became the head of tne constitutional royalists, m opposition
to the eari of Argyle and the extreme presbyterians, and in
the following year he entered with zeal into the ' Engage-
ment,* for raising an army to attempt the rescue <:^ the king.
The endeavours of Hamilton, at this juncturo, to propitiate
Argyle and the protestors, created a suspicion among the
ultra-loyalists that he had a secret understanding with them,
and to efface this impression he is said to have got up a
mock duel between Crawford-Lindsay and Argyle. Taking
offence at some speech of his in parliament, the latter sent a
challenge to the former, and they met at Musselburgh links;
but the duel was provented from taking place. For his con-
duct in this business Argjrle was obliged by the commission
of the General Assembly to perform public repentance before
them, and Lindsay was desired to do the same, bnt refused.
On the defeat of the royal army at Preston, and its subse-
quent dispernon, Argyle and his party got into power, and
Crawford-Lindsay was, by the act of classes, deprived of his
offices of high treasurer, president of the parliament, and lord
of session, voted a public enemy, secluded ftom parliament,
and ordered to be confined to his house, under a penalty oi
one hundred thousand mariu, decree being pronounced against
him on the 10th February 1649. On the arrival of Charles
the Second in Scotland in 1650, a coalition of parties took
place, when he was admitted to court, having, at the king's
command, with some other noblemen, consented to make pub-
lic acknowledgment of repentance for accession to the late
* Engagement,* as required by the church. He had, the pre-
vious year, peremptorily refused to make tbis acknowledg-
ment, and escaped to Holland. After the defeat o^ Argyle at
Dunbar by Cromwell, Crawford- Lindsay and his friends again
took the lead in the state, and at the coronation of the king
at Scone, on Janiuiry 1st, 1651, he carried the sceptre. ** On
Saturday the 15th day oi February,** says Sir James Balfour,
" his majesty came at night to the Strutbers, (his lordship*s
family seat,) where he was entertained by the earl of Craw-
ford till Monday the 17Ui.** [AfmaU, vol. iv.] He had pre-
viously obtained from Charles a ratification of the resignation \
of the earidom of Crawford in his favour, which was confirmed
by act of parliament after the restoration, in 166L
When the king marched into England, in 1651, Crawford-
Lindsay was appointed by his majesty, under the privy seal,
a member of the Committee of Estates in charge of his afiai*^
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CRAWFORD,
716
TWENTY-FIRST EARL OF.
in Scotland, and he also reoeived a commission as commander-
in-chief under the earl of LcTen, general of the forces raised
m that country. A meeting of the Committee of Estates was
held at Alyth in Forfarshire, 28th August, 1651, when they
were surprised bj a body of Monk's cavalry sent irom Dundee
for the purpose, and Crawford -Lindsay, with several others,
was taken prisoner. He was sent by sea to England, and
confined, first in the Tower of London, and afterwards in
Windsor castle, for nine years. The following interesting
notice appears in Lament's Diary, (page 45,) " Aug. 1652. —
About Uie beginning of thu month, the Lady Crawford took
journey from Leith fbr to go to London to her husband, now
prisoner in the Tower. She went in the journey coach, that
comes ordinarily betwixt En^and and Scotland.** The earl
was specially excepted out of Cromwell's Act of grace and
pardon, 5th May 1654, by whidi lands of the dear yeariy
value o£ four hundred pounds sterling were settled, out of bis
estate, upon his countess (Lady Margaret Hamilton, second
daughter of the second marquis of HamiHra) and her chil-
dren. By the authority of the English parliament, then re-
instated in power by General Monk, the earl was, at last, on
the 8d of March, 1660, released from his long and tedious
imprisonment. After the restoration, he was restored to his
offices of high treasurer, president of the council, and extra-
ordinary lord of session, the treasnrership being granted to
him for life, by patent dated 19th January 1661 ; and, after
being detained for sometime at court, with the king, he was
received with enthusiasm on his return to Scotland. His en-
trance into Edinburgh was a triumphal procession, "bdng
met and convoyit with numbers of horsemen, and saluted
with a volley of the greatest ordnance of the casUe.** [Niooffi
Diary, page 308.]
1r the subsequent attempted establishment of episcopacy,
the earl was the only member of the government in Scotland
who remained true to the covenant. He was " the champion
and sole hope " of the presbyterians, and both in parliament
and at court defended their cause with constancy and zeal ;
till the king was, at last, convinced by the earl of Middleton,
that his removal from office was indispensable for the success
of their favourite project. In 1663, at the suggestion of
Archbishop Sharp, notwithstanding that he had been that
ambitious prelate's first patron, the ling, in an interview
which the eari had with his migesty, put it to him whether
he would consent to the abjuration of the covenant commonly
called the Dedai-ation, passed in the fifth session of parlia-
ment, 1662. He replied that he could not do it with a safe
conscience, and at once surrendered the white staff as trea-
surer, which was given to his son-in-law, the earl, afterwards
duke of Rothes. In the following year he resigned his place
of extraordinary lord of sesson, and retired from all public
business to his country-seat of Struthers. He died in 1678,
in his eighty-first year. He had two sons, William, eigh-
teenth earl, and the Hon. Patrick Lindsay, ancestor of the
viscounts Gamock [see Garmook, viscount of]; and four
daughters. Lady Anne, duchess of Rothes ; Lady Christian,
countess of Haddington ; Lady Helen, married to Sir Robert
Sinclair, baronet, of Stevenston, Haddingtonshire, and Lady
Elizabeth, countess of Korthesk^
William, eighteenth earl of Crawford, and second eari of
Lindsay, concurred heartily in the Revolution; for years
previous to which event he had been living in retirement
Before the death of Charles the Second, he had determined
on emigrating, but was refused permission to leave the king-
dom. By King William he was appointed, 5th June 1689,
president of the parliament , 15th April 1690, a commissioner
of the treasury; and 9th May following, one of the commis-
sion for settling the government of the church. He was one
of the most active agents in effectmg the overthrow of qns-
copacy. His correspondence with Lord Melville, secretary of
state for Scotiand at that eventful period, has been {Hinted
among the * Leven Papers,* and several of his letters are in-
serted in the appendix to the second volume of the ' Lives of
the Lindsays.' He died March 6th, 1698, ksaving a numer-
ous family. His second son, the Hon. Cok»d James
Lindsay, was killed at the battle of Ahnania m Spain to
1707.
The eldest son, John, nmeteenth eari of Crawford and
third of Lindsay, was sworn n privy councillor in 1702. He
was an officer in the anny, and was made colonel ok the
horse guards, 4th May, 1704. He afifbrded a steady support
to the treaty of union, among the subordinate detaOs of
which was the settlement of a questitm of precedency which
had long been debated between the earls of Crawford and
Sutherland, and after protracted investigations, was decided
in favour of the earis of Crawford, who rank accordingly as
the premier Scottish earls on the union rolL He was one of
the sixteen reproaentatives of the Scottidi peerage chosen by
the last parliament of Scotland, 13th February 17i)7, and was
rechosen at the general election in 1708. He attained the
rank of lieutenant-general in 1710, and died in 1713. He
left a son, and two daughters, Lady Catherine Wemyss, wife
of General Wemyss, governor of Edinbui^h castle, and
Lady Mary Campbell, wife of Dugald Campbell of Glensad-
dell, and ancestress of the Campbells of Newfield, heirs of line
of the family.
Of the son, John, twentieth eari of Crawford and fourth
eari of Lindsay, styled " the gallant eari^ " and one of the
most distinguished soldiers in Europe of his time, a memoir
is given at page 718 in larger type.
On the death of John, twentieth earl of Crawford, in 1749
without issue, the titles of Crawford and Lindsay devolved
on his counn, George, fourth viscount of Gamock, only sur-
viving son of Patrick the second visooont (see Garkock, vis-
count of). He was the great-grandson and direct male fa«r
of Patrick, younger son of John, seventeenth earl of Craw-
ford, and first earl of lindsay, and thus became the twen^-
first eari of Crawford, fifth eari of Lindsay, and fourth vis-
count Gamodr, to which latter title he had succeeded in
1738. He served as a volunteer with the allied army in the
Netherlands against the French, and was one of tht; reconnoi-
tring party who owed thmr lives to the presence of mind of
the gallant earl of Crawford on the morning before the ba^le
of Roucoux, as related in that nobleman's life (see under).
In 1747 he was a lieutenant in Lord Drumlanrig's r^ment
in the service of Holland. In 1749, he suoceeded to the eari-
dom, and devoted hinwelf to the restoration of the family
fortunes, by buyuig up tiie d^ts that afiected it. He also
purchased various lands contiguous to the estates. His lord-
ship married, 26th December 1755, Jane, eldest daugfata'and
heiress of Robert Hamilton of Bourtreehill in Ayrshire. He
bad gone to reside at Kilbimie castie, in that county, which
he repaired and ornamented, Struthers in Fiieshire, the seat
of the Lindsays of the Byres, being then totally ruinous. On
one fine Sunday evening in A{ml 1757, a servant, going to
the stables, saw smoke issuing firom the roof, and gave the
alarm of fire ; in a few minutes the castle was in flames.
Lord Crawford ran to the countess' room, and catching up
his infant daughter (Lady Jean Lindsay, afterwards countess
of Eglinton), hurried with her into the open air. They took
refuge m the manse, and then removed to Bourtreehill, and
afterwards to Fifeshire, ^here the earl built a house near the
ruins of Struthers, subsequentiy enlarged and named Craw-
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CRA.WFORD,
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WILLIAM.
ford Pri^rv. H« died on the lltfa August, 1781. He had
four sons, and a daughter.
His eldest son, George Lindsay Crawford, twenty-second
earl of Crawford, and sixth of lindsay, bom at Bourtreehill
31st August 1758, entered the army in 1776, and rose to the
rank of major-genenU, which he reached 1st January 1805.
He had been appointed in 1798 lord-lieutetiant of the county
of Fife, but was deprived of that office in 1807. On the
change of administration, howerer, he was reinstated therein
23d May same year. He died, unmarried, SOth January
1808. His three brothers haying predeceased him, without
issue, the whole male descendants of the treasurer, John
seventeenth earl of Crawford, then became extinct, and the
succession to the earldom of Crawford reverted, in terms of
the patent of 1642, to the earls of Balcarres, the heirs male
of earl Ludofvio (see ante, p. 207). The Crawford-Lindsay
estates, being destined to heu^female, went to the twenty-
second earl's only sister, Lady Mary Lindsay Crawford. The
succession of her ladyship was opposed, nnsucoesefully, by
Colonel William CUod Campbell, grandson of Lady May
Lindsay, mster of *^the gallant earl,** and heir of line of the
Crawford- Lindsay famfly.
The titles of earl of Crawford and Lindsay, and viscount
Gamock, were assumed by David lindsay, seijeant in the
Perthshire regiment of militia, then quartered at Dover, who
directed an advertisement to be inserted in the Edinburgh
Weekly Journal, of 16th March, 1808, cautioning the tenants
on the estates as to the payment of their rents. He was
served heir to his grandfather, John Lindsay of Kirkforther,
the same year, and died, without issue, early in 1809. He
appears to have been de Jure Lord Lindsay of the Byree.
[See Lindsay, surname of.]
In 1810 Mr. John Crawfurd from Castle Dawson, in Ireland,
preferred a claim to the titles and estates of Crawford and
Lindsay, as the nearest h(»r, asserting himself to be the lineal
descendant of the Hon. James Lindsay, third son of John, first
Viscount Gamock. Some of the documents on which he re-
lied, havmg been found to have been vitiated and otherwise
altered, the claimant and another person were in 1812, tried
on a charge of forgery, and, being convicted, were sentenced to
fourteen yean transportation. In 1820, having, through strong
influence exerted on his behalf, procured a pardon, he returned
from New South Wales, when he renewed his claim, and
large sums having been subscribed on his behalf by many who
thought it well-founded, he assumed the title of earl of Craw-
ford, and twice voted at the election of peers in Holyiood
house. On his death during the prosecution of his suit, his
son asserted his pretensions with equal . assurance, but in
1889 they were found untenable, and his counsel abandoned
Uie case. Ample information of one of the most singular
instances of peerage imposture on record, will be found in the
work by Dr. Adams entitled * The Crawford Peerage,* (mani-
festo of John Crawford,) published at Edinbuigh in 1829,
quarto; and in the * Examination of the Clium of lohn Lind-
say-Crawford to the estates and honours of Crawford,' in re-
futation of that work, by Mr. Dobie, writer, Beith, 1881, 4to.
The titles of eari of Crawford and Lord Lindsay were by
judgment of the House of Lords, on 11th August 1848, de-
clared to belong to James, seventh earl of Balcarres; who,
thereupon became the twenty-fourth eari of Crawford, and
thus this long-litigated question was at last set at rest.
CRAWFORD, David, of Drumsoy, historian,
was born in 1665 at Drnmsoy, near Glasgow, and
was educated for the bar. He preferred, however,
history and antiquities to the study of the law, and
was appointed bistoriogiapher roya! of Scotland
by Queen Anne. In 1706 he publisned ' Memoirs
of the Affairs of Scotland, containing a fiili and im-
partial Account of the Revolution in that Kingdom,
begun in 1567.* This work, which went through
two editions, was held in so much estimation, as
to be frequently quoted as an authority by Hume,
Robertson, and others, until Mr. Malcolm Laing
published, in 1804, * The Historie and Life of King
James the Sexth,* from the original manuscript.
To this manuscript Crawford formally refened for
the authentication of certain passages in his ^ Me-
moirs,* although it contained nothing that could
in the least countenance them. £very statement
in the * Historie* unfavourable to Queen Mary, or
to Bothwell, he carefully suppressed ; while every
vague assertion in Camden, Spottiswoode, Melville,
and others, or in the State Papers, he had tran*
scribed from the Cotton MSS., is inserted in the
.Memoirs, and these writers are quoted in the
margin as collateral authorities. CrawfoKd having
thus constructed spurious memoirs of his own, had
the impudence to declare on the title-page, and in
the preface, that the work was " faithfully pub-
lished from an authentic manuscript.** Truly,
therefore, might Mr. Laing style Crawford*s work
^' the most early, if not the most impudent, liter-
ary forgery ever attempted in Scotland.'* He died
at Drumsoy in 1726. — His works are :
Courtship l^la-mode; a Comedy. 1700.
Love at Furst Sight; a Comedy. 1704.
Memous of the Affairs of Scotland, from 1566 to 1581 ,
containing a full and impartial Account of the Revolution in
that Kmgdom in the year 1567; to which is added. The Eari
of Morton*s Confession. Edin. 1706, 8vo. 2d edit. Edin.
1707, 12mo.
CRAWFORD, William, a clergyman of con-
siderable repute in his day, was bom in Kelso in
1676. He was educated at the university of Ed-
inburgh, and after taking his degrees, was ordain-
ed minister of Wilton, a small country pariah in
the Merse. In 1711 he made a most energetic
opposition to the settlement of ministers by pi-e-
sentations, instead of by popular election, in which
he was supported by some of the most eminent
clergymen then in the Established Church. He
wrote a small work, entitled ' Dying Thoughts,'
and some sermons. He died in 1742.
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CRAWFORD,
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TWENTIETH EARL OF.
CRAWFORD, twentieth earl of, (John Lind-
say, fourth earl of Lindsay,) a distinguished mili-
tary commander, was bom 4th October 1702. He
was the son of John, nineteenth earl of Crawford,
by a daughter of Lord Donne (son of the sixth
earl of Moray), and widow of Thomas Eraser of
Strichen. He lost his mother when he was a
child, and as his father*s military duties required
him to reside generally in London, the care of
himself and two sisters was committed to an old
govemante at the family seat of Struthers in Fife.
When he was a boy in frocks the question of the
union was the all-engrossing topic of discussion,
and his lordship frequently, in after life, related
that one day when the dukes of Hamilton and
Argyle were dining with his father, (who support-
ed the treaty,) a warm debate on the subject took
place between them, as he was playing about the
room, when the duke of Ai-gyle took him up in
his arms, and sec him on the table among the
bottles and glasses, saying to his father, *' Craw-
ford, if this boy lives, I wonder whether he will
be of your sentiments." The earl replied, *^ He
certainly will, if he has a drop of my blood in his
body." Whereupon his grace kissed him, and set
him down, saying, ^' I warrant he will make a
brave fellow."
On the death of his father in December 1713,
when he was only eleven years old, his grand-
aunt, the dowager-duchess of Argyle, sent for the
children to her house in Kintyre, where the young
earl resided till of age for the university, when he
was first sent to Glasgow, and afterwards to Ed-
inburgh. Mr. Rolt, his biographer, relates that
during his residence in the Highlands he fell in
love with a young shepherdess, in whose company
he spent a great deal of his time among the hills,
not even going home to meals, which he was ac-
customed to make on her oaten bread ; and his
lordship afterwards often declared that the pleas-
ing sensations and harmless recreations, which he
enjoyed with his little shepherdess, made a strong-
er impression on his mind than all the gallantries
of the politer world, and all the pleasures of a
court. While at college he gave many proofs of
resoluteness and duing, and became the champion
ofHhe university, his fellow students generally
choosing him for their leader in their disputes with
the citizens. His favourite study was history, and
he is represented as being more pleased with one
lesson in Quintus Curtius, than with twenty lec-
tures in philosophy, and more eager to understand
a stratagem in the Commentaries of Caesar, than
to explain the abstrnsest subject in logic. From
Edinburgh he returned to the duchess of Argyle,
with whom he continued, under the tuition of a
private tutor, till be was nineteen yeai-s of a^
when, after spending a short time in London, he
was, in 1721, entered at the military academy of
Yaudeuil at Paris. He continued there for two
years. His progress in leaiiiing was so rapid, and
his acqmrement of all the manly and elegant ac-
complishments usual with young men of rank and
fortune so great, that his talents excited general
admiration. In horsemanship, fencing, and danc-
ing, particularly, he surpassed all competitors.
The following instance of his boldness is recited
by his biographer* A grand entertainment was
given at Versailles in 1723, by the young king,
Louis the Fifteenth, on occasion of his being de-
clared of age, and among other amusements a
fishpond was to be drawn in the gardens. The
earl was among the spectators on the occasion,
and being pressed upon and insulted by a French
marquis in his court robes, he took the offender
up in his arms, and threw him, robes and all,
headlong into the pond, in presence of the king, to
the great mirth of the spectators.
After quitting the academy, he remained some
time at Paris, and then returned to England, one
of the most accomplished gentlemen of the age.
In December 1726, he obtained a captain's com-
mission in one of the three additional troops of
the second regiment of Scots Greys, then com-
manded by General Sir John Campbell. On
these troops being disbanded in 1730, he retired
to the seat of the duchess-dowager of Argyle at
Campbelltown, where he continued about eighteen
months, during which time he studied mathema-
tics, history, and military strategy. His recrea-
tions were sailing in a small Norway boat, and
hunting, in which he took extraordinary delight,
following the hounds on foot over the monntains
when inaccessible for horses.
On the last day of January 1732, his lordship
was appointed to the command of a troop of the
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CKAWFORD,
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TWENTIETH EARL OF.
seventh or queen's own regiment of dragoons.
The same year he was elected one of the sixteen
representatives of the Scots peerage, in the room
of the earl of Loudoun deceased, and was thrice
rechosen afterwards. In June 1783, he was ap-
pointed a gentleman of the bed-chamber to the
prince of Wales ; in February following he obtained
the captain -lieutenancy of the first regiment of
foot-guards ; and in the subsequent October was
nominated to a company of the third regiment of
foot-guards.
Finding no chance at that time of distinguishing
himself in the British service, and being desirous
of acquiring military experience, in the field, his
lordship obtained the king's permission to go out
as a volunteer to the Imperial army, the emperor
of Germany being then at war with France. He
joined the Imperialists at Bruchsal, near Heidel-
berg, on the Rhine, in June 1785, and was re-
ceived by their commander, the celebrated Prince
Eugene of Savoy, with every mark of distinction.
There being, however, no prospect of active duty
in that quarter, with Count Nassau, Lord Prim-
rose, Mr. Stanhope, and Captain Dalrymple, also
volunteers, he proceeded to the army under Count
SeckendorflF, by whom, October 17, 1786, they
were sent on a reconnoitring excursion, when,
meeting with a party of the enemy, three times
their number, a skirmish ensued, in which Count
Nassau was shot by a musket-ball, and expired
next day, and Lord Primrose severely wounded,
close beside Lord Crawford. The same afternoon
was fought the battle of Claussen, in which Lord
Crawford highly distinguished himself by his brav-
ery and good conduct, and the result of which
compelled the Fi*ench to repass the Moselle.
The preliminaries of peace being concluded the
same month, the earl quitted the Imperial army,
and after making the tour of the Netherlands, re-
turned to Britain, where he remained inactive for
two years. Anxious to be again employed, he
obtained the king's permission to serve as a vol-
unteer in the Russian army, under field-marshal
Munich, then engaged with the Imperialists in a
war against the Turks. In April 1788 he em-
barked at Gravesend for St. Petersburg, and on
his arrival there he was gratified with a most kind
and gracious reception from the czarina, Anne
Iwanowna, who conferred on him the command
of a regiment of horse, with the rank of general in
her service. In the begmning of May he left the
Russian capital for the army, and after a harassing
journey of more than a month, during which he
was exposed to imminent danger from the enemy,
he at length arrived at the camp of Marshal Mu-
nich, who received him with all the respect due to
his rank and character.
The army having passed the Bog, on its way to
Bender, was thi*ee times attacked by the Tm-ks,
who were as often repulsed. A fourth sanguinary
battle took place July 26, when the Turks and
Tartars were again defeated, and the Russians
took post on the Dniester, July 27. In this last
engagement Lord Crawford, who accompanied the
Cossacks, excited their astonishment and admira-
tion by his dexterity in horsemanship; and having
sabred one of the Tartars, whom he had engaged
in personal combat, he brought his arms with him
to England as a trophy of his prowess. Munich
afterwards retreated to Eiow, when the earl left
him to join the Imperialists near Belgrade, with
whom he continued for six weeks. On the Impe-
rial army going into winter quarters, his lordship
proceeded with Prince Eugene's regiment to Co-
morra, thirty-three miles from Presburg, where,
and at Vienna, he remained till the middle of
April 1789, occupying his leisure with drawing
plans, and writing observations on the Russian
campaign. He then joined the Imperialists under
marshal Wallis, at Peterwaradin, and was present
at the battle of Erotzka, near Belgrade, commenced
July 22, 1789, about three in the morning, when
he had his favourite black horse shot under him,
and while in the act of mounting a fresh horse, he
received a severe wound in the left thigh by a
musket ball, which shattered the bone and threw
him to the ground. General count Luchesi, ob-
serving his lordship lying as if dead, ordered some
grenadiers to attend to him. They accordingly
lifted him up, and placed him on horseback, but
were compelled to leave him in that condition.
He remained in that situation till about eight
o'clock, when he was discovered by one of his own
grooms, holding fast by the horse's mane with both
hands, his head uncovered, and his face deadly
pale. He was carried into Belgrade, suffering the
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CRAWFORD,
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TWENTFETH EARL OF.
most excraciating agony. His wound was at first
considered mortal, but though not immediately
fatal, he never recovered from its effects. He was
removed from Belgrade, September 26, to a vessel
on the Danube, in which he sailed to Comorra,
where he aiTived December 27, and there the
principal part of the bullet was extracted Febru-
ary 20, 1740. He left tnat olace April 28, and
proceeded up the Danube to Vienna, where he
anived May 7, being all the time in a recumbent
posture, pieces of the fractured bone continually
coming away. He was able to walk on crutches
for the first time September 3, and on the 20th of
that month he was removed to the baths of Baden,
where he remained till August 11, 1741. Then
proceeding by Fresburg, Vienna, Leipsic, and
Hanover, he arrived at Hamelin October 3, and
had several interviews with George the Second,
who was there at that time. He now departed
for England, where, during his absence, he had
not been neglected; for, in July 1789, he was
made colonel of horse and adjutant-general; on
October 25 of the same year, colonel of the 42d
Highlanders, and December 25, 1740, colonel of
the grenadier guards
In May 1742 he went for relief to the baths of
Bareges in France, where he arrived June 12,
and after frequent bathing, on July 12, three
years after he had received his wound, he was
able to walk about with one crutch and a high^
heeled shoe. He left Bareges September 25, and
after visiting the king of Sardinia at Chamberry,
proceeded to Geneva. Afterwards passing through
Milan, Genoa, Modena, Verona, and. Venice, he
travelled by Trieste, Gratz, Lintz, and through
Bohemia and Saxony, to Hochstet, where he
joined the British army, of which field-marshal the
earl of Stair was commander. May 24, 1743, George
the Second being also there at the time. At the
battle of Dettingen, fought June 16, the earl of
Crawford commanded the brigade of life guards,
and behaved with his usual coolness and intrepi-
dity. After encouraging his men by a short speech,
he led them to the charge, the trumpets at the
time playing the animating strain of *^ Britons,
strike home." At the beginning of the battle his
lordship had a narrow escape, a musket ball
having struck his right holster, penetrated the
leather, and hitting the barrel of the pistol it con-
tained, fell into the case without doing him any
injury. The eari showed the ball to King George
next day at Hanau, where his majesty, on seeing
him approach, exclaimed, *^ Here comes my cham-
pion!"
Having been promoted to the rank of brigadier-
general, his lordship joined the combined armies
in camp near Brussels, in the beginning of May
1744. At the battle of Fontenoy, April 30, 1745,
he behaved with great gallantry and judgment,
and conducted the retreat in admirable order.
Of this battle he wrote a very interesting me-
moir, described by General Andreossi *^ as essen-
tial to the history of that war." The earl was
made major-general May 30 following.
On the breaking out of the rebellion in Scotland,
in 1745, his lordship was ordered home, to take
the command of the corps of six thousand Hessi-
ans, employed by government in that service.
With these troops he secured the towns of Stirling
and Perth, with the passes into the low country ;
while the dnke of Cumberland proceeded north
after the rebels. On this visit to his native coun-
try the eari formed the acquaintance of Lady Jane
Mun^y, eldest daughter of the duke of Athole,
whom he nMirried at Belford^ in England, March
3, 1747. When the rebellion was suppressed, his
lordship rejoined the army in the Netherlands,
and at the battle of Roncoux, October 1, 1746, he
commanded the second line of cavalry, which
drove back the French Infantry with great slaugh-
ter. Previous to the battle, being out with a few
other gentlemen reconndtring, he was very nearly
surprised by a party of the enemy, bad not his
own admirable presence of mind saved him and
those who attended him from tb^j danger. Upon
his lordship and his friends coming in their view,
which was not until they were close upon them,
the French party immediately levelled, and pre-
sented their pieces to fife. His aide-de-camp
and another gentleman had mistaken them for
Austrian troops, and were riding up to them to let
them know they were friends, when his lordship,
discovering them to be French, and finding it too
late to retreat, at once resolved upon personating
a French general, and riding boldly up to them,
he said in Fi-ench to the ofBcer, " Ne tire pas, nou*
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ROBERT.
sorames amis" (Don^t fire, we are friends), and
without giving him time to ask any questions,
proceeded to demand the name of his regiment.
ITie officer replied, " The regiment of Orleans ; "
on which his lordship said in French, " It is very
well, keep a good look-out with yonr post. I am
going a little farther to reconnoitra the enemy
more distinctly." He then rode off quietly, fol-
lowed by his frierds, and when fairly out of reach,
they clapped spo*^ to their horses, and so got
safely to their own quarters. In 1748, the earl
had been made colonel of the fomth or Scottish
troop of horse guards, and on its being disbanded
in 1746, the command of the 25th foot was given
to him, December 25th of that year. He got the
command of the Scots Greys on the death of the
earl of Stair, May 22, 1747, and on the 26th of
September following, he attained the rank of lieu-
tenant-general.
At the conclusion of the campaign he went to
Aix la-Chapelle, for the benefit of the baths. His
wound again breaking out, occasioned him much
suffering, and while confined to his bed, his count-
ess was seized with a violent fever, of which she
died, after four days' illness, October 10, 1747,
seven months after her marriage, and before she
had completed her twentieth year. At the open-
ing of the campaign of 1748, the earl joined the
duke of Cumberland and the confederate army at
Eyndoven, and remained with them till the con-
clusion of peace in that year. He commanded the
embarkation of the British troops at Williamstadt,
February 16, 1749, and then returned to London,
where after suffering the most excruciating tor"
tures from his wound, he died, December 25,
1749, in the 48th year of his age. Having no
issae, the earldoms of Crawford and Lindsay de-
volved on his cousin George, viscount df Gamock^
as above mentioned. His Life, by Richard Rolt,
iras published at London in 1758 in quarto, printed
for Mr. Henry Kopp, bis faithfal servant, who
brought him off the field of battle when wounded
so severely at Krotzka.
His lordship has been admitted into Walpole's
Catalogue of Royal and Noble Author, in virtue
of the following work:
MemmrB of the life of the late Right Honourable John
eail of Crawford, describing maoj of the highest military
atchievements in the late wars; more particularly the cam-
paigns against the Turks, wherein his lordship served both in
the Imperial and Russian armies. Compiled firom his lord-
ship^s own papers and other authentic memoirs. London,
1769, 8vo.
CRAWFORD (properly Crauford), Robert,
a distinguished general of division, third son of
Sir Alexander Crauford, baronet, of Kilbimie,
Stirlingshire, entered the army young, and on 1st
November 1787, was appointed captain of the 75th
Highlanders, with which he served in India. In
the short interval of peace following on the treaty
of Amiens, signed March 27, 1802, he visited the
continent to improve himself in the scientific
branches of his profession. He afterwards again
served in India. In the end of October 1806,
having now attained the rank of major-general, he
was sent out to South America with the command
of an expedition, consisting of four thousand two
hundred men, destined originally to effect the con-
quest of Chili, but en the arrival of the news of
the expulsion of the British fi*om Buenos Ayres,
ordered to that city to serve with the force
under General Whitelocke. In May 1807 they
reached that city, when the inhabitants attacked
the British troops with such fury that a third part
of them were destroyed, and Crawford and three
regiments taken prisonei's. Whitelocke concluded
an unfavourable and disgraceful capitulation, in
virtue of which the prisoners were restored and
the whole British troops were withdrawn from the
river Plata. Crawford afterwards distinguished
himself greatly in the Peninsula. At the battle
of Roleia (17th August, 1808), where the British
and French were for the first time opposed to each
other, he led one of the divisions of the right wing.
He was also at the battle of Yimeira fought on
the 21st of the same month. From that time till
he received his death-wound at Ciudad Rodrigo
in January 1812, at the head of his division, he
commanded the advance of the army in pursuits,
its rear-guard in retreats, its outposts when in po-
sition, and its detached corps, when such by any
chance was needed ; nor, in any of these situations,
did he fail to earn the decided approbation of Lord
Wellington. Indeed, in point of intelligence and
military skill he was regarded as second only to
that great commander, and his unremitting atten-
tion to the wants of the troops under his charge
2 z
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ROBERT.
secured for him both their attachment and their
respect.
In the army of Sir John Mooro he had the com-
mand of the light brigade. In the memorable
retreat npon Oorunua, in December 1808, the
hazardous operation of cix)88ing the Esla on the
road to Benevente, then a roaring torrent swollen
by melting snow, and over planks laid across the
broken arches of the bridge of Castro, in the dai-k,
was successfully performed by General Crauford
with the rear-guard ; after which he blew up the
bridge. He was subsequently sent by Sir Jolm
Moore with three thousand men, on the road
to Vigo, to secure that port for the embarkation
of the troops, should it be found impossible to do
so at Comnna. With these Genei-al Ci*auford
joined the army under Wellington, the morning
after the battle of Talavera. This gallant band,
at the distance of nearly sixty miles from the field
of battle, were met by several Spanish runaways
from the action of the 27th (July 1809), with tid-
ings that the British were defeated and Lord Wel-
lington killed. Withdrawing fifty of the weakest
from his i-anks, Crauford hurried on with the
remainder, and reached Talavera at eleven o*cIock
on the morning of the 29tli, having marched sixty-
two English miles in twenty-six hours. This
march, says Alison, deserves to be noted as the
most rapid made by any foot soldiers of an^ nation
during the whole war.
After the surrender to the Fi'ench of Ciudad
Rodrigo, July 10, 1810, Wellington found it ne-
cessary to retreat before the superior foixse of Mas-
sen a. He had commanded the advanced guard
under Greneral Crauford to fall back, which they
did after making a gallant resistance, and on the
16th they took shelter under the guns of Almeida.
In the retreat he commanded the rear-guard, four
thousand five hundred strong, and on the 24th of
July he was assailed on the banks of the Coa by
a French force of twenty thousand infantry and
four thousand cavalry, with thirty guns, and after
a bloody combat of two hours, a heavy rain sep-
arated the contending parties, and Craufoixi re-
tired with his division to the main body of the
army. In this contest, a loss of about five hun-
dred men was sustained on both sides. As this
engagement took place in opposition to positive
orders of Wellington, to avoid fighting under their
then circumstances, it created some iiscnssion at
the time, and Greneral Crauford published his own
statement of the afiaur in one of the newspapers, in
reply to a boasting ofScial despatch of Massena.
The Sieira de Busaco was considei^d by Welling-
ton a favourable position for checking the pursuit,
and there, on September 27, a battle took place.
Three divisions of Ney*s corps advanced on Crau-
ford^s division. He commanded part of them to
withdraw behind the crest of the ridge whereon
they had been formed, while he remained in front,
alone, observing the enemy. On the approach of
the French he gave the word to charge, when two
regiments, the 4dd and 52d, concealed behiud the
hollow, obeyed his command, and the French were
bravely repulsed. That same m'ght he drove the
enemy from the village where they had taken up
their quarters, after first sending them a polite
message desiring them to retire. He also distm-
gnished himself at Fuentes d'Onore, May 5, 1811,
and Wellington's despatch contained his well-
ddserved eulogy.
After the combat of El Bodon, September 24,
1811, the British troops were ordered to be con-
centrated around Fuente Guhiaido. Craoford,
eager for fighting, remained with his division ail
night sixteen miles off, while only fiite^i thousand
men under Wellington were collected in front of
the whole French army under Marmont, sixty
thousand strong. It was only next day at three
o'clock that Crauford's division arrived. When
he came back, Wellington only said, ^' I am glad
to see you safe, Crauford." The latter replied,
^' Oh ! I was in no danger, I assure you.** ^^ But
I was from your conduct,'* said his lordship. In
any other officer such a neglect to obey orders
would not have been overiooked.
At the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo, on the 19th
January 1812, General Crauford was at the head
of his division, directing his men, when a musket-
ball took his left arm, and, penetrating into his
side, lodged in the lungs. He fell back into the
arms of one of his soldiers, and was instantiy
carried to the rear, where the medical attendants
bled him twice. He then dropped into a slum-
ber, from which he did not awake till long after
dawn next day. He never entertained an idea
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CRAWFURD,
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ARCHIBALD
of bis recovery, and when (leneral Stewait, who
remained constantly with him, and others of liis
attendants, talked of fature operations, be shook
his head, and replied in a feeble voice, that his
futurity, at least upon earth, would be of short
duration. On the 23d, the pain of his wonnd
abated, and he spoke, from that moment, with
greater composure and apparent ease ; his conver-
sation being chiefly of his wife and children. He
repeatedly entreated his aide-de-camp to inform
his wife that " he was sure they would meet in
heaven," and that there was " a providence over
all which never yet forsook, and never would for-
sake, the soldier's widow and orphans." About
two o'clock on the morning of the 24th he fell into
another deep sleep, fi'om which he never awoke.
He was buried, on the evening of the same day,
at the foot of the breach which his division had so
gallantly carried. His funeral was attended by
Lord Wellington, General Castanos, Mai*shal
Beresford, and a number of staff and other officers.
He had introduced a system of discipline into the
light division, which he had so long commanded,
that made it unrivalled in the army.
General Cranford married Bridget, daughter of
Henry Holland, Esq., and had three sons, Charles,
Robert, and Henry. A monument, by Bacon,
junior, has been erected to his memory, and that
of Major-general Mackinnon, who also fell at Ciu-
dad Rodrigo, in St. Paul's Cathedral, London.
Between Sir Thomas Picton and General Cran-
ford there was always a great rivalry. They were,
says a veteran who knew them well, not formed
by nature to act cordially together. The stem
countenance, robust frame, saturnine complexion,
caustic speech, and austere demeanour of the first,
promised little sympathy with he short thick
figure, dark flashing eyes, quick movements, and
fiery temper of the second, nor, indeed, did they
often meet without a quarrel. Nevertheless, they
had many points of resemblance in their character
and fortunes. Both were inclined to harshness
and rigid in command; both prone to disobedi-
ence, yet exacting entire submission from inferi-
ors ; and they were both alike ambitious and
craving of glory. They both possessed decided
military talents — were enterprising and intrepid ;
yet neither was remarkable for skill In handling
troops under fire. This also they had in common ;
they both, after distinguished services, perished in
arms fighting gallantly, and beini^ celebrated as
generals of division.
CRAWFURD, QuENTiN, u leained writer, was
a native of Scotland, but resided many years in
France, and died at Pails in 1819. He was the
author of
Sketches relating to the History, Religion, Learning, and
Manners of the Hindoos. Lond. 1792, 2 vols. 8vo.
Essai sor la Litterature Fran^aise. Paris, 1803. 2 vols.
4to.
Melanges d'Hist. et de Litt, &c., 1809, 4to.
CRAWFURD, Archibald, a minor poet, was
bom, of humble parentage, in the town of Ayr,
about 1779. After receiving the mere rudiments
of English reading, when only thirteen yeara of
age he went to London, to learn the trade of a ba-
ker with the husband of his sister. After an ab-
sence of eight years he returned to his native
town, and, at the age of twenty-two, attended the
classes of the writing-master in Ayr academy for
a quarter of a year, which was all the instruction he
ever received in penmanship. He then proceeded
to Edinburgh, and obtained employment with a
gentleman of the name of Charles Hay, Esq., with
whom he remained for several years, and who in-
dulged him with free access to his extensive libra-
ry. Hence, he soon became acquainted with the
best English writers, particularly in the depart-
ments of history and the drama. On quitting
Edinburgh, Mr. Crawfurd next engaged in the
family of Leith Hay, Esq., at one time member of
pai'liament for Perth, in whose service he contin-
ued for upwards of five years. It was on a daugh-
ter of this gentleman that he wrote his popular
song of ' Bonnie Mary Hay,' set to music 'by R.
A. Smith. It originally appeared in the Ayr and
Wigtonshure Courier, and he afterwards intro-
duced it into his tale of ^The Huntly Casket.'
This sweet little lyric was composed as a grateful
acknowledgment of the kindness experienced at
the hand of the young lady, while the author was
suffering under typhus fever.
Having saved a little money from his earnings,
about 1811 he returned to Ayr, and entered into
business as a grocer. This speculation, however,
proved unsuccessful, and after struggling for a
year or two, he was compelled to compound with
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CRAWFURD.
724
CREECH.
his creditors. He then became an auctioneer,
took a small shop for the sale of fomitare, got
married, and soon saw his children growing ap
around him. It was not till a late period of his
life that he ventured on authorship. During the
political excitement of 1819, he produced a sati-
rical pamphlet, published anonymously, entitled
' St. James^ in an uproar,' of which not less than
three thousand copies were sold in Ayr and the
neighbourhood. This production having attracted
the notice of the authorities, the printer was ap-
prehended, and compelled to give bail for his ap-
pearance, but luckily no prosecution followed.
To the columns of the Ayr and Wigtonshire Cou-
rier, a journal of moderate politics commenced in
1819, Mr. Crawfurd contributed several pieces
both in prose and verse, and particularly his
* Tales of my Grandmother,' the principal portion
of which first appeared in that newspaper. At this
period he occupied a small furuiture shop in the
High Street of Ayr, with a single apartment in
the back premises for the accommodation of his
family. In this room, under the most discourag-
ing circumstances, were the greater part of his
tales and poetry composed. Urged by his friends,
Crawfurd commenced taking the names of sub-
scribers for a volume of his * Tales of my Grand-
mother,' which was printed at the press of the
* Ayr Courier' in 1824. This edition being can-
celled, the work, with some additional tales, was
published by Messrs. A. Constable ,and Co. of
Edinburgh, with whose imprint it appeared in
1825 in two volumes 12mo. It was w^ i^eceived
by the public, and flatteringly noticed in most of
the literary journals of the day. The tales are
chiefly founded on traditions familiar in the west
of Scotland, told in a brief sketchy style, and wkh
considerable dramatic efiect. Scattered through
the volumes are some very pretty verses. The
crisis of 1826 having caused the bankruptcy of
Messrs. Constable and Co., their bill for payment
of his portion of the profit was unpaid, and instead
of making a profit he lost twenty-four pounds by
the transaction.
Shortly after, Mr. Crawfurd, in conjunction
with one or two literary friends, commenced a
small weekly periodical in Ayr, under the title of
*The Correspondent,' the price of which was three
halfpence, being among the first of the modem
cheap publications. It met with great encourage-
ment, but a misunderstanding amongst the parties
concerned led to its discontinuance. He subse-
quently brought out a periodical on his own ac-
count, entitled * The Gaberlunzie,' which contin-
ued for a few months. This little production con-
tained sevei*al interesting tales and some poetry of
a superior order from his pen. Amongst the lat-
ter of these, the song * Scotland, I have no home
but thee,' afterwards set to music, soon became
popular. His later yeai-s were spent in the exer-
cise of his business as an auctioneer, while in bis
leisure hours he continued to indulge his fancy in
tale-writing, with an occasional poetical produc-
tion. He died at Ayr in 1843.
Crekch, • surname supposed to be derired from laud.
There are two parishes of the name, one in Fife and one in
Sutherland, but spelled Criech or Creich. The name may
perhaps be a corruption of coricAe, stony, from car, a stone
or rock, and icAe, a Gothic termination signifying abundance,
as Pefdchey a local name in Portugal and Spain, signifying
full of pinnated rocks. Carriches is a town in Spain. Icke is
the same as the modem termination isk When the rocks
are laige, the augmentatiTe ac or aocos is used, as CaraeaSj
(the district of large rocks) a province of Venezuela in South
America, Caraca, a mountain of Brazil, and La Canvca, a
rocky island in Spain, near Cadiz, which gave name to the
caracoaSf or heavy ships of burden, of which it was the statioo.
CREECH, William, an eminent publisher and
bookseller, son of the Rev. William Creech, min-
ister of Newbattle, and of Mary Buley, an Eng-
lish lady, was bom April 21, 1745. After receiv-
ing his education at the school of Dalkeith, he was
sent to the university of Edinburgh, with a view
to the medical profession. But preferring to be a
bookseller, he was bound apprentice to Mr. Kin-
caid, subsequently lord provost of Edinburgh. In
1766 he went to London for improvement, and
afteinvards spent some time in Holland and Paris,
returning to Edinburgh in 1768. In 1770 he ac-
companied Lord Kilmaurs, son of the earl of Glen-
cairn, in a tour to the continent. On his return
in 1771, he entered into partnership with his for-
mer master, Mr. Kincaid, who in 1773 withdrew
fi*om the firm, and the whole devolving on Mr.
Creech, he conducted the business for forty-fonr
years with singular enterprise and success. For
a long period the shop occupied by him, situated
in the centre of the High Street, was the resort of
most of the clergy and professors, and other pub
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CMCHTON,
725
LORD.
lie men and eminent authors in the Scottish raeti*o-
polis ; and his breakfast-room was a sort of liter-
ary lounge, which was known by the name of
" Creech's Levee."
Mr. Creech filled the office of lord provost of
Edinburgh from 1811 to 1813, and was elected a
fellow of the royal society of Scotland. He car-
ried on a considerable correspondence with many
eminent literaiy men both in Scotland and Eng-
land; and on him Bums wi'ote his well-known
poem of * Willie's awa\* on occasion of his having
gone to London for some time in May 1787. Mr.
Creech died nnmanied, Januaiy 14, 1816, in the
70th year of his age. During one period of his
life he was fond of contributing essays and sketch-
es of character and manners to the Edinburgh
' newspapers. These he collected into a volume,
and published under the name of ' Fugitive Pieces'
in 1791. They were republished after his death,
with some additions, a short account of his life,
and a portrait.
Cricbton, a fmmaroe awumed from the barony of that
name in the ooonty of Edinburgh, and amongst the first men-
tioned by historiana in the rdgn of Malcolm the Third. To
the charter of ereotion of the abbacy of Holyioodhonae bj
King David the First, Thnrstanns de Creichton is a witness.
William de Grichton is mentioned as dominos de Cricbton
about 1240. Thomas de Criohton, supposed to be his son,
was one of those barons who swore fealty to Edwara the
First m 1296. By Eda his wifa he bad three sons. William,
the second son, acquired by marriage with Isabel de Ross,
one of the two daughters and coheiresses of Robert de Ross
(a cadet of the eaiis of Ross, lords of the Isles), half of the
barony of Sanquhar in Dumfiries-shire. The other half was
subsequently purchased by his snccessore, and it became the
chief title of the family. Sir Robert de Cricbton of Sanquhar,
a descendant of this William de Cricbton, had charters of the
barony of Sanquhar, and of the o^ce of sheriff of the county
of Dumfries, 28d April 1464 ; of the Unds of Eliock, 21st
October same year ; and of the office of coroner of Nithsdale,
8th January 1468-9. His eldest son, Sir Robert Cricbton of
Sanquhar, signalized himself at Lochmaben against the duke
of Albany and the earl of Douglas, when they invaded Scot-
land in 1484. He was created a peer of parliament by the
title of Lord Grichton of Sanquhar, by King James the Third,
29th January, 1487-8, and died in 1502. See Samquhab,
Lord. The title is now merged in the earidom of Dumfries
[see Dumfries, earl of], now held by the marquis of Bute,
f See BuTB, marquis of, owte, page 616.]
The name Cricbton may probably be a corruption of Caer-
rie-ton, (as Cramond is of Caer-almond,) and be therefore a
variety of Ric-caer-ton, — ^the stone phice of the Rio-ton, or
rich land. Many local names appear in the Lothians to be
corruptions of Caer or place of stones
Cricrtok, Lord, a title conferred m 1445, on Sir William
Grichton, lord high chancellor of Scotland, of whom a me-
moir is subsequently given in larger type. He was a descend- |
ant of the above-mentioned William de Cricbton, and the son
of Sir John Cricbton, who obtuned a cbartor of the barony
of Cricbton from King Robert the Third. His cousin. Sir
George de Cricbton, high admiral of Scotland, (dedgned son
and heir of Stephen Cricbton of Cairns, brother of the said
Sir John Crichton,) was in 1462 created earl of Caithness,
the honours being limited to the heirs male of bis own body
by bis second wife, Janet Bortbwick. He died in 1466, with-
out issue of his second marriage, and the title became extinct
in hb family (see Caithnbss, earl of, aiUe^ p. 621). The
first Lord Cricbton had a son and two daughters.
James, the son, second Lord Cricbton, was knighted by
James the First, at the baptism of his eldest son in 1480.
He married Lady Janet Dunbar, eldest daughter and co-
heiress of James eari of Moray, with whom he got the barony
of Frendraught in Ban£bhire, but the earldom of Moray was,
to his prejudice, bestowed on Archibald Douglas, (third son
of the seventh eari of Douglas,) who had married the youngpr
sister of his wife. Under the designation of Sir James
Crichton of Frendraught, he was appointed great chamberlain
of Scotland in 1440, and he held that office till 1463. He died
about 1469. He had three sons, William, Gavin, and George.
William, the third lord, joined the duke of Albany in his
rebellion against his brother, James the Third, and garrisoned
his castle of Crichton in his behalf. He was in consequence
attainted for treason, by parliament, 24th February 1483-4.
His brothers wese also forfeited for joining in the same rebel-
lion. On his forfeiture, his castle of Crichton, a very andent
and magnificent structure, the ruins of which overhang a
beautiful little glen through which the Tyne slowly meanders,
was granted to Sir John Ramsay of Balmain. From him it
afterwards passed, by forfeiture, to Patrick Hepburn, chief of
that name, and third Lord Hales, ancestor of the celebrated
James Hepburn, earl of Bothwell, the husband of Maiy queen
of Scots. On the forfeiture of this last nobleman in 1667,
Crichton became the property of the Crown, but was granted
to Francis Stewart, earl of Bothwell. It subsequently passed
through the hands of several proprietors, from one ef whom,
Hepburn of Humbie, who acquired it about the year 1649, it
obtuned the name, among the countiy people, of * Humbie's
Wa's.* In the fourth canto of Marmion, Sir Walter Scott has
minutely described this relic of the feudal ages.
The thbd lord had married Margaret, second daughter of
King James the Second, and had, with a daughter, a son. Sir
James Crichton of Frendraught. The direct descendant of
the latter, in the fifth generation, James Crichton of Fren-
draught was, in 1642, created Viscount Frendraught and
LcNrd Crichton, in consideration of his father being heir-male
of Lord-ohancellor Crichton. See Frendraught, viscount of.
The other principal families of the name were Crichton of
Cranston, descended from Frendraught; (David Crichton of
Cranston was one of the commisnoners nominated. by King
James the Thu^, in his treaty of marriage with Margaret
daughter of the king of Denmark); Crichton of Rdthven, de-
scended from the second son of Stephen Crichton of Cairns
abovementioned ; Crichton of EasthiU ; Crichton of Naughton ;
Crichton of Cluny^ Crichtcm of Invemyty;. Crichton of
Brunston; Crichton of Lugdon; and Crichton of Crawfordtoun.
Geoige Crichton, a son of Cnchton of Naughton, became'
bishop of Dunkeld in 1626, having previously been abbot of
Holyroodhonse. According to Spotswood, he snooeeded the
celebrated Gavin Douglas in that see, but this is a mistake,
as another prelate, named Robert Cockbnm, intervened be-
tween them. In the beginmng of 1627, he was one of the
bishops present at St Andrews at the oondtmnation of Pat-
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CRICHTON.
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CRICHTON
rick Hamilton, the protomartTr. In 1529, he ib said to have
been lord priry seal, and to have held the same office in the
beginning of 1539. He appears ae aix extraordinary lord of
session in the sitting of that court, November 17, 1533. He
died on 24th January 154d-i, having previously transmitted
to the pope a resignation of his bishopric in favour of his
nephew Robert Crichton, then provost of St Giles. It was
this bishop of Dunkeld that in 1539, on the examination of
Dean Thomas Forret, vicar of Dollar, accused of heresy, said
he thanked God that he never knew what the old and the new
TesLament was, and that he would know nothing but his
breviary and his ponti6cal I His nephew, Robert Crichton,
notwitlistanding his uncle*s resignation in his favour, and his
own application, was prevented from immediately succeeding
to the see, by the stronger influence of the earl of Arran, gov-
ernor of the kingdom, upon whose natural brother, John
Hamilton, it was conferred, but on his translation to the arch-
bishopric of St. Andrews in 1550, Crichton was promoted to
Dunkeld, and continued bishop there till the establishment of
the Reformed religiou in 1560. At the pariiament, wherein
the Confession of Faith was ratified, 17th July of that year,
he was one of the three popish bishops who were present In
1567 be was appointed a commissioner for divorcing the earl
of Bothwell from Lady Jane Gordon.
Robert Crichton of Elliock, the father of the admirable
Crichton, (of whom a memoir b hereafter given in its place,)
having been educated for the bar, was appointed lord advo-
cate, jointly with John Spens of Condie, 8th February 1560.
He appears to have been favourable to Queen Mary's cause in
the banning of her son's reign, and was sent for by that un-
fortunate princess into England after the death of the regent
Murray, but was prevented from going by the regent Lennox,
who made him find caution to the extent of four thousand
pounds Soots, that he would not leave Edinburgh. On the
death in January 1581, of David Borthwick of Lochill, who
had succeeded Spens as his colleague, and was appointed a
lord of session in October 1573, Crichton was nominated his
successor on the bench, and at the same time was constituted
sole lord advocate. He took his seat Ist February 1581. In
the same year he was appointed one of the pariiamentary
commissioners for the reformation of hospitals. He died in
June 1582.
An account of the feud betwixt the Crichtons and the
Maxwells, the two most powerful barons hi Nithsdale, will be
found under the head of Sanquhak, lord. In 1512, Sir
William Douglas of Drumlnnrig, ancestor of the noble house
of Queensberry, accused of the slaughter of Robert Crichton
of Kilpatrick, on the complaint of Robert Lord Crichton of
Sanquhar, pleaded that the person killed was at the time a
declared rebel and at his majesty's bom, when the jury de-
livered a verdict freeing him and his accomplices from the
charge. This case is thought to have given rise to the sub-
sequent ** Act anent the Resset of Rebellis,'' &c., in which it
is expressly stated that ^^gif ony personis happins to com-
mitt slauchter upone the said rebellis and personis being at
the home, the tym of the taking or apprehending of them,
sal be no point of dittay (indictment), hot the sUuuris of them
to be rewardit and thuikit tharfore.** On October 24, 1526,
Andrew Crichton of Crawfordtonn, John Crichton of Kilpa-
trick, and forty-six others, were denounced rebels and put to
the horn for not appearing to underly the law for the convo-
cation of the lieges in great numbers in arms, and attacking
Archibald earl of Angus and James eari of Arran, his majes-
ty's lieutenants, near the church of Linlithgow, for Uieir
slaughter and destruction. On November 24th. 1536, Mari-
ota Home, countess of Crawford, the widow of that earl who
was slain at Flodden, and Batrick Crichton of Camnay, with
seventeen others, found caution (namely. Sir John Stiriing (d
Kdr, and John Crichton of Craostoun) to satisfy Joan Mon-
cur of Balluny, for seiang a ** wayne** or waggon oom him,
with four oxen and two horses; and on the 12th December
following, the same John Moncur, with Mariota Douglas, his
wife, and four others, found caution to uiideriy uie law at
the next justioe-aire of Perth, for oppression done to the
countess of Crawford, in breaking up the soil and ditches of
her lands of Potento, and wounding her in the throat Thi-
shows a strange state of society at that period.
One of the leading friends of Wisliart the martyr and most
resolute conspirators against Cardinal Bethune, was Crichton
of Bninston in Mid Lothian. Ha had been at one time a
familiar and confidential servant of the cardinal, who, on the
10th of December 1539, intrusted him with secret letten to
Rome, which were intercepted by Henry the Eighth. He
next attached himself to Arran the governor, who employed
him in diplomatic missions to France and England. He af-
terwards gauied the confidence of Sir Ralph Sadler, Uie Eng-
lish ambassador in Scotland, to whom he furnished secret
intelligence, and subsequently entered into correspondence
with King Henry himself. On the 17th of April 1544, the
hiird of Brunston is said to have engaged in that secret cor-
respondence with Henry the Eighth, in which, on certain
conditions, he offered to procufe the assassination of Bethune.
Tytler paints his character in very dark colours, bat his
representations should undoubtedly be taken with conaid«ra-
ble reservation. [See his History o/ScoUcmd, voL t. Appa^
diXy p. 453.] Among others who were banished by the
regent Arran, and his natural brother, the archbishop of St
Andrews, for alleged crimes against the state, bat in reality
on account of their professing the refbnned religion, was
Crichton of Branston. Soon after the aasassinatioQ of the
cardinal he was indicted on^t charge of treason, but the pro-
cess against him was afterwards withdrawn.
Two eminent medical men of this somame were long in the
service of Russia. 1. Sir Alexander Crichton, M.D., F.R.S.,
&a, son of Alexander Crichton, Esq. of Newington, Mid Lo-
thian, and grandson of Patrick Crichton, Esq. of Woodhoase-
lee and Newington, bom at Edinbui^h in 1763, was physician
in ordinary to the emperor of Russia, and physidau to the
duke of Cambridge. Author of, • An Inquiry into the Na-
ture and Origin of Mental Derangement, compreheoding a
concise system of the Physiology and Pathology of the human
mind, and a History of the Passions, and their effacts,' Lond.
1798, 2 vols. 8vo. ; ' A Synoptical Table of Diseases, exhib-
iting their arrangement in Cbsses, Orders, Genera, and Spe-
cies, designed for the use of Students,' Lond. 1805, laip
sheet; *An Account of some Experiments made with the
vapour of boiling Tar in the Core of Pulmonary Consump-
tion,' 1818; *Some Observations on the Medioina! Effects ol
Arnica Montana,' London Medical Journal, vd. x. p. 236,
&c; ^Some Observations on the Medicinal Effects of the
LichisUndious,' Ibid. p. 229; Commentary on soma Doc-
trines of a dangerous Tendency in Medioina, Svo, 1842, Ac
Knight grand cross of the Russian orders of St Vladimir and
St. Anne, and knight of tlie red eagle of Prussia, second class;
he was knitted on his return to England in 1820, was an
honorary member of the Academy of Saenoes ot St Peters-
burg, a corresponding member •/ the Royal Institute of
Medicine in Paris, of the Royal Society of Sciences in Got-
tingen, &c. He was descended mnn a younger branch of
the house of Frendraught (Sec vol. ii. page 271.) He
died in 1856. 2. His nephew, Sir Archibald William Crich-
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CRTCHTON,
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SIR WILLIAM.
ton, eldest son of Cftptain Patrick Crichton of the 47th regi-
ment; horn in 1791, gradnated M.D. at Edinbnrgh, and
was thirty years in the Russian service, for twenty-four of
which he was phy^dan to the czar and his family. He was
a member of the medical oonndl in Russia and a cornidllor of
state. In 1814 he received the star of the legion of honour ;
m 1817 he was knighted ; in 1829 he received the grand cross
of the red eagle of Pmssia, second class; in 1832, that of
St Stanislaus, first daas; in 1834, that of St Anne, first
dass; and in 1836, that of St AHadimir. In 1820 he mar-
ried ft daughter of Dr. Sutthofi*, one of the physicians in ordi-
nary to the emperor of Russia. A member of the Medico-
Ghirnrgical Academy of St Petersburg (1858), M.D. of Glas-
gow, and D.C.L. < f Oxford.
The family of Makgill of Rankdilor in Fife, assumed the
additional surname of Crichton in 1889, in cons^uence of the
then proprietor of that estate, David Maitland Makgill-
Crichton, being, in June of that year, served heir of line in
general to the first Visconnt Frendraught ; his ancestor, Sir
James Makgill of Rankdilor, ha\ing married, in 1665, the
Hon. Janet Crichton, daughter of the first viscount [See
Frkhdkauoht, visconnt of, and Makgill, surname of.]
The noble family of Crichton, who enjoy the earldom of
Erne, in the peerage of Ireland, are also descended from a
branch of the house of Frendraught in the Scottish peerage.
CRICHTON, Sir William, chancellor of Scot-
land daring the minonty of James the Second, was
a pei-sonage of great abilities and political address.
In 1423 he proceeded to Durham, with other
barons, to condact James the Fii-st home after his
long captivity. At the coronation of his majesty
in 1424, he was knighted, and appointed chamber-
lain to the king. On 8th May 1426, a commis-
sion was issued constituting him and two others
ambassadors to treat with Eric, king of Norway,
for a lasting peace; and soon after his return
home, he was appointed one of the king's privy
council, and master of the household. On the
accession of James the Second, he was in posses-
sion of the castle of Edinburgh. Between him
and Sur Alexander Livingston, of Callendar,
there was an unhappy rivalship, which weakened
the authority of the government. During the two
years succeeding his coronation the young king con-
turned to reside entirely in the castle of Edinburgh,
under the care of Crichton, its governor, greatly to
the displeasure of the queen and her party, who
thus found him placed entirely beyond their control.
She accordingly visited Edinburgh, professing great
friendship for Sir William Crichton, and a longing
desire to see her son, by which means she completely
won the good will of, the former, and obtained
ready access with her retinue, to visit the prince
in the cattle and take up her abode there. At
length, having lulled all suspicion, she gave out
that she had made a vow to pass in pilgrimage to
the white kirk of Brechin for the health of her sou,
and bidding adieu to the governor over night,
with many earnest recommendations of the young
king to his fidelity and care, she retired to her de-
votions. Immediately on being lefk at liberty,
the young king was cautiously pinned up among
the linen and furniture of his mother, and so con-
veyed in a chest to Leith, and thence by water
to Stirling, and placed in the hands of Living-
ston. Immediately thereafter, the latter raised an
army and laid siege to Crichton in the castle of
Edinburgh; on which he applied to the earl of
Douglas for assistance, when that chief replied that
he was an enemy to both parties, and in conse-
quence refused his aid. Thereupon Crichton and
Livingston became reconciled to each other, and
having deprived Cameron, bishop of Glasgow, a
paitisan of the house of Douglas, of the of9ce of
chancellor, it was conferred npon Crichton, while
Livingston obtained the guardianship of the king's
pei-son, and the chief management in the govern-
ment. Soon after, however, Crichton seized the
person of the young monarch in the royal park at
Stirling, while proceeding to the chase, and re-
moved him to Edinburgh castle; but a second
reconciliation took place between him and Living-
ston. Douglas died in 1439, and owing to the
overgrown power of his son who sueceeded him,
it was resolved to get rid of him by summary
means. With this view he invited him to attend
a parliament then about to be held at Edinburgh,
and having inveigled him and his brother into the
castle, ordered them to be executed on the Castle-
hill. This took place in 1440. The new earl of
Douglas having been reconciled to James, and ad-
mitted into the royal councils, Crichton imme-
diately fled to the castle of Edinburgh ; on which
he was denounced as a rebel, and his estates
confiscated. Douglas laid siege to the castle, and
after an investment of nine weeks, Crichton entered
into a treaty with Livingston and Douglas, and
surrendered it to the king. In 1445 he was created
Lord Crichton, and in 1448 he was sent on an
embassy to France, to treat with Arnold, duke of
Gueldres, for the mai-riage of his daughter Mary
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JAMES.
with his royal master, now in his eifeiiteenth year.
He accompanied the bride to Holyrood, where the
nuptials were solemnized with much pomp. Dou-
glas afterwards endeavoured to assassinate the
.chancellor, who continued to enjoy the king's con-
fidence and favour till his death in 1454.
CRICHTON, James, styled " The Admirable,"
from his extraordinary endowments both mental
and physical, was the son of Robert Crichton of
Eliock, lord advocate of Scotland in the reigns of
Queen Mary and James the Sixth, and was bom
in 1557, or, according to some accounts, in 1560.
His mother was Eli^^abeth Stewart, a descendant,
through Andrew Stewart, Lord Avondale, of
the family of Stewart of Morphie, founded by
Walter Stewart, sixth son of Sir James the
Gross, fourth son of Murdoch, duke of Albany.
Eliock -house, on Eliock -bum, Dumfries -shire,
is said to have been the birthplace of the Admir-
able Crichton, and the apartment in which he was
bom is carefully preserved in its original statte.
Soon after his birth, his father sold Eliock to the
Dalzells, afterwards earls of Camwath, and re-
moved to an estate which he had acquired in the
parish of Clunie in Perthshire, a circumstance
which has occasioned the castle of Clunie to be
mistaken as the place of his nativity. He received
the radiments of his education at Perth school,
and completed his studies at the university of St.
Andrews, where he took his degree of M. A. at the
age of fourteen, l^efore he was twenty, he had
mastered the whole circle of the sciences, and
could speak and write ten different languages be-
sides his own. He also excelled in riding, danc-
ing, fencing, painting, singing, and playing on all
sorts of instmments. On leaving college he went
abroad to improve himself by travel. On his ar-
rival at Paris, in compliance with a custom of the
age, he affixed placards on the gates of the uni-
versity, challenging the professors and learned
men of the city to dispute with him in all the
branches of literature, art, and science, and offer-
ing to give answers in any of tne foIiuWaig lan-
guages, viz. Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Greek, La-
tin, Spanish, French, Italian, English, Dutch,
Flemish, and Sclavonic, and either in prose or
verse, at the option of his antagonist. On the
day appointed three thousand auditors assembled.
Fifty masters proposed to him the most intricate
questions, and with singular accuracy he replied
to them all in the language they required. Four
celebrated doctors of the church then ventured to
dispute with him ; but he refuted every argument
they advanced. A sentiment of terror mingled
itself with the admiration of the assembly. In
the superstitious feeling of those days they con-
ceived him to be Antichrist 1 This famous exhi-
bition lasted from nine o'clock in the morning till
six at night. At the conclusion, the president
expressed, in the most flattering terms, their high
sense of his talents and eradition, and amid the
acclamations of all present, bestowed on him a
diamond ring with a purse of gold. It was on
this occasion that he was first saluted with the
proud title of "The Admirable Crichton !" Dur-
ing the interval between giving the challenge, and
the day appointed for accepting it, we are told,
that so far from preparing himself by study, he
had devoted his time almost entirely to amuse-
ments. The day after the disputation, he attend-
ed a public tilting match in the Louvre, and in
presence of the princes of France and a great many
ladies, bore away the ring fifteen times, and
" broke as many lances on the Saracen."
Crichton afterwards appeared at Rome, and
disputed in presence of the Pope, when he again
astonished and delighted the audience by the uni-
versality of his attainments. He next went to
Venice, where, becoming acquainted with Aldus
Manutius, the younger, he inscribed to him one of
the four little Latin poems, which are all that re-
main to prove the poetical powers of this "prodigy
of nature," as he was styled by Imperialis. Hav-
ing been presented to the doge and senate, he made
an oration before them of surpassing eloquence.
Here also he disputed on the most difficult subjects
before the most eminent literati of that city.
He arrived in Padua in the month of March
1581. The professors of that university assem-
bled to do him honour, and on being introduced
to them, he made an extemporary poem in praise
of the city, the university, and the persons pres-
ent, after which he sustained a disputation with
them for six hours, and at the conclusion deliver-
ed an unpremeditated speech in praise of Ignor-
ance, to the astonishment of all who heard him
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JAMES.
He subsequently offered to point out before the
same university tlie innumerable errors in the phi-
losophy of Aristotle, and to expose the ignorance
of his commentators, as well as to refute the opin-
ions of certain celebrated mathematicians, and
that in the common logical method, or by num-
bet's or mathematical figm*es, and by a hundred
different kinds of verses ; and we ai*e assured that
he performed that stupendous task to the admi-
ration of eveiy one. After defeating in disputa-
tion a famous philosopher named Archangelns
Meix^narius, he proceeded to Mantua, where he
challenged in fight a gladiator, or prize-fighter,
who bad foiled the most expert fencers in Europe,
and had already slain three persons who bad en-
tered the lists with him in that city. On this oc-
casion the duke and the whole court were specta-
tor of the combat. Crichton encountered his
antagonist with so much dexterity and vigour
that he ran him through the body in three differ-
ent places, of which wounds he immediately ex-
pired. The victor generously bestowed the prize,
fifteen hundred pistoles, on the widows of the men
who had been killed by the gladiator. The duke
of Mantua, struck with his talents and acquire-
ments, appointed him tutor to his son, Vincentio
di Gonzaga, a prince of turbulent disposition and
licentious manners. For the entertainment of his
patron he composed a comedy, described as a sort
of ingenious satire on the follies and weaknesses
of mankind, in which he himself personated fifteen
characters. But his career was drawing to a close.
One night during the festivity of the Carnival in
July 1582, or 1583, while he rambled about the
streets playing upon the guitar, he was attacked
by six persons in masks. With consummate skill
he dispersed his assailants, and disarmed then*
leader, who, pulling off hu mask, begged his life,
exclaiming, *^ I am the prince, your pupil!"
Crichton immediately fell upon his knees, and
presenting his sword to the prince, expressed his
sorrow for having lifted it against him, saying that
he had been prompted by self-defence. The das-
tardly Gron^aga, inflamed with passion at his dis-
comfiture, or mad with wine, immediately plunged
the weapon into his heart. Thus prematurely
was cut off " the Admirable Crichton." Some ac-
counts declare that he was killed in the thii*ty-
second year of his age; but Imperialis asseits that
he was only in his twenty-second year at the time
of his death, and this fact is confirmed by Lord
Bnchan. His tragical end excited a great and
general lamentation. According to Sir Thomas
Urquhart, the whole court of Mantua went for
nine months into mourning for him ; innumerable
were the epitaphs and elegies that were stuck upon
his hearse ; and portraits of him, in which he was
represented on horseback with a sword in one
hand, and a book in the other, were multiplied in
every quarter. Such are the romantic details
which are given of the life of this literary pheno-
menon. Dr. Kippis, in the Biographia Britanni-
ca, was the first to call in question the truth of
the marvellous stories related of him. But Mr.
Patrick Eraser Tytler, in his Life of Crichton,
published in 1823, has adduced' the most satisfac-
tory evidence to establish the authenticity of the
testimonies and authorities on which the state-
ments regarding Crichton rest.
The following woodcut is from a poi-trait of the
Admirable Crichton in the Icouographia Scotica:
Dr. Clarke gives the following list of his works,
but does not say when or where they were pub-
lished :
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CRICHTON.
730
CROMARTY.
Opera ; t. Odie ad Laarentiam MaMam pluree. 2. Laodes
PatarinaSf Carmen extempore efi^isam, com in Jacobi Aloysii
Comelii domo ezperimentam ingenii, coram tota Academiie
frequentia, non nne mnltomm stnpore faoeret 8. Ignorati-
onis Laadatio, extemporale Thema, ibidem redditum post sex
horamm disputationes, nt, pmsentes soronia potina fovere
qoam rem se veram videre affirmanint ait ManntSua. 4. De
appulsa 800 Venedas. 5. Odn ad Aldnm Manntinm. 6.
E pistols ad Diversoe. 7. Prtefationes solennes in omnes sd-
entias, aacras et pro^as. 8. Jndidnm de Philoeophia. 9.
Errorea Aristotelia. 10. Anna an Literse prsestant? Contro-
versia Oratoria. 11. Refiitatio Mathematicomm. 12. A
Comedy in the Italian lAngnage.
CRICHTON, G GORGE, an author of consider-
able merit in tl e Mventeenth centnry, was pro-
fessor of Greek in the university of Paris. He
was a native of Scotland, bnt very little is known
of his personal history. He wi-ote several poems
and orations in the Latin language.
CRICHTON, or CRKYGHTON, Robert, a
learned prolate, was born of an ancient family, at
Dnnkeld, in Perthshire, in 1593. He was educated
at Westminster school, whence, in 1613, he was
elected to Trinity college, Cambridge, where he
took his degrees in arts, and was chosen Greek
professor and university orator. In 1632 he was
made treasurer of the cathedral of Wells, of which
he was canon residentiary. He was also pre-
bendary of Taunton, and had a living in Somer-
setshire. In 1637 he was admitted to the degree
of D.D. In the begionlng of the civil wars he
joined the king^s troops at Oxford. Bnt he was
obliged afterwards to escape into Cornwall, in the
dress of a day-labourer. He subsequently found
his way to the Continent, when Charles the Second
employed him as his chaplain, and bestowed on
him' the deanery of Wells, of which he took pos-
session at the restoration. In 1670 he was pro-
moted to the see of Bath and Wells, which he
held till his death, November 21, 1672. His only
publication was a translation from Greek into Latin
of Sylvester Sguropulus's History of the Council
of Florence, printed at the Hague, 1660. Wood
says some of his Sermons were also in prim.
Cromarty, earl of, a title in the peerage of Scotland (at-
tainted in 1746) oonferred in 1708 on Sir George Mackenzie
of Tarbat, descended from a branch of the ancient family of
Mackenzie of Kintail (see MACK<LNznE, surname of). A
memmr of the first earl is given at paga 731 in larger type.
His lordship was twice married. By his first wife, Anne,
daughter of Sir James Sincla'r of Mey, baronet, he had, with
four daughters, John, seoom* earl ; Hon. Sir Kenneth Mac-
kenzie of Cromarty, and Hoi Sir James Mackenzie of Roy-
ston, both created baronets the same day, 8th February 1704.
The latter became an advocate on 19th Norember 169S, and
on the resignation of his unde (Boderick Mackenzie), a lord of
session under the title of Lord Prestonhall, be was appointed
his successor on the bench, and took his seat 7th June, 1710,
as Lord Royston. By his second wife, Margaret, countess of
W«n3r8s in her own right, widow of James Lord Burntisland,
the first earl of Cromarty had no issue.
John, second earl of Cromarty, was member of parfiament
for the county of Ross, at the date of his father^s being raised
to the peerage, when the parliament resolved that he could
not, in consequence, continue to possess a seat in that faooae,
and a warrant for a new electi<m was, therefore, issued, 23d
April 1685. In August 1691, be was tried before the high
court of justiciary, for the murder of Klias Poiret, Sienr de la
Roche, at lieith, on 8th March ureoeding, and acquitted. He
succeeded his father in 1714, and died at Castle-leod, 20th
February 1731. He was thrice married. By his first wife.
Lady Elizabeth Gordon, only daughter of Charles first eari of
Aboyne, be had no issue ; by his second wife, the Hon. Mary
Murray, eldest daughter of the third Lord Elibank, be bad,
with two daughters, George, third earl, and three other sons,
Roderick, William, and Patrick ; and by his third wife, the
Hon. Anne Fraser (previously twice a vidow), second daugh-
ter of Hugh tenth Lord Lovat, he had three sons and a
daughter.
George, third eari, joined the Pretender in 1745 with abotd
four hundred of his clan, and was at the battle of Falkirk.
He and bis son Lord Macleod were surprised and taken pris-
oners at Dunrobin castle, by a party of the eari of Sntber-
hmd*s militia, 15th April 1746, and sent to London, and
committed to the Tower. With the eari of KHmamock and
Lord Balmerino, he was on the 28th July following, brought
to trial before the House of Lords, when he pleaded guilty,
and threw himself enturely on the king*s mercy. On the SOth,
being called up for judgment, he began a humiliating but pa-
thetic appeal, by declaring that he had been guilty of an
ofience which merited Uie Invest indignation of his majesty,
their lordships, and the public ; and that it was from a con-
viction of his guilt that he had not presumed to trouble their
lordships with any defence. ^' Nothing remains, my lorda,**
he continued, *' bnt to throw myself, my life, and fortune,
upon your lordships* compassion ;" and he earnestly besought
them to intercede with his majesty on his behalf. On the
Ist of August he was sentenced to death, and his estates and
honours forfeited. He immediately petitioned the king for
mercy. In support of this application his countess (Isabel,
daughter of Sir William Gordon of Invergorden, baronet)
waited upon the lords of the cabinet council, and on the Sun-
day following the sentence, she went to Kensington palace in
deep mourning, to intercede with his majesty in behalf of her
husband. She took her station in the entrance through
which the king was to pass to chapel, and when he approach-
ed she fell upon her knees, seized him by the ooat, and pre-
senting her supplication, fiiinted away at bis feet The king
raised her up, and taking the petition, gave it m charge of
the duke of Grafton, one of his attendants. The dukea of
Hamilton and Montrose, the earl of Stair, and other courti-
ers, backed these petitions. The king granted a respite to
the earl. He was permitted to leave the Tower, and to k>dge
at the house of a messenger, 18th February, 1748. In Au-
gust following he went to Devonshire, where he was ordered
to remain. A pardon passed the sesls for his lordship, 20th
October, 1749, with the conditk»n that he should remain in
such place as directed by the king. He died in Pobmd Street,
London, 28th September, 1766. He had three sona, and
seven danghten. His life was published in 1746, in 4to.
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CROMARTY,
781
FIRST EARL OF.
John, Lord Madeod, the eldest son, was bom in 1727.
At his trial in London, on 20th December 1746, for his share in
the rebellion, he pleaded his youth and his father's example in
mitigation of his guilt. An unconditional pardon passed the
great seal in his favour, 26th January 1748, on which he went
abroad in quest ofemployment in foreign service. He sojourned
sometime at Berlin with Field-marshal Keith, through whose
mterost, it is believed, he obt«ned a comiT-ission in the Swedish
army. At this time his means were oo limited that he was un-
able to equip himself in an officer-like manner, but the Cheva-
lier de St George, on the recommendation of Lord George
Murray, generously tent him a sum of money to defray the
expenses of his outf t. After serving the crown of Sweden for
twenty-seven yearr with distinguished approbation, he obtained
the rank of lieutenant-general, and was, by his Swedish majesty,
created Count Cromarty, and made one of the commandants
of the order of the sword. He returned to EngUnd in 1777,
and was presented to George the Third, who received biro
very graciously. At the suggestion of Colonel Duff of Muir-
town, who had served in Reith*s Highlanders, he offered his
services to raise a regiment ; and so great was the influence
of his name in the North, that eight hundred and forty High-
landers were enrolled in a very short time, forming two bat-
talions of the 73d, now the 71st, or Glasgow light infantry.
The first battalion, under Lord Macleod, as c^onel (commis-
sion dated 19th December 1777) embarked for the East
Indies in January 1779; the second battalion, under the
command of his brother, the Hon. Lieutenant-colonel George
^lackenzie, was sent to Gibraltar, where it formed part of the
garrfson during the celebrated siege of that place, which
Listed upwards of three years. In India^Lord Macleod served
with the force under Sur Hector Munro, and had the local
rank of major-general in 1781. Sometime after the battle of
Conjeveram, his lordship took shipping for England, having,
it is said, differed in opinion with General Munro on the sub-
ject of his movements. In 1782 he had the rank of major-
general in the army. After his return he bad the family
estates restored to him by act of parliament in 1784, on pay-
ment of nineteen thousand pounds of debt affecting that pro-
perty. He died at Edinburgh 2d April 1789, in his sixty-
second year, and was buried, with his mother, in the Canon-
gate church-yard, where there is a monument to their memory.
He had married, 4th June, 1786, Margery, eldest daughter of
James, sixteenth Lord Forbes, but having no issue by her
(who, nth March 1794, became the second wife of John,
fourth duke of Athol) he was succeeded in the family estates by
his cousin, Kenneth Mackenzie of Cromertie, son of the Hon.
Roderick Mackenzie, second son of the second earl. This
gentleman dying without male issue, 4th November 1796, the
Cromarty estates devolved on Lady Elibank (Lady Isabel
Mackenzie), eldest sister of Lord Macleod. On her death in
December 1801, her elder daughter, the Hon. Maria Murray,
married to Edward Hay of Newhall, the brother of the seventh
marquis of Tweeddale, go*, that extensive property, and her
husband assumed the name of Mackenzie in addition to his
own. They had f-or children: Dorothea, Isabella, Geor-
gina, and John. The eldest daughter married, in 1849, the
marquis of Stafford and Lord Strathnaver, eldest son of the
second duke of Sutherland, who in her right is now in pos-
seHsion of the vast estates formerly belonging to the earl of
Cromarty. His son tsd heir, Cromertie, Earl Gower, was
bom m 1851.
CROMARTY, first earl of, an eminent states-
man, was the son o^ Sir John Mackenzie of Tar-
bat, (created a baronet 21st May 1628,) by Mar-
garet, daughter of Sir (^eorge Erskine, (a lord of
session under the title of Lord Innorteill,) and
was bom in 1630. He succeeded his father in
1654 ; and having applied for and received from
Charles the Second, during his exQe, a commission
to levy forces to promote his restoration, with a
large body of men, he, the same year, joined Gen-
eral Middleton, then in arms for the royal cause,
and with him carried on for about a year an irre-
gular warfare with the parliamentary forces, but
was at last forced to capitulate, in 1655, to Colonel
Morgan, when they were obliged to leave the
kingdom. At the Restoration, Middleton had the
chief direction of Scottish affairs, when Mackenzie
became his principal confidant. On 14th Febru-
ary 1661, he was appointed one of the lords of
session, when he assumed the judicial title of
Lord Tarbat. In the Memoirs of his namesake.
Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, it is stated
that being a violent cavalier, he was the chief in-
stigator of the Act Rescissory, by which the pro-
ceedings of all the previous parliaments sinc(>
1633, were at once annulled. In 1669, he was
sent up to court with the famous act of billetting,
of which he was the inventor and manager, and
the object of which was to get the earl of Lauder-
dale, the earl of Crawford-Lindsay and ten others
declared incapable of holding any ofilce of public
trust ; but the king refused his assent, and Mid-
dleton was dismissed from all share in the admin-
istration. A particular account of this curious
piece of state-craft will be found in Sh* George
Mackenzie's Memoirs of the affairs of Scotland,
and in Burnet's History of His own Times, vol.
i. For his participation in the contrivance, Lord
Tarbat was deprived of his seat on the bench on
the 16th February 1664, in terms of a letter from
the king, dated on the 4th of that month, and he
remained without any public employment during
the principal part of the long administration of
Lauderdale. Having eventually become recon-
ciled to that nobleman, by his influence he was
restored to the royal favour, and on October 16,
1678, was appointed lord-jnstice-general of Scot-
land, an office which had been hereditary in the
family of Argyle, till it was surrendered in the
preceding year. On the 11th November follow
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CROMARTY,
732
FIRST EARL OF.
ing he was admitted a privy conncillor, and next
day presented a letter from the king to the court,
dated 27th September previous, in which his ma-
iesty declai*es his having pardoned him ** for the
wrong he had committed in tliat affair/* As the
former letter had been recorded in the Books of
Sederunt, the king directs that this should be so
too. He was appointed lord clerk register by pa-
tent dated 16th October 1681, and reinstated in
his place as a lord of session, on the 1st of the
following November.
During the last years of Charles the Second,
and the whole of the short reign of James the
Seventh, he had the chief management of Scottish
affairs. On 15th February 1685, immediately
after the accession of James, he was created vis-
count of Tarbat, and Lord Macleod and Castleha-
ven in the Scottish peerage. At the revolution
he proposed in council to disband the militia, by
which artful advice that important matter was ac-
complished without bloodshed. He was one of
the first to make advances to King William, hav-
ing gone to court, where he was well received ;
but the Arbitrary proceedings in the two former
reigns in which he had largely shared, had ren-
dered him so odious in Scotland, that his majesty
declined his services, and in consequence he lost
all his employments. On 5th March 1692, how-
ever, he was restored to his office of clerk register,
but resigned it in the end of 1695, when he received
a pension of four hundred a-year. He has been
accused of having, during the period he held this
important office, repeatedly falsified the minutes
of parliament, as well as of having issued orders
in private causes in name of parliament, which had
never been made.
On the accession of Queen Anne, Lord Tarbat
was sent for to court, appointed one of the princi-
pal secretaries of state, and created earl of Cro-
marty, by patent, dated 1st January 1703. The
following year he resigned the office of secretary,
and was appointed, in its stead, lord-justice-gen-
eral, 26th June 1705. This office, in its turn, he
resigned in 1710, in favour of Archibald Lord
Hay. He was a zealous supporter of the union,
and died at New Tarbat, August 17, 1714, in the
eighty-fourth year of his age. He was a man of
superior endowments and great learning, but to-
tally devoid of principle as a statesman. In Wal-
pole^s Royal and Noble Authors is a portrait of his
lordship, from which the annexed woodcut is taken :
He was one of the original members of the Royal
Society, and contributed some valuable articles to
the earlier volumes of the Philosophical Transac-
tions. Macky (in his Characters of the Nobility
of Scotland, p» 188) says that he had a great deal
of wit, and was the pleasantest companion in the
world ; had been very handsome in his person ;
was tall and fair-complexioned ; much esteemed
by the Royal Society ; a great master in philoso-
phy, and well received as a writer by men of let-
tera. The earl of Cromarty was the author of
the following works :
A Vindication of King Robert II L from the ImpatatioQ of
Bastardy; bj the dear proof of Elizabeth More (daughter of
Sir Adam Mure of Rovndlan) her being the first lawfal wife
of Robert the Second, then Steward of Scotland and Earl of
Stratheni ; by George Viacomit of Tarbat, && In the dedi-
cation to the king he says that all the oowned beads in Eu-
rope are concerned in this vindication. Edinburgh, 1695.
The Mistaken Advantage by raising oi'Money. Edinbnigh,
1706, 4to.
Letter to the Earl of Wemyss concerning the Union with
England. Edin. 1706, 4to.
Friendly retom to a Letter oonoeming Sir George Macken-
zie's and Sir John Nisbet's Observations and Responses on
the matter of Union. Edin. 1706^ iU^
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CROMBIE.
783
CRUDEN.
Sjnopus Apocalvptica, or a short and plain ExpGcation of
Daniel's P jphecy, and of St John's Revelation, in concert
with it. Edin. 1707.
Account of the Mosses in Scotland, in Phil. Trans. 1710.
Abr. V. p. 688. Mr. Qongh has pointed ont three other pa-
pers on natnral curiosities in the same Transactions. See
Anecdotes of Brit Topography, 637. Bishop Nicolson (Scot-
tish Histor. Library, p. 20) mentions having seen a descrip-
tion of the Isles Hirta and Rona, two of the Hebrides, by his
lordship. But does not say if it was ever printed. The bishop
also notices a copy of the continuation of Fordun's Scotichro-
nicon in the handwriting of this nobleman, whom ho terms
*'a judicious preserver of the antiquities of his country."
(Ibid. p. 32.)
Historical Account of the Conspiracy of the Earl of Gowrie,
and of Robert Logan of Restahig, against King James VL
Edin. 1718.
A Vindication of the same, from the Mistakes of Mr. John
Anderson, preacher, of Dumbarton, in his Defence of Presby-
tery. Edin. 1714.
A Vindication, by Lord Cromarty, of the Reformation of
the Church of Scotland, with some account of the Records,
was printed in the Scots Magazine for 1802, from a manu-
script in possession of the late Mr. Constable.
Crombie, a surname derived from the name of an ancient
parish, now comprehended in the parish of Torrybum, Fife-
tshire.
Crossby, a surname originally given to one who dwelt
beside the market cross, or near a cross-road. In the baron-
etage of Scotland and Nova Scotia, there Lh a baronetcy pos-
seiMsed by an Irish family of this name, conferred in 1630 on
tlie son of the bishop of Ardfert and brother of David Crosbie,
ancestor of the ancient earls of GUndore in Ireland.
CROSBIE, Andrew, of Holm, a celebrated
advocate, and the original of 'Councillor Pley-
delP in Sir Walter Scott's novel of * Guy Manner-
hig,' was one of the most eminent citizens of
Edinburgh during the middle of the eighteenth
<3entury. On Dr. Johnson's visit to the Scottish
capital in 1774, he was almost the only one who
had the courage to maintain bis own opinion
against him in converaation. Mr. Boswell de-
scribes bim as his '^ truly learned and philosophi-
cal friend," and Mr. Croker, in a note, says, " Mr.
Crosbie, one of the most eminent advocates then
at the Scotch bar. Lord Stowell recollects that
Johnson was treated by the Scotch literati with a
degree of deference bordering oi pusillanimity,
but he excepts from that observation Mr. -Crosbie,
whom he characterizes as an intrqnd talker, and
the only man who was disposed to stand up (as
the phrase is) with Johnson." Mr. -Crosbie re-
sided at that peried in a house in Advocate's Close
in the High Stn-eet of Edinburgh. He aifterwards
removed to tbe spAendid mansion erected by him-
self on the east side of St. Andrew's Square of that
city, which stands the first house to the north of
the Royal Bank, and became a principal Hotel;
but he was involved, with many others, in the
failure of tbe Douglas and Heron bank at Ayr, in
which he had a thousand pounds share, and died
in such poverty, in 1785, that his widow owed her
sole support to an annuity of fifty pounds granted
by the Faculty of Advocates.
Crudbn, a lodd samann, derived from the parish of Cm-
den, or Crucbns, in the district of Buchan, Aberdeenshire,
which is usually supposed to have taken its name from the
battle fought there iu 1006, bj Malcolm the Second and
Canute, (afterwards king of England,) son of Sweno, king of
Denmark and Norway, although Pinkerton has shown that
the alleged Danish wars of Malcolm the Second were mere
fabrications of Hector Boece. It b more likely to have been
derived from Crvther^ the first king of the Picts (commenced
his reign A. c. 28, and reigned twenty-five years), from whom
the Irish called the Picts Cruitnich. He was sometimes
called CruidnA, and as the n and ne in Gothic are, after a
consonant, pronounced en, we have at once the name Crudcn.
CRUDEN, Alexander, author of the well-
known and most useful * Concordance of the Bi-
ble,* the son of a merchant and bailie of Aberdeen,
was bora in that city. May 31, 1701. He received
his education in the grammar school of his native
town, and was entered a student at Mariscbal
college there; but having manifested incipient
symptoms of insanity, it was found necessary to
place him in confinement. On his liberation in
1722 he quitted Aberdeen, and pix)ceeding to
I^ndon, obtained an appointment as tutor in a
family in Hertfordshire, where he continued' for
several years. He was afterwards engaged in the
same capacity in the Isle of Man. In 1732 he
settled in London^ where he was employed by Mr.
Watts, printer, 6s corrector of the press. He also
engaged in trade as a bookseller, which he carried
on in a shop under the Royal Exchange ; and, on
the recommendation of the lord mayor and alder-
men, was appointed bookseller to the Queen. At
this time all his leisure was devoted to the compi-
lation of * A Complete Concordance of the Holy
Sci-iptures of the Old and New Testament,' a work
which, with great labour and perseverance, he at
length accomplished. The first edition, dedicated
to Queen Caroline, was published in 1737. Her
majesty graciously promised to keep him in mind,
and perhaps she intended to fulfil her word, but,
unfoitunately for him, she died suddenly a few
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CRUDEN,
734
ALEXANDER.
days after receiving the book. He now shut up
bis shop ; and becoming soon again a prey to his
phrenetic disorder, he was confined in a private
madhonse at Bethnal Green. As soon as he
obtamed his release, he published a pamphlet, en-
titled ^The London Citizen exceedingly Injured,
or a British Inquisition Displayed,' London, 1739 ;
and also commenced (.n action agaipst Dr. Monro,
his physician, and ovhers, for cruelty, which was
tried in Westminster Hall, July 1739, when he
was nonsuited. For the next fifteen years he lived
chiefly by con*ecting the press, and superintended
the printing of several of the Greek and Roman
Classics. In 1753 the return of his malady obliged
his relatives to shut him up a thii*d time in a
madhouse. When he was once more at liberty,
he published another pamphlet, entitled ^Tbe
Adventures of Alexander the Corrector.' In
September of that year, he endeavoured to per-
suade one or two of his friends, who had been
instrumental to his confinement, to submit to im-
prisonment in Newgate, as a compensation for
the injuries they had inflicted on him. To his
sister, Mrs. Wild, he proposed what he deemed
very mild terms, namely, the payment of a fine of
ten pounds, and her choice of Newgate, Reading,
and Aylesbury jails, or the prison at Windsor
Castle. When he found that his persuasions were
of no avail, he commenced an action against her
and three others, fixing his damages at ten thou-
sand pounds. Tlie cause was tried in February
1754, and a verdict again given in favour of the
defendants.
In accordance with the whimsical title he had
assumed of " Alexander the Corrector," he now
devoted himself to the task of reforming the man-
ners of the age, maintaining, wherever he went,
that he was divinely commissioned to correct pub-
lic morals, and to restore the due observance of the
Sabbath. Having published a pamphlet, entitled
^The Second Part of the Adventures of Alexander
the Corrector,' he went to present it at court, and
was very earnest wit a the lords in waiting, the
secretaries of state, and other persons of rank,
that his majesty should confer on him the honour
of knighthood. At the general election in 1754,
he offered himself as a candidate to represent the
city of London In parliament Of course, he was
disappointed in both these objects. Amidst ail
his eccentricities he lost no opportunity of show-
ing his loyalty. He wrote a pamphlet against
Wilkes, and went about with a sponge in his hand
effacing No. 45, the title of that demagogue's ob-
noxious pamphlet against Scotland, wherever he
found it written on the walls, or doors, &c., of the
metropolis.
In 1762 Mr. Crudcri, whise benevolence was
unwearied, was the means of saving the life of a
poor sailor named Richard Potter, who had been
capitally convicted at the Old Bailey, for uttering
a seaman's will, knowing it to be forged. Firmly
convinced that he was a fit object for the royal
clemency, he never ceased his applications to the
secretary of state till he obtaiued the commutation
of the sentence to that of transportation for life.
In 1763 he published an interesting account of this
affair, under the title of the * History of Richard
Potter.' In 1769 he revisited Aberdeen, where he
remained about a year, during which time he gave
a lecture on the necessity of a general reformation
of manners, &c. On his return to London, he
took lodgings in Camden Street, Islington, where,
on the morning of November 1, 1770, he was
found dead on his knees, apparently in the atti
tude of prayer. He died unmarried, and bequeath-
ed his moderate savings to his relatives, except a
certain sum to the city of Aberdeen for the pur-
chase of religious books for the use of the poor.
He also left one hundred pounds for a bursary, or
exhibition, of five pounds per annum, to assist in
educating a student at Marischal college. An
edition of his * Concordance' was published under
the superintendence of Mr. Deodatus Bye in 1810,
and in 1825 the work had reached the tenth edi-
tion. His works are :
A Complete Concordance to the Scriptnres of the Old and
New Testament; to which is added A Concordance to the
books called Apocrypba. Lond. and Edin. 1736, 1788»
1761, 4to. 8d edition, with improvements. Lond. 1769, 4to.
1810.
An Acooont of a Trial between him and Dr. Monro, Mat-
thew Wright, &c, &C. Lond. 1789, 8to.
The London Citizen exceedingly injured ; or, A British In-
quisition Displayed. Lond. 1739, 4to.
The Adventures of Alexander the Corrector, by himself;
in 3 parts. Lond. 1754-6, ?vo.
An Appendix to the Adveninw d Alexander the Corrector.
London, 1754, 8vo.
Alexander the Corrector's b .jnble Fetition to the House of
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CRUIKSHANK.
735
CULLEN.
Lords, and the Hon. House of Coramons; showing the neoes-
sitj of appointing a Corrector of the people. Lend. 1755,
8vo.
The History of Richard Potter. 1768, 8vo.
An Account of the History and BxceHency of the Scrip-
tures; prefixed to a Compendium of tl.4 Holy Bible, 24mo.
A Scripture Dictionaxy ; or, Gnidd io the Holy Scriptures.
Aberd. 2 vols. 4to.
Cruikshank, a surname of the same dass as Longthankt^
Heavitideg^ Greatkead, IjongruMtty &c, indicative of some
personal peculiarity in their original posseesors, and not un-
common in that form in Scotland. In England it has been
anglicised into that of Crookshanks.
CRUIKSHANK, William, an eminent sur-
geon and anatomist, the son of one of the examin-
ers of the excise at Edinburgh, was bom in that
city in 1745. He was baptized William Cumber-
land, in compliment to the ^* butcher" conqueror at
Culloden, but he showed his good sense by seldom
using the name. In his fourteenth year he was
entered as a student at the university of his native
place, with the view of studying for the church.
He was soon afterwards sent to the university of
Glasgow, where a strong propensity for anatomy
and medicine induced him to direct his studies to
these branches of science. In 1771 he removed
to London, having, on the recommendation of Dr.
Pitcaim, been engaged as librai-ian to the cele-
brated Dr. William Hunter. On the retirement
of Mr. Hewson, who had been for some time the
doctor's assistant at the anatomical theatre in
Windmill Street, Mr. Crnikshank became his as-
sistant, and subsequently his partner. At his
death in 1783, Dr. Hunter left the use of his the-
atre and anatomical preparations to Mr. Crnik-
shank and his nephew. Dr. Baillie, and these
gentlemen having received an address from the
students requesting that thev would assume the
superintendence of the scb'>ol, were induced to
continue it. In 1794, a paper, written by Mr.
Cruikshank, entitled * Experiments on the Nerves
of Living Animals,' was inserted in the Transac-
tions of the Royal Society ; as was also, two years
afterwards, another paper of his on the * Appear-
ances in the Ovaria of Rabbits in different stages
of Pregnancy.' His publications, of which a list
follows, prove him to have been an excellent ana-
tomist, and an acute and ingenious physiologist.
In 1797 he was elected a fellow of the Royal So-
ciety. He enjoyed an excellent practice, particu-
larly as an accoucheur, and though not without
some share of personal as well as ic tellectual van-
ity, was much esteemed for his benevolence. Mr,
Cruikshank died at London, July 27, 1800. His
works are :
Bemaiks upon the Absorption of Calomel finom the Interna]
Snrfaoe of the Mouth : in a Letter to Mr. Clare. London,
1779, 8vo.
Experiments on the Insensible Bespiration of the Human
Body, showing its affinity to Perspiration. Lond. 1779, 8vo.
New edit with additions and oorreotions. Lond. 1795, 8vo.
The Anatomy of the Absorbent Vessels of the Human Bo-
dy. Lond. 1786, 4to. This valuable and interestmg publi-
cation, his principal work, a second edition of which, with
several new discoveries by the author, was published m 1790,
was soon translated into the German, French, and other lan-
guages, and became a standard book in eveiy anatomical
library.
The Besult of the Trial of various Adds and some other
Substances m the Treatment of Lues Venerea. Lond. 1797,
8vo. Also subjoined to Dr. Rotto's Work on Diabetes. 1797.
Experiments on the Nerves and Spinal Marrow of Living
Annuals. Phil. Trans. Abr. xvii. 612. 1798.
Observations on the Ova of Animals after Impregnation,
lb. xviii. 129. 1797.
Experiments and Observations on the Nature of Sugar.
Nio. Jour. L 837. 1797. Continuation of the same. lb. ii.
406. 1799.
Some Observations on the diflfimrent Hydrocarbon ates and
Combinations of Carbon with Oxygen, &o. lb. v. L 1802.
CULEN, king of Scotland, son of Indulf, suc-
ceeded to Odo, sumamed by the Celtic part of his
subjects. Duff, or the Black, in 965, and after a
reign of five years, was slain in battle by the Bri-
tons of Strathdyde.
CuLXJor, a surname derived from lands in the parish of
that name in the county of Banffl The name is taken from
the bum which flows through it, the etymology of which is
unknown, but from the depth of water and height of its banks
it may be an old French word signifying oolina^ a pool ; or,
finom the situation of the town and parish on the Moray frith,
it may have been derived from ooixm^ a planter, hence colony.
CULLEN, William, M.D^ one of the most
celebrated physicians of his '«dme, the son of a
fanner, was bom in the parish of Hamilton, Lan-
aikshire, December 11, 1710. He was educated
at the grammar school of his native town ; and
having served a short apprenticeship to a surgeon
and apothecary in Glasgow, he went several voy-
ages as surgeon in a merchant vessel sailing be-
tween London and the West Indies. Becoming
tired of this employment, he returned to Scotland
about the beginning of 1732, and practised for a
short time as a country surgeon in the parish of
Shotts; he then removed to Hamilton, with a
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CULLEN,
736
WILLIAM.
view to obtaining medical practice tliere. The
dake of Hamilton having been suddenly taken ill,
Collen was called in, and prescribed with success,
which, with the charms of his conversation, se-
cared for him the patronage of his grace. Daring
his residence in Hamilton, the chief magistrate of
which he was in 1739 and 1740, he, and the after-
wards equally celebrated Dr. William Hunter,
who was a native of the same part of the country,
entered into partnership as surgeons and apothe-
caries, which, however, in consequence of Dr.
Hunter^s success in London, was soon dissolved,
but during the time it continued Cullen attended
the medical classes at Edinburgh for one session.
During the residence of Dr. Cullen in Hamil-
ton, Archibald earl of Hay, afterwards duke of
Argyle, being in that part of the country, required
some chemical apparatus. It was suggested to
him that Dr. OuUcii was likely to have what his
lordship wanted. He was accordingly invited to
dinner by that nobleman, and made himself very
agreeable. This interview was one of the chief
causes of his future rise in life. He had secured
the patronage of the prime miaister of Scotland,
besides the countenance o' the duke of Hamilton.
In September 1740, Cullen took the degree of
M.D. at Glasgow. In 1746, through the interest
of the earl of Hay and the duke of Hamlltoik, he
was appointed lecturer on chemistiy in that uni
versity ; and in 1751 was chosen reglus professor
of medicine, when he appears to have taught both
classes. In 1756, on the death of Dr. Plummer^
professor of chemistry in Edinburgh, Dr. Cullen
accepted of an invitation to the vacant chair. In
1758, after finishing his coui-se of chemistry, he
delivered to a number of his particular friends and
favourite pupils, nine lectures on the subject of
agriculture. In these few lectures, he for the firet
time laid open the true principle concerning the
nature of soils, and the operation of manures. On
the death of Dr. Alston in 1763, he succeeded him
as lecturer on the Materia Medica, and in 1766
he resigned the chemical chair to his pupil. Dr.
Black, on his being appointed, on the death of Dr.
Whytt, professor of the institutes or theory of
Medicine. Dr. John Gi*egoi*y, a short time be-
fore, had succeeded to the chair of the practice of
medicine ; and these two professors continued
each to teach his own class for three sessions. At
the conclusion of the session 12th April 1769, Dr
Cullen proposed to the patrons that Dr. Gregory
and he should alternately teach the institutes and
the practice. This was complied with, and it was
declared that the snrvivor should have in his op-
tion which professorship he preferred. On the
death of Dr. Gregory in February 1773, Dr. Cul-
len chose the chair of the practice of medicine,
and held it with distinguished honour for the re-
mainder of his life. As a lecturer Dr. Cullen ex-
ercised a great influence over the state of opinion
relative to the mystery of the science of medicine.
He successfully combated the specious doctrines
of Boerhaave depending on the humoral patholo-
gy; his own system is founded on an enlarged
view of the principles of Frederick Hoffman. His
lectures were invariably delivered from a few
short notes, and he canied with him both the re-
gard and the enthusiasm of the pupils.
Dr. Cullen continued his practice as a physi-
cian, as well as his medical lectures, till a few
months before his death, when the infirmities of
age induced him to resign his professorship. On
the 8th of January 1790, the lord provost, magis-
trates, and town council of Edinburgh voted a
piece of plate, of fifty guineas value, to Dr. Cul-
len, as a testimony of their respect for his distin-
guished services to the university, during the
period of thirty-four years that he had held an
academical chair. A meeting of his pupils was
held on the 12th, in the Medical Hall, when an
address to the doctor was agreed upon. A motion
was also made and unanimously agreed to, that a
statue, or some durable monument of the doctor,
should be erected in some proper place, to perpe-
tuate his fame. The Royal Physical Society also
agreed to an address to the venerable professor,
to which a suitable answer was returned by his
son Henry, Dr. Cullen himself being much indis-
posed. Similar addresses were presented by the
Hibernian Medical Society, and by the American
Physical Society of Edinburgh. The senatus aca-
demicus of the university of Edinburgh also held
a meeting, at which they passed a resolution agree-
ing to allow for the proposed monument a conspi-
cuous place in the new college. Dr. Cullen did
not long survive these flattering testimonials of
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CULLEN.
787
CUMlVflNG.
respect. He died February 5, 1790. He had
married, while in Hamilton, Miss Johnston, the
daughter of a clergyman in the neighbourhood,
and by her he had five sons and four daughters.
Two of his sons were Robert, a lord of session, of
whom a memoir follows, and Dr. Henry CuUen.
Dr. Cullen's works are :
Synopsis Noaologis Methodica in usum Stnaiosornni.
This work was first published in Edin. 1769, 1 yoL 8to. The
same, Edin. 1772, 8vo. 1780, 8vd. ; but afterwards enlarged
to 2 Tols. The 4th ed. oontainipg the Anthor*s last correc-
tions, was published, Edm. 1785, 2 vols. 8vo. And another
entit. Nosology ; or, A Systematic Arrangement of Diseases
by Classes, Orders, Genera, and Species; with the distin-
goiahing characters of each, and outlines of the systems of
Sanrages, LinnsBos, Vogel, Sagar, and Macbride. Translated
from the Latin. Edin. 1800, 8vo. Since that time there
have been several editions, both in this country, and on the
Continent 7th ed. Edm. 1802, 8vo. Translated into Eng-
lish. Lond. 1799, 8vo. Several Abridgments.
Institutions of Medicine, a treatise on Physiology for the
use of Students. 1772, 12mo. 2d ed. 1777, 8vo. 8d ed.
corrected. Edin. 1786, 8vo. Various translations.
Lectures on the Materia Medica ; with many correcticms,
from the collation of diHerent manuscripts, by the editors.
Lond. 1772, 4to. Published without the Author's consent or
knowledge; from Notes taken at his Lectures. Reprinted
with large additions and corrections, and the Authoi^s per-
mission. Lond. 1773, 4to. Of this woric Dr. C. hunself
gives an enhirged and corrected edition. Edin. 1789, 2 vols. 4to.
Letter to Lord Cathcart, concerning the Recovery of Per-
sons drowned, and seemingly dead. Edin. 1775, 8vo.
First lines of the Practice of Physic ; for the use of Stu-
dents in the Univeraty of Edinburgh. Edin. 1776-83, 4
vols. 8vo. 2d edit Edin. 1784, 4 vols. 8vo. In English,
1789, 2 vols. 4to. A new edit with Notes by Dr. Rother-
ham. Edin. 1796, 4 vols. 8vo. Another by Dr. P. Reid,
including recent improvements and discoveries. Edin. 1802,
2 vols. 8vo. Reprinted with improvements. 1810. Dr.
Gregory also gives a correct edition of this work. Various
translations.
Clinical Lectures, delivered m the years 1765-6, by Wil-
liam Cullen, M.D. taken in short hand, by a Gentleman who
attended. Lond. 1797, 8vo. By John Thomson. Edin.
1814, 8vo.
Of the Cold produced by Evaporating Fluids ; and of some
other means of producmg Cold. Ess. Phys. and Lit iL p.
145, 1756. This litUe Tract is also printed with one of Dr.
Bhusk's.
CULLEN, Robert, an eminent judge under
the title of Lord Cullen, the eldest son of the pre-
ceding, studied at the university of Edinburgh,
and was admitted advocate, 15th December 1764.
His practice at the bar was extensive, and in ad-
dition to considerable legal knowledge, he was
distinguished as an acute and logical reasoner.
He was a contributor to the Mirror and Lounger,
and the various essays from his pen in these pub-
lications were much admired. His manners were
polished and agreeable, and he was one of the few
individuals who were spoken favourably of by the
Rev. George William Auriol Hay Drumn ond, in
his *Town Eclogue,' (Edinburgh, 1804, 8vo,) in
which he is styled ** courteous Cullen." In his
youth he was an excellent mimic, and some amus-
ing anecdotes of his imitative talents are given in
the sketch of him which accompanies his portrait
in Kay*s Edinburgh Portraits. On the death of
Lord Alvah in 1796, he was appointed a lord of
session, and took his seat by the title of Lord
Cullen, on 18th November of that year, and on
29th June 1799, he succeeded Lord Swiuton as a
lord of justiciary. He died at Edinburgh on 28th
November 1810. Late in life, he manied a ser-
vant girl of the name of Russell, btit by her had
no issue. After liis lordship's death, she married
a gentleman of property in the West Indies, where
she died in 1818.
CuiCMiNO, properly Coxtn, or dk Cumtit, a surname de-
rived originally ^m the ancient honse of de Comines in
France. Wyntonn (who wrote about 1420) absurdly states
that the first of the name of Comyn in Scotland, a keeper of
the royal chamber, acquired his deagnation from saying to
all who knocked at the king's door, ^^Cum in!*^ It is im-
possible to attribute to ignorance alone this exquisite blunder,
as the antecedents of the noble family were too familiar to be
utterly foigotten in that age, especially by the prior of Loch-
leven, any more than the fact that French had been the ex-
clusive language of the court and nobles of Scotland for up*
wards of two centuries, during which period the ftunily heJd
sway. But they had been the vanquished party, and it was
the fashion of Uiat age to vUify the unfortunate. This inci-
dent shows how little reliance is to be placed on our earliest
Scottish historians, especially where national or party preju-
dices are concerned. John count de Comyn in Normandy,
descended from Charlemagne, on being appointed governor
of the chief towns in that duchy, assumed the name of De
Burgo. His eldest son, Hubert de Burgo, married Arlota,
mother of William the Conqueror, and from their son Bo-
bert the noble house of Clanricarde in Ireland, and all the
families of the name of De Burgh or Burke, in that kingdom,
are said to derive their descent. In 1068, William the Con-
queror, learning of an invasion on the part of the Danes, in
conjunction with the disaffected EngUsh, aided by Malcolm
the Fourtii of Scotland, appointed Robert de Comyn governor
of Northumberland, who by a rising of the natives was mas-
sacred with his whole garrison at Durham shortly after. The
earliest mentioned in Scottish annals was William de Comyn.
He had been educated for the church under Ganfred, bishop of
Durham, sometime chancellor to Heniy the First of England.
He held the lands oi Northallerton and others in England,
and firom Prince Henry, the son of King David, he obtained
a grant of the estate of Unton-Roderick in Bozbuigbshire,
which is said to have been the first place of settlement in
North Britain of the powerful family of the Comyns. In
1183, he was, by David the First, nominated chancellor of
Scotland. His name appears as such in some of the char-
3a
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GUMMING
738
GUMMING.
ten ot* that uionardL lu 1142, he msu*»d on ui« bittuoprio of
Durham, under a grant from the empress Mande, bat soon
after resigned that see, reserving only certain of the episcopal
estates for behoof of his nephew and heir, Richard. In the
reigns of Malcolm the Foorth and William the Lion, the
name of Richard de Comyn, appears among the witnesses to
some of the charters of those monarchs. In the reign of the
former, he was a man of great power and authority in Scot-
land, and by King William he was created ** justiciar" of
Scotland, as only what is now the northern part of the king-
dom was then called. He married Hexilda, great-grand-
daughter of King Duncan, and died about 1190.
His son William was, in 1200, sent as envoy by William
the lion to congratulate King John on his succeeding to the
throne of England. He was also engaged in several other
embasues to the English court He was sheriff of Forfar,
and, like his father, also held the office of justiciary for Soot-
land, and various grants of land were made to him. He dis-
tinguished himself by putting down a rebellion of the native
tribes under Guthred, of the family of Hetb, otherwise Mac-
William, who had landed from Ireland, and whom he put to
death. Through his marriage, in 1210, with Marjory, count-
ess of Buchan in her own right, he became earl of Buchan.
This was his second marriage, and his son by it, Alexander
Comyn, succeeded him m the earldom, on his death in 1233,
(see earldom of Buchan, onle, p. 453). By his first wife (a
lady whose name has not descended to us), WiUiam earl of
Buchan had two sons, Richard and Walter. In 1230, Walter,
who had become eari of Menteith in right of his wife, acquired
the extensive lordship of Badenooh by a grant from Alexan-
der the Second, (see Bademogh, surname of, and Menteith,
earl of,) and thus became the founder of the senior branch of
the Comyns. He possessed large estates in the south of Scot-
land, and neariy caused a war between Alexander the Second
and Henry the Third, by erecting two castles, one in Hermitage
in Liddesdale and another in Galloway, without the consent
of the king of England, to whom the suzerain^ of these dis-
tricts of right pertained. As he died without leaving heirs
male of his body, all his possessions went to the descendants
of his brother Richard. The son of the latter, John Comyn,
who was tbe first of the name known as the ** Red Comyn,"
acted a conspicuous part during the minority of Alexander
the Third. He was jusUdary of Galloway, and joined the
other barons who demanded security from Henry the Thu^
of England, before they would allow his daughter the young
queen of SootUnd to go to London for her aocouclKnnent.
In 1264, with John Baliol and Robert de Bruce, he led a
body of Soots to the assistanoe of Henry against his rebellious
barons. He died about 1274. William, his eldest son, ap-
pears to have married his cousin, the heiress of Menteith, but
left no issue. John, the second son, known as the " Black
Comyn,** became lord of Badenoch, and was named among
the magnates of Scotland who settled the Norwegian marriage
of the princess Margaret in 1281. In 1286, on the decease
of Alexander the Third, he was chosen by a parliament which
met at Soone, one of the six guardians or regents of Scotland,
during the minority of the Maiden of Norway, his cousin, the
eari of Buchan, being also one of them. On the death of the
mfant queen, the '* Black Comyn '* became one of the original
candidates for the crown, as descended firom King Duncan by
the daughter of his son Donald-bane ; and at the meeting of
Edward the First with the competitors at Holy well-haugh,
on 2d June 1291, he readily took the oaths offered to him,
acknowledging Edward as feudal superior of Scotland. He
afterwards, with the other competitors, the regents of the
kingdom, and Hiany other barons, swore fealty to the English
king. After the election of Baliol to the vacant thruue, he
seems to have retired fiom public life. It is uncertain when
he died, but he was alive in 1299. He married Marjory, sis-
ter of King John BalioL Their son, John, also, like his
grandfather, styled the '* Red Comyn,** possessed the same
right to the Scottish throne which was vested in Balid him-
self, had the latter died without issue. He adhered to the
English interest as long as Edward supported his kin-smen
the Baliols, but when his insulting treatment of John Baliol
drove the Scots nobles to arms, he joined the army which, in
1296, under the leadership of the earl of Buchan, inv«ied
England, and carried fire and sword through the county of
Cumberland. Soon after he was among the Scots nobles and
knights who, with a strong force of followers, were admitted
into the castle of Dunbar by the countess of March, (Maijory
Comyn, daughter of Alexander, eari of Buchan,) and held in
check the large army which Edward despatched under War-
rene, eari of Surrey. After the battle of Dunbar, April 28,
1296, the castle snrrendo^ to Edward himself. On this
occasion Comyn was taken prisoner but was soon released.
After the dgnal defeat of the English by Wallace at the
bridge of Stirling, on 11th September 1297, Comyn joined
the patriot army, and at the battle of FaUdrk, July 22, 1298,
he commanded the cavalry, but scarcely had the battle begun
when the whole body under his command turned their hones'
heads, and shamelessly fled finom the field. He afterwards
threatened to impeach Wallace for treason for his conduct
during the war, and that hero in consequence voluntarily re-
signed the office of governor of ScotUnd, on which Comyn
and John de Soulis were chosen regents, and after some time
Bruce earl of Carrick and Lamberton bishop of St. Andrews
were associated with them in the government. In 1300,
when Edward again invaded Scotland, the eari of Bndian and
John Comyn of Badenoch had an interview with that mon-
arch, when they demanded that Baliol their lawful king
should be permitted peaceably to rogn over them, and that
their estates, which had been unjustly bestowed upon the
English nobles, should be restored. Edward treated these
propositions with an unceremonious refusal ; and, after dedar-
ing that they would defend themselves to the uttermost, the
king and the Scottish barons parted in wrath. In 1302 he
joined forces with Sir Simon Eraser of Tweeddale, and on the
muir of Roslin defeated the English in three battles in one
day, the 25th February 1803. The Eng^h came up m three
divisions, one after the other, each exceeding the Scots in
number, and they were snccesavely defeated as they advanced ;
the first under Sir John de Segrave, the English governor of
Scotland ; the second led by Sir Ralph de Manton, styled
Ralph the Coffiorer from his office as clerk of Edward's ward-
robe; and the third headed by Sir Robert de Nevilk. After
that threefold victory he continued at the head of the patri-
ots, with Sir Sunon Eraser and Sir William Wallace, through-
out the unequal and terrible struggle that ensued, thus nobly
redeeming hb character, which had been tarnished by his
fiying finom the brunt of battle at Falkirk. Scotland having
been again overrun by a firesh army under Edward in person,
Comyn, WaUace, and Eraser, unable to make head against
him, were driven into the wilds and fastnesses, where thev
still carried on a sort of guerilla war against the convoys <rf
the EnglisL Langtoft, the English historian, thus writes:
** The lord of Badenauh, FreseOe, and Walals,
Lived at thieves' Uw, ever robbing alle wayes.**
Edward is said at this time to have penetrated as fw north
as Cromdale, and to have staid some time in the castle o(
Lochindorb, then the chief stronghold of the Comyns Stii^
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ling custle was almost the only fortress which remained in
the hands of the Scots, and the regent Corayn, with the view
of preventing a siege, attempted to defend the passage of the
Forth against Edward, bat his small force was routed and
dispersed by the English ; and on 9th Febmary 1304, the
earls of Pembroke and Ulster, with Sir Heniy Percy, met
Comyn at Strathurd (probably now Struthers) in Fife, and a
negotiation took place, in which the late regent and his fol-
lowers, after stipulating for the preservation of their lives,
liberties, and lands, delivered themselves up, and agreed to
the infliction of any pecuniary fine which the conqueror
should impose. From this negotiation Wallace and some
others were specially excepted. Comyn*s conduct in the sub-
sequent revolution which seated his great rival Robert the
Bruce on the throne, has already been referred to (see art.
Bruce, or dk Brus, ante^ pp. 413, 414). It was he who
was stabbed by Bruce before the high altar of the church of
the Minorite Friars at Dumfries, and slain, with his uncle Sir
Robert Comyn, by Bmce's attendants, Lindsay and Kirkpa-
trick, on the 4th of February 1305-6. Besides his daim to
the crown of Scotland, he was also allied by blood to the
royal family of England, having married Joan, sister and co-
heir of Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, whose father
was uterine brother of Henry the Third.
John, his only son, died in 1325, without issue, and with
him terminated the male Hne of the principal family. He
had two sisters; one of whom, Joan, married the eari of
Athol of the time, who obtained with her some small share of
the vast domains of the once powerful family of the Gomyns
of Badenoch, but having revolted against Bruce, his estates
were forfeited. The power of the Comyns was eflectually
broken after the battle of Inverury, 22d May 1308, in which
King Robert the Bruce, although very ill at the time, took
the field in person against the third earl of Buchan of the
Comyn family, and defeated him and his followers with great
slaughter. The name afterwards sunk into an obscurity from
which it did not emerge for centuries.
Mr. Carrick, in his * Life of Wallace,* says that ** while the
Scots in the low country cried out against the * fause Cum-
yn*s kyn,* their vassals in Badenoch and Lochaber re-echoed
the chai^, till the very name became cognominal with de-
ceit ;** so much so that, in those parts of the Highlands where
their influence extended, there was a Gaelic proverb, the Eng-
lish of which was, that ** while there are trees in a wood,
there will be deceit in a Cumyn.**
Seldom have the claims of Celtic traditionists been less
happy than is that adopted by Logan (Clans^ vol. ii. art Clarm
Chuimem)^ to establish the existence of an extensive and
powerful native clan Gumming in Badenoch, at a period be-
fore the reach of other record. The attempt rests on the cir-
cumstance that the second abbot of loolmkill was named
Cumine anno 597, and that the sixth abbot (living in 657)
was Comineus Albus, as well as that the name Gumming
occurs in local topography, and in one instance in connec-
tion with the prefix Kil or Gil so frequent in Scotch and
Irish topography, viz., Killie-Cumming {KU-Chndmem)^ the
original name of Fort Augustus in Inverness -shire. This
ecclesiastical word, (which however Logan and others assum-
ing to be Celtic translate variously as a druidical circle, a
grave, 6cc,) is from the Latin celk^ a cell, and exactly
describes those edifices which, up to a later age than mo-
dems are prepared to believe, served as places of devotion
for the rude inhabitants of the country, which Henry of
Huntingdon describes as ** not built of stone but of wood,
and covered with reeds as is the custom in Scotland,** and
which under the same name are referred to by him as con-
structed even in his age in remote parts of England. They
are not univereally dedicated to saints, as has been supposed,
but are frequently called after parties by whom they were
erected or supported, and when Uie local topography of Bri-
tain shall have been better understood will be found to have
as many Norman and Saxon terminations and compounds
and founders as early British or Celtic. Kellet, the litHe celi^
two localities in Bolton le Sands, Lancashire ; Kelling {Kel-
UnoCy, another Romanesque diminutive having the same mean-
ing, a parish in Norfolk, are examples under the variety Kd;
and Kilgrant, the cell of Grant, or Powerstown, in Tipperaiy;
Kildalkey, the cell De la key or of the rock, m Meath ; Kil-
barry, the cell of Barri or De Barri in Waterford; and among
others lUloonquhar, the cell with the quhair or chour, in Fife,
under its more frequent form of KiL It is therefore most
natural that a similar rude edifice, constructed for devotion
amongst their dependents in Badenoch by one of the Norman
conquerors of that name, should be called after him Kil
Cuimein or Killie-Cumming. The assumption of the badge of
the cvmin plant for the supposed dan, a plant that is only
found in the region of Egypt, but which happens to be named
in the Old Testament, is scarcely correct. It is rather the
conmion sallow, a species of willow, that the Gummings have
adopted as their dan badge, although Logan calls it the
cumin plant.
In the reign of Alexander the Third, as stated by Fordnn,
there were of the name in Scotland, three earls, Buchan,
Menteith, and Athol, and one great feudal baron, Comyn
lord of Strathbogie, with thirty knights all possessing lands.
The chief of the dan was lord of Badenoch and Lochaber,
and other extensive districts in the Highlands. Upwards of
sixty belted knights were bound to follow his banner with all
their vassals, and he made treaties with princes as a prince
himself. One such compact with Lewellyn of Wales is pi^
served in RymePs Foedera.
The Gummings, as the name is now spelled, are numerous
in the counties of Aberdeen, Banfl^ and Moray ; but a con-
siderable number changed theur names to Farquharson, as
being descended from Ferquhard, second son of Alexander
the fourth designed of Altyre, who lived in the middle of the
fifteenth century, in consequence of being prevented, for some
reason, from burying their relatives in the family burial-place.
It is from them that the Farquharsons of Balthog, Haughton,
and others in the county of Aberdeen derive their descent
From Sur Robert Comyu, younger son of John lord of Bade-
noch, who, (as ahready mentioned,) died about 1274, are de-
scended the Cmnmings of Altyre, Logic, Anehiy, (one of
whom in 1760 founded the village of Guminestown in Aber-
deenshire,) Rdugas, &C. His son, Thomas Gumming, was,
by an act of pariiament held at Perth in 1820, excepted out
of the forfeiture of the Gummings, from which it would seem
that he was never engaged in the Ballol interest His ddest
son. Sir Richard Gumming, was in high favour with David
the Second, by whom he was, in 1868, sent on an embassy to
the court of England to negotiate affairs of state, for which
he got a safe conduct from King Edward the Third. He re-
ceived two charters from Kmg David, the one dated 6th Jan-
uary 1368, and the other 15th December 1870. By the for-
mer he got the lands of Devally, with the office of forester of
the forest of Temway (Damaway) in the county of Moray,
&C., where he seems to have resided ; but in 1871, at a court
held at Perth, by Robert the Second, he resigned ^e castle of
Damaway to Thomas, son of John the Grant, whose daugh-
ter he had married, for their faithfbl and praiseworthy service
to Thomas Randolph, earl of Moray, regent of Sootkmd, dur-
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GUMMING.
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CUMMmCr.
ing the minori^ of David the Seoondf and Thomas and John,
bifl sons. Sir Richard's second son, Duncan Camming of
Lochtenrandich, was progenitor of the Cummings of Anchry,
one of whom, WilUam Cnmming, the first who possessed that
estate, bom in 1634 (and eighth from Donoan), bequeathed,
on 12th October 1693, some lands near Elgin, for the snpport
of four decayed merchants of that town, who are called
'* Cnmming's Beidmen." He also built the church of Mon-
quhitter.
Ferquhard Cnmming, the eldest son of Sir Richard, was the
first of the family designed by the title of Altyre. Sir Thomas
Cnmming of Altyre, the eldest s6n of Ferquhard, obtained in
1419, a warrant from the crown to build the castles and for-
talioes of DoUas and Eamside. His eldest son, James, died
without issue, and was succeeded by the second son, Alexan-
der, who died in the reign of James the Third. John, the
third son, was progenitor of the Cummings of Eamside. He
had also a daughter, Jane, called for her beauty, " the fair
maid of Murray," the fourth wife of the first earl of Huntly.
Alexander's eldest son, Sir Thomas Cumnung of Altyre,
by his prudent management, in 1470, compromised and ad-
justed all the di£fiarences which for some time had subsisted
between his family and the town of Forres, oonceming the
mosses of Blair and Kirktown of Altyre. His son, Alexander
Cnmming of Altyre, when a young man, was, in 1602, cho-
sen one of the arbiters for settling some differences between
Andrew bishop of Moray and Hugh Rose of Kih^vock.
On 24th July 1548 Alexander Cnmming of Altyre became
cautioner for John and Hugh Cumming his son and brother,
and ten others, to xmderly the law for cutting and slaying
with their swords eleven oxen and cows belonging to Alexan-
der Urquhart of Burrisyards, and for casting down and de-
stroying two houses built on his lands, and for other acts of
oppresnon committed by thenu He had also a feud with the
laird of Brodie ; as we find that on November 14, 1550, Al-
exander Brodie of that ilk, and one hundred and twenty-six
others, were denounced rebels and put to the bora, for not
standing their trial for attacking Alexander Cumming of
Altyre and his servants between his place of Altyre and the
lands of Balnafeny, for their slaughter, and putting them to
flight in great numbers on horse and foot, and for the crael
mutilation of one of them, a servant of Cnmming. On the
26th June of the same year he had obtained a decreet of
exemption for himself, his Idnsmen, dan, and friends from
attending the sheriff court of Moray. His grandson, Alexan-
der, (eldest son, and apparent heir of Thomas Cumming of
Altyre,) a man of great bravery and resolutdon, joined his
cousin the earl of Huntly, in the rdgn of King James the
Sixth, and had the oonunand of a troop of horse at the battle
of Glenlivet, where the king's troops under the command of
the earl of Aigyle were defeated, 3d October, 1594.
In 1627 Robert Cumming of Altyre gave his bond to the
ooandl of Scotland for the peace of the Highlands. His sec-
ond son John, was direct ancestor of the Cummings of Lo-
gic. In 1657, his eldest son, Robert Cumming of Altyre, took
for his second wife, Lucy, daughter of Sir Ludovick Gordon
of Gordonstown, baronet, and was great-great-grandfather
of Alexander Cumming, Esq. of Altyre, who entered the
army early, was in the expedition to Carthagena in 1741,
and reoeived promotion for his gallantry in the attempt to
storm the Boccachicca fort. By Grace Pearoe, niece and
sole heiress of John Penrose, Esq. of Penrose, in the county
of Cornwall, he had six sons and three daughters. His
eldest son, Alexander Penrose Cunming of Altyre, being
heir and representative of the last Sk William Gordon of Gor-
donstown, bart, who died in 1795, in obedience to the last will
of that gentleman, assumed the name and arms of Gordon of
Gordonstown, and was created a baronet, 2l8t May, 1804.
Early in life Sir Alexander had entered the army as an officer
in the 13th regiment. He was subsequently lieut^iant-
colonel of the Strathspey Fencibles, and received the thanks
of the commander-in-chief for suppressing a mutiny at Dnm-
fries in 1794. He was M.P. for the Inverness district of
burghs, and died 10th February 1806. He had married, in
1773, Helen, daughter of Sir Ludovic Grant of Grant, baro-
net, and had four sons and nine daughters. His eldest son,
George, of the Hon. East India Company's service, died un-
married, in 1800. The second son. Sir William Gordon-
Cumming, the second baronet, bora 20th July 1787, sat in
parliament for the Elgin burghs at the period of the pass-
ing of the Reform Bill. He died 23d December 1854. Ho
married, first, in 1815, the eldest daughter of John Campbell,
Esq., by whom he had six sons and five daughters. His
first wife having died in 1842, he married, 2dly, the 2d daugh-
ter of Mackintosh of Geddes, and had one daughter by her.
His eldest son. Sir Alexandw Penrose Gordon-Cnmming, bom
17th August 1816, a captam 4th light dragoons, and 71st
light infantry, became third baronet; married the only daugh-
ter of Rev. Augustus Campbell, rector of Liverpool ; issue,
two sons and one daughter. He is head and representative
of the ancient family of the Comyns so celebrated in Scottish
history ; heir general to the Penrose family of Cornwall, and
inherits, through female descent, the estate of the Gordons,
premier baronets of Nova Scotia (baronetage now extinct.
The second son, Roualeyn George Gordon-Curaming, bora
March 15, 1820, when a young man was an officer in the
Madras cavalry and afterwards in the Cape mounted rifles.
An enterprising traveller and lion-hunter in the interior of
South Africa, he published a work entitled * Five Tears' Ad-
ventures in the far interior of South Africa,' with numerous
illustrations, 2 vols, post 8vo. 1850. He made himself
known also by an exhibition of hunting trophies, native
arms and costume, one of the most unique of its kind.
The name Roualeyn appears to have been taken horn an
ancient possesion of the family of that name in ^e district
of Cunningham, Ayrshire, afterwards belonging to the Mures,
and now called Rowallan. In Anderson^s * Diplomata Sootis'
is an acquittance of Walter Cumin, dominus de Roualeyn, to
Richard de Boyle of Calbume (now Kelburae), ancestor of
the earls of Glasgow, of forty shillings annually paid out of
the lands of Malderland in that barony.
Sir William*s younger brother, Charies James Cumming,
having married Mary Brace of Kinnaird, granddaughter of
the Abyssinian traveller, (with issue, Mary Elizabeth, count-
ess of Elgin, who died in 1843,) assumed the name of Cum-
ming Brace, and is designated of Rosseisle and Eiimaird.
One of his sisters, Helen, numried Sir Archibald Dunbar,
baronet of Northfield, and another, Louisa, John Hay Forbes,
Esq., a lord of session, under the title of Lord Medwyn, re-
signed in 1852.
A branch of the Cummings of some oonaderation in its
time, was the family of Culter, the first of whidi, Jardine
Cumyn, was second son of William Cumyn earl of Buchan,
who received from his father in 1270 the lands of Inveralloch
in Buchan. Alexander Cumyn, the fourteenth of this family,
was created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1672. The second
baronet was a very eccentric personage, and a memoir of him
foUows. The titie became extinct on the death of the third
baronet, bom in 1737, towards the end of last century. James
Cumming of Culter was one of the asaze on the cel^yrated
trial of the master of Forbes in 1537, for treasonable coospi-
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CUMMING,
741
SIR ALEXANDER.
racy against the king's life and for plotting the deetniction of
the Scots army at Jedburgh ; and Mr. Archibald Cumming,
fiar of Colter, was ^so one of the assize on the trial of Ham-
ilton of BothwellhaQgh in 1580, for the mmrder of the regent
Moray.
In the list of the grand jury of Elgin and Forres, of date
1556, we find the names of Alexander Gnmming of Eanunde
and William Camming without any designation.
On Jane 11, 1596, " Ane callit Cuming the Muncke was
hangitfor making of fake wrettis," [jBwtcZT* Diart/J]
In the Bagman Roll occurs the name of Williehnos Cumine
of Kilbride, Lanarkshire, as having sworn fealty to £dward
the First. His son, John Camine, was forfeited for adhering
to the English.
A celebrated modem bearer of the name is the ReY. John
Camming, D.D., bom in Aberdeen Nov. 10, 1810, and ordain-
ed in 1882 minister of the Scotch church. Crown Court, Lon-
don, who has distinguished himself by his able championship
of the doctrines of the Reformation, and by his nomerous
theological writings.
The first of the family styled of Relugas, in the county of
Moray, was James Camming, who lived in the reign of James
the Sixth. He was the son of William Cumming of Presley,
head of a tribe of the Cumming clan in the same county, and
his youngest son, George Cumming, was an officer of rank in
the army of Gustavus Adolphus. His eldest son, John Cum-
ming of Relugas, had, with four daughters, seven sons. James
Cumming, the eldest, married Jean, daughter of Robert Cum-
ming of Altyre, and had two sons, Robert, his heir, and John,
a physician in Irvine, father of another John, who, being also
educated for the medical profession, succeeded him in his
practice in that town. William Cumming, the second of the
seven sons of the second lau-d, was professor of philosophy in
the university of Edinburgh. John, the third son, was min-
ister of Auldearn, and dean of Moray. The eldest son of the
latter, also named John Cumming, a doctor of divinity, was
in 1695 appointed regiua professor of divinity and ecclesiasti-
cal history in the university of Edinbui*gh. His appointment
created considerable excitement at the time, as it was the
first regiu8 professorship that had been founded in any of the
Scottish universities, and no professor had ever been admitted
a member of the aenaius aoademicus of Edinbuigh college,
without being nominated by the town council, the patrons of
the university. On this occasion, however, the chair of ec-
clesiastical history had been instituted by the government
without consulting the council as to the propriety or expe-
diency of the measure, and they naturally felt that their
rights had been encroached upon in the matter. The other
professors Vecognised at once the validity of his appointment ;
but the town council was not so easily satisfied. He does
not appear to have qualified before the magistrates till the
10th of November 1702, and at a meeting of the town coun-
cil held on the 15th Februaiy 1703, at which a visitation of
the college was resolved upon, the lord provost acquainted
the council that '^ Mr. Camming was come into the college as
a master of some profession, and that it was fit to see his
gift, (or commission,) and know his profession, that the coun-
cil may give rules and directions thereanent." The council
accordingly ordained Mr. Cumming to give in his commission
to the clerk to that eSeci, This requisition not being com-
plied with, the saUries of the professors were ordered to be
stopped, till they produced their acts of admission. ** This,**
says Mr. Bower, " could only be designed as a check upon the
manner in which the professor of ecclesiastical history had
been admitted ; and they calculated that they could thos in-
directiy obtain the information they required." But after
several ineffectual efforts to compel him to produce his com-
mission, the matter was compromised. This professor oonti-
uaes to be appointed by the crown, and although like other
regiut professors, he is introduced to the senatui acadmnicua
by the coll^ bailie, it is under protest. [^Bower's History
of UniversiUf ofEdmbwgh^ vol. ii pp. 25 and 319.]
Patrick, the sixth son of John Cumming, second laird of
Relugas, above mentioned, was minister of Ormiston ; and
Duncan Cumming, the seventh and youngest son, was physi-
cian to King William of Orange at the battie of the Boyne.
This may explain the interest which his nephew, Dr. John
Cumming, had in obtaining the institution of a new chair in
the university of Edinburgh in his favour.
Robert Cumming, the fourth of Relugas, and fifth from
William of Presley, had a son, Patrick Cumming of Relugas,
D.D., who, like his father^s cousin, was reffius professor of
divinity and ecclesiastical history in the university of Edin-
burgh, to which chair he was appointed, December 7, 1737,
on the death of professor Crawford. He was also one of the
ministers of Edinburgh. He gave lectures in the university
upon Jo. Alphonti Turretim Compendium HistoricB EccUsi-
asUcm. He was a man of very extensive critical knowledge,
and took an active part in the business of the General
Assembly, of which he was three times moderator. As a
preacher he is represented as being equalled by few *^in an
easy, fluent, neat, and elegant style." Of his two published
sermons one was preached on the occasion of a fast appointed
by the king for the Rebellion of 1745. He married Jane,
eldest daughter of Mr. David Lauder, third son of Sir John
Lauder of Foontainhall, baronet, by whom he had five sons
and a daughter. He re«gned his professorship, on 18th June
1762, in favour of his eldest son, Robert, also a clergyman,
who never delivered any lectures in the college. On his death,
in 1788, he was succeeded in the chair by Dr. Thomas Hardie,
one of the ministers of Edinburgh. Patrick Cumming, a
younger brother of Robert, was professor of the oriental b&n-
guages in the university of Glasgow.
CUMMING, or COMYN, Sir Alexander,
Baronet, an entbosiast of great bat misapplied
talents, the son of Sir Alexander Camming of,
Colter, who was created a baronet in 1672, was
bom aboat the beginning of the eighteenth centary.
It appears by his Joamal, which was in the pos-
session of the late Isaac Beed, Esq., that he was
bred to the law in Scotland, bat was indaced to
qait that profession by a pension of three hundred
pounds a-year being assigned to him by govern-
ment, which was withdi-awn in 1721. In 1729, in
consequence of a dream of Lady Camming, (Anna,
daughter of Lancelot Whitehall, a gentleman be-
longing to a family of that name in Shropshire,
commissioner of the customs for Scotland,) he
undertook a voyage to America for the purpose of
visiting the Cherokee nations; and on the 3d of
April 1730, in a general meeting of chiefs at
Nequisee among the mountains, he was crowned
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GUMMING.
742
CUNNINGHAM.
commander and chief ruler of the Chcrokees. He
returned to Charlestown, April 13, with six
Indian chiefs, and on June 5 aiiived at Dover.
On the 18tb he presented the Indians to George
the Second at Windsor, when he laid his crown at
his majesty^s feet; on which occasion the chiefs
also did homage. In consequence of the feelings
of dissatisfaction which Sir Alexander found to
prevail in America, he formed the design of esta-
blishing banks in each of the provinces dependent
on the British exchequer, and accountable to the
British parliament, as the only means of securing
the dependency of the colonics. In 1748 he laid
his plans before Mr. Pelham, the Minister, who
treated him as a visionary enthusiast. He con-
nected this scheme with the restoration of the
Jews, for which he supposed the time appointed
to be arrived, and that he himself was alluded to
in various passages of Scripture as their deliverer.
Finding that the Minister would not listen to his
projects, he proposed to open a subscription him-
self for five hundred thousand pounds, for the pur-
pose of establishing provincial banks in America,
and settling three hundred thousand Jewish fami-
lies among the Cherokee mountains. He next
tunied his thoughts to alchemy, and began to try
experiments on the transmutation of metals. Be-
ing deeply involved in debt, he was indebted for
support chiefly to the contributions of his friends.
In 1766, Archbishop Seeker appointed him a pen-
sioner in the Charter-house, London, where he
died at an advanced age in August 1775, and was
interred at East Bamet, where Lady Cumming
had been buried in 1743. His son, who had suc-
ceeded him in his title, was a captain in the army,
but became deranged in his intellects, and died in
indigence. At his death the title became extinct.
CUMMING, William, a learned physician, the
son of Mr. James Cumming, mei-chant in Edin-
burgh, was bom September 30, 1716. He studied
medicine for four years in the university of his na-
tive city ; and in 1735 spent nine months at Paris,
improving himself in anatomy. In 1738 he quit-
ted Edinburgh, and ultimately settled at Dorches-
ter, where his practice became very extensive.
To Mr. Hutchins' History of Dorsetshii-e he ren-
dered the most useful assistance. In 1752 he
received a diploma from the university of Edin-
burgh ; and was soon after elected a fellow of the
Royal College of Physicians there. In 1769 he
was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
of London, and in 1781, of that of Scotland. He
died of a dropsy, March 25, 1788, in the seventy-
fourth year of his age.
CuNMiNOHAM, a stumame derived from the northern dis-
trict of Ayrshire, ancientlj written Konigham (Teutonic), sig-
nifying regiuM domiclUwn^ or the king's bouse or halntation.
The name, although a common one in ScotUmd, is not so
prevalent in the district whence it originally sprung, (as is
now, indeed^ the case pretty generally witJi many of the
names of the more ancient families of local origin), there hav-
ing been in 1852, in the whole forty-az parishes of the county
of Ayr, only forty-two persons bearing this surname, as ascer-
tained from the Ayrshire Directory of that year.
The first of the name in ScotUmd was one Wemebald, who
came from the north of England in the b^inning of the
twelfth century, and settled in the district as a vassal undo*
Hugh de Morville, lord high constable of Scotland; from
whom he obtained the manor of Cunningham, whidi compre-
hended the church and most of the parish of Kilmaurs, and
in consequence assumed the name. The statement of Van
Bassen, a Norwegian genealogist, that one Malcolm, the son
of Friskin, obtained the thanedom of Cunningham, for assist-
ing Malcolm Canmore when prince of Scotland, in escaping
from Macbeth, by forking hay over him in a bam in which
he had taken shelter, and that his posterity, from that car-
cumstanoe, adopted Cunningham as a surname and a shake-
fork for their arms, with the motto ** over fork over, ** is one
of those traditionary figments with which the origin of the
surnames of most of our ancient families have been invested,
by writers anxious to give to them a greater antiquity, or to
ascribe to them some distinguished feat of loyalty or enter-
prize in the service of our earlier kings. Sir George Macken-
zie, in his * Science of Heraldty,^ says that this family being
by office masters of the ldng*s stables, took for their armorial
figure, the instrument whereby hay is thrown up to horses,
which in blazon is called a sbakefork. Sir James Dafaymple
absurdly conjectures that the first of the Cunninghams in
Scotland was one of the four knights who mnrdei«d Thomas
a Becket, and who fled from England, and assumed the panife
in their arms, being after the same form as the shakefbik,
and is taken by some for an episcopal pall, as that carried in
tns arms of the see of Canterbury.
In an old genealogical memoir of the Cnmmings in manu-
script quoted in * Hamilton's Description of the Shires of
Lanark and Renfrew,' (p. 21, fiote,) the origin of the Cun-
ningbames is thus ingeniously traced to that dan: ^And
moreover, I am able to prove at this present tyrae, 1622, ther
is not 80 maney noble men as yet of one surname in all En-
rope as professeth the name of Cuming, sua that they wer
all with ther lands and livings in one realme ; and to qnalifie
and mack my alleadgeance good, I have insert heir, as efter
followeth, the names of their houss, stylls and surnames
quho confesseth themselves to be laufullie descended of the
said surname of Cumings. Quhilk oertainlie I have in pairt
be some of ther oune confessiones ; for being at super in the
E. of Glenkaimes hous, in Kilmamoch, quhur my lord wes
present, with his sons, the master, as also the old laird of
Watterstoun, Cunnynghame to his surname, and my lord
goodschiris (goodfather's) brother, quho 4id all thrie oonfesa
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CUNNINGHAM
743
OF KTLMAimS.
and confer that Guminf; was ther right snmame, quhilk wes
to be seen in my lord's ancient evidents, as my old lord did
confess at this tyme, in presence of the whoU companie,
qnhair ther wer divers noble men. And as for the surname
of Connynghame, they took it of that province qnhilk wes
called of aold Cunnynghame, as Comimauld (Cumbernauld)
wes called Cuming's hald. Farder. I have omitted to sett
doune heirfor, the cause whey the earle of Glencaim and sur-
name of Cunnynghames oonfesseth that thair ryte surname
should be Cuming, and wearrs not the Cuming's armes, the
time Shawes. The reason whey, as I understand : Quhen as
the principall noblemen of Cumings was banished, as said is,
tho' he that remained within the realme of Scotland was not
suffered to bruik that surname of Cumings, nor wear their
armes ; nevertheles, for the love and favor that the Cunyng-
hames had naturallie to ther oune surname of Cumings, they,
of ther humilitie, took the schaich (shake fork) for the tother
arms, quhilk is and signifies as servand to the scheawes. This
I dyte not be my inventione, but be more ancient and learned
men, whose more curious to know the doubts of their geno-
logic."
The above-named Wemebald had two sons, Robert and
Galfndns. The latter, under the designation of Galfridus de
Cunninghame, is witness in a charter of King Malcolm the
Fourth, of a donation to the abbey of Scone. Robert, the
elder son, styled of Rilmaurs, with the consent of Richinda
or Resdnda Barclay, his spouse, daughter and heiress of Sir
Humphrey Barclay of GaimtiUy, in the reign of Malcolm the
Fourth, bequeathed the lands of Glenferchartlan6, or Glen-
farquharlin, in the county of Kncardine, to the abbey of
Arbroath. He gave also his village of Cunningham, the
patronage of the kirk of Kilmaurs and half a carrucate of
land belonging to the said kirk, to the abbacy of Kelso, which
gift was confirmed by Richard de Morville, constable of Scot-
land, in 1162. The consideration of this grant was an easy
reception into the firatemity of that house, and he gave to the
same abbey two parts of such goods as should belong to him
at his death. He was a vritness in a charter granted by
Richard de Morville of the lands of Hermistoun to Henry
Sinclair. His grandson, Stephen de Cunningham, was one
of the fifteen hostages given to Henry the Second of England
for the liberation of King William the Lion in 1174.
Richard Cunningham, the fifth from Wemebald, is witness
to a charter granted by Allan lord of Galloway, of the lands
of Stephenston, Corsbie, and Monoch, to Hugh Crawford,
ancestor of the earls of Loudoun. In the cartulary of Pais-
ley the name frequmtly occurs. Fergus de Cunningham,'
sixth in descent from Wemebald, and Malcolm his son resigu
all thdr lands in Kilpatrick, to Maldouin earl of Lennox, and
when that earl dispones them to Paisley, they are specified,
and called Dundrinnans. Immediately after, in the Inquest
of seven men about the lands of Mokineran, Fergus appears,
of date June 1233 ; and in a gift of a net upon the water of
Leven by earl Maldouin, Fergus is designed *' filius Cunning-
name.'* From him were descended the Cunninghames of
Ranfiurly.
Robert, son and heir of Sir Robert de Cunninghame, is
witness in the confirmation of the lands of Ingliston by Tho-
mas, son of Adam Carpentarius, supposed to have been in
the reign of Alexander the Third.
Hervey de Cunnmgham, son of Robert de Cunningham of
Kilmaurs, behaved gallantly at the battle of Largs in 1263,
and from Alexander the Third in the following year he got a
charter of the lands of Kihnaurs. He died before 1268. He
had two sons, William and Galfndns. The latter was ances-
tor of the Cunninghams of Glengamock. Sir William, the
elder son, is witness to a charter of Malcolm earl of I^nnox,
about 1275. His son, Edward de Cunningham, mortified the
lands of Grange to the monastery of Kilwinning, and died
about 1290. He had two sons, Gilbert and Richard. The
younger son was ancestor of the Cunninghams of Polmaise.
Gilbert or Gilmore, the elder, was one of the nominees of
Robert de Brus, in his competition for the crown of Scotland
in 1292. He afterwards swore allegiance to Edward the
First He had three sons, Robert, James and Donald. James,
the second son. got from Robert the Brace, the lands of Has-
sendean in Roxburghshire. Sir James of Cunninghame is
witness in a charter by Walter Stewart of Scotland of the
kirk of Largs to Paisley, dated the 8d of Febraary 1818.
Nigel de Coninghame, the son of James, had a charter of the
lands of Westbemys (Bams) in Fife, 8th December 1376, on
the resignation of Sir Patrick de Polwarth, knight, and from
him the Cunninghams of Beltan and Bams are descended.
Sir Robert de Cunningham of Kilmaurs, the eldest son,
swore fealty to King Edward the First in 1296, in conse-
quence of which his name appears in the Ragman Roll, but
afterwards declared for Robot the Brace, from whom he got
a charter under the great seal, of the lands of Lambrachtan
in Cunningham in 1319. He had two sons, William and
Andrew. The latter was ancestor of the Cunninghams ot
Dramquhassel, Ballindalloch, Balbougie, Banton, and other
families of the name.
Sir William Cunningham of Kilmaurs, the eldest son, ii
witness to a donation to the monastery of Kelso in 1850.
He was one of the Scottish gentlemen proposed as a hostage
for King David the Second in 1854. He married the lady
Eleanor Brace, sister and heiress of Thomas, eari of Carrick,
and in her right had a charter of the earldom from King
David the Second, in 1361. It has generally been affirmed
that she was his second wife, and from the circumstance that
the earldom did not descend in his family, genealogists have
usually stated that she had no issue, and that his sons, ot
which he is said to have had three, were the oflbpring of a
previous marriage. There is good reason, however, /or be-
lieving that she had five sons to him, and it appears from
certain charters, and particularly one of the lands of Kinde-
ven, that Sir William married a second time a lady, whose
christian name was Margaret, but of what family is not
known. In the charter to him of the earldom, no mention is
made of heirs, and on Lady Eleanor's death, it was reassumed
by Robert the Second, who soon after conferred it on his own
eldest son, John, during Sir William's lifetime. Thomas, his
third son, was ancestor of the Cunninghams of Caprington,
baronets, and of the Cunninghams of Enterkin and BedUn.
Robert, the eldest son, one of the hostages for King David the
Second in 1857, died before his father. His second son, also
Sir William Cuiminghara, had a share of the forty thousand
francs sent by the king of France, to be distributed among
the principal persons in Scotland in 1385. He is witness in
a permission by Sir John Blair to draw water through his
lands of Adamton in Kyle, to the mill of Monkton, in 1890,
wherein he is designed " vicecomes de Air." He founded the
collegiate church of Kilmaurs, by charter of date 18th March
1408, and in 1404 is witness to the confirmation of the lands
of Thomly. He married Margaret, the elder of the two
daughters and coheiresses of Sir Robert Dennieston of that
ilk (see Dennieston, Lord), and with her acquired large
possessions, namely, the lands and baronies of Danielston and
Finlayston in Renfrewshire, Kilmaronock in Dumbartonshire,
Glencaim, whence his desoendanu took their title of earl, in
the county of Dumfries, and Redhall and Collinton in Mid
Lothian, as appears from the original contract of division of
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CUNNINGHAM
744
OF CAPRINGTON.
the ooheiresses in 1404. He died in 1418. He had three
Bons : Robert ; William, anc^tor of the family of Canning-
hamhead ; tand Henry, who distingnished himself at the bat-
tle of Beaug^ in 1421.
Sir Robert, the eldest son, got a charter of the lands of
Kilmanrs from Robert duke of Albany, gOTernor of SootUnd,
on his father*s resignation of the same in 1418. He was
knighted by King James the First, and sat on the juiy on the
trial of Mordoch duke of Albany in 1426. He and Sir Alex-
ander Montgomery of Ardrossan, ancestor of the earls of £g-
linton, had a joint commission for governing and defending
Kintyre and Knapdale, 10th August, 1480. By his wife,
Ann, a daughter of Sir John de Montgoroeiy of Eglinton and
Ardrossan, he had two sons, Alexander, and Ardiibald, de-
signed of Waterston.
Alexander de Cunningham, of the fourteenth generation
from Wamebald, was created Lord Kilmauis, by King James
the Second, in 1445, and earl of Glencaim, by King James
the Third, 28th May 1488. See Glbncairn, earl of.
The earl of Glencaim, for supporters to his arms had two
conies, proper relative to the name of Cunningham or Con-
Ingham.
The immediate ancestor of the Cunninghams of Caprington
was Thomas, third son of Sir William Oonningham of Kil-
manrs, who lived in the reign of David the Second. He got
from his father in patrimony the lands of Bai^and in Ayr-
shire, by charter dated in 1385. His son, Adam Cunning-
ham, who succeeded him, married one of the daughters and
coheiresses of Sir Duncan Wallace of Sundrum, by whom he
got the lands of Caprington, which became the chief designa-
tion of the family, and in consequence they were long in use
of quartering the arms of Wallace with their own. Adam
Cunningham of Caprington was, in 1481, one of the hostages
for King James the First, in the room of Sir William Doug-
las of Drumlanrig. He died in the end of the reign of King
James the Second.
His son. Sir Adam Cunningham, had the honour of knight-
hood conferred on him by King James the Fourth. He mar-
ried Isabel, daughter of Malcolm Crawford of Kilbimey,
progenitor of the viscounts Gamock, and died in 1500. His
son, John Cunningham of Caprington, seems to have been
engaged in many of the feuds of the period, as his name oflen
occurs in the Criminal Records of the time. On November
23, 1527, with several kinsmen of the name of Cunningham,
and six other persons, he found caution to appear before the
justiciary, for intercommuning with Hugh Campbell of Lpu-
doun, sheriff of Ayr, a declared rebel and at the horn, for the
slaughter of Gilbert earl of Cassillis. In May 1530, he and
seventeen others were charged with being art and part in the
cruel slaughter of John Tod, and not appearing, they were
denounced rebels, along with David Boswell of Auchinleck,
for this crime. On August 9, 1537, he and the said David
Boswell, with twenty-seven others, found caution to underly
the law at the next justice-aire of Ayr, for art and part
of the mutilation of John Sampson, of the thumb of his right
hand, of forethought felony. By his first wife, Annabella,
daughter of Sir Matthew Campbell of Loudoun, he had two
sons, William, and Thomas, who b supposed to have got
firom his father the lands of Baidland.
William Cunningham of Caprington, the elder son, was a
person of considerable note and influence in his day. Hb
name, with that of the laird of Cunninghamhead, appears at
the famous missive sent in 1570, by some of the barons of
AjTsliire, to Ku-kaldy of Grange, relative to hb rumoured
Intention of slaying John Knox. At the parliament held at
Stirling, 15th July 1678, the liurd of Caprington was cmc of
the persons appointed to examine and report on the Book of
Policy presented by the church, which the lords had refused
to ratify. He was one of the assize on the trial, December
23, 1680, of William Lord Ruthven, lord high treasurer, and
eighty-two others, hb attendants and servants, for the
slaughter of John Buchan, a servant of Lawrence Lord OH -
phant, when they were acquitted. At the meeting of the
General Assembly at Glasgow, the 24th April 1581, William
Cunningham of Caprington was appointed the king's commis-
sioner to the church, and presented his majesty's letter to the
Assembly. The instructions given to him by the king on the
occasion will be found inserted in Calderwood's Hbt<nry of the
Kirk of Scotland, vol iii. pp. 616—^19. Early in 1584 h«
was one of the commissioners sent from the king to the earl
of Gowrie in Perth, to command him to take a remission
for the raid of Ruthven, and to condemn the act as trea-
son, which he did. In the General Assembly which met at
Edinburgh on 6th February 1588, he was one of the persons
appointed to concur with the moderator, and advise upon the
special matters to be considered in the Assembly at extraor-
dinary hours. He was also one of thirteen members appoint-
ed to meet and confer with six of the king's council concern-
ing papistrie, the plantation of kirks, &c He died about
1597. He had three sons, William, hb successor; John, of
Broomhill, who carried on the line of the family ; and Hugh,
of Previck, progenitor of the family of Enterkine.
The eldest son, William Cunningham of Caprington, being,
with Daniel Cunningham of Dalbeith, charged, in ^e begin-
ning of February 1698, to attend the raid of Dumfries, ap-
pointed by the earl of Angns, lieutenant and warden of the
west manges, for the pursuit and punishment of disorderiy
persons, as was the custom of those days, went to the gather-
ing with their followers armed in wariike manner, but finding
there James Douglas of Torthorwald, who was then " a rebel
and at the horn ^ for slaying the king's cousin, James Stew-
art of Newton, "and their near kinsman," they returned
home without giving Angus the assbtance required by the
proclamation, and also abstained from going to another raid
appointed by him at Dumfries in September 1599 ; and being
afterwards indicted at law for abiding from these raids, they
produced a letter from the king and council, dated 16th Feb-
ruary 1600, discharging the justices from all procedure against
them, and freeing them from ever attending any raid to whidi
they might be summoned, where the said James Douglas was
sure to be. " Thb letter," says Mr. Pit«aim, " affords a
striking illustration of the insecure and disturbed state of the
country and the weakness of government Douglas of Tor-
thorwald residing so near the borders, seems to have been too
powerful a subject to be sued even for the slaughter of a
Stewart, * cousin to the king.' Although * at the horn * for
this slaughter, the lieutenant scruples not to accept of the
assistance of thb rebellious subject to restore peace to the
borders, instead of delivering him up to justice for hb crimes !"
[OtfiUfMi/ Trials^ voL ii. page 108, note."]
Sh" William Cunningham of Caprington, the son of tlus
laird, was, in 1618, knighted by Kng James the Sixth. He
was, at one period, possessed of an immense estate, but partly
by his expense in bnilding and profuse manner of Hving, and
partly by hb taking the losing side in the politics of the
troubled times in which he lived, he contracted a load of debt
that he could not get rid of, and hb estate was sold by hb
creditors to the Chancellor Glencaim. He first joined the
side of the parliament, and in 1640 was nominated one of
their committee. In 1641, he was appointed one of the com-
mittee for stating the debts of the nation, and one of the up-
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CUNNINGHAM.
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OF CUNNINGHAM HEAD.
lifters of the English supply ; also one of the members for
planting of kirks. He subsetinently went oyer to the marquis
of Montrose, for which parliament in 1646 imposed upon him
a fine of fifteen hundred pounds sterling, and he was ordered
to be imprisoned in Edinburgh castle till it was paid ; but it
being found that he oould neither pay the money nor give
aecurity for the amount, he was liberated in 1647, on his giv-
ing bond to appear before the committee when called upon.
He married Lady Margaret Hamilton, second daughter of the
first marquis of Abercom, and died without issue, whereby
the male line of the first branch of the family of Caprington
became extinct
The representation devolved upon the descendants of John
Cunningham of Broomhill, second son of William Cunning-
ham, fourth laird of Caprington. This John Cunningham
had received from his father, in patrimony, the lands of
Broomhill, which continued to be the chief designatdon of this
the second branch of the family till they acquired the lands of
Caprington in the second generation following. The son of
this John, William Cunningham, appears also to have been
engaged on the parliament side, for we find Mr. William
Cunningham of Broomhill one of the commissioners from the
covenanters to the king, in 1639. He married, first, Janet,
daughter of Patrick Leslie, Lord IJndores, by whom he had
eighteen children in nine years (the first single, four times
twins, and thrice three at each birth), but only tliree daugh-
ters survived to be married. By his second wife, Elizabeth,
daughter of William Sinclair of Ratter (great-grandfather of
William, tenth earl of Ciuthness, and thuleenth in descent
from King Robert Bruce) he had three sons and four daugh-
ters. His second son James was designed of Geise.
His eldest son. Sir John Cunningham, an eminent lawyer,
was, on 19th September 1669, created a baronet of Nova
Scotia by Charles the Second. He possessed the lands of
Lambruchtan, by which he was designated before he pur-
chased back the lands of Caprington from the chancellor
Glencaim. That nobleman had bestowed that estate on his
son. Lord Kilmaurs, and it was burdened with the jointure of
his widow (Lady Betty Hamilton, a daughter of William
duke of Hamilton) who Hved in the castlb of Caprington for
fifty years after her husband^s death, so that Sir John paid at
last for the estate above three times its value. He is men-
tioned with great commendation as a lai^yer, by Sir George
Mackentie, and also by Bishop Burnet in his * History of his
own Times.* He was, by many of the nobility and gentry,
ehosen, with Sir George Lockhart, to plead against the duke
of Lauderdale's misgovemment in Scotland, before Charles
the Second in council at I^ondon, Sir George Mackenzie, the
lord advocate, being employed in his grace's behalf. The
<luke's fall happened soon after. Sir John died in 1684. By
his wife, Margaret, daughter of William Murray of Polmaise
and Touchadam in Stirlingshire, he had with a daughter two
sons: William, his successor; and John, who, like his father,
was an eminent lawyer, and the first that undertook to read
lectures on the Roman law in Scotland, as also on the Scots
law. He kept up a constant correspondence with tlie cele-
brated Dutch lawyer, Voet, and by this method he perfected
his dasses in the Roman law, and saved many families the
expense of a foreign education to their sons, there being no
professorships of these branches of a legal education in Scot-
land at the time. He continued to read his lectures till the
year 1710, when he died. Janet, the daughter, became the
wife of George Primrose of Dunipaoe, and was the mother of
Sir Archibald Primrose of t)unipace, executed at Carlisle in
1746 for his share in the rebellion of the preceding year.
The elder son. Sir William Cunningham ot Caprington, the
second baronet, married Janet, only child and heiress of Sir
James Dick of Prestonfield, baronet, (who died in 1728,) by
whom he had six sons and four daughters.
The baronetcy of Prestonfielo devolved, first on William
the third son (James the second son having died young), and
on his death in 1746, upon the foiurth but third surviving
son, Alexander, who also inherited the estate, and in confor-
mity with an entail executed by his grandfather, assumed the
name of Dick. Previously to succeeding to the title he had
made an extensive continental tour with Allan Ramsay, the
son of the author of the Gentle Shepherd, and a Journal
which he kept on that occasion has been inserted in the Gen-
tleman's Magazine for 1853. Jle afterwards practised as a
physidan vrith great reputation in the county of Pembroke,
as Dr. Alexander Cunningham. [See Dick, Sir Alexander,
baronet.]
On the death of his father. Sir William Cunningham, in
1740, the eldest son, John, became third baronet of Capring-
ton. He was esteemed one of the most learned and accom-
plished personages of his day. Most of his time was spent
in literary retirement at his castle of Caprington ; and he is
represented as having read Homer and Ariosto every year for
the last thuly years of his life. He was blessed with con-
stant good health, and his faculties continued unimpaired to
the last Sitting at supper, with his usual cheerfulness, at
Caprington, 80th November 1777, he was seized with a fit of
apoplexy, fell back in his chair, and calmly expired, in the
eighty-second year of his age. He married in 1749, Lady
Elizabeth Montgomery, eldest daughter of Alexander, ninth
earl of Eglinton, and had by her two sons, William, his suc-
cessor, and Alexander, an officer in the army.
His elder son, Sir William Cunningham, fourth baronet,
bom 19th December 1762, died without issue, in Januarj
1829, when the baronetcy and estate of Caprington devolved
on his cousin. Sir Robert Keith Dick of Prestonfield, baronet,
who thus inherited two baronetcies. He died in 1849, and
was succeeded by his son. Sir William Hanmer Dick, bom at
Silhet in Bengal in 1808, who assumed by authority of par-
liament the name of Cunningham ; married, with issue. See
Dick, surname of.
The family of Cunningham of Cunninghamhead in Ayrshire,
one of the oldest and most powerful cadets of the noble family
of Glencaim, had at one time large possessions not only in
that county but in Lanarkslure and Mid Lothian. About
the end of the seventeenth century it began to decline, and in
1724, the male line of the family became extinct. The found-
er of it was William, second son of Sir William Cunningham
of Kilmaurs, who married the heiress of Dennieston. He
received from his father the lands of Woodhead, in the parish
of Dr^hom, on which the name was changed to Cunning-
hamhead, in compliment to the family name.
This branch of the Cunninghams had a feud with the Mures
of Rowallan, and on November 8, 1608, Robert Cunningham
of Cunninghamhead, the second proprietor of the estate, was
at the Ayr jusUce-aire, convicted of having, with convocation
of the lieges, gone to the kirk of Stewarton, against John
Mure of Rowallan and his men, for the office of parish derk
of the said ku-k; also of art and part of the oppresmon
done to Elizabeth Ross, Lady Cunninghamhead, in occupying
and manuring her thurd part of the lands of Cunninghamhead
and Bonailly, and of thereby breaking the king's protection
upon her, in the year 1603 ; and of art and part of the op-
pression done to the abbot and convent of Kilwinning, and to
HeW eari of Eglinton, their tenant, in the *' spulzie " of the
telnd sheaves of the lands of Middleton, in the parish of Per-
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CUNNINGHAM
746
OF KOBERTLAND.
BtoHf and of breaking the ** safegoard *^ of the king upon the
said earl, in the year 1608.
William Canningham of Cunninghamhead, the fifth in descent
from Sir William Cunningham of Kilmaurs, was that laird of
Cunninghamhead who, in 1559, was sent, with the laird of
Pittarrow, to the queen regent to explain the designs of the
Lords of the Congregation. He was present in the great par-
liament of 1560, and in 1562 subscribed the far-famed bond
for support of the reformed religion, drawn up by John Knox.
On May 12th of the latter year William Cunningham of Cun-
ninghamhead was indicted for abiding from the raid of Jed-
burgh, and his son, ** the young laird,"' was amerciated for
his non- entry to underly the law. The laird of Cunningham-
head was a member of the renowned General Assembly which
met at Edinburgh on 25th June 1565, that was so obnoxious
to the popish party at the time, and he was one of the com-
mittee appointed to present its articles to the queen. After
the " Chase-About Raid," the same year, he was one of the
leaders of the Reformed party, who with the earl of Moray,
afterwards regent, retired to Carlisle for a time. In 1570 be
was among the Ayrshire barons who signed the famous letter
to Kirkcaldy of Grange in behalf of John Knox.
A succeeding laird, his grandson or nephew, was, on 11th
March 1603, retoured heir to his f&ther, John Cunningham
of Cunninghamhead, in the lands in Ayrshire as well as in
those of Woodhall and Bonailly in Mid-Lothian (part of the
ancient estate of the Denniestons, and which continued in a
branch of this family for nearly a hundred years longer).
By his wife Mary, eldest daughter of Sir James Edmonstone
of Duntreatb, he had William, his successor, and two daugh-
ters. The elder daughter, Barbara, married in 1624, James
Fullarton, younger of Fullarton. and their descendant Colonel
William Fullarton, wa& served heir to this family of Cunning-
hamhead on 17th December 1791.
The son. Sir William Cunninghams, succeeded about 1607,
and was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, in 1627. He died
about 1640. Barbara, his eldest daughter, married Mure of
Caldwell, and was, by the prelatieal party, subjected to much
suffering on account of her adherence to the Covenant His
son, Sir William, the second baronet, married in August
1661, the Hon. Anne Ruthven, eldest daughter of Thomas
first Lord Ruthven of Freeland, who survived him, and took
for her second husband William Cunninghams of Craig-
ends. The second baronet was, in 1662, by the ruling party,
for his support of the covenant, fined two hundred pounds
sterling. In 1664 he was arraigned as a delinquent before
the high commission, and escaped with difficulty. In 1665
he was committed to prison. In the following year, when
several other gentlemen were liberated, he was detained, and
in 1688 he was still more strictly confined. He got little
respite till December 1669, when he was finally dischaiged,
and died in 1670.
His only son. Sir William, third baronet, was served heir
to his mother in 1679, and on the decease of David, second
Lord Ruthven, in 1701, without issue, he assumed the name
of Ruthven in addition to his own, but did not take that
peerage, (although there was no male claimant, and he was
the son of the elder daughter of the first Lord Rutiiven,) but
allowed his cousin, Isabel, the daughter of his mother s young-
est sister, Elizabeth, to ei\joy the title of Lady Ruthven, and
her descendants now possess the peerage of Ruthven. like
his father he suffered much from religious persecution, even
when but a schoolboy. He died without issue in 1724, when
the baronetcy became extinct Cunninghamhead was sold,
in that year, to John Snodgrass, Esq., and is still possessed
by his descendant, Mr. Snodgrass Buchanan. The represen-
tative of the family is now in the person of Fullarton of
Fullarton, as lineally descended firom Barbara, eldest daugh-
ter of John Cunninghame of Cunninghamehead, married to
hb ancestor in 1624
The Cunninghames of Aiket, also in Ayrshire, a veiy an-
cient family, now extinct, descended from Gilbert or Gilmore
de Cunningham, mentioned (on page 743) as one of the no-
minees of Robert de Brus in the competition wi& BalioL
They seem to have been actively engaged in the feuds of the
Cunningham fanuly with the Sempills, the Mures, and the
Moqtgomeries, as on November 20, 1533, Robert Canning-
ham of Aiket and William his son were among those who
found caution to underly the law for besetting the way, on
two occasions, of William Lord Sempill, for his slaughter,
and on November 4th, 1570, William Cunninghame of Aiket
and two of his servants, with John Raebnm of that ilk, his
son-in-law, were put upon their trial for the murder of John
Mure of Caldwell, when they pleaded that the deed was com-
mitted by the deceased Alexander Cunninghame of Aiket,
and they were unanimously acquitted. On January 12t4i,
1578-9, Helen Colquhoun, the wife of William Cnnninghamft
of Aiket, was accused of administering poison to her husband,
but did not make her appearance for trial Alexander Cun-
ninghame of Aiket, was, in 1586, concerned in the murder of
Hugh, fourth earl of Eglinton (see Eolxntoh, fourth earl
of), Captain James Cunninghame, the seventh from the
above Robert, was retoured heir to his father, James Cun-
ninghams, in Aiket and some adjacent lands. He is sup-
posed to be the same vrith Msjor James Cunninghame of
Aiket who appears as a commissioner of supply for Ayrshire
in 1704, and it is likely was the same gentleman who made
such a distinguished opposition to the union in 1707, as men-
tioned in the histories of that period. Two aged ladies who
in 1823 were living in Ayr were said to have been the last of
this family
The first of the Cunnmghams of Robertlano m Ayrshire,
was William Cunningham^ of Craigends in Renfrewshire, of
the noble family of Glencaim. He bestowed that estate on
his second son, David Cunningham of Bartonholme, whose
son and grandson, both also named David, succeeded to the
estate. The latter, who was knighted, was in 1586 a party
concerned in the murder of Hu^ fourth eari of Eglinton
(see EouNTON, fourth eari of). His son, also Sir David
Cunningham, had three sons: David, his successor; Alexan-
der ; and Sir James, gentleman of the bedchamber to King
Charles the First In 1644, when the duke of Hamilton and
his brother the earl of Lanaric were put under arrest at Ox-
ford, Bm James Cunningham was extremely instrumental in
aiding the escape of the latter. The eldest son, David, was
served heir to his father in 1628, previous to whidi, accord-
ing to Crawfurd, he was master of the works to King James
the Sixth. He was, by Charles the First, created a baronet
of Nova Scotia, 25th November 1630, by patent to him and
his heirB male whatsoever. In the subsequent dvil wan he
suffered mucn on account of his loyalty to that unfortunate
monarch. His successor. Sir David, supposed to be his son,
was a commissioner of supply for Ayrshhe in 1661, and died
before 1675, when his uncle. Sir Alexander, became third
baronet Sir David, the sixth baronet, in 1696 had a pro-
tection in his favour from parliament He was succeeded by
his kinsman, William Cunningham (son of William Cunning-
ham of Auchenskdth, whose father, John Cunningham of
Waterston, was the son of Christian, killed at the siege of
Namur, second son of Sir David, the first baronet). He
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CUNINGHAME,
747
OF LAINSHAW.
mnrried in 1741 Margaret, daughter of William Fairlie of
Fuirlie, in the same county, and in 1778 was served heir to
Sir Darid Cuningham of Robertland, and assumed the title.
He died 25tli October 1781. He had two sons, William,
his heir, and Alexander Cuningham, collector of customs at
Irvine.
Sir William, the seventh baronet, was the gentleman re>
ferred to by Bums as his informant of the anecdote relative
to the circumstances under which Allan Ramsav, when on a
visit at Loudoun castle, composed his song of the ' Jmbs of
Patie*s Mill.* He assumed the additional surname of Fairlie,
and on his death in 1811, he was succeeded by his eldest son,
Sir William, who died February 1, 1837. Sir William's bro-
ther, Sir John Cuningham Fairlie, bom 29th July 1779, suc-
ceeded him as 7tli baronet He married, 8th August 1808,
Janet Lucretia, daughter of John Walhioe, Esq. of Kelly, but
without issue. Died 1852, when his next brother. Sir Charles
Cuningham Fairlie, became 8th. baronet Died 1859, when
his son, Sir Percy Arthur, bora in 1815, became 9th baronet
A baronetcy is also possessed by the family of Cuning-
hame of Corsehill, in the same county, descended from An-
drew, second son of the fourth earl of Glencaim. From his
father he got certain lands in Ayrshire, the two Corsehills
being particularly specified, and the grant was confirmed to
him and his wife, Margaret Cuningham (of the family of
Polmiuse), by royal charter, dated 4th May 1587 and 4th
January 1548. Like his elder brother, Alexander, fifth earl
of Glencaim, he was actively engaged in support of the Re-
formation, and b^ng convicted of heresy before the lords
spiritual in 1538, had his estate forfeited. He afterwards re-
ceived a pardon, and obtained a new charter of his lands.
He died in 1545.
His eldest son, Cuthbert, married Matilda, daughter of
Cnnninghame of Aiket, and died in 1575. He had with two
daughters, two sons, Patrick and Alexander, minors at the
time of his death. The former was slain in the feud between
the Cunninghams and the Montgomeries. The latter, who
succeeded, died in May 1646. With three daughters, he had
two sons, Alexander and David of Dalbeith. His great-
grandson, Alexander Cnninghame, succeeded in 1667, and
on 26th February 1672, he was created a baronet of Nova
Scotia, by diploma, to himself and the heirs male of his body.
His son, Sir Alexander, second baronet, succeeded in 1685,
and died in 1730. His son. Sir David Cnninghame, the third
baronet, married Penelope Montgomery, niece and heiress of
Sir Walter Montgomery, baronet, of Kirktonholm (descended
from the Montgomeries of Skelmorley) by whom he had three
sons and a daughter. The eldest son, Alexander Cnning-
hame, a captain in the army, served in the wan in Flanders.
On succeeding to the estate of Kirktonholm, he adopted the
name and arms of Montgomery, in consequence of a clause to
that effect in the deed of entail. He married Elizabeth, eld-
est daughter and thereafter heiress of David Montgomery of
Lainshaw, descended from Sir Keil Montgomery of Lainshaw,
and representative of the family of Lyle Ijord Lyle. He pre-
deceased his father. Sir David, by a few months in 1770.
He had five sons and two daughters. His third son, Alexan-
der, served as an officer in the duke of Hamilton's regiment
during the American war, and died unmarried in 1782, and
his youngest, Heniy Dramlanrig, entered the navy and was
lieutenant on board the Alfred in Rodney's great engagement,
12th April 1782. He died in 1785.
Sir Walter, eldest son of Captain Alexander Cnninghame,
and fourth baronet, sold the estate of Lainshaw, in 1779, to
William Cuuinghame, second son and heir of Alexander
Cunninghame of Bridgehouse in the same county. On his
death, unmarried, in March 1814, he was succeeded by his
brother. Sir David, fifth baronet, who had previously been in
the royal North British dragoons. He also died unmarried, in
November following. His only surviving brother, Sir James,
the fifth son of Captain Alexander Cnninghame, became the
sixth baronet. He married Jessie, second daughter of
Thomas Cuming, Esq., banker in Edinburgh, representative
of the ancient family of Cuming of Eamside, whose curious
figure is among the most characteristic of ^' Kay's Edinbui^h
Portraits.*' Sir James had five sons and two daughters, and
died in 1837. The eldest son. Sir Alexander David Mont-
gomery Cuuinghame, died 8th June 1846, and whs succeeded
by his brother. Sir Thomas Montgomery Cuninghame, eighth
baronet ; married, with issue, three sons and three daugh-
ters ; one of the claimants of the dormant earldom of Glen-
caim, as lineal male descendant of William, fourth earl.
(See Glengaibn, earl of.)
The Cunynghames of Milncraig, Ayrshire, and Living-
stone, Linlithgowshire, who also possess a baronetcy, are
likewise sprung from the above-mentioned William Cunning-
ham of Craigends, from whom descended Cunyngham of
Polquhaine, who obtained the estate of Milncraig, by marry-
ing one of the daughters and coheiresses of William Cathcart
of Corbiestoun (a junior member of the noble family of Cath-
cart), and was great-grandfather of David Cunynghame of
Milncraig and Livingstone, who was created a baronet of
Nova Scotia 3d Febraaiy, 1702. Sir David Cunynghame
was a person of eminent talents, a distinguished lawyer, an
eloquent member of the Scottish parliament, and the ^end
and coadjutor of Fletcher of Saltoun. His eldest son, Sir
James Cunynghame, died, unmarried, in 1747, and was suc-
ceeded by his brother. Sir David, a lieutenant-general in the
army, and colonel, in 1757, of the 57th regiment of infantry.
He died suddenly, of the gout in his stomach, 10th October,
1767. His son, Sir William Augustus, fourth baronet, for
many years M.P. for Linlithgowshire, long held several re-
spectable offices in the public service. He died 17th March
1828. His eldest son, Sur David Cunynghame, fifth baronet,
bom in 1769, died in 1854. He was a colonel (1797) and
served at Famars, St Amand, and lincelles, where he was
severely wounded ; also served at the siege of Valenciennes,
and the action at Ostend in May 1798. He was thrice mar-
ried, the first time, in 1801, to a daughter of Ix)rd-chancellor
Thnrlow. His eldest son. Sir David Thurlow Cunynghame,
bom in 1803, succeeded as 6th baronet ; married, with issue.
The family of Cnninghame of Craigends in Renfrewshire,
so often mentioned, is lineally descended from Sir William
Cunningham, the second son of Alexander first earl of Glen-
caim. He received the lands of Craigends from his father
before the end of the fifteenth century. One of the family
named William Cnninghame of Craigends was, in 1534, killed
by Gabriel Sempill of Cathcart Another, Gabriel Cnning-
hame, fell at the battle of Pinkie in 1547. In 1689 the free-
holders of Renfrewshire elected William Cnninghame of Craig-
ends tbdr oommisdoner to the convention of estates, where,
and in the several subsequent sessions of parliament, he was
distinguished by his great fidelity and honour. The family is
at present represented by a gentleman of the same name.
The Cuninghames of Lainshaw were descended from Adam
Cunninghame of Bridgehouse, a cadet of the family of Ca-
prington. William Cnninghame, the third from this Adam
and fourtli of Bridgehouse, purchased in 1779 the estate of
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CUNNINGIIAM,
748
ALEXANDER.
LaioshaWf in tbe vidnitj of Stevrarton, from Sir Walter Mont-
gomery Cuninghame, baronet of CoraehilL He was thrice mar-
ried, and had a large familj. By his second wife, Elizabeth,
daughter of James Oampbdl, merchant in Glasgow, he had
one son, William Cuninghame, who snooeedad him in Lain-
shaw. This gentleman, who died l^overaber 6, 1849, was
well-known for his piety and benevolence, and for his writ-
ings. He pnblished various works on prophecy and scriptu-
ral chronology, of which a list is subjoined :
I>etter8 on the Evidences of the Christian Religion, by an
Inquirer, first printed in the Oriental Star, a Newspaper at
Calcutta in Bengal. Reprinted at Serampore, in Bengal,
1802, 12mo. 2d. edit corrected and enlarged. Lond., 1804.
Remarks on David Levi's Dissertations on th^ Prophecies
relative to the Messiah, and upon the Evidences of the Divine
Characters of Jesus Christ, addressed to the Consideration of
the Jews, by an Inquirer. Printed by the London Society for
promoting Christianity among the Jews. Lond. 1810, 8to.
A Dissertation on tlie Seals and Trumpets of the Apoca-
lypse, and the Prophetical period of Twelve Hundred and
Sixty Years. Lond. 1813. Third Edition. Lond. 1817, 8vo.
letters and Essays, Controversial and Critical, on Subjecta
connected with the Conversion and National Restoration of
Israel, first published in the Jewish Expositor. Lond. 1822.
Account of the formation of a Church on Congregational
Principles in the town of Stewarton. Glasgow, 1827.
The Church of Rome the Apostacy, and the Pope the Man
of Sin and Son of Perdition. Second Edition, with an
Appendix. Glasg. 1833.
A Review of the Rev. Dr. Wardlaw*s Sermon on the Mil-
lennium ; with an Answer to his Arguments against the Mil-
lennial Resurrection and Reign of the Saints and Martyrs of
Jesu& Second Edition, with an Appendix. Glasg. 1833.
The Pre-Millennial Advent of Messiah Demonstrated from
the Scriptures. First printed in the Christian Observer.
Second Edition. Glasg. 1833. Thu^i edition.
The Doctrine of the Millennial Advent and Reign of Mes-
siah vindicated from the Objections of the Edinburgh Theo-
logical Magazine. With an Appendix, containing Remarks
on Dr. Hamilton's recent Works on Millenarianism. Second
Edition, with some Strictures on a Review of the Author's
Pre-millennial Advent of Messiah, &c., in a late Number of
the Edinburgh Christian Instructor. 1834.
Strictures on Mr. Frere's Pamphlet on the General Struc-
ture of the Apocalypse ; being an Appendix to the Scheme of
Prophetical Arrangement of the Rev. Edward Irving and Mr.
Frere, critically examined.
A Critical Examination of some of the Fundamental Prin-
ciples of the Rev. George Stanley Faber's Sacred Calendar of
Prophecy, with an Answer to his Arguments against the
Millennial Advent and Reign of Messiah.
Strictures on certain leading Positions and Interpretations
of the Rev. Edward Irving's Lectures on the Apocalypse.
Strictures on the Rev. S. R. Maitland's four Pamphlets on
Prophecy, and in Vindication of the Protestant Principles of
Prophetic Interpretation. 1830, 8vo.
The Jnbilean Chronology of the Seventh Trumpet of the
Apocalypse, and the Judgment of the Ancient of Days, Dan.
viL 9. With a brief account of the Discoveries of Mons. de
Chesaux, as to the great Astronomical Cycles of 2300 and
1260 years, and theur difierence 1040 years. Glasg. 1834.
The Political Destiny of the Earth as revealed in the Bible.
Second edition, enlarged.
The Chronology of Israel and the Jews, firom the Exodus
to the Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Glasg. 1835.
The Fulness of the Times ; being an Analysis of the Chro-
nology of tbe Seventy. In Two Parts. With an Introdiictoi7
Dissertation, containing Strictures on the Rev. E. Bicker-
steth's Scheme of Scripture Chronology. Lond. 1836.
A Synopsis of Chronology, firom tbe Era of Creation, ac-
cording to the Septuagint, to the year 1887. Lond. 1837.
A Supplement to a Dissertation on the Seals and Tmm-
pets of the Apocaljrpee, and the Prophetical Period of Twelve
Hundred and Sixty Years. Lond. 1838. Part ii. 1842.
The Septuagint and Hebrew Chronologies Tried by tbe
Test of their Internal Scientific Evidence; with a Table horn
Creation to tbe Accession of Usziah in b. c 810, showing
their Jubilean Differences at each Date. Lond. 1838.
The Scientific Chronology of the Year 1839, a Sign of the
near approach of the Kingdom of God. Lond. 1839.
A Supplement to the above, comprising the Arithmetical
Solution and Chronological Application of the Number 666.
The Season of the End, being a View of the Scientific
Times of the year 1840 (computed as ending on the 30th
Adar, March 23d, 1841); with prefistoiy remarks on Thaories
of Geology as opposed to the Scriptures, and an appendant
dissertation on the dates of the Natmtj and Pasnon,
London, 1841, 8vo.
CUNNING tiAMf Alexander, an historical
writer of some note, son of the Rev. Alexander
Ganningham, minister of Ettrick, was bom there
in 1654. He acquired the elementary branches of
his education at home, and according to Che cus-
tom of the times, went to Holland to finish hia
studies. In 1688 he accompanied tbe prince of
Orange to England. He afterwards became tutor
and trayelling companion to the earl of Hyndford,
and his brother, the Hon. William Carmlchael;
subsequently to John Lord Lorn, afterwards duke
of Argyle and Greenwich ; and thereafter to Vis-
count Lonsdale. He seems to have been em-
ployed by the English ministry in some political
negociations on the Continent, and we are inform-
ed that he sent an exact account to Eiug William,
with whom he was personally acquainted, of the
military preparations throughout France. In
Carstairs^ State Papers, published by Dr. Mac-
Cormick, there are two letters from Mr. Cunning-
ham, dated Pai'is, August 22 and 26, 1701, giving
an account of his conferences with the French
minister, relative to the Scottish trade with France.
In 1703 he visited Hanover, and was graciously
received by the elector and the princess Sophia.
On the accession of George the First he was sent
as Biitish envoy to Venice, where he resided from
1715 to 1720. He died at London in 1737, at the
advanced age of 83. His works are :
Animadversiones in R. Bentleii notas et enMndatioDefi in
Q. Horatium FlaocuuL Lond. 1721, 8vo.
Horatius denuo castigatus in usom B. BeotleiL Hague,
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CUNNINGHAM,
749
THOMAS MOUNSEY.
1721, 2 vols. 8vo. Lond 1722, 8ro. Thb has been thought
hy some to have been edited by another of the same name.
The History of Great Britain from the Revolution in 1688,
to the Accession of George L To which is prefixed, An Ac-
count of Mr. Cunningham and his Writings. Lond. 1787, 2
vols. 4to. This- work was written by Mr. C. in Latin, trans-
lated into English by the Rev. Dr. William Thomson, and
published by Thomas Hollingbeny, D.D.
CUNNINGHAM, Alexander, a critic of ac-
knowledged learning, often confounded with the
preceding, was a native of Ayrshire. Early in
life he went to Holland, where he is supposed to
'have taught the civil and canon law. He pub-
lished the works of Horace, with animadversions
on Bentley's edition of that poet, in 2 vols. 8vo,
1721. He died at the Hague in December 1780.
CUNNINGHAM, Charles, an historical paint-
er of considerable genius, was bom in Scotland in
1741. He early displayed such a capacitor for de-
sign and^such a lively imagination that his friends
sent him to Italy, where he had for his master
Haphael Mengs. After finishing his studies he
went to Russia, where ^e painted several histori-
cal pictures for Prince Potemkin. His success
was so brilliant that he resolved to settle in St.
Petersburg, but the rigour of the climate affected
his health, and he was obliged) in consequence, to
quit Russia. The glory surrounding the name
and deeds of Frederick the Great allured him to
Piiissia. Soon after his arrival at Berlin he be-
came a member of the Academy of the Fine Arts,
and painted several pictures the subjects of which
were taken from Prussian history, and of which
Frederick was generally the hero. Of these, the
battle of Hochku*k, fought Oct. 14, 1758, in which
Frederick was surprised by Marshal Daun, and
defeated, was the most celebrated. The academy
expressed its admiration of this picture in terms
which were alike honourable to the aits and the
artist. The king, Frederick William II., wishing
to reward Cunningham for this great work with
something more substantial than thanks, ordered
his minister to enter his name for the first pension
which should fall vacant. This intention was ren-
dered nugatory, however, by the premature death
of Cunningham, which took place in 1789.
CUNNINGHAM, Thomas Mounsey, a lyric
poet of considerable merit, second son of John
Cunningham, and his wife, Elizabeth Harley, and
elder brother of Allan Cunningham, was born at
/
Culfaud, in the county of Kirkcudbright, J unc 25th,
1776, and was named after Dr. Mounsey of Ram-
merscales, near Lochmaben* His father, who was
a farmer, being unsuccessful in his speculations,
relinquished agriculture on- his own account, and
became steward or factor to Mr. Syme of Barn-
caillie, and on the death of the latter, he went
with his family to reside at Blackwood on the
Nith, the seat of Copland of Collieston. Thomas
Cunningham received the first part of his educa-
tion at Kellieston school, in that neighbourhood,
and was afterwards removed to the schools of
Dumfries, where, to reading, writing, and arith-
metic, he added book-keeping, mathematics, a
good deal of French, and a little Latin. When he
was about sixteen, he became clerk to John Max-
well of Terraughty, a distant connection of his
mother, with whom he did not long continue.
Having been offered a clerkship in a mercantile
house in South Carolina, he was preparing to set
out, when Mr. Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, to
whom his father was now engaged as steward,
being consulted, gave it as his opinion that he
should not go, and Thomas was apprenticed, in-
stead, to a neighbouring millwright. He began
when very young to write verses in the language
of his district, and in a strain of country humour
calculated to please a rustic audience. Ilia first
poem of a graver kind was called the ^Ilar'st
Kim,' descriptive of a farm-house scene at the
conclusion of harvest, written in 1797. On the
expiration of his apprenticeship, in October of that
year, he went to England, and obtained employ-
ment at Rotherham. The parting scene with his
family he embodied in a little poem called *The
Traveller.' His employer having become bank-
rupt, he made his way to London, and began to
entertain a design of going to the West Indies, on
a speculation of sugar-mills ; but his former mas-
ter having recommenced business at Lynn, in
Norfolk, he was induced to return to his employ-
ment. He afterwards went to Wiltshire, and
subsequently to the neighbourhood of Cambridge.
While here, he wrote his exquisite song, 'The
Hills o' Gallowa' ;' also, a satirical poem, styled
* The Cambridgeshire Gailand,' and a more seri-
ous one, called * The Unco Grave. ' In ' Brash and
Reid's Poetry, original and selected,' will be found
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CUNNINGHAM,
750
ALLAN.
his ' Har'st Home,' the first of his pieces, we be-
lieve, that appeared in priut. He now became a
constant contributor to the Edinburgh Magazine,
to which he sent not only poems and songs, bat
also, some yeai-s subsequently, Sketches of Modem
Society, Stories of the Olden Time, Snatches of
Antiquarianism, and Scraps of Song and Ballad.
The Ettrick Shepherd was so much struck with
the native force and originality of his strains, that
he addressed a poetical epistle to him in that
periodical, a reply to which, by Cunningham, also
in verse, shortly afterwards appeared in the same
Magazine.
Having gone to Dover in seai-ch of employment,
Cunningham was there in August 1805, and
witnessed that naval combat between our cruisers
and the French flotilla, in which Lieutenant
Marshall fell. One of his poems written about
this time was entitled ' London,' and had as little
of the ix>mantic in it as the gi*eat city itself. He
subsequently settled in the metropolis, having
obtained employment in the establishment of Mr.
Rennie. He afterwards became foreman to a Mr.
Dickson, and on quitting him, he undertook the
superintendence of Fowler's chain cable manu-
factory near the I^ondon Docks. A clerkship be-
coming vacant in Rennie's establishment, he was,
in 1812, re-engaged there, and latterly became
chief clerk, with liberty to admit his eldest son as
an assistant. In 1809, when the Ettrick Shepherd
planned * The Forest Minstrel,' he requested six-
teen pages or so of verse from 'Nithsdale's lost
and darling Cunningham,' who permitted several
of his shorter pieces to appear in that collection.
He had ceased to write anything, either in prose
or poetry, for many years. A poem, called
' Brakenfell,' which he composed in 1818, and
the scene of which was laid at Blackwood on
Nithside, is highly spoken of by hb brother, who
tells us that, from blighted views in literature, in
his latter years he burnt many of his manuscript
tales and poems, and 'Brakenfell' among the rest.
On the 23d October 1834, just one week after the
marriage of his daughter to Mr. Olver, a South
American merchant of re^ectability, Cunningham
was seized with ch(dera, and after eight hours'
severe illness, expired a little after twelve o'clock
at night. The chief characteristics of his poetry
are tenderness, oddity, and humour. Besides the
pieces specified, his ^ Hallowmass Eve,' and *• Mai^
Ogilvy,' are mentioned as happy Instances of the
romantic and the imaginative.
CUNNINGHAM, Allan, a poet and novelist,
was bom at Blackwood, near Dalswinton, in Dom-
fries-shire, on the 7th December, 1784. His father
was gardener to a gentleman in that neighbour-
hood, but soon after Allan's birth, he became fac-
tor or land-steward to Mr. Miller of Dalswinton,
the landlord of Bums the poet, at Ellisland. After
receiving the rudiments of his education, Allan
was taken from school, when only eleven years of
age, and apprenticed as a stone-mason to an uncle
of his, who was a country builder in considerable
business, with the view of joining or succeeding
him In his trade ; but this project was never car-
ried into execution. Notwithstanding the disad-
vantageous circumstances under which he entered
on life, he contrived to acquire a considerable
amount of varied information, from great though
desultory reading. He early contributed poetical
effusions to the periodical works of the day, and
nfade a pilgrimage on foot to Edinburgh for the
sole purpose of seeing the author of * Marmion,'
as he passed along the street. He afterwards, in
1820, had the opportunity of being introduced to
Sir Walter Scott, when he communicated to him
Sir Francis Chantrey's wish that he should sit to
him for his bust. When Cromek, the London
engraver, visited Scotland, for the purpose of col-
lecting any unpublished fragments of Bums that
could be gleaned, he was du*ected to Allan Cun-
ningham as the most likely person to assist him
in his researches. Allan was then a journeyman
stonemason and a married man. He advised
Cromek to form a collection of the ancient ballads
and songs of Nithsdale and Galloway, and wrote
various happy imitations of them which he sent
to Cromek as genuine relics of ancient song.
Indeed, nearly all the songs and fragments of verse
in Cromek's ' Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway
Song,' published in 1810, are of Cunningham's
composition, though believed by Cromek, who was
imposed upon by their beauty, to be undoubted
originals. The same year (1810) Allan Cunning-
ham removed to I^ndon, and was for some time
employed as a writer for the newspapers. In
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CUNNINGHAM.
751
CURRIE.
1814 be wiu» tiugdj^ed as clerk oi' the works, or su-
perintendent, in the studio of Sir Francis Glian-
trej, the eminent sculptor, in whose establishment
he continued till his death. He was a most in-
dustrious writer, and published various works in
different departments of literature, a list of which
is subjoined. Previous to the publication of his
^ Sir Marmaduke Maxwell,' in 1822, he submitted
the MS. to Sir Walter Scott, for his opinion and
advice, ithich the latter conveyed in two lettere,
inserted in Lockhart's Life of Scott. He highly
approved of the drama, though he did not think
it altogether fitted for the stage. Cunningham*s
collection of 'The Songs of Scotland,' with notes,
appeared in 1835. He also edited an edition of
the works of Burns, in eight volumes, to which he
prefixed a life of the poet, intei-spersed with ori-
ginal anecdotes and enriched with new informa-
tion. He was a boy of twelve yeara of age at the
time of Bums' death, and as he saw him just pre-
vious to th%t event, and was a witness of his
funeral, his account of the closing scenes of the
poet's life, and the state of feeling in Dumfries at
the time, is intensely interesting. His last work,
completed just two days before hb death, was the
life of his friend, Sir David Wilkie, the distin-
guished artist, in three volumes. Allan Cunning-
ham died suddenly of apoplexy, at his house 27
Lower Belgrave Place, London, on the 29th Oc-
tober, 1842, aged 58. Through the influence of
Sur Walter Scott, two of Mr. Cunningham's sons
obtained, in 1828, cadetships in the ser>'ice of the
East India Company. He left two other sons.
Allan Cunningham's genius was strong, vigor-
ous, and earnest, but not well regulated. It has
been remarked of him that his taste and attain-
ments in the fine arts were as remarkable a fea-
ture in his history as his early ballad strains,
which undoubtedly are his best poetical effusions.
His prose style, when engaged on a congenial sub-
ject, was justly admired for its force and freedom.
Strong nationality and inextinguishable ardour
formed conspicuous traits in his character. His
works are :
Sir Mannadnke MaxweU, a dramatio poem, foonoed on
border story and sapentition ; the Mermaid of Qallowaj ; the
Legend of Richard Faolder; and twenty Scottish Songs.
Iwonden, 1822, 12mo.
Traditional Tales of EngUah and Scottish Peasants. 2
vols. 12mo. London, 1822.
The Songs of Scotland, ancient and modem, with an Intro-
duction and Notes, historical and critical, and Characters of
the Lyric Poets. London, 1825, 4 vols. 8to.
Paul Jones. A Romance, in 8 vols. 8vo. Edin. 1826.
Sir Michael Scott A Romance. London, 1828. 8 vols.
12mo.
Lord Roldan. A Novel in 8 vols.
The Maid of Elvar. A rustic epic, in 12 parts. London,
1832, 8vo.
The Works of Bums, with a Life of the PoeL 8 vols.
Lives of Eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and Archi-
tects. London, 1829-1833. 6 vols. 8vo. The most popular
of his prose works, contributed to Murray *s Family Libnury.
Life of Sir David Wilkie, with his Journals, Tom-s, and
Critical Remarks on Works of Art, and a Selection from his
Correspondence. London, 1843, 3 vols. 8vo.
CuRRiB, a surname which appears to have been derived
from Koria or Coria^ a Roman station. The parish of Gurrie,
in Mid Lothian, is one of those districts which still retain
their ancient Latin appellation.
Piers de Cnrrie, descended from the family of Cnrrie of that
ilk, in Annandale, is celebrated in the Norse Chronicle, as
well as in old Scottish balhtd, for his exploits at the battle ol
Largs, where he was slain in 1263.
The elder branch of the Curries of that ilk merged in the
Johnstones of Annandale, by the marriage of one of that
family with the heiress of Cnrrie about 1540. From a cadet,
Outhbert Carrie, of Kirklands, Dunse, living about 1670, de-
scended William Currie, (died in 1681,) ancestor by a younger
son, of the celebrated Dr. Currie, the biographer of Bums (of
whom a notice follows); while from hb eldest son was de-
scended Sir Frederick Currie, baronet, (created 17th Decem-
ber 1846,) one of the secretaries to the government in India;
a member of the supreme council hi India; and a director of
the £. 1. C. Thrice married: issue, 8 sons and 3 daughters.
CURRIE, James, an eminent physician, the
biographer of Bums, was the son of the Rev.
James Carrie, minister of Ku*kpatrick-Flemi ng in
Dumfries-shire, where he was bom. May 31, 1756.
After receiying the radiments of education at the
parish school of Middlebie, of which parish his
father had become minister, he was sent at the age
of thirteen to a seminary at Dun;ifries, conducted by
Dr. Chapman, the author of a work on education.
He afterwards went to Virginia with a view to tlie
mercantile profession ; but the dissensions between
6i*eat Britain and her American colonies, which
soon put a stop to the trade of the two countries,
and the ungenerous treatment of his employers,
disgusted him with commerce, and turning his
attention to politics, he published in an American
paper, under the signature of *An Old Man,* a
series of letters in defence of the right of the mother
country to tax her colonies. He returned to his
native country in 1776, and studied medicine at
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CURRIE.
762
CURTEIS.
Ediiibai*gb till 1780. Having procured au uitru-
duction to General Sir William Erskine, he was
appointed by bim ensign and surgeon^s assistant
«n bis own regiment. Witb the view of obtaining
the situation of physician, or assistant physician,
to the forces, with an expedition then going out to
Jamaica, be took bis degree of M.D. at Glasgow,
and immediately proceeded to London. On his
arrival in the metropolis, however, he found that
the appointment bad been given to another. By
the advice of his friends, he was induced, in Oc-
tober 1780, to settle in Liverpool, where he was
soon elected one of the physicians to the Lifirmary,
and obtained an extensive practice. In 1783 he
married Lncy Wallace, daughter of a respectable
merchant, the lineal descendant of the hero of
Scotland ; and by her be had a numerous family.
In conjunction with Mr. Roscoe, and the late
Mr. William Rathbone, Dr. Currie laid the foun-
dation of a literary club, the first institution of the
kind in Liverpool. He was chosen a member of
the Literary Society at Manchester, to whose
Transactions he contributed some ingenious papers.
He was elected a member of the London Medical
Society in 1790; and in 1791 a fellow of that So-
ciety. His various medical publications raised his
name very high, but he was less successful in his
miscellaneous political writings. These hitter
were invariably on the unpopular side ; and a let-
ter which he addressed to Mr. Fitt in 1793 raised
him a host of enemies. During an excursion
which he made into Scotland in 1792, on account
of his health, he bad become personally acquainted
with Robert Bums. On the death of the poet, at
the request of his old friend Mr. Syme of Ryedale,
and for the benefit of Bums' family, he undertook
the superintendence of the first complete edition
uf his works, with an account of his life, and criti-
cisms on his writings, which was published In
1800, in 4 vols. 8vo.
In 1804 Dr. Currie was seriously attacked by a
pulmonary complaint, to which he had been for
many years subject ; and having relinquished his
practice at Liverpool, he spent the ensuing winter
alternately at Bath and Clifton. In March 1805
he felt himself so far recovered, as to take a house
at Bath and commence practice there. But all his
complaints returning with increased violence, he
went, as a last resource, to Sidmouth in Devon-
shire, where he died, August 31, 1805, in the 50th
year of his age, leaving a widow and five children.
His works are :
A Letter, Commerdal and Political, addressed to the Right
Honourable William Pitt, by Jasper Wilson, Esq. 1793.
Two editions.
Medical Reports on the Efiects of Water, cold and wann,
as a Remedy in Fever and Febrile Diseases, whether applied
to the surface of the Body, or used as a Drink, with Obserta-
tions on the Nature of Ferer, and on the Effects of Opuro,
Alcohol, and Inanition. Liverpool^ 1797, 8to. 2d edition,
enlarged and corrected. 1801, 2 vols. 8vo. 3d edit 18(M,
2 vols. 8vo. 5th edit 1814, 2 vols. 8vo.
The Works of Robert Bums, with an Account of his Life,
and a Criticism on his Writings. To which are prefixed.
Some Observations on the Character and Condition of the
Scottish Peasantry. Liverpool, 1800, 4 vols. 8vo. New edit
Edin. 1818, 4 vols. 12mo. Various ecStions.
Of Tetanus, and of Convulsive Disorders, Mem. Med. iil
p. 147.
Account of the Remarkable Effects of a Shipwreck on the
Mariners ; with Experiments and Observations on the Influ-
ence of Immersion in Fresh and Salt Water, Hot aad Cold,
on the Powers of the Living Body. FhiL Tnns. Abr. xviL
198. 1792.
'I !
CnRTEis, a surname evidently deduced from a personal
quality, being the ancient form of q>elling the adjective ccmr-
teous. Chaucer says of his " young squier " —
"CWtcif he was, gentn and affiOde.**
There are two English baronets of Uiis nama
END OF VOLUME FIRST
TCLUurroir akd mackab, panrntas, xonranBOB
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